The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species includes assessment of extinction risk for 98 512 species, plus documentation of their range, habitat, ...elevation, and other factors. These range, habitat and elevation data can be matched with terrestrial land cover and elevation datasets to map the species’ area of habitat (AOH; also known as extent of suitable habitat; ESH). This differs from the two spatial metrics used for assessing extinction risk in the IUCN Red List criteria: extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO). AOH can guide conservation, for example, through targeting areas for field surveys, assessing proportions of species’ habitat within protected areas, and monitoring habitat loss and fragmentation. We recommend that IUCN Red List assessments document AOH wherever practical.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assesses the extinction risk of nearly 100 000 species, including documentation of a range map, habitat, and elevation data for each species.Numerous recent studies have matched these habitat and elevation data with remotely sensed land cover and elevation datasets to map AOH (also known as extent of suitable habitat) within the range of each species.AOH differs from the two spatial metrics used in the IUCN Red List criteria for extinction risk assessment: EOO (minimum convex polygon around all present native occurrences of a species); and AOO (area actually occupied by a species).AOH can be of value in locating target areas for species-specific field surveys, assessing the proportion of a species’ habitat within protected areas, and monitoring habitat loss and fragmentation.
Mitigation of anthropogenic climate change involves deployments of renewable energy worldwide, including wind farms, which can pose a significant collision risk to volant animals. Most studies into ...the collision risk between species and wind turbines, however, have taken place in industrialized countries. Potential effects for many locations and species therefore remain unclear. To redress this gap, we conducted a systematic literature review of recorded collisions between birds and bats and wind turbines within developed countries. We related collision rate to species-level traits and turbine characteristics to quantify the potential vulnerability of 9538 bird and 888 bat species globally. Avian collision rate was affected by migratory strategy, dispersal distance and habitat associations, and bat collision rates were influenced by dispersal distance. For birds and bats, larger turbine capacity (megawatts) increased collision rates; however, deploying a smaller number of large turbines with greater energy output reduced total collision risk per unit energy output, although bat mortality increased again with the largest turbines. Areas with high concentrations of vulnerable species were also identified, including migration corridors. Our results can therefore guide wind farm design and location to reduce the risk of large-scale animal mortality. This is the first quantitative global assessment of the relative collision vulnerability of species groups with wind turbines, providing valuable guidance for minimizing potentially serious negative impacts on biodiversity.
Global conservation of species' niches Hanson, Jeffrey O; Rhodes, Jonathan R; Butchart, Stuart H M ...
Nature,
04/2020, Letnik:
580, Številka:
7802
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Environmental change is rapidly accelerating, and many species will need to adapt to survive
. Ensuring that protected areas cover populations across a broad range of environmental conditions could ...safeguard the processes that lead to such adaptations
. However, international conservation policies have largely neglected these considerations when setting targets for the expansion of protected areas
. Here we show that-of 19,937 vertebrate species globally
-the representation of environmental conditions across their habitats in protected areas (hereafter, niche representation) is inadequate for 4,836 (93.1%) amphibian, 8,653 (89.5%) bird and 4,608 (90.9%) terrestrial mammal species. Expanding existing protected areas to cover these gaps would encompass 33.8% of the total land surface-exceeding the current target of 17% that has been adopted by governments. Priority locations for expanding the system of protected areas to improve niche representation occur in global biodiversity hotspots
, including Colombia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa and southwest China, as well as across most of the major land masses of the Earth. Conversely, we also show that planning for the expansion of protected areas without explicitly considering environmental conditions would marginally reduce the land area required to 30.7%, but that this would lead to inadequate niche representation for 7,798 (39.1%) species. As the governments of the world prepare to renegotiate global conservation targets, policymakers have the opportunity to help to maintain the adaptive potential of species by considering niche representation within protected areas
.
Conservation actions need to be prioritized, often taking into account species' extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides an accepted, objective ...framework for the assessment of extinction risk. Assessments based on data collected in the field are the best option, but the field data to base these on are often limited. Information collected through remote sensing can be used in place of field data to inform assessments. Forests are perhaps the best-studied land-cover type for use of remote-sensing data. Using an open-access 30-m resolution map of tree cover and its change between 2000 and 2012, we assessed the extent of forest cover and loss within the distributions of 11,186 forest-dependent amphibians, birds, and mammals worldwide. For 16 species, forest loss resulted in an elevated extinction risk under red-list criterion A, owing to inferred rapid population declines. This number increased to 23 when data-deficient species (i.e., those with insufficient information for evaluation) were included. Under red-list criterion B2, 484 species (855 when data-deficient species were included) were considered at elevated extinction risk, owing to restricted areas of occupancy resulting from little forest cover remaining within their ranges. The proportion of species of conservation concern would increase by 32.8% for amphibians, 15.1% for birds, and 24.7% for mammals if our suggested uplistings are accepted. Central America, the Northern Andes, Madagascar, the Eastern Arc forests in Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia are hotspots for these species. Our results illustrate the utility of satellite imagery for global extinction-risk assessment and measurement of progress toward international environmental agreement targets. Las acciones de conservación necesitan ser priorizadas, considerando con frecuencia el riesgo de extinción de las especies. La Lista Roja de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN) proporciona un marco de trabajo objetivo y aceptado para la valoración del riesgo de extinción. Las valoraciones basadas en los datos colectados en el campo son la mejor opción, pero los datos de campo sobre los cuales basar las valoraciones con frecuencia son limitados. Los datos colectados por medio de la teledetección pueden usarse en lugar de los datos de campo para informar a las valoraciones. Los bosques tal vez sean el tipo de cubierta de suelo mejor estudiado para el uso de datos de teledetección. Con un mapa de acceso abierto y resolución de 30-m de la cobertura de árboles y su cambio entre 2000 y 2012, valoramos la extensión de la cobertura de bosque y la pérdida dentro de las distribuciones de 11, 186 especies de anfibios, aves y mamíferos dependientes del bosque a nivel mundial. Para 16 especies, la pérdida del bosque resultó en un riesgo de extinción elevado, bajo el criterio A de la lista roja, debido a las declinaciones rápidas de población inferidas. Este número incrementó a 23 cuando las especies con deficiencia de datos (es decir, aquellas con información insuficiente para su evaluación) fueron incluidas. Bajo el criterio B2 de la lista roja, 484 especies (855 cuando se incluyeron las especies con deficiencia de datos) se consideraron con riesgo alto de extinción, debido a las áreas restringidas de ocupación como resultado de la pequeña cobertura del bosque que permanece dentro de su distribución. La proporción de especies de interés para la conservación incrementaría en 32.8 % para los anfibios, 15.1 % para las aves y 24.7 % para los mamíferos si nuestros cambios de categoria sugeridos son aceptados. America Central, los Andes del norte, Madagascar, los bosques del Arco Oriental de África y las islas del sureste asiático son puntos clave para estas especies. Nuestros resultados ilustran la utilidad de las imágenes satelitales para la valoración global de la extinción de riesgo y para la medición del progreso hacia los objetivos de los acuerdos ambientales internacionales.
