Effectiveness and management of terrestrial protected areas: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Effectively managed protected areas (PAs) are an efficient strategy to promote sustainable development and human well-being. The objective of this study was to examine aspects related to the evaluation of PA effectiveness and management, for which a bibliometric analysis was performed by taking as a reference the English language publication made globally from 2013 to 2022 in the Scopus database. Three research trends were found. The first is studies on conservation planning, management, and evaluation, with multiple approaches aimed at developing tools to determine PA effectiveness objectively. The second studies the impacts of human activities on PAs and considers human pressure, the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, and the valuation of ecosystem services, among others. The third studies specific indicators to determine the effectiveness of a specific set of PAs or one in particular. Finally, conservation management was identified as a basic topic that has not been sufficiently developed, so the convenience of developing management and evaluation models for PA management should be evaluated in future research.

Keywords: assessment, conservation area, efficacy.