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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Protected area coverage has a positive effect on koala occurrence in Eastern Australia
Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol.32, pp.2495-2511
2023
Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs
Abstract
Abstract Protected areas (PAs) are crucial conservation tools implemented worldwide to conserve biodiversity. Although PAs can positively impact wildlife populations, their ecological outcomes vary substantially depending on PA management and governance. Recent calls have highlighted the need to better assess the role of area-based conservation in preventing biodiversity loss. This is crucial to improve PA effectiveness in order to meet global biodiversity goals. Here we take advantage of a unique dataset composed of 2230 surveys conducted with koala detection dogs across Eastern Australia, to assess how protection status affected the occurrence of a threatened specialist folivore. We assessed if coverage of protected forest influenced koala presence or absence at two spatial scales (1 and 3 km), for (i) strictly and (ii) all protected areas. We also investigated if PA effects were explained by differences in habitat composition (percentage of secondary forest) between protected and unprotected areas. Taking confounding factors into account, we showed that forest protection (all IUCN categories) had a significant positive effect on koala occurrence, which increased by ~ 10% along the forest protection gradient. Contrarily, koala occurrence was not affected by strictly protected areas. In addition, adding the percentage of secondary forests in our models did not modify the statistical effect of PAs on koala occurrence, suggesting that forest composition is not the driver of the observed difference along the protection gradient. Our results contribute to a broader understanding of the effects of PAs on a threatened marsupial and call for further attention to assessments of PA effectiveness in Eastern Australia, a global biodiversity hotspot.
Details
- Title
- Protected area coverage has a positive effect on koala occurrence in Eastern Australia
- Authors
- J. Terraube (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringR. Gardiner (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringK. Hohwieler (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringC.H. Frère (Author) - The University of QueenslandR.H. Cristescu (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Publication details
- Biodiversity and Conservation, Vol.32, pp.2495-2511
- Publisher
- Springer Dordrecht
- Date published
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10531-023-02615-w
- ISSN
- 1572-9710; 0960-3115
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Grant note
- CAUL
- Organisation Unit
- University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99728798302621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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- Biodiversity Conservation
- Ecology
- Environmental Sciences
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