PhD candidate researching conservation & food security in Ethiopia | Durrell Institute of Conservation & Ecology | Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Sophie Jago
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Using a quasi-experimental approach, we find that Ethiopia’s protected areas reduce forest loss, slow agricultural expansion and help maintain grasslands, despite major development pressures and limited resources.
That is a real conservation achievement.
But these gains have come with costs.
People living near protected areas experienced greater declines in food security.
For global conservation targets to succeed, protected areas need to be effective, representative and fair - and local costs need to be recognised so they can be reduced.
This work was only possible through a long-running collaborations.
Huge thanks to all co-authors, collaborators and partners involved, especially our Ethiopian colleagues and institutions for their leadership, expertise and long-term commitment to this work.
Once in a while you get a week when a whole strain of highly complementary papers is published. Such was the case this week, with three great papers all discussing the social dimensions of conservation in relation to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s target of 30x30 🧵
Encouragingly, some protected areas appear to benefit both people and nature.
These examples show that trade-offs are not inevitable — and that better outcomes may be possible.
Learning from these sites could help guide future conservation efforts.
