America the Beautiful: Meeting '30x30' conservation goals through connected protected areas

Protected areas are a primary instrument for biodiversity conservation, and area-based targets have become a hallmark of global efforts with the recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biological Framework recommending at least 30 percent of land and water be protected by 2030. In parallel, the U.S. has implemented “America the Beautiful”, a call for local, state, and regionally-led efforts to conserve, connect, and restore 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. However, achieving these goals is complicated by the multiple policy scales at which conservation decisions are made and the limited guidance provided on how gains to protected and connected areas should be evaluated. We assess the connectedness of U.S. protected areas at multiple scales and find that less than 3 percent of the U.S. is protected and connected. Connectedness increases when the area under investigation is partitioned into smaller policy units (e.g., counties), a product of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). Similarly, connectedness values increase by an order of magnitude when assessed in relative terms of just the PA network rather than all land area. Both findings support the need for standardized reporting frameworks and highlight the challenges in coordinating conservation goals across administrative units.