Protected areas spearhead our response to the rapidly accelerating biodiversity crisis. However, while the number of protected areas has been growing rapidly over the past 20 years, the extent to which the world's protected areas are effectively conserving species, ecosystems, and ecosystem services is poorly understood. This information is essential for understanding the global, regional and national status and trends of the world's biodiversity and is required in order to develop a strategic response to the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2020 targets. It is also essential for assessing the overall role of protected areas in biodiversity conservation and identifying where protected areas need to be further integrated with other conservation efforts to achieve effective species conservation. In addition, a better understanding of which protected areas are more successful at conserving intact wildlife populations, and which are not, will enable the identification of conditions and management practices that lead to successful protection.§§The major essence of this book is to provide a synthetic analysis of the world's protected area portfolio. Some of the key themes will be identifying the components of the current portfolio, how is it funded, managed and monitored, and asking how it has performed from a biodiversity conservation perspective. Another important theme of the book will be identifying how can we most effectively manage the portfolio into the future, and identifying the new tools and technologies, including governance and financing mechanisms, necessary for ensuring effective biodiversity preservation within the global protected area network.§§In addressing the issues identified above, each contributor will address not only the problem, but also the data currently available to provide insight into that problem, how those data have been used in the past and how they could be used in the future. Looking forward, the leaders of each chapter will address the requirements of a more efficient and effective protected area portfolio. Finally, a clear strategy will be developed to help make global commitments in each of these areas a reality on the ground.§§In summary, this publication for the first time will take a comprehensive look at the efficacy of protected areas in safeguarding biodiversity, and step beyond the standard by offering, from a gathering of the world's thought-leaders on the subject, insight and expertise towards a better understanding of this issue. The publication will not only examine key issues, but also ask contributors to tackle some of the most difficult questions in biodiversity conservation. In so doing this publication will define the research agenda for the foreseeable future in one of conservation biology's most important areas of inquiry: the effectiveness of conservation interventions.§§Cohesion and Coverage§§The book will provide a coherent review of the science of protected area impact assessment relative to biodiversity outcomes. Experts selected for their knowledge and the overview that they can provide will write the chapters. A deliberate effort has been made to bring together leading specialists for each chapter. We have paid particular attention where there is a need to present a balanced position in a subject area where there is more than one perspective. Where necessary the authors will be asked to cover broader areas than their symposium talk. We have structured the chapters specifically so that overview chapters will make explicit links and conclusions - we will ensure that this is achieved through prior discussion with the authors, and through editing.
