Global protected areas boost the carbon sequestration capacity: Evidences from econometric causal analysis

Hong Shi; Xia Li; Xiaoping Liu; Shaojian Wang; Xiaojuan Liu; Han Zhang; Dongmei Tang; Taohong Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137001

Global protected areas boost the carbon sequestration capacity: Evidences from econometric causal analysis

Sci Total Environ. 2020 May 1:715:137001. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137001. Epub 2020 Jan 28.

Authors

Hong Shi¹, Xia Li², Xiaoping Liu¹, Shaojian Wang³, Xiaojuan Liu¹, Han Zhang¹, Dongmei Tang¹, Taohong Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
² Key Lab of Geographic Information Science (Ministry of Education), School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: lixia@geo.ecnu.edu.cn.
³ School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China; Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ Tourism School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.

PMID: 32032994
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137001

Abstract

Carbon sequestration capacity is the key factor in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, further research is required on how to evaluate the impact of protected areas on carbon sequestration capacity from a global scale. To date, we propose a carbon density index of global protected areas (>10 km², 32,756 samples) by the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trad'eoffs carbon model over the period 1994-2015. Then, we use the propensity score matching and difference-in-difference methods to separate the time effect and policy effect of the construction of protected areas on carbon sequestration capacity. Our analysis reveals that the carbon sequestration capacity can be improved by 0.39% by constructing global protected areas. There are regional differences with carbon sequestration capacity improvement globally. Africa has the largest value of increased carbon sequestration capacity, followed by Asia, Oceania and Europe. Upgrading protected areas (0.05%), strictly implementing planning (0.18%) and enhancing the power of local governments (0.08%) are conducive to improving carbon sequestration capacity. The assessment of the carbon sequestration capacity dynamic with protected areas is of great significance to meet the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Keywords: Carbon density index; Carbon sequestration capacity; Convention on Biological Diversity; Difference-in-difference; Propensity score matching; Protected areas.