Area-based conservation and the Sustainable Development Goals: a review

ABSTRACT

Area-based conservation is more than just a contribution to protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Establishment and effective management of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation mechanisms (OECMs) could accelerate progress for a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), for which progress is currently too slow to meet targets by the 2030 deadline. We report the first global analysis of the wider role of protected areas and OECMs in SDG implementation. Our analysis focusses on 11 of the 17 SDGs, assessed in three main groups: (i) cornerstones of conservation, underpinning all prosperity (SDGs 14 and 15); (ii) fundamentals for well-being (SDGs 2, 6 and 13); and (iii) sustainable, healthy and peaceful societies (SDGs 1, 3, 5, 10, 11 and 16). Better representation of area-based conservation in the SDGs will require us to take four steps: (i) recognition of wider SDG targets addressed by protected and conserved areas; (ii) integration of ecosystem services into site-level policies and national SDG strategies; (iii) enhancement of the relevant values through management approaches; and (iv) consistent reporting of these as a contribution to the SDGs.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem services
• Global Biodiversity Framework
• protected areas
• other effective area-based conservation measures
• Sustainable Development Goals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the United Nations Development Programme; Wildlife Conservation Society; World Wildlife Fund.

Notes on contributors

Nigel Dudley

Nigel Dudley is a consultant specializing in issues related to protected and conserved areas, based in Wales, UK but working internationally through the consultancy Equilibrium Research.

Marianne Kettunen

Marianne Kettunen is from Finland, based in the UK and her work currently focuses on trade and environment and is completing a project with UNEP.

Julia Gorricho

Julia Gorricho is an anthropologist from Colombia, and works for the Blue Action Fund in Germany, managing part of its grant portfolio.

Linda Krueger

Linda Krueger is Director, Biodiversity and Infrastructure Policy at The Nature Conservancy, based in New York.

Kathy MacKinnon

Kathy MacKinnon is a former chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, based near Cambridge, UK, and lived for many years in Indonesia.

Judy Oglethorpe

Judy Oglethorpe recently left the World Wildlife Fund in the US after 25 years, to focus on local conservation issues in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Midori Paxton

Midori Paxton is Head, Ecosystems and Biodiversity at UNDP; originally from Japan she has much experience in protected area planning in Namibia prior to joining the UN.

John Robinson

John Robinson holds the Joan L. Tweedy Chair in Conservation Strategy at the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York.

Nik Sekhran

Nik Sekhran grew up in India and is Chief Conservation Officer at World Wildlife Fund US, following a career with UNDP and the government of Papua New Guinea.