As momentum builds behind global conservation targets such as 30×30, questions remain about how effectively these efforts will safeguard biodiversity. Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of global conservation strategies, but their success depends on more than just expanding coverage. To effectively halt biodiversity loss, protected lands must be placed strategically in areas where threats are most intense and species are most vulnerable.
Pulido‐Chadid, K., Rahbek, C. and Geldmann, J. 2025. Evaluating protected areas’ coverage of threats to terrestrial biodiversity. Conservation Biology: e70086.
Many existing PAs are in remote or less-disturbed areas that face relatively low human pressure. While these areas may hold important ecological value, they often do not coincide with regions where biodiversity is at greatest risk. As a result, landscapes facing threats such as high levels of habitat conversion, resource extraction, or species exploitation are frequently left underprotected.
New research reveals that simply increasing the extent of protected areas (PAs) may not be enough to protect biodiversity. The global analysis, encompassing over 33,000 species and more than 250,000 PAs, highlights a critical misalignment between where biodiversity is most threatened and where protection is currently placed.
Using probabilistic threat maps for six types of threats (agriculture, hunting, logging, pollution, invasive species, and urbanization) across four taxa (amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles), the study found that 76% of highly threatened areas lack adequate protection. Many PAs are in places with low human pressures, such as remote or inaccessible areas, which often do not overlap with the landscapes facing the most intense conservation threats. This spatial disconnect is especially concerning for amphibians, which not only experience the highest number of overlapping threats but are also the least protected taxonomic group in the analysis.
The study also identified geographic hotspots where multiple threats converge with high concentrations of threatened species in underprotected landscapes, including the South American Andes, Southeast Asia, Central America, and island regions like Micronesia and the Caribbean. These areas are particularly crucial for corridor and connectivity initiatives, yet they currently fall short of protection goals.
While the 30×30 target signals global momentum, the authors caution that coverage alone is not equivalent to conservation impact. Effectiveness hinges on aligning protection with threat abatement, ensuring connectivity between intact habitats, and prioritizing landscapes with high species vulnerability. Without integrating threat data and spatial planning tools into conservation decision-making, conservation targets risk protecting the “easy” areas while leaving critical biodiversity strongholds exposed.
This research provides actionable insights for scaling up not just the quantity but also the quality of protected landscapes, emphasizing the need for strategically placed PAs that buffer threats, connect ecosystems, and sustain species persistence. For landscape connectivity practitioners, the study underscores a pressing issue: landscapes critical for halting biodiversity are also the most underrepresented in the current PA network. This lack of protection in high-risk areas directly undermines efforts to maintain functional ecological connectivity across regions. For those planners working on corridor design and landscape-scale resilience, this is a call to re-focus efforts where the need is greatest.
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