**4.3 Creation and management of protected areas**

The PA creation, as stated, is probably the number one national and international conservation policy. They are regarded as the primary defence against biodiversity loss, as long as they are well maintained and managed [6, 67, 81]. The Aichi Biodiversity Targets are a strong showcase of the political priority given to the creation of protected areas at the international level. The following are key messages to achieve the Aichi Targets for APs [77]:


Complying with these guidelines, IUCN developed a set of educational tools for teaching about PAs and governance aiming to produce a "well-implemented legal frameworks [to create and maintain] effective and sustainable PAs, which provide fundamental infrastructure for conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem services" [90]. These guidelines are helping to create and implement efficient management plans, making them an effective tool to guide managers and other stakeholders in the decision-making process towards achieving the conservation goals.

However, PAs coverage and management plans are not enough to ensure the PA conservation success. Presently, not all the important biodiversity hotspots occur inside the PAs [91–94], because the PA area is at times inadequately defined in terms of extent, ecological representation, and key biodiversity areas [95]. Another major bottleneck is that many PA are inadequately managed and, therefore, do not fulfil their goal of providing a safe and secure site for the species, populations, and ecosystems to thrive.

While biodiversity conservation is the primary objective of a PA, successful management must also address the funding and training requirements of conservation actions, as well as ensuring the sustainability and socio-economic development of local communities [6]. Balancing conservation interests and human well-being is often the most difficult challenge to successfully manage a PA. Therefore, local populations ought to be involved at all stages of the PA management planning, notably in defining the mission, vision, and goals of the PA [6].

Besides all these challenges, in the present days, the greatest threat to PAs is, probably, climate change. How far protected areas will continue to be effective in protecting biodiversity under projected climate change scenarios is still uncertain, but it is expected that some PAs will virtually cease to function, with massive species loss and shift, others may survive relatively undisturbed, while others may even experience an increase in species, leading to changes in the species assemblages [81].

When it comes to island PAs, the intrinsic characteristics of island species and ecosystems cause a particular vulnerability due to the small population sizes, low habitat availability, and isolated evolution [96, 97]. Strong local anthropogenic pressure added to the impacts of climate change increase the threats to island ecosystems and plants. Due to the high degree of endemism in island floras, there is a particularly high potential for biodiversity loss in these ecosystems. Climate change impacts on oceanic island, though, are not evenly distributed, with the greatest vulnerabilities to be expected on smaller islands with low elevation and uniform topography, which will experience higher disruptions rates associated with ecosystems co-modification and co-extinction [98]. Thus, islands PAs are much more vulnerable than other land ecosystems, and management plans must take this into account.
