有人提出，表现差的保护区应当失去其保护地位，所节省的资金应用到效果好的其他地方。这种观点不易被保护工作者和地方游说团体所接受。但根据对澳大利亚近7,000个保护区的表现所做的一项研究，从长期来看这种观点可能是最好的政策。
大约70个被取消资格的保护区（所评估土地的单位价值产生的保护价值最低的保护区）的出售，可能获得大约210亿澳元（约177亿美元）的资金。如果这些钱然后再重新投入到生物多样性保护策略更可能获得成功的保护区，将有可能以同样支出获得更大程度的保护。随着全世界保护区的新投资额持续下降，本文作者们提出，面对破坏植被行为的泛滥猖獗，保留那些最有价值、最有生产力的区域比以往任何时候都显得更为重要。(生物谷Bioon.net)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Nature doi:10.1038/nature09180
Replacing underperforming protected areas achieves better conservation outcomes
Richard A. Fuller,Eve McDonald-Madden,Kerrie A. Wilson,Josie Carwardine,Hedley S. Grantham,James E. M. Watson,Carissa J. Klein,David C. Green& Hugh P. Possingham
Protected areas vary enormously in their contribution to conserving biodiversity, and the inefficiency of protected area systems is widely acknowledged1, 2, 3. However, conservation plans focus overwhelmingly on adding new sites to current protected area estates4. Here we show that the conservation performance of a protected area system can be radically improved, without extra expenditure, by replacing a small number of protected areas with new ones that achieve more for conservation. Replacing the least cost-effective 1% of Australia’s 6,990 strictly protected areas could increase the number of vegetation types that have 15% or more of their original extent protected from 18 to 54, of a maximum possible of 58. Moreover, it increases markedly the area that can be protected, with no increase in overall spending. This new paradigm for protected area system expansion could yield huge improvements to global conservation at a time when competition for land is increasingly intense.
