Nature Reserves: Do They Capture the Full Range of America's Biological Diversity?

Abstract

Less than 6% of the coterminous United States is in nature reserves. Assessment of the occurrence of nature reserves across ranges of elevation and soil productivity classes indicates that nature reserves are most frequently found at higher elevations and on less productive soils. The distribution of plants and animals suggests that the greatest number of species is found at lower elevations. A preliminary assessment of the occurrence of mapped land cover types indicates that ϳ60% of mapped cover types have Ͻ10% of their area in nature reserves. Land ownership patterns show that areas of lower elevation and more productive soils are most often privately owned and already extensively converted to urban and agricultural uses. Thus any effort to establish a system of nature reserves that captures the full geographical and ecological range of cover types and species must fully engage the private sector.

Geographic Assessment of Present Protected Areas in Japan for Representativeness of Forest Communities

“…Many studies that have evaluated present protected areas revealed representation bias toward high altitude and less-productive soils (Pressey and Taffs 2001;Scott et al 2001a;Rouget et al 2003). The main reason was that protected areas tended to be concentrated on land that was too remote or unproductive to be important economically (Pressey 1994).…”

“…Throughout the world, there are many cases of protected areas being set aside without any clear picture of regional conservation priorities and, in some cases, set aside out of sheer expediency (Pressey 1994). A consequence of this ad hoc reservation is that present protected areas are seldom located in landscapes where the opportunity costs of reservation are high, namely areas suitable for agriculture, forestry, and urban development (Pressey et al 1996;Scott et al 2001a). More accountable use of limited conservation resources requires systematic conservation planning as well as reliable information on the effectiveness of established or proposed protected areas (Margules and Pressey 2000).…”

Migrant–habitat relationships during stopover along an ecological barrier: extrinsic constraints and conservation implications

“…For most distance groups, hardwood forest was the dominant land cover type, comprising 40% of the total land area within the study area during 1999. The total amount of land under protection from development along the Mississippi Gulf Coast is nearly three times the current national average of \6% for the coterminous United States (Scott et al 2001). Bottomland hardwood forests, in particular, receive the greatest amount of protection (*50%) of all forest types.…”

Habitat and Landscape Design: Concepts, Constraints and Opportunities

“…The world's existing reserve network is inadequate to conserve the full complement of biodiversity because there is not enough area in reserves (Rosenzweig 1995(Rosenzweig , 2001; taxonomic coverage and representation of the world's biomes in reserves is grossly uneven (Brooks et al 2004); and the land that is protected tends to be characterized by relatively low productivity (Scott et al 2001;Hansen & Rotella 2002;Huston 2005). To complicate matters further, many large protected areas that were once considered remote are experiencing pressures from human population growth just outside their borders (Miller & Hobbs 2002;Sanderson et al 2002;Huston 2005).…”