Ecosystem restoration and protected and conserved areas as complementary conservation strategies

Le résumé fourni par la source

Abstract Protected and conserved areas and ecosystem restoration are key strategies for the conservation of life. Yet, in practice, they are not always closely aligned. Our purpose here is to improve the ability of conservation decision-makers and practitioners to integrate protected and conserved areas and restoration as complementary strategies to achieve broader conservation objectives. Protected and conserved areas can act as reference landscapes and seascapes for restoration, laboratories for restoration, sources of restoration material, vehicles for passive restoration and sites for targeted restoration. But protected and conserved areas themselves may require restoration (within their boundaries, in their buffer zones and between them), as a result of prior degradation, degradation after designation or recognition, and as a result of climate and other environmental changes. Harnessing these interlinkages, we argue, makes political, social, economic and ecological sense. Furthermore, it supports the achievement of multiple objectives, including those related to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UN Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity. We make six recommendations: (1) Better align restoration and protections plans; (2) insert restoration directly in protected and conserved area management plans where needed; (3) expand spatial planning approaches that include both protection and restoration; (4) promote joint task forces, projects, programmes and strategies that can help better deliver protection and restoration; (5) secure mutual benefits to people and nature as these are essential for sustainability of both protection and restoration interventions; and (6) align objectives for protection and restoration so they can make significant contributions to the delivery of critical ecosystem services such as food security and climate adaptation.

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