Fig. 5: Area reductions under Caspian Sea level decline for Caspian Sea region protected areas.

Area reductions arising from different sea level decline scenarios on current areas with legislative environmental protections listed in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA); a Map of decline scenario overlap with spatial area designations; b Plot showing proportional reduction in sea area covered by current spatial area designations under the different decline scenarios; c Decline in overall marine protected area coverage relative to Caspian Sea area for the −27.5 m datum, dashed reference line indicates the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target of 30% area coverage of inland water, coastal, and marine areas; d Increase in distance to shore for Caspian coastal terrestrial protected areas, under sea level decline scenarios of 2.5 m to 17.5 m relative to the study datum.