Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41552280›Full record

ArticleCommunications earth & environment2026

Area based conservation tools have mixed effects across all SDGs but research may overstate effects.

Gerald G Singh, Caitie Frenkel, Helen Pheasey, Jacob Bentley, Rachel Seary, Andrés M Cisneros-Montemayor, Ana K Spalding, Ridhee Gupta, Yoshitaka Ota

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Communications earth & environment, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Gerald G SinghOcean Nexus, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-4333-1988
Caitie FrenkelOcean Nexus, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC Canada.
Helen PheaseyDurrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Jacob BentleyDurrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Rachel SearyDurrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK.
Andrés M Cisneros-MontemayorOcean Nexus, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC Canada.
Ana K SpaldingSmithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Ancon, Panama.
Ridhee GuptaOcean Nexus, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC Canada.
Yoshitaka OtaOcean Nexus, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are important tools in marine conservation. However, MPAs have unforeseen consequences, including complex adverse outcomes for human coastal communities through impacts such as dispossession of people to resource access. Here we searched the literature for evidence of MPA effects across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), collected information on these effects and the forms of evidence used to document these effects. Our analysis indicated that MPAs can have both positive and negative effects across each of the 17 SDGs, and that many papers rely on secondary data over primary data to assess those effects. For SDGs 1 (End Poverty), 2 (No Hunger), and 5 (Gender Equality) we found that papers highlighting benefits of MPAs were usually more reliant on secondary information than papers emphasizing adverse impacts. Given the importance of local contexts, MPAs are better used as precision interventions rather than broad policy tools for achieving large-scale marine sustainability.

Indexed as

Ecosystem servicesEnvironmental studiesResearch dataSustainability

Identifiers

PMID41552280
PMCPMC12805877

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

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.