Nature Communications (Jul 2016)

Local biodiversity is higher inside than outside terrestrial protected areas worldwide

  • Claudia L. Gray,
  • Samantha L. L. Hill,
  • Tim Newbold,
  • Lawrence N. Hudson,
  • Luca Börger,
  • Sara Contu,
  • Andrew J. Hoskins,
  • Simon Ferrier,
  • Andy Purvis,
  • Jörn P. W. Scharlemann

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12306
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Protected areas are thought essential for biodiversity conservation, but few studies confirm that protection benefits species. Here, Gray and Hill et al. analyse a global, taxonomically broad database to show that local species richness and abundance are higher inside protected areas than outside.