Rationale

Biodiversity conservation is of particular importance for sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Biodiversity is at the same time a public good and a local good source of welfare and/or subsistence of local population. Natural ecosystems are in rapid decline. Major habitats are disappearing at a speed never observed before. The rate of species extinction is several orders of magnitude higher than the background or fossil rate.  Protected areas are recognised as the most important core "units" for in situ conservation.
The EC recognizes the crucial role of Protected Areas in biodiversity protection, conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. The EC would greatly benefit from concrete support in the identification of priority areas for intervention in order to continue playing an active role in reducing biodiversity loss in Africa.

Objectives

The ACP Observatory activities in the field of biodiversity aim at improving the understanding of conservation priorities in Africa and therefore supporting fund allocation decisions as well as program implementation and monitoring.

More specifically on Protected Areas, the main objectives are:

1) to systematically identify the protected areas which have the greatest value, in terms of biological resources, and to identify those which are the most threatened by human development;

2) to develop a decision support system for assessing the relative threats and pressures on protected areas in Africa through a pressure - state - response system, where threats are "pressures", biodiversity value and habitat irreplaceability are "state" and decision is "response".

Activities

To date, the activities have been focused on a global assessment of African PAs through the analysis of species aboundance (mammals, birds and amphibians), ecosystems unicity and main threats (human settlements and presence and agricultural activity). 

Monitoring of specific PAs in support to EC programs is also part of the current work. In the future, part of the activities could be oriented to the assessment of PAs management effectiveness and to PAs connectivity and fragmentation.