ArticleNature communications2020
Just ten percent of the global terrestrial protected area network is structurally connected via intact land.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Centering geospatial data uncertainty and the potential for injustice in pastoralist rangeland conservation prioritization.Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology · 2026Article
- Global mining has undermined forest conservation within and beyond protected areas.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Limiting future warming reduces drought exposure for terrestrial vertebrates.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Assessing Ecological Connectivity forEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Increasing digital media visibility and tourism messaging promote US National Park system integration.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- A predictive approach to integrating connectivity into landscape scale protected areas planning.PloS one · 2026Article
- The contribution of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to protecting global biodiversity.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Synergies between speciation and conservation science yield novel insights for mitigating the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Whole-Earth: A Conservation-Planning Paradigm for a Changing Climate.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Mixed effects of protected areas on avian food webs.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Article
- Human pressures threaten diet-specialized mammal communities.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Monitoring dynamics of biocrust rehabilitation in acid-saturated desert soils.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2024Article
- Speed of environmental change frames relative ecological risk in climate change and climate intervention scenarios.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- A vision for incorporating human mobility in the study of human-wildlife interactions.Nature ecology & evolution · 2023Review
- Projected landscape-scale repercussions of global action for climate and biodiversity protection.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Connecting tiger (Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Land free of direct anthropogenic disturbance is considered essential for achieving biodiversity conservation outcomes but is rapidly eroding. In response, many nations are increasing their protected area (PA) estates, but little consideration is given to the context of the surrounding landscape. This is despite the fact that structural connectivity between PAs is critical in a changing climate and mandated by international conservation targets. Using a high-resolution assessment of human pressure, we show that while ~40% of the terrestrial planet is intact, only 9.7% of Earth's terrestrial protected network can be considered structurally connected. On average, 11% of each country or territory's PA estate can be considered connected. As the global community commits to bolder action on abating biodiversity loss, placement of future PAs will be critical, as will an increased focus on landscape-scale habitat retention and restoration efforts to ensure those important areas set aside for conservation outcomes will remain (or become) connected.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.