The contribution of land tenure diversity to the spatial resilience of protected area networks

1. The relationship between diversity and resilience is relatively well-established for ecological systems, but remains much less explored for socioeconomic systems. Institutional diversity may have particular relevance for protected areas, whose managerial responses to environmental change depend on their legal basis, ability to make and enforce rules, and socio-political acceptance and endorsement. 2. Protected area expansion strategies are increasingly turning to private land conservation to increase the configuration and connectivity of national protected area networks. Yet we know little about the relative role of privately-owned protected areas in protecting threatened and poorly protected (under-represented) habitats, and in the overall connectivity of the national protected area network. 3. We present an empirical assessment of protected area tenure diversity across South Africa. 4. Privately-owned protected areas comprise 25.58% (2878422.26 ha) of the area of the total protect...