Invasive alien species add to the uncertain future of protected areas

0533797 - BÚ 2021 RIV BG eng J - Journal Article
Moodley, Desika - Foxcroft, L. C. - Novoa, Ana - Pyšková, Klára - Pergl, Jan - Pyšek, Petr
Invasive alien species add to the uncertain future of protected areas.
Neobiota. Roč. 57, MAY 18 (2020), s. 1-5. ISSN 1619-0033. E-ISSN 1314-2488
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GX19-28807X; GA ČR GA18-18495S
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : protected areas * biological invasions * threat
OECD category: Ecology
Impact factor: 3.684, year: 2020
Method of publishing: Open access
https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.57.52188

In a recent article on “The uncertain future of protected lands and waters”, Golden Kroner et al. (2019) suggest that legal changes that temper the regulations in protected areas (PAs) are one of the main threats to biodiversity conservation. The processes include Protected Area Downgrading (i.e. relaxing restrictions), Downsizing (i.e. shrinking boundaries) and Degazettement (i.e. complete loss of protection). However, they overlook one of the largest threats to conservation and PAs in particular – biological invasions. Potentially, invasive alien species (IAS) could be a primary cause of enacting a PADDD event (e.g. relaxing restrictions due to IAS-induced habi¬tat transformation). Additionally, while some of the causes of PADDD events stated in the paper centre on conservation planning, forestry, industrial agriculture and min¬ing, IAS can be directly or indirectly associated with all of these. Here, we argue that overlooking the problems associated with IAS in PAs can hinder conservation actions, create biases in the prioritisation of natural resource management and generate false or distorted perceptions for the public.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0313838