Protected areas (PAs) are a core component in global efforts to prevent further declines in biodiversity. We examine whether the United Kingdom's PA portfolio has reduced local extinctions of breeding birds and consider how the characteristics of different PA designations may have affected conservation outcomes. We use breeding bird atlas data to calculate the proportion of species in each 10 × 10-km grid cell confirmed as breeding in 1988–1991 but not in 2008–2011. We find that the protection offered by PAs is little to no different from that of the wider landscape and, depending on the type of PA, attribute this to PAs being either too small or not managed for biodiversity outcomes. To meet the ambitious new global targets for expanding PA coverage set at the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference, all countries need to monitor and ensure PA effectiveness; high PA coverage does not guarantee that biodiversity is protected.

中文翻译：

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英国保护区在防止局部灭绝方面的有效性

保护区 (PA) 是全球防止生物多样性进一步下降的努力的核心组成部分。我们研究了英国的保护区组合是否减少了当地繁殖鸟类的灭绝，并考虑了不同保护区名称的特征如何影响保护结果。我们使用繁殖鸟类图集数据来计算 1988-1991 年而非 2008-2011 年确认为繁殖的每个 10 × 10-km 网格单元中的物种比例。我们发现保护区提供的保护与更广泛的景观几乎没有什么不同，并且根据保护区的类型，将其归因于保护区太小或未针对生物多样性成果进行管理。为了实现第十五届联合国生物多样性大会制定的扩大保护区覆盖范围的雄心勃勃的全球新目标，所有国家都需要监测和确保保护区的有效性；高 PA 覆盖率并不能保证生物多样性得到保护。