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Abstract Despite being key conservation instruments, the ecological effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) is contested. To assess the ecological effectiveness of PAs in the Katavi‐Rukwa Ecosystem (KRE) in western Tanzania, we investigated temporal changes in land‐use and population densities of six large mammal target species (elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, topi, and hartebeest) across areas with different conservation category, ranging from unprotected to strictly protected. During six survey periods between 1991 and 2018, we analyzed data from remote sensing and aerial wildlife surveys to derive (i) spatiotemporal patterns of cropland cover in relation to protection category; (ii) population densities of the six‐target species; and (iii) distribution of these species across protection category, land‐use and environmental variables. During the surveyed period, cropland increased from 3.4 % to 9.6 % on unprotected land and from ≤0.05 % to |
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