Wild pears in peril: Does National Park protection ensure tree conservation?

Long-lived tree species can undergo decades of unnoticed demographic erosion before population collapse becomes evident, making it essential to evaluate whether protected areas effectively mitigate these processes. To assess this, we compared the demographic performance of the Iberian pear (Pyrus bourgaeana) across five populations located inside and outside Doñana National Park (SW Spain). Using cross-sectional surveys and two decades of demographic monitoring, we quantified seedling emergence and mortality, sapling abundance and browsing, and adult survival. Seedling emergence occurred almost exclusively beneath adult trees, and survival was extremely low (