Navigating equity in protected and conserved areas: a literature map of conceptualizations and practical applications

Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) play a pivotal role in biodiversity conservation and are anticipated to contribute to human well-being by addressing poverty and adhering to principles of environmental equity. Despite these aspirations, achieving and measuring equity on the ground have proven challenging. The scientific literature offers various conceptualizations of equity, thereby obstructing the derivation of clear guidelines and synthesis for practical applications. To address this difference in conceptualizations, we mapped contemporary academic literature to interrogate the conceptualization of equity within protected area governance. Our focus encompassed dimensions of environmental equity, including recognition, procedural, distributive equity. The mapping revealed distributional equity and rights-based claims have remained the most prominent concerns throughout the 2002–2023 period, while attention to procedural and especially recognitional equity has markedly increased since 2017, with many recent studies integrating all three dimensions. Most reviewed articles considered equity for Indigenous and Local Communities in relation to PCA governance. Our literature map highlights the promotion of community involvement as a solution to align equity and ecological outcomes in PCA management, as well as a mechanism for recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. However, recommendations for practice are often ambiguous and present challenges for practical application. Addressing the intersectional nature of equity by disaggregating stakeholder metrics and centering Indigenous ways of knowing and governance systems is essential to unveil connections between people and nature and to improve equity in practice.