Protected areas alone won't save all threatened species

New research has looked at how well Australia's protected areas alleviate major threats to threatened species.

 

The University of Queensland team looked at 1,555 species. They found that reserving land alone would remove all major threats to very few species (three per cent), while well-managed protected areas would remove all threats to almost half of the species. 

 

However, 52 per cent face one or more threats that require landscape management, or coordinated conservation actions that protected areas alone could not remove.

 

The research highlights the need for effective threat management both within and beyond reserves.