The role of protected areas for freshwater biodiversity conservation: challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing world

Abstract 1. Declaring protected areas (PAs) stands out as one of the main conservation strategies worldwide and there are clear commitments to expand their extent under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD; Aichi targets for 2020). This conservation strategy has also received increasing attention in a freshwater context in the last two decades. 2. Despite increasing conservation efforts, the effectiveness of PAs for freshwater purposes is questioned and freshwater biodiversity continues to decline. There are many reasons for this poor effectiveness: a lack of consideration of freshwater needs when designing and declaring protected areas, fewer resources devoted to freshwater conservation management than to other actions, and poor understanding of complex management problems beyond the limits of the protected area. 3. This supplement compiles some examples from around the world on implementing and managing PAs, assessing their effectiveness, and demonstrating their important role not only in preserving biodiversity but also human well‐being and in meeting future challenges to achieve the CBD targets for freshwater biodiversity. 4. Here the challenges of establishing effective PAs for freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world are reviewed. We advocate better monitoring programmes to assess the effectiveness of PAs for freshwater biodiversity, in which the unique characteristics of freshwater systems, such as the important role of connectivity and the close links with the rest of the landscape they drain, are considered. 5. There are new conservation opportunities to enhance the value of PAs for freshwater biodiversity under the new conservation paradigm of ‘people and nature’. The imperative of finding solutions that generate co‐benefits alongside biodiversity conservation, and the clear reliance of human communities on freshwater services, has created an environment that may be more favourable to PAs focused in whole or part on fresh waters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.