More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Significance Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of conservation yet face funding inadequacies that undermine their effectiveness. Using the conservation needs of lions as a proxy for those of wildlife more generally, we compiled a dataset of funding in Africa’s PAs with lions and estimated a minimum target for conserving the species and managing PAs effectively. PAs with lions require $1.2 to $2.4 billion or $1,000 to $2,000/km 2 annually, yet receive just $381 million or $200/km 2 (median) annually. Nearly all PAs with lions are inadequately funded; deficits total $0.9 to $2.1 billion. Governments and donors must urgently and significantly invest in PAs to prevent further declines of lions and other wildlife and to capture the economic, social, and environmental benefits that healthy PAs can confer.
Authors: Peter A. Lindsey, Jennifer R. B. Miller, Lisanne S. Petracca, Lauren Coad, Amy J. Dickman, Kathleen H. Fitzgerald, Michael V. Flyman, Paul J. Funston, Philipp Henschel, Samuel Kasiki, Kathryn Knights, Andrew J. Loveridge, David W. Macdonald, Roseline L. Mandisodza-Chikerema, Sean Nazerali, Andrew J. Plumptre, Riko Stevens, Hugo W. Van Zyl, Luke T. B. Hunter
Institutions: Griffith University, Panthera Corporation, University of Pretoria, University of California, Berkeley, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Center for International Forestry Research, University of Oxford, African Wildlife Foundation, Kenya Wildlife Service, The University of Melbourne, Wildlife Conservation Society, University of Cambridge, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Panthera
OpenAlex ID: W2896418474