Global camera trap synthesis highlights the importance of protected areas in maintaining mammal diversity

The establishment of protected areas (PAs) is a central strategy for
global biodiversity conservation. While the role of PAs in protecting
habitat has been highlighted, their effectiveness at protecting mammal
communities remains unclear. We analyzed a global dataset from over 8,671
camera traps in 23 countries on four continents that detected 321 medium-
to large-bodied mammal species. We found a strong positive correlation
between mammal taxonomic diversity and the proportion of a surveyed area
covered by PAs at a global scale (b = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.19, 0.60) and in
Indomalaya (b = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.19,1.2), as well as between functional
diversity and PA coverage in the Nearctic (b = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.85),
after controlling for human disturbances and environmental variation.
Functional diversity was only weakly (and insignificantly) correlated with
PA coverage at the global scale (b =0.22, 95% CI = -0.02, 0.46), pointing
to a need to better understand the functional response of mammal
communities to protection. Our study provides important evidence of the
global effectiveness of PAs in conserving terrestrial mammals and
emphasizes the critical role of area-based conservation in a post-2020
biodiversity framework.