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Reply to: Causal claims, causal assumptions and protected area impact

Nature volume 638, pages E42–E44 (2025)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 26 February 2025

replying to: J. Geldmann et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08512-8 (2025).

In the accompanying Comment, Geldmann et al.1 incorrectly claim that protected area (PA) efficacy cannot be established without biodiversity data that predates establishment of the PA. Spatial correlates of diversity are known as a result of centuries of ecological research; our analyses controlled for these factors in a variety of ways in order to isolate the impacts of protection per se on bird and mammal biodiversity. The proposition of Geldmann et al. that our results are biased because PAs were established in areas with high natural biodiversity ignores these analytical controls, is naive to the realities of on-the-ground conservation, and has been disproved by recent research. Although we look forward to future work that improves on our predictions, our study provides robust estimates of the biodiversity impacts of PAs across hyperdiverse Southeast Asia2—information that is critically needed to support large-scale conservation objectives.

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Data availability

Data are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22527298.v1 (ref. 18).

Code availability

Analysis code is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13742402 (ref. 19).

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Jedediah F. Brodie & Peter J. Williams

  2. Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Jedediah F. Brodie, Shu Woan Teoh & Olga E. Helmy

  3. Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia

    Jedediah F. Brodie & Jayasilan Mohd-Azlan

  4. Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Cheng Chen

  5. Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Cheng Chen

  6. Fauna and Flora International—Vietnam Programme, Tay Ho, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Oliver R. Wearn

  7. Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Mairin C. M. Deith

  8. Department of Plant Sciences and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    James G. C. Ball & David Coomes

  9. Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Eleanor M. Slade

  10. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Cruickshank Building, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

    David F. R. P. Burslem

  11. Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany

    An Nguyen

  12. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Jonathan H. Moore

  13. School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Jonathan H. Moore

  14. School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Scott J. Goetz, Patrick Burns, Patrick Jantz & Christopher R. Hakkenberg

  15. Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Zaneta Kaszta

  16. Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Zaneta Kaszta & Sam Cushman

  17. Northern Arizona University, School of Forestry, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Sam Cushman

  18. The South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP), Danum Valley Field Centre, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

    Glen Reynolds

  19. IUCN Species Survival Commission, Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigation (IVIC) and Provita, Caracas, Venezuela

    Jon Paul Rodríguez

  20. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Walter Jetz

  21. Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Walter Jetz

  22. School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Matthew Scott Luskin

Authors
  1. Jedediah F. Brodie
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  2. Jayasilan Mohd-Azlan
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  3. Cheng Chen
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  4. Oliver R. Wearn
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  5. Mairin C. M. Deith
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  6. James G. C. Ball
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  7. Eleanor M. Slade
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  8. David F. R. P. Burslem
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  9. Shu Woan Teoh
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  10. Peter J. Williams
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  11. An Nguyen
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  12. Jonathan H. Moore
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  13. Scott J. Goetz
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  14. Patrick Burns
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  15. Patrick Jantz
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  16. Christopher R. Hakkenberg
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  17. Zaneta Kaszta
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  18. Sam Cushman
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  19. David Coomes
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  20. Olga E. Helmy
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  21. Glen Reynolds
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  22. Jon Paul Rodríguez
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  23. Walter Jetz
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  24. Matthew Scott Luskin
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Contributions

J.F.B. wrote the initial draft and performed the analysis. After review, comments and editing, J.M.-A., C.C., O.R.W., M.C.M.D., J.G.C.B., E.M.S., D.F.R.P.B., S.W.T., P.J.W., A.N., J.H.M., S.J.G., P.B., P.J., C.R.H., Z.K., S.C., D.C., O.E.H., G.R., J.P.R., W.J. and M.S.L. approved the submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jedediah F. Brodie.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Brodie, J.F., Mohd-Azlan, J., Chen, C. et al. Reply to: Causal claims, causal assumptions and protected area impact. Nature 638, E42–E44 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08513-7

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