Effect of protected areas in reducing land development across geographic and climate conditions of a rapidly developing country, Spain

Abstract

Protected areas (PAs) aim at safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services in the long term. Despite the remarkable growth in area covered by PAs in recent years, biodiversity trends continue to worsen as a result of serious global pressures such as habitat destruction and degradation. One main cause of habitat destruction and degradation is land development that implies the replacement of natural land uses–land covers (LULCs) with artificial ones. Here, we assessed the effectiveness of four PA networks at preventing land development in Spain, a biodiversity‐rich country that has experienced recent rapid environmental transformations, using two models of increased validity: an original model and a biophysically enhanced model. We applied a before–after control–impact (BACI) design whereby absolute artificial area increase (AAI) and relative artificial area increase (RAI) were compared across PA categories (nature reserves [NRs], nature parks [NPs], Sites of Community Importance [SCIs], and Special Protection Areas [SPAs]), study zones (coastal and inland), and climates (Atlantic and Mediterranean) using CORINE Land Cover (CLC) data and two control zones: 1‐ and 5‐km buffers around protected polygons. NRs prevented land development, whereas other categories reduced it moderately to very substantially in the assessed period. AAI was especially intense in inland SPAs and NPs. NRs and NPs were the most effective PA categories inland, whereas NRs and SPAs were the most effective ones on the coast. Land development was greater on the Spanish coast than inland inside and outside PAs, especially around Macaronesian and Mediterranean PAs. Atlantic PAs experienced similar or greater land development values than surrounding areas. Our results are intended to guide future conservation efforts in Spain, chiefly on its heavily pressured coastal environment.

Long-Term Assessment of the Effectiveness of Coastal Protection Regulations in Conserving Natural Habitats in Spain

“…Two clear coastal development patterns arose from our results: one with high developmental pressure along most of the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and a more sustainable coastal development in the Atlantic coast of the country. Such development patterns have been consistently found in a number of studies, and largely attributed to differences in climate between the sunny, hot and dry southern Mediterranean region and the cloudy, warm and wet northern Atlantic region of the country (Jiménez et al, 2005;Martínez-Fernández et al, 2015;Greenpeace, 2018;Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2019b). That land development pattern replicates at all administrative scales, clearly indicating the need for the effective protection of the remaining natural and semi-natural habitats on the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2019b;Salvo-Tierra et al, 2020).…”

“…Such development patterns have been consistently found in a number of studies, and largely attributed to differences in climate between the sunny, hot and dry southern Mediterranean region and the cloudy, warm and wet northern Atlantic region of the country (Jiménez et al, 2005;Martínez-Fernández et al, 2015;Greenpeace, 2018;Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2019b). That land development pattern replicates at all administrative scales, clearly indicating the need for the effective protection of the remaining natural and semi-natural habitats on the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2019b;Salvo-Tierra et al, 2020). Contrasting Mediterranean-Atlantic coastal development patterns also replicate at finer scale in the southern region of Andalusia, the most populated region of Spain and the country's top tourist destination (INE, 2021).…”

“…The Spanish Government reacted to these environmentally worrisome trends by passing the Shores Act 22/1988 aimed at the conservation and sustainable use of coastal resources (Spanish Government, 1988). Some previous studies have assessed the effectiveness of environmental policy tools in preventing land development in Spanish coastal areas such as the Shores Act itself (Greenpeace, 2019) or protected areas (PAs; Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al, 2019b), with contrasting results. Other studies have assessed the Shores Act from a legal perspective, highlighting competence-sharing issues and some innovative conservation issues brought in by it (García, 2009).…”

Connecting protected areas in the Iberian peninsula to facilitate climate change tracking

“…One of the principal approaches to preserve natural places has been the declaration of protected areas (PAs), which represent a key strategy to address some of the global environmental challenges. PAs not only play a key role in mitigating threats related to human activity (Rodrigues et al 2004, Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al 2019), but they also sustain functional ecosystems and prevent or slow the loss of biodiversity (Joppa et al 2008, UNEP-WCMC et al 2018. Several studies have underlined the importance of PAs for mitigating the adverse effects of human development (Watson et al 2014) and climate change (Hannah et al 2002a, 2002b, Gaüzère et al 2016, Lehikoinen et al 2019) on biodiversity.…”

Proposal of a System for Assessment of the Sustainability of Municipalities (Sasmu) Included in the Spanish Network of National Parks and Their Surroundings

“…In addition, the fragmentation of natural habitats [83] and increasing artificialisation of land in peri-urban environments and in the coastal strip [84][85][86] are responsible for loss environmental sustainability in Spanish PAs and their surroundings, including NPs [78]. This process of change requires careful management [87] to preserve valuable and fragile coastal ecosystems, such as dunes or wetlands.…”