This paper identifies the Dasgupta Review’s key points about the role of protected areas (PAs) in conserving nature. Using these factors as a foundation, this paper explores how economists can conduct analyses that improve PA decisions and promote both biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision. People’s interactions with PAs should be considered when making design, management, and restrictions decisions about PAs because those interactions are critical to determining the threats to biodiversity within PAs and the benefits produced by PAs. More effective PAs arise from making joint decisions about PA design, management, permissible human PA uses, and tourism infrastructure because those decisions influence people’s actions – including biodiversity-threatening activities – within PAs.
