Effectiveness of Africa's tropical protected areas for maintaining forest cover

The effectiveness of parks for forest conservation is widely debated in Africa, where increasing human pressure, insufficient funding, and lack of management capacity frequently place significant demands on forests. Tropical forests house a substantial portion of the world's remaining biodiversity and are heavily affected by anthropogenic activity. We analyzed park effectiveness at the individual (224parks) and national (23 countries) level across Africa by comparing the extent of forest loss (as a proxy for deforestation) inside parks to matched unprotected control sites. Although significant geographical variation existed among parks, the majority of African parks had significantly less forest loss within their boundaries (e.g., Mahale Park had 34 times less forest loss within its boundary) than control sites. Accessibility was a significant driver of forest loss. Relatively inaccessible areas had a higher probability (odds ratio >1, p < 0.001) of forest loss but only in ineffective parks, and relatively accessible areas had a higher probability of forest loss but only in effective parks,. Smaller parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than larger parks (T = −2.32, p < 0.05), and older parks less effectively prevented forest loss inside park boundaries than younger parks (F2,154 = −4.11, p < 0.001). Our analyses, the first individual and national assessment of park effectiveness across Africa, demonstrated the complexity of factors (such as geographical variation, accessibility, and park size and age) influencing the ability of a park to curb forest loss within its boundaries. La efectividad de los parques para la conservación de los bosques es debatida ampliamente en África, donde la creciente presión bumana, el financiamiento insuficiente y la falta de capacidad de manejo frecuentemente colocan presión sobre los bosques. Los bosques tropicales resguardan una porción sustancial de la biodiversidad restante del mundo y están afectados excesivamente por la actividad antropogénica. Analizamos la efectividad de los parques a nivel individual (224 parques) y nacional (23 países) en toda África al comparar la extensión de la pérdida del bosque (como sustituto de la deforestación) dentro de los parques con sitios de control desprotegidos y no emparejados. Aunque la variación geográfica significativa existió entre los parques, la mayoría de los parques africanos tuvieron una pérdida de bosque significativamente menor dentro de sus l