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Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets.

ABSTRACT: Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. We analyzed PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebrates and conifers (588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, AZEs) (referred to collectively hereafter as 'important sites'). Species occurring in important sites with greater PA coverage experienced smaller increases in extinction risk over recent decades: the increase was half as large for bird species with>50% of the IBAs at which they occur completely covered by PAs, and a third lower for birds, mammals and amphibians restricted to protected AZEs (compared with unprotected or partially protected sites). Globally, half of the important sites for biodiversity conservation remain unprotected (49% of IBAs, 51% of AZEs). While PA coverage of important sites has increased over time, the proportion of PA area covering important sites, as opposed to less important land, has declined (by 0.45-1.14% annually since 1950 for IBAs and 0.79-1.49% annually for AZEs). Thus, while appropriately located PAs may slow the rate at which species are driven towards extinction, recent PA network expansion has under-represented important sites. We conclude that better targeted expansion of PA networks would help to improve biodiversity trends.

SUBMITTER: Butchart SH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3310057 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets.

Butchart Stuart H M SH Scharlemann Jörn P W JP Evans Mike I MI Quader Suhel S Aricò Salvatore S Arinaitwe Julius J Balman Mark M Bennun Leon A LA Bertzky Bastian B Besançon Charles C Boucher Timothy M TM Brooks Thomas M TM Burfield Ian J IJ Burgess Neil D ND Chan Simba S Clay Rob P RP Crosby Mike J MJ Davidson Nicholas C NC De Silva Naamal N Devenish Christian C Dutson Guy C L GC Fernández David F Día Z DF Fishpool Lincoln D C LD Fitzgerald Claire C Foster Matt M Heath Melanie F MF Hockings Marc M Hoffmann Michael M Knox David D Larsen Frank W FW Lamoreux John F JF Loucks Colby C May Ian I Millett James J Molloy Dominic D Morling Paul P Parr Mike M Ricketts Taylor H TH Seddon Nathalie N Skolnik Benjamin B Stuart Simon N SN Upgren Amy A Woodley Stephen S

PloS one 20120321 3

Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. We analyzed PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebr ...[more]

PMID: 22457717

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Project description:Knowledge products comprise assessments of authoritative information supported by standards, governance, quality control, data, tools, and capacity building mechanisms. Considerable resources are dedicated to developing and maintaining knowledge products for biodiversity conservation, and they are widely used to inform policy and advise decision makers and practitioners. However, the financial cost of delivering this information is largely undocumented. We evaluated the costs and funding sources for developing and maintaining four global biodiversity and conservation knowledge products: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Protected Planet, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. These are secondary data sets, built on primary data collected by extensive networks of expert contributors worldwide. We estimate that US$160 million (range: US$116-204 million), plus 293 person-years of volunteer time (range: 278-308 person-years) valued at US$ 14 million (range US$12-16 million), were invested in these four knowledge products between 1979 and 2013. More than half of this financing was provided through philanthropy, and nearly three-quarters was spent on personnel costs. The estimated annual cost of maintaining data and platforms for three of these knowledge products (excluding the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems for which annual costs were not possible to estimate for 2013) is US$6.5 million in total (range: US$6.2-6.7 million). We estimated that an additional US$114 million will be needed to reach pre-defined baselines of data coverage for all the four knowledge products, and that once achieved, annual maintenance costs will be approximately US$12 million. These costs are much lower than those to maintain many other, similarly important, global knowledge products. Ensuring that biodiversity and conservation knowledge products are sufficiently up to date, comprehensive and accurate is fundamental to inform decision-making for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Thus, the development and implementation of plans for sustainable long-term financing for them is critical.

Dataset Information

Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets.

Publications

Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets.

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