Abstract
The probability that protected areas will deliver their potential for maintaining or enhancing biodiversity is likely to be maximised if they are appropriately and effectively managed. As a result, governments and conservation agencies are devoting much attention to the management of protected areas. In the U.K., the demand for performance accountability has resulted in Public Service Agreements (PSA) that set out targets for government departments to deliver results in return for investments being made. One such target for England is to ensure that all nationally important wildlife sites are in favourable condition by 2010. Here, we tested the hypothesis, of potential strategic importance, that the ecological condition of these sites is predictable from relationships with a range of physical, environmental and demographic variables. We used binary logistic regression to investigate these relationships, using the results of English Nature’s 1997–2003 condition assessment exercise. Generally, sites in unfavourable condition tend to be larger in area, located at higher elevations, but with higher human population density and are more spatially isolated from units of the same habitat. However, despite the range of different parameters included in our models, the extent to which the condition of any given site could be predicted was low. Our results have implications for the delivery of PSA targets, funding allocation, and the location of new protected areas.
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Acknowledgements
These analyses would not have been possible without the sustained efforts of English Nature staff across England who performed the condition assessments. The Ordnance Survey data used in these analyses were downloaded from the Digimap web site, which is an EDINA Digimap/JISC supplied service. The data are © Crown Copyright Ordnance Survey. Thanks also to G. Hinton at English Nature for providing the financial information. This work was conducted during a U.K. Population Biology Network (UKPopNet) project (‘The ecological effectiveness of protected areas’) which was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (Agreement R8-H12-01) and English Nature. Particular thanks go to K. Charman and J. Hopkins for stimulating discussion and comments on draft versions of this manuscript. We would also like to thank P.R. Armsworth, M. Ausden, A. Bonn, J. Booth, R.A. Briers, C.S.Q. Callaghan, R. Catchpole, B. Eversham, W.E. Kunin, D.A. Stroud, R. Stoneman and R. Tratt for their valuable input. K.J.G holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.
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Jackson, S.F., Gaston, K.J. The unpredictability of favourability: condition assessment and protected areas in England. Biodivers Conserv 17, 749–764 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9311-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9311-2