Trade-offs between nature and people in Ethiopia’s protected areas demonstrate challenges in translating global conservation targets into national realities. Conservation costs and often the least able to pay. Great work from James Borrell at RBG Kew.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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 🧵
Quasi-experimental analysis of the effects of Ethiopia’s protected areas on environmental and human wellbeing is combined with surveys of conservation professionals to explore why improving protected ...
www.nature.com
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.
Then there is this study on the national level by @sophiejago.bsky.social and colleagues, including @joelangley9.bsky.social @juliajones.bsky.social @jamesborrell.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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.