The values of ecosystem services inside and outside of protected areas in eastern and southern Africa

Conservation policies often take for granted the importance of protected areas for supplying ecosystem services. The first edition of the State of Protected and Conserved Areas in Eastern and Southern Africa report contained limited information on ecosystem services, so for the 2nd edition we statistically compared 561 standardized economic values of various types of ecosystem services inside and outside of protected areas. We found that data from local and sub-national case studies in the Ecosystem Service Valuation Database were biased geographically, highlighting major evidence gaps for most of the region. For well-studied countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda), the value of ecosystem services varied considerably across different types of services but were—on average—three to six times higher outside protected areas. This trend was not universal, however, given that opportunities for recreation and tourism tended to be higher within protected areas. Combined, these findings suggest that conservation authorities across Eastern and Southern Africa (1) prioritize ecosystem service valuation studies; (2) expand the focus of ecosystem service policies to include wider landscapes beyond protected area boundaries; and (3) avoid generic assumptions about ecosystem services by identifying the services that are most compatible with the broader goals of protected areas.