Conservation and Social Outcomes of Privately Protected Areas

Global conservation governance is changing. A broad array of diverse actors are increasingly manging and implementing conservation interventions. In particular, the number of private actors implementing conservation initiatives is growing. Despite being an old conservation approach, privately protected areas (PPAs) have historically been understudied and many uncertainties remain regarding private actor involvement in biodiversity conservation. This thesis tackles some of these uncertainties by seeking to understand what the outcomes of PPAs are and how do these differ to those of other PA governance types. Using open-source data, this thesis takes a big data approach to increase the understanding on the outcomes of PPAs in terms of (i) what they protect, (ii) how effective they are at protecting it and (iii) what are the social impacts of these areas for landowners and local surrounding communities.
This thesis suggests that PPAs can play an important part in achieving conservation targets by increasing the coverage, complementarity and connectivity of PA networks. PPAs can protect areas where other PA governance types struggle to be implemented, in particular; unrepresented and threatened biomes and areas of high human pressure (see Chapter 4). Moreover, PPAs can be more effective than other governance types at mitigating threats (see Chapter 5). This thesis finds that PPAs in Colombia are effective at reducing deforestation and on average, are more effective than regional state PAs (see Chapter 5). PPAs can also have positive social impacts for landowners by improved social networks, increased property value, or a reduction in taxes. However, similarly to state PAs in some cases local communities surrounding PPAs may incur costs, including a reduction in social capital and loss of cultural identity (see Chapter 3).
Findings from this study have important implications for (i) the role of PPAs in meeting conservation biodiversity targets and (ii) general theories surrounding the role of private actors in conservation. Results suggests that PPAs deserve to be better integrated into regional, national and global biodiversity strategies as they can offer beneficial environmental biodiversity outcomes. Moreover, better integration and regulation of PPAs into biodiversity conservation strategies may increase PPA accountability and help to limit negative social impacts such as inequalities in land ownership and the use of perverse economic incentives.