Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in the Amazon

Pack, Shalynn M.; Ferreira, Mariana Napolitano; Krithivasan, Roopa; Murrow, Jennifer L.; Bernard, Enrico; Mascia, Michael B.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.02.004

Cited by 118 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…However, even large protected areas like Yosemite are not sufficient to preserve viable populations of carnivores (Newmark 1985), the conservation of which may be further compromised by PADDD. Only two studies to date (Forrest et al 2015, Pack et al 2016) have examined the impacts of PADDD, demonstrating the need for further research. For instance, longterm studies are needed to understand the relationships between PADDD, habitat loss and fragmentation, and long-term impacts on species; extinctions can occur decades after a habitat is degraded (Brooks et al 1999).…”

Section: The Ecoregion Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These legal changes, formally known as protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD), represent a widespread yet patchy global phenomenon driven by diverse causes (e.g., Pailler 2011, Mascia et al 2014). As defined by Mascia and Pailler (2011), downgrading is the legal allowance of additional anthropogenic activities in a PA, downsizing is the legal excision of a portion of a PA, and degazettement is the legal elimination of protection for an entire PA. Worldwide, at least 784 enacted PADDD events have occurred since 1900, affecting more than 664,000 km² across 57 countries (Mascia et al 2014, Forrest et al 2015, Pack et al 2016. Many PADDD events have occurred in the United States, which has experienced at least 240 enacted PADDD events since 1900 (R. E. Golden Kroner, R. Krithivasan, and M. B.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The impacts of PADDD are largely unknown; only two published studies have quantified these impacts (Forrest et al 2015, Pack et al 2016. Downsizing and degazettement have been linked to accelerated deforestation and increased carbon emissions in Peru and peninsular Malaysia (Forrest et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Downsizing and degazettement have been linked to accelerated deforestation and increased carbon emissions in Peru and peninsular Malaysia (Forrest et al 2015). PADDD has also been shown to have no significant impact on short-term deforestation rates in Brazil (Pack et al 2016). However, We examined legal and historic documents focused on Yosemite National Park.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014

Kroner¹,

Krithivasan²,

Mascia³

2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) has been documented worldwide, but its impacts on biodiversity are poorly understood. To fill this knowledge gap, we reviewed historical documents to identify legal changes that altered the boundaries of Yosemite National Park. We identified two downsizes and five additions between 1905 and 1937 that reduced the size of Yosemite National Park by 30%. To examine the effects of these downsizing events on habitat fragmentation by roads, we compared protected, never-protected, and downsized lands at three spatial scales using four habitat fragmentation metrics: road density, fragment (land surrounded by roads) area-to-perimeter ratio, fragment area, and fragment density. In general, lands that were removed from protection, e.g., downsized, were more highly fragmented than protected lands and indistinguishable from never-protected lands. Lands where downsizes were reversed were less fragmented than lands where downsizes were not reversed. These results suggest that protected area downsizing may exacerbate habitat fragmentation, a key contributor to biodiversity loss globally. Furthermore, the case study in Yosemite National Park demonstrates that iconic protected areas in developed countries are not immune to downsizing. These findings underscore the need to account for PADDD and governance histories in ecological research, monitoring, and evaluation. As we move toward more evidence-based conservation policy, a rigorous understanding of PADDD is essential to ensure that protected areas fulfill their promise as a strategy for conserving global biodiversity.

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Section: The Ecoregion Scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014

Kroner¹,

Krithivasan²,

Mascia³

2016

E&S

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“…At a planetary scale, an increase in the size and number of conservation areas is expected as part of global commitments for biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation, e.g., Aichi Biodiversity Targets 2011-2020 [2]; hence, countries are increasingly protecting forested areas, with a strong upward trend in the tropics from 12% in 1990 to 26.3% in 2015 [3]. However, legal and technical procedures that modify size or conservation status of protected areas (PAs), although scattered, are becoming frequent and getting attention of both scholars and conservation agencies [4][5][6]. Instances of PADDD, or Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement, refer first to a decrease in legal restrictions on the amount, scale, or extent of human activities within a PA (e.g., by lowering the category of its legal protection status); second, to a decrease in the size of the PA through the excision of a land or sea area or a legal boundary change; and third, to a complete loss of the legal protection status of a PA [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Is Behind Land Claims? Downsizing of a Conservation Area in Southeastern Ecuador

2017

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While an increase in the size and number of conservation areas is expected as part of global environmental commitments, at the same time, Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement, or PADDD, is becoming more frequent worldwide. This paper analyzes the causal relationships between land claims and human settlements on the one hand and the downsizing process of a protective forest in southeastern Ecuador on the other. Industrial-scale commodity production, extraction, infrastructure development, and local land claims or existence of human settlements constitute the main drivers, but a deeper understanding of PADDD causality requires detailed documentation of the history of PA growth and loss. We analyzed official documents, conducted qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and carried out a thematic analysis. We found that institutional and legal changes at the national level drive downsizing, and that local demands to land titles are a proximate cause. Our analysis demonstrates how driver and cause operate in an intertwined, multi-scalar relationship, and concludes that there is a need for more detailed understanding of PADDD causality, either to prevent such events or to define alternative tools, which can replace the idea of having areas with fixed borders to promote conservation, especially in inhabited zones.

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A political tsunami hits Amazon conservation

Pelicice

Castello

2021

Aquatic Conservation

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The history of conservation of the Amazon can be viewed as a war involving many battles with interests in agribusiness on one side and in biodiversity conservation and sustainability on the other side. Trends in large‐scale deforestation in the 1970s spurred a series of policies, stakeholder alliances and international and grass‐roots movements, which decades later led to the establishment of protected areas and interventions in soy and beef supply chains of agribusiness. Together, these advances epitomized a conservation framework for the Amazon, which at one point nearly curbed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, although it included very few protections for freshwater ecosystems. While those conservation advances were taking place, however, a series of policy changes started to undermine them through expansions in deforestation, river regulation and mining activities. The election of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019 then hit the Amazon conservation framework much like a tsunami of policy setbacks and the re‐establishment of the economic policies that sparked the Amazon war in the past. The current trajectory is one of large‐scale degradation of Amazonian ecosystems and biodiversity with consequent impacts on local people. Because freshwater ecosystems are highly sensitive to human activities on water and on land, these growing impacts are particularly large. It is too early to know, but four decades of institutional and policy developments to conserve the Brazilian Amazon may soon be pushed past the point from which they will be able to recover. Four conditions will be pivotal to allowing the Amazon conservation framework to recoup: (a) the end of Bolsonaro’s mandate in 2022 or earlier; (b) remobilization of stakeholders; (c) investments in environmental research, policy and multiple collaborations; and (d) moving conservation beyond terrestrial landscapes to also encompass freshwater ecosystems and their people.

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Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in the Amazon

Cited by 118 publications

References 19 publications

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014

What Is Behind Land Claims? Downsizing of a Conservation Area in Southeastern Ecuador

A political tsunami hits Amazon conservation

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Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in the Amazon

Cited by 118 publications

References 19 publications

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 &#8211; 2014

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 &#8211; 2014

What Is Behind Land Claims? Downsizing of a Conservation Area in Southeastern Ecuador

A political tsunami hits Amazon conservation

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Product

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Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014

Effects of protected area downsizing on habitat fragmentation in Yosemite National Park (USA), 1864 – 2014