Financial Costs and Shortfalls of Managing and Expanding Protected-Area Systems in Developing Countries

Abstract

Underfunding jeopardizes the ability of protected areas to safeguard biodiversity and the benefits that intact nature provides to society. In this article, we evaluate the cost of effectively managing all existing protected areas in developing countries, as well as the cost of expansion into highpriority new areas. We find that recent studies converge on a funding shortfall of $1 billion to $1.7 billion per year to manage all existing areas. The costs of establishing and managing an expanded protected-area system would total at least $4 billion per year over the next decade, an amount that far exceeds current spending but is well within the reach of the international community. These findings indicate the need for rapid action to mobilize significant new resources for the developing world's protected areas. In particular, this will require (a) the use of a range of tools to generate funds and improve efficiency of management; (b) greater precision and better communication of the costs and benefits of protected areas, both locally and globally; and (c) increased, stable support from developed countries for on-the-ground management of protected-area systems in developing countries.

Pinpointing and preventing imminent extinctions

“…After published estimates (22,24), we calculate that annual management costs per site in developing countries will likely span four orders of magnitude, from $470 to $3,500,000 (median $220,000). Annual costs for each of three sites in Ecuador, for example, average $36,000 (managed by Fundación Jocotoco; R.R., unpublished data).…”

“…Annual costs for each of three sites in Ecuador, for example, average $36,000 (managed by Fundación Jocotoco; R.R., unpublished data). One-time acquisition costs for unprotected sites can be many times their management costs (25) but may often be much lower because protection may be achieved through redesignation of public lands to higher levels of protection or better enforcement of existing designations (24).…”

“…Even for areas that are currently protected, funding is generally lower than that required to meet conservation goals (22). We therefore assumed unmet costs by using percentage estimates from Bruner et al (24) (developing countries) and James et al (25) (developed countries). Some sites are only partially covered by protected areas; for cost calculations, we conservatively treated these as unprotected sites.…”

Estimating costs of nature management in the European Union : Exploration modelling for PBL’s Nature Outlook

“…Using this approach, we assume that a particular activity has one standard price, within a certain (spatial) context. Nonetheless, previous studies (Balmford et al, 2003;Bruner et al, 2004;Vreugdenhil, 2003) have found that standard price variations can be explained by sizes of protected areas, the population density of a particular country or nearby conservation sites and the income level of countries.…”

“…The size of areas may strongly determine unit costs of nature management (e.g. Balmford et al, 2003;Vreugdenhil, 2003;Bruner et al, 2004). Large areas are relatively less costly to manage than small areas.…”