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As COP 30 gets underway today in Belem, Brazil, Imperial researchers warn about the abandonment of conservation initiatives.

Imperial researchers warn that the global push to expand conservation is undermined by a growing, often overlooked problem, the abandonment of conservation initiatives.

While governments and organisations worldwide race to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, new research led by ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ reveals a troubling blind spot in global conservation policy: what happens when conservation programmes fail or fade away.

The warning comes as the UK government confirmed it will not contribute to the new Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), a landmark international initiative designed to provide long-term financing for the protection and restoration of tropical forests, including the Amazon. The decision highlights the study’s central concern: that the world’s conservation efforts are too often focused on launching new projects, rather than ensuring their lasting success.

Published in  ahead of COP30, which began on Saturday, the study “Conservation abandonment is a policy blind spot” is co-led by Dr Thomas Pienkowski (now at the University of Kent) and Dr Matt Clark (now at the University of Sydney), both formerly of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. Dr Morena Mills, from Imperial’s Centre for Environmental Policy, is the senior author and co-leads the Catalysing Conservation group, where the research was carried out.

The authors warn that the failure to sustain existing conservation efforts could jeopardise progress toward international biodiversity and climate goals.

Given humanity depends on nature conservation and restoration for our wellbeing, it would be great to see stronger leadership by the UK government Morena Mills Centre for Environmental Policy

"Forest protection and restoration require continuous funding, yet most funding is short term and focuses on establishment instead of the maintenance of the conservation and restoration projects. This TFFF is proposing a different way of funding nature conservation and restoration projects, which is long term. Given humanity depends on nature conservation and restoration for our wellbeing, it would be great to see stronger leadership by the UK government." – Dr Morena Mills

A global pattern of neglect

The study introduces the concept of conservation abandonment, which includes:

• The abdication of management responsibilities - where projects continue on paper but are no longer maintained in practice
• the formal rollback of protections through policy changes, such as the downsizing or elimination of protected areas.

Data from 73 countries reveal nearly 3,800 cases of legal reversals, known as “PADDD” events (protected area downgrading, downsizing, or degazettement) since 1892. Together, these decisions have stripped protections from an area roughly the size of Greenland. Two-thirds of these cases were driven by industrial activities such as mining and logging.

But the researchers emphasise that this is only part of the story. Conservation today extends far beyond national parks. Billions of dollars are now invested in community-led conservation, payments for ecosystem services, and sustainable certification schemes, yet there is virtually no data on how often these initiatives are later abandoned.

A policy blind spot

The paper identifies several underlying causes of abandonment:

• Short-term or project-based funding cycles
• Political rollbacks or deregulation
• Misalignment between conservation goals and local community needs
• Broader social shifts, including urban migration and cultural change

The authors warn that current global trends, from political polarisation to climate stress, could accelerate abandonment if governments and funders fail to act. Recent examples, including cuts to international conservation funding in the United States and rollback of forest protections in Brazil, demonstrate how quickly progress can be undone.

Establishing new protected areas or policies is only the beginning. Conservation systems must be designed to persist, socially, politically and ecologically, even when priorities change.

Unseen and unreported

Examples of conservation abandonment are emerging across contexts and continents. In Chile, over 20% of fishing territories assigned to local communities were later discontinued. In parts of southern and eastern Africa, experts estimated that one in three community conservation groups had stopped implementing management activities after initial engagement.

In Brazil, where world leaders will meet this week for COP30 in Belém, years of weakened environmental enforcement led to widespread encroachment into Indigenous forests during the Bolsonaro administration. This reversal of conservation commitments illustrates how political shifts can rapidly undo hard-won progress.

Even government-recognised “Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures” (OECMs), a newer category under the UN’s Global Biodiversity Framework, are proving vulnerable. In one case, oil exploration was permitted across 26,000 square kilometres of a marine OECM in Canada. These findings suggest that the true scale of abandonment is vastly undercounted, with limited monitoring and little political attention. Tracking only what’s newly established gives a false sense of progress. Without understanding what’s being lost, conservation success stories can be inflated while ecosystems quietly degrade.

The long road to persistence

Understanding abandonment is not about criticising conservation, but about improving it. In some cases, ending a programme may be justified, for instance, if local communities take ownership under a new governance model. But where projects disappear due to funding gaps or shifting political priorities, the ecological and social costs can be significant.

The study calls for a systematic global effort to monitor and prevent abandonment, comparable to existing systems that track biodiversity loss. The researchers highlight opportunities to leverage technologies such as high-resolution satellite imagery and global vessel-tracking systems to detect when conservation management lapses.

They also point to the need for new funding and policy tools designed to ensure permanence, for example, through long-term financial mechanisms like Project Finance for Permanence and community stewardship funds.

Conservation needs to be built for the long haul, aligning goals with the priorities of the people and institutions who sustain them.

Designing for durability

The team proposes a set of practical steps for policymakers and practitioners:

• Monitor persistence alongside establishment, to measure real progress toward global biodiversity goals.
• Invest in long-term financing, including trust funds and local governance systems.
• Build partnerships that align incentives, ensuring that conservation delivers clear benefits for participating communities.
• Promote transparency by expanding global reporting on the status and effectiveness of conservation measures.

By reframing persistence as a core element of conservation success, the authors aim to shift attention, and investment, from the quantity of conservation initiatives to their long-term quality and resilience.

A call for global attention

Recognising and addressing conservation abandonment is crucial to achieving the aims of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement. Without it, the world risks overstating its progress toward protecting nature and mitigating climate change.

Conservation is not just about starting something new, it is about ensuring what we start endures. Only by designing for, monitoring, and investing in persistence can global conservation deliver lasting benefits for people and the planet.

Paper: Pienkowski, T., Clark, M., Mascia, M. B., Rivera-Hechem, M. I., Gelcich, S., Cook, C. N., Watrobska, C. M., Jagadish, A., & Mills, M. (2025).