Date: May 28, 2026
Rome, Italy: Protected areas have long been the cornerstone of global conservation strategies, but a new commentary in Biological Diversity reveals this approach is insufficient for Africa. Led by ecologist Luca Luiselli, the study demonstrates that most of Africa's biodiversity persists outside formal protected areas, challenging the reliance on fenced reserves and policies like the 30×30 target that prioritize spatial protection over ecological outcomes.
Across the continent, sacred forests, agricultural mosaics, pastoral rangelands, and secondary forests support rich biodiversity. For example, endangered primates thrive in unprotected forests in Cameroon, while 80% of pygmy hippo signs in Sierra Leone occur outside reserves. These "working landscapes"—shaped by centuries of human-nature coexistence—often retain higher ecological connectivity and resilience to climate change than isolated protected areas.
Traditional conservation models, however, marginalize these landscapes. Protected areas are frequently fragmented, underfunded "paper parks," while local communities are excluded from resource access, fueling conflict. The 30×30 target, though well-intentioned, incentivizes expanding protected area coverage rather than ensuring biodiversity persistence, ignoring the dynamic reality of African ecosystems.
Luiselli emphasizes that protected areas are necessary but not sufficient. The solution lies in inclusive governance: recognizing local land rights, supporting community-managed conservancies, and integrating working landscapes into conservation portfolios. Pastoral systems, for instance, maintain critical habitat connectivity across arid regions, while traditional practices sustain biodiversity in human-altered areas.
The study calls for redefining conservation success beyond area metrics to prioritize species persistence, ecological connectivity, and social legitimacy. As climate change and human development intensify, Africa's biodiversity will depend not on fences alone, but on collaborative, adaptive stewardship of shared landscapes where people and nature coexist.
Original Source
Luiselli, Luca. 2026. "Africa's Biodiversity Will Not Be Saved by Protected Areas Alone," Biological Diversity: 1–7.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bod2.70028
Keywords
Biodiversity conservation, protected areas, working landscapes, conservation policy, Africa
About the Author
Luca Luiselli (First author and corresponding author), tropical community ecologist and professor of ecology at the Institute for Development, Ecology, Conservation and Cooperation (IDECC), focuses on snake and chelonian conservation across West Africa, South Sudan, Uganda, and Vietnam. He adopts an interdisciplinary, holistic approach to study population dynamics, community ecology, species interactions, Ebola ecology, bushmeat trade, and rodent macroecology. He has published a total of 609 papers.
About the Journal
Biological Diversity (ISSN: 2994-4139) is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal sponsored by the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and published in partnership with Wiley. Launched in 2024 and issued quarterly, it is dedicated to advancing biodiversity conservation, safeguarding ecosystem functions and services, and promoting the sustainable utilization of biological resources under global environmental change. The journal welcomes original research, reviews, commentaries, and short communications across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including botany, zoology, microbiology, taxonomy, phylogenetics, genomics, cytology, ecology, climatology, economics, sociology, and real-time policy theory. It publishes innovative research addressing pressing global challenges of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
