Conservation Successes

Question 1

Assessing impacts

Answer 1

Understanding protected area effectiveness requires understanding the difference they have made…. by asking what would have happened in the absence of protection

The reason we have to jump through these hoops is that experiments in conservation is often impractical and sometimes even unethical

So where do we get evidence from?
- Red list index
- Living planet index

Question 2

The difference conservation makes to extinction risk of the world’s ungulates

Answer 2

• 236 ungulates assessed on the IUCN Red List –
  basically all
• Assessed the change in Red List categories (Red List Index) between 1996 and 2008
• With (observed RLI) and without (counterfactual RLI) conservation interventions
• All protected land reverted to non-protected
• All specific actions identified in the literature and graded by their effect on the individual species

Question 3

How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented?

Answer 3

21-32 birds would have gone extinct without conservation during 1993-2020

7-16 mammals would have gone extinct without conservation during 1993-2020

Question 4

Summary

Answer 4

Overall across data streams, there is evidence that conservation makes a difference

However, this is a mix of absolute and relative
impacts

Large variability in the effectiveness of interventions and specific (expensive) targeted interventions are
generally better

Large uncertainties, and generally not strong study
designs