Losing ground in protected areas?

Addressing the food security and conservation challenges: Can be aligned instead of apposed?

This perspective article provides an overview of the interaction between food security and conservation as two of the most important challenges of our time. To provide a better understanding of the topic, a conceptual framework for the possible pathways of positive and negative impacts of protected areas (PAs) on four dimensions of food security is proposed. Considering the importance of hunting and shifting agriculture in food security and the challenges caused by them in conservation, the cases of hunting and shifting agriculture were explored. Finally, the rights-based approaches in conservation and food security, as a new approach with the potential to protect people and the planet as a synergistic approach is discussed.

Terrestrial Protected Areas and Food Security: A Systematic Review of Research Approaches

Achieving food security is one of the most important sustainable development goals and is a major global concern, specifically in remote and rural areas of the developing world where high biodiversity can be found and many protected areas are located. The goals of food security and biodiversity conservation are two of the most critical challenges of our time. This study aims to better understand the state of research on protected areas and food security through a methodological lens. The literature search was conducted in the Web of Science core collection and the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CAB) abstracts database. The search results indicate that this is an understudied topic with only nineteen articles published in various research domains. The findings reveal that studies were explanatory research rather than confirmatory and most studies had a snapshot design with no control or baseline. National parks were the main category of protected areas reported in studies. Data collection commonly employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods at a household level. We also found that spatial data and methods are important yet underutilized.

Evaluating the conservation state of the páramo ecosystem: An object-based image analysis and CART algorithm approach for central Ecuador

Ecuadorian páramo ecosystems (EPEs) function as water sources, contain large soil carbon stores and high levels of biodiversity, and support human populations. The EPEs are mainly herbaceous páramo (HP). To inform policy and management and help drive ecological science toward a better understanding of the HP ecosystem, and the relationships among its multiple ecosystem services, we asked: (1) What is the state of the HP regarding its land use/land cover (LULC)?; and (2) Is the HP being pushed away from its natural state or it is regenerating? To answer these questions, we assessed the LULC in central EPEs using Landsat 8 imagery, Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) and a Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm. Results show that two-fifths of the paramo ecosystem remain as native HP (NHP) and two-fifths as anthropogenic HP (AHP). Although the anthropic alteration of the pedogenesis of young paramo soil leads to the establishment of AHP, we found evidence of regeneration and resilience of the NHP. The results of this study will be useful to scientists and decision-makers with interest in páramo ecosystems in central Ecuador. The proposed methodology is simple, fast, and could be implemented in other landscapes to establish comprehensive monitoring systems useful in landscape assessment and planning.