This is a scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Steve Mursky. Got a minute?

Protected areas are hugely important for conservation. Over the last 20 years

there's been a massive growth in the number of protected areas both in the marine realm and the terrestrial realm.

James Watson with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Global Conservation Program and the University of Queensland in Australia.

But what we're noticing is that these protected areas aren't well placed.

They don't really stop biodiversity loss in many places because they're not where important areas of biodiversity is.

We also notice that protected areas aren't well managed and therefore often protected areas

don't actually lead to any significant

conservation outcome. To address these issues Watson and colleagues published a

blueprint describing how the scientific community can actually really help

national governments and protected

area managers place protected areas that really prioritize

important biodiversity areas and achieve ecological representation. Their

report is in the journal Conservation Biology.

Protected areas aren't the only tool in the toolbox and we've got to make sure that other

efforts actually work together holistically with the protected areas. So scientists can help identify

metrics that help allow us to assess this. In these three ways scientists can really

help the conservation movement ensure that the protected areas

are in the right place and manage effectively and can achieve conservation

outcomes in the long term.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Steve Mursky.

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