Establishing and managing protected areas (national parks, nature reserves and other sites of conservation value) represent the most common approach to conserving species and ecosystems, but these areas are vulnerable to global environmental change. Recently, Golden Kroner et al. (2019) suggested protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) as one of the main threats to biodiversity conservation. However, there are several other elements, of similar concern, that threaten conservation efforts in protected areas, such as climate change and pollution. Here, in a commentary to the Golden Kroner et al. (2019) paper, we address an additional important element affecting protected area dynamics and robustness that was overlooked by these authors – invasions by alien species. We argue that invasive alien species (IAS) contribute directly to the pressures of biodiversity loss by competing with native species and modifying the characteristics of the invaded ecosystems, and virtually no protected areas are free from these effects. Therefore, excluding IAS from legal instruments and policy frameworks underpinning current conservation approaches in protected areas presents a great risk for nature conservation. Consequently, this aligns poorly with the idea of protected areas being a cornerstone for conservation at local, regional and national levels. For that reason and to paint a more complete picture of the effectiveness of protected areas, we argue that when other factors threatening the existence and functioning of protected areas are discussed, we also need to account for biological invasions. This will ensure that adaptive conservation management strategies protect a wide range of species, ecosystems, and landscapes. Hence, this commentary aims to be of general interest for policymakers, managers and researchers.

中文翻译：

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外来入侵物种增加了保护区未来的不确定性

建立和管理保护区（国家公园，自然保护区和其他具有保护价值的地点）是保护物种和生态系统的最常见方法，但是这些地区容易受到全球环境变化的影响。最近，Golden Kroner等人。（2019）建议将保护区的降级，缩小规模和取消官方公报（PADDD）作为对生物多样性保护的主要威胁之一。但是，还有其他一些类似的问题也威胁着保护区的保护工作，例如气候变化和污染。在这里，对Golden Kroner等人的评论。（2019年）论文中，我们探讨了影响保护区动态性和鲁棒性的其他重要因素，而这些因素被这些作者忽略了-外来物种入侵。我们认为，外来入侵物种（IAS）通过与本地物种竞争并修改被入侵的生态系统的特征，直接造成了生物多样性丧失的压力，而且几乎没有保护区不受这些影响。因此，将IAS排除在支持当前保护区保护方法的法律文书和政策框架之外，这给自然保护带来了巨大风险。因此，这与保护区是地方，区域和国家各级保护的基石这一想法很不一致。因此，为了更全面地了解保护区的有效性，我们认为，当讨论威胁保护区生存和功能的其他因素时，我们还需要考虑生物入侵。这将确保适应性保护管理策略能够保护广泛的物种，生态系统和景观。因此，该评论旨在引起决策者，管理人员和研究人员的普遍关注。