Protected Areas in 2023: Scenarios for an Uncertain Future

Societies in all parts of the world have long given certain sites a special status: places they would protect to conserve their natural and cultural heritage and to maintain ecological processes for the well-being of people and the rest of nature. Many believe that these protected areas should exist in perpetuity, but social, demographic, technological, economic, and environmental changes have inevitably posed many challenges for those concerned with managing the protected areas.