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The lack of effectiveness of protected areas is likely common in many regions worldwide, which highlights the need to incorporate degradation and nonforest ecosystems into effectiveness assessments.

Finally, through mapping livestock corrals as an indicator of grazing pressure, we could link the observed green vegetation loss signals to livestock grazing inside protected areas, especially in Azerbaijan and Turkey. This suggests overgrazing is a main driver of ineffectiveness

Protected areas in rangelands were largely ineffective in reducing green vegetation loss from. Moreover, the level of effectiveness of protected areas varied with contextual and management elements such as country differences or protected area management.

Using satellite-based indicators of rangeland vegetation greenness from 1988 to 2019, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of 52 protected areas. We conducted our assessment across the southern Caucasus, a biodiversity hotspot extending over 5 countries

· Protected areas in the Caucasus are ineffective in preventing rangeland degradation · @ArashGhoddousi, @kelewinska, @TobiasKuemmerle

Our results indicate that contemporary anthropogenic trends like land-use de-intensification and stronger conservation policies can counteract the impact of past, higher anthropogenic pressures and reverse historical defaunation.

Yet, today megafauna appear to have a higher potential for coexisting with people compared to the past (e.g., herbivores inhabit areas with a mean human population density of 95 people/km2, compared to an average of 17 people/km2 in the period 1500–2000 AD).

Maps showing a steady decline in potential megafauna species richness, with most habitat loss continent-wide after 1500 AD but appearing earlier in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as early as the Roman Age (1000 BC–500 AD), due to rising hunting pressure.

We used 17,000 zooarchaeological records of 20 species spanning 12,000 years to develop time-calibrated SDMs. We then discussed how the potential distribution of European wild megafauna has changed in association with changing anthropogenic pressures through the Holocene.

🚨 New paper 🚨 Links between deforestation, conservation areas, and conservation funding in major deforestation regions of South America With @SiyuQ , @ABuchadas , @ArashGhoddousi , Matthias Baumann, @TobiasKuemmerle & more!

RT @TobiasKuemmerle: Integrating Land System Science and Conservation Science for a better representation of #LandUse in #conservation scie…

🚨 New paper 🚨 The best of two worlds: using stacked generalization for integrating expert range maps in species distribution models. With Julian Oeser, @TobiasKuemmerle and more!

🚨New paper🚨 Where are conflict and coexistence prone areas for pumas and humans in the Argentine Dry Chaco? Check out our recently published paper! With @sofiananni85 , @ArashGhoddousi, @Alf_RomeroM, Jamie, Matthias, Julieta and @TobiasKuemmerle.

This paper examines how forest-dependent people (Indigenous and Criollo peoples) in the Pilcomayo basin of the Gran Chaco have lost access to surface water (e.g., rivers, streams, ponds) over time due to the expansion of commodity agriculture.

Last week, we explored the Romanian Carpathians to deepen our understanding of European bison conservation and grassland biodiversity. 🏞️🌿🦬 #conservation #rewilding #biodiversity

The three regions had remarkably similar forest structures, although partly driven by different social-ecological drivers, suggesting strong attractors of structure in temperate mountain forests.