Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk
Antarctica is widely regarded as one of the planet's last true wildernesses, insulated from threat by its remoteness and declaration as a natural reserve dedicated to peace and science. However, rapidly growing human activity is accelerating threats to biodiversity. We determined how well the e...
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ftqueensland:oai:eprints.qut.edu.au:248091 2024-05-19T07:30:28+00:00 Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk Shaw, Justine D. Terauds, Aleks Riddle, Martin J. Possingham, Hugh P. Chown, Steven L. 2014 https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248091/ unknown Public Library of Science doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001888 Shaw, Justine D., Terauds, Aleks, Riddle, Martin J., Possingham, Hugh P., & Chown, Steven L. (2014) Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk. PLoS Biology, 12(6), Article number: e1001888. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248091/ 2014 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au PLoS Biology Contribution to Journal 2014 ftqueensland https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001888 2024-05-01T00:02:12Z Antarctica is widely regarded as one of the planet's last true wildernesses, insulated from threat by its remoteness and declaration as a natural reserve dedicated to peace and science. However, rapidly growing human activity is accelerating threats to biodiversity. We determined how well the existing protected-area system represents terrestrial biodiversity and assessed the risk to protected areas from biological invasions, the region's most significant conservation threat. We found that Antarctica is one of the planet's least protected regions, with only 1.5% of its ice-free area formally designated as specially protected areas. Five of the distinct ice-free ecoregions have no specially designated areas for the protection of biodiversity. Every one of the 55 designated areas that protect Antarctica's biodiversity lies closer to sites of high human activity than expected by chance, and seven lie in high-risk areas for biological invasions. By any measure, including Aichi Target 11 under the Convention on Biological Diversity, Antarctic biodiversity is poorly protected by reserves, and those reserves are threatened. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints PLoS Biology 12 6 e1001888 |
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Queensland University of Technology: QUT ePrints |
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Antarctica is widely regarded as one of the planet's last true wildernesses, insulated from threat by its remoteness and declaration as a natural reserve dedicated to peace and science. However, rapidly growing human activity is accelerating threats to biodiversity. We determined how well the existing protected-area system represents terrestrial biodiversity and assessed the risk to protected areas from biological invasions, the region's most significant conservation threat. We found that Antarctica is one of the planet's least protected regions, with only 1.5% of its ice-free area formally designated as specially protected areas. Five of the distinct ice-free ecoregions have no specially designated areas for the protection of biodiversity. Every one of the 55 designated areas that protect Antarctica's biodiversity lies closer to sites of high human activity than expected by chance, and seven lie in high-risk areas for biological invasions. By any measure, including Aichi Target 11 under the Convention on Biological Diversity, Antarctic biodiversity is poorly protected by reserves, and those reserves are threatened. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Shaw, Justine D. Terauds, Aleks Riddle, Martin J. Possingham, Hugh P. Chown, Steven L. |
spellingShingle |
Shaw, Justine D. Terauds, Aleks Riddle, Martin J. Possingham, Hugh P. Chown, Steven L. Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
author_facet |
Shaw, Justine D. Terauds, Aleks Riddle, Martin J. Possingham, Hugh P. Chown, Steven L. |
author_sort |
Shaw, Justine D. |
title |
Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
title_short |
Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
title_full |
Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
title_fullStr |
Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
title_full_unstemmed |
Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk |
title_sort |
antarctica's protected areas are inadequate, unrepresentative, and at risk |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248091/ |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica |
op_source |
PLoS Biology |
op_relation |
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001888 Shaw, Justine D., Terauds, Aleks, Riddle, Martin J., Possingham, Hugh P., & Chown, Steven L. (2014) Antarctica's Protected Areas Are Inadequate, Unrepresentative, and at Risk. PLoS Biology, 12(6), Article number: e1001888. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/248091/ |
op_rights |
2014 The Authors This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the document is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to qut.copyright@qut.edu.au |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001888 |
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PLoS Biology |
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12 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
e1001888 |
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