Scholarlink

<p>Transboundary conservation has become a critical strategy for addressing biodiversity loss, yet many transboundary protected areas risk becoming “paper parks” due to complex ecological, institutional, and geopolitical challenges. This study evaluates the effectiveness of transboundary conservation by comparing research priorities with practice-based determinants. This study combined a bibliometric analysis of 1,492 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection with grounded theory and co-occurrence network analysis of 124 monitoring reports from 23 transboundary World Natural Heritage sites. The bibliometric results reveal a strong geographic concentration of research in North America and Western Europe, and three major shifts: from single ecological protection toward multidimensional benefit assessment, from static spatial pattern analysis toward dynamic research on climate-change impacts, and from terrestrial-focused studies toward marine conservation. However, these integrative frameworks largely rely on additive indicator sets and seldom examine how multidimensional factors interact to influence outcomes. The practice-based analysis identified 43 factors forming a dense and structurally complex co-occurrence network, indicating that threats and constraints are tightly interconnected. At the factor level, insufficient support resources, institutional constraints, and lack of implementation occupy prominent positions; at the category level, anthropogenic disturbances, economic production and livelihood activities, and infrastructure construction show strong structural associations. These results reveal a persistent mismatch between indicator-based research frameworks and the interacting determinant structures observed in conservation practice. Transboundary conservation effectiveness is therefore shaped not only by individual ecological, socio-economic, institutional, and governance factors, but also by the ways in which these factors reinforce or constrain one another. By linking research priorities with practice-based determinant networks, this study offers a mechanism-oriented perspective on variation in transboundary conservation outcomes.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Transboundary conservation effectiveness: a global analysis of research priorities and practice-based determinants

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月16日

查看全文
  • Huaxian Liu,
  • Zhaoping Yang,
  • Cuirong Wang,
  • Yuxi Fan

摘要

Transboundary conservation has become a critical strategy for addressing biodiversity loss, yet many transboundary protected areas risk becoming “paper parks” due to complex ecological, institutional, and geopolitical challenges. This study evaluates the effectiveness of transboundary conservation by comparing research priorities with practice-based determinants. This study combined a bibliometric analysis of 1,492 publications from the Web of Science Core Collection with grounded theory and co-occurrence network analysis of 124 monitoring reports from 23 transboundary World Natural Heritage sites. The bibliometric results reveal a strong geographic concentration of research in North America and Western Europe, and three major shifts: from single ecological protection toward multidimensional benefit assessment, from static spatial pattern analysis toward dynamic research on climate-change impacts, and from terrestrial-focused studies toward marine conservation. However, these integrative frameworks largely rely on additive indicator sets and seldom examine how multidimensional factors interact to influence outcomes. The practice-based analysis identified 43 factors forming a dense and structurally complex co-occurrence network, indicating that threats and constraints are tightly interconnected. At the factor level, insufficient support resources, institutional constraints, and lack of implementation occupy prominent positions; at the category level, anthropogenic disturbances, economic production and livelihood activities, and infrastructure construction show strong structural associations. These results reveal a persistent mismatch between indicator-based research frameworks and the interacting determinant structures observed in conservation practice. Transboundary conservation effectiveness is therefore shaped not only by individual ecological, socio-economic, institutional, and governance factors, but also by the ways in which these factors reinforce or constrain one another. By linking research priorities with practice-based determinant networks, this study offers a mechanism-oriented perspective on variation in transboundary conservation outcomes.