Mapping of biodiversity hubs and key ecosystem services as a tool for shaping optimal areas for conservation

guarantee long term conservation, as it may be undermined by socio-political and economic changes and end up through downgrading, downsizing, de-gazettement or total degeneration [3]. Since their establishment, most of the Rwandan PA have lost at least half of their size prin- cipally due to farming and human settlement. 2.2 Rwanda PA establishment and management We compiled the best available data on PA in Rwanda and their official boundaries. By the end of 2019, there was a total of 5 PA in Rwanda, including 4NP: Akagera National Park (ANP), Volcanoes National Park (VNP), Nyungwe National Forest (NNP), and Gishwati-Mukura National Park (GMNP). The first establishment of PA in Rwanda was during the colonial period in 1923, starting with the mountain forests: Mukura, Nyungwe, and Gishwati, and closely followed by the gazettement of the VNP in 1925 and the ANP in 1934 [22]. NNP was established by the law N˚ 22/2005 of 21/11/2005 and gazetted on 15 January 2006 [24]. The new boundaries of ANP were established by the law N˚ 33/2010 of 24/09/2010 and gazetted on 14 October 2010 [25]. The GMNP was established by the Law N˚45/2015 of 15/10/2015 and gazetted on 01 February 2016 [26, 27]. Besides the NP, Rwanda possesses Rugezi Marsh that Fig 1. The map depicting the study area and its NP system. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253151.g001 PLOS ONE How do old national parks cope with regenerating conservation mission? PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253151 August 17, 2021 4 / 20