A UNBC Ecosystem Science and Management Associate has partnered up with a team of international researchers to take a global look at protected spaces.

Dr. Oscar Venter and his colleges found that one-third of the land within Earth’s terrestrial protected area estate has been severely modified by human activities.

This lead researchers to discover that the degree of human activity within the protected areas compromises the ability to conserve biodiversity and stop extinctions.

Photo Credit: UNBC

“The most basic idea behind our parks is to maintain some land in a natural state. It was staggering to see the extent that we have failed in this task, with crops, pasture lands, even entire cities severely degrading protected spaces across the planet” says Venter.

The most impacted areas were found in countries with a large human population such as Africa, Asia and Europe.

They also found that large, strict protected areas were under far less human pressure than smaller protected areas.

“This study clearly shows we are overestimating the space available for nature inside protected areas. Governments are claiming these places are protected for the sake of nature when in reality they aren’t. It is a major reason why biodiversity is still in catastrophic decline, despite more and more land being protected,” said Senior author, Professor James Watson of the University of Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Venter claims that Canada’s major parks are also at risk.

“While Canada is doing far better than most countries, with only 2.5% of our parks heavily modified, some of our major recreational parks are at risk of being loved to death. If we look at our Rocky Mountain parks for instance, the infrastructure and volume of visitors make it hard to maintain healthy populations some endangered species.”

Click here to read the published research.