Protected areas, as a research topic, encompass geographically defined spaces that are formally designated and managed to achieve specific conservation objectives, typically the long-term maintenance of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and associated ecosystem services. Scientific inquiry focuses on their design (e.g., size, shape, connectivity), governance regimes, management effectiveness, and socio-ecological outcomes, including impacts on species persistence, genetic diversity, habitat integrity, and local communities. Research also examines zoning, threat mitigation, monitoring frameworks, and the integration of protected areas into broader landscape and seascape planning, as well as their role in meeting international conservation targets and informing evidence-based environmental policy.
Mangrove habitats across the oil-rich Gulf region are facing significant threats despite ongoing efforts to conserve these salt-tolerant coastal forests, locally valued for their medicinal properties, ecological importance, ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 12, 2026
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28
A research team led by Professor Li Sheng from the School of Life Sciences at Peking University published a study that reveals the crucial role of protected areas in mitigating human-induced behavioral disturbances to mammals.
Plants & Animals
Dec 18, 2025
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15
Spillovers from protected areas such as national parks and wildlife reserves can play a significant role in boosting biodiversity beyond their boundaries with potential benefits to people through ecosystem services such as ...
Ecology
Dec 11, 2025
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14
Some of the ocean's most important habitats aren't included in protected areas.
Ecology
Dec 4, 2025
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11
Scientists from around the world are calling for urgent action to protect, restore, and sustainably manage one of the ocean's least known yet most important ecosystems: the Marine Animal Forests. The appeal is presented in ...
Ecology
Dec 2, 2025
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17
One of the most comprehensive surveys to date of shark and other large predator fish in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) ocean finds that remote marine protected areas (MPAs)—including the Galapagos, Malpelo, Clipperton, ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 26, 2025
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225
An international team has published the first comprehensive study on the seamounts of the Cape Verde archipelago, their biodiversity, ecological functionality and socio-economic relevance in the journal Progress in Oceanography. ...
Ecology
Nov 25, 2025
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14
This year's COP30 comes after the international Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) finally acquired the required number of ratification votes by United Nations member states.
Earth Sciences
Nov 22, 2025
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36
Most vessel traffic in Scotland's Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is going undetected, potentially putting at risk the marine creatures these sites are meant to protect, new research has found.
Ecology
Nov 19, 2025
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15
For decades, conservation was focused on stemming how much nature was being lost. But a new era of nature positive environmental policy is taking hold worldwide, shifting from preventing further harm to restoring what's been ...
Ecology
Nov 5, 2025
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20
