The obsolescence of protected area categories in a polycrisis world

Abstract

Current global conservation models face significant limitations in addressing the global polycrisis, and the constraints of the International Union for Conservation of Nature protected area (PA) classification system are part of the issue. The principles of the new conservation paradigm—governance, equity, and interculturality—are not viable while tethered to a framework dominated by Western natural sciences and Global North perspectives. Philosophical and empirical evidence from Argentina substantiates two core arguments: first, the current PA classification system remains confined to a monological and reductive epistemology, and second, fragmented conservation focuses, such as single‐species prioritization, function as an ideology sustained by the economic privilege of developed nations and are not efficient strategies in areas where the share of gross domestic product allocated to environmental protection is as low as 0.07%. Rather than expanding existing management categories, this paper proposes a decolonization of the concept of classification. By dismantling legislative classification rigidity, cultural and natural heritage acquire an equal opportunity to be protected, enabling each PA to redirect legal and financial resources toward holistic and just conservation actions. This shift moves beyond narrow biodiversity targets and toward the realization of territorial justice, breaking away from a fragmented perspective of nature to understanding humans and nonhumans in relational terms, as a shared political community.