Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

Conservation International's science is the foundation for all our work. Our global science team is dedicated to advancing conservation science — pursuing actionable knowledge and amplifying it through partnerships and outreach.

To date, Conservation International has published more than 1,300 peer-reviewed articles, many in leading journals including Science, Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Here is an archive of our most recent research:

Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement in Cambodia: Enabling conditions and opportunities for intervention

Matthew Nuttall, Erik Olsson, Harri Washington, Vises Ung, Nils Bunnefeld, Joel Merriman, Olly Griffin, Keziah Hobson, Alex Diment, Rachel Golden Kroner

Conservation Science and Practice

February 23, 2023

Protected area (PA) sustainability is challenged worldwide by legal downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD). National and local case studies of ecologically destructive PADDD events provide useful insights that may help respond to or prevent future events. Using information from legal documents and expert input, we identified 37 PADDD events that affected two adjacent PAs in northeastern Cambodia differently despite similar economic, environmental, and social conditions. Important differences in local context led to the eventual degazettement (100% loss) of one PA and downsizing (10.49% loss) of the other, the rest of which remains protected. This case study confirms the contribution of secure Indigenous land tenure to durable conservation governance and demonstrates the importance of investing in site-level capacity to ensure that social and ecological conditions are monitored and proposed PADDD events can be successfully challenged.

CITATION

Nuttall, M., Olsson, E., Washington, H., Ung, V., Bunnefeld, N., Merriman, J., Griffin, O., Hobson, K., Diment, A., & Kroner, R. G. (2023). Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement in Cambodia: Enabling conditions and opportunities for intervention. Conservation Science and Practice. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.12912