CONVERGENCE ANALYSIS OF TERRESTRIAL PROTECTED AREAS BY 159 COUNTRIESYu Sang Chang, Moon Jung Kim and Sung Jun JoAbstract Terrestrial biome protection is an important tool for biodiversity conservation.Differences in land use in protected areas are shown to have positive impact on biodiversity throughout the world. Aichi Target 11 states that by 2020, at least 17 percent of terrestrial areas globally should be conserved through effectively and equitably managed systems of protected areas. The major question of this research examines whether countries with low levels of terrestrial protection in the early years have been catching up faster to leading countries with higher terrestrial protection levels. Among four income subgroups as well as six regional subgroups out of a total of 159 countries, those subgroups with lower averaged protection levels in 1990 realized faster annual rate of increase for protection measure during the period of 1998 to 2015, displaying a process of catch-up. Furthermore, Ï and γ convergence analysis of the income and the regional subgroups revealed the existence of the same type of relation between the 1990 protection level and annual rate of γ convergence as well as Ï convergence. In sum, the initial level of protection measure was critical in generating the linkage between the rate of increasing averaged protection measure, the decreasing speed of γ convergence and the declining speed of convergence for respective income and regional subgroups of countries. Implication from these findings will be discussed. |