Hawaii Public Radio, first published November 14, 2022

New research shows that protected conservation areas around the world are facing severe staff shortages. The study focused on lands registered in the World Database on Protected Areas.

Eleanor Sterling, one of the study’s co-authors and the director of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, said there’s “no place where there’s sufficient personnel to run these large areas.”

The study found that in order to meet the current need, protected areas would need five times as many staff.

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