| Popis: |
Global biodiversity targets such as Aichi Target 11 and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework call for increasing protected area (PA) coverage and connectivity. However, little guidance exists on how to measure connectivity increases. Few baselines have been established from which gains can be measured, and these baselines have mainly been assessed at the country or ecoregion level, while PA network design is implemented at multiple administrative scales. We assess the connectedness of PAs in the United States at several policy-relevant scales. We find that just three percent of land in the continental US is protected and connected, even when considering a large species dispersal distance. This number is below the global, country-level average of just under 10 percent. Connectedness increases when the area under investigation is partitioned into smaller analysis units (e.g., department of interior [DOI] regions or states/territories) because the relative area covered by PAs increases as unit area decreases. Connectedness values increase by an order of magnitude when assessed in terms of just the PA network rather than all land area, highlighting how measurements need to be standardized to permit comparable global reporting. |