Limited resources are available to address the world's growing environmental problems, requiring conservationists to identify priority sites for action. Using new distribution maps for all of the ...world's forest-dependent birds (60.6% of all bird species), we quantify the contribution of remaining forest to conserving global avian biodiversity. For each of the world's partly or wholly forested 5-km cells, we estimated an impact score of its contribution to the distribution of all the forest bird species estimated to occur within it, and so is proportional to the impact on the conservation status of the world's forest-dependent birds were the forest it contains lost. The distribution of scores was highly skewed, a very small proportion of cells having scores several orders of magnitude above the global mean. Ecoregions containing the highest values of this score included relatively species-poor islands such as Hawaii and Palau, the relatively species-rich islands of Indonesia and the Philippines, and the megadiverse Atlantic Forests and northern Andes of South America. Ecoregions with high impact scores and high deforestation rates (2000-2005) included montane forests in Cameroon and the Eastern Arc of Tanzania, although deforestation data were not available for all ecoregions. Ecoregions with high impact scores, high rates of recent deforestation and low coverage by the protected area network included Indonesia's Seram rain forests and the moist forests of Trinidad and Tobago. Key sites in these ecoregions represent some of the most urgent priorities for expansion of the global protected areas network to meet Convention on Biological Diversity targets to increase the proportion of land formally protected to 17% by 2020. Areas with high impact scores, rapid deforestation, low protection and high carbon storage values may represent significant opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, for example through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Many national governments have incorporated nature‐based solutions (NbS) in their plans to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. However, uncertainties persist regarding both feasibility and ...consequences of major NbS deployment. Using the United Kingdom as a national‐level case study, we examined the potential contribution of three terrestrial NbS: peatland restoration, saltmarsh creation and woodland creation.
While there is substantial political and societal interest in these three NbS, they also have strong potential for competition with other land uses, which will be a critical barrier to substantial deployment. We conducted a national mapping exercise to assess the potential area available for woodland creation. We then assessed the combined climate change mitigation potential to 2100 for the three NbS options under a range of ambition levels.
In line with the most ambitious targets examined, 2 Mha of land is potentially available for new woodland. However, climate change mitigation benefits of woodland are strongly dependent on management choices. By 2100, scenarios with a greater proportion of broadleaved woodlands outsequester non‐native conifer plantations, which are limited by regular timber harvesting.
Peatland restoration offers the greatest mitigation per unit area, whilst the contribution from saltmarsh creation is limited by the small areas involved. Overall, the contribution of these NbS to the United Kingdom’s net zero emissions target is relatively modest. Even with the most ambitious targets considered here, by 2100, the total cumulative mitigation from the three NbS is equivalent to only 3 years' worth of UK emissions at current levels.
Policy implications. Major deployment of nature‐based solutions (NbS) is possible in the United Kingdom but reaching ‘net zero’ primarily requires substantial and sustained reductions in fossil fuel use. However, facilitating these NbS at the national scale could offer many additional benefits for people and biodiversity. This demands that policy‐makers commit to a UK‐wide strategic approach that prioritises the ‘nature’ aspect of NbS. In the push to reach ‘net zero’, climate change mitigation should not be used to justify land management practices that threaten biodiversity ambitions.
Major deployment of nature‐based solutions (NbS) is possible in the United Kingdom but reaching ‘net zero’ primarily requires substantial and sustained reductions in fossil fuel use. However, facilitating these NbS at the national scale could offer many additional benefits for people and biodiversity. This demands that policy‐makers commit to a UK‐wide strategic approach that prioritises the ‘nature’ aspect of NbS. In the push to reach ‘net zero’, climate change mitigation should not be used to justify land management practices that threaten biodiversity ambitions.
To inform governmental discussions on the nature of a revised Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we reviewed the relevant literature and assessed the ...framing of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the current strategic plan. We asked international experts from nongovernmental organizations, academia, government agencies, international organizations, research institutes, and the CBD to score the Aichi Targets and their constituent elements against a set of specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, unambiguous, scalable, and comprehensive criteria (SMART based, excluding time bound because all targets are bound to 2015 or 2020). We then investigated the relationship between these expert scores and reported progress toward the target elements by using the findings from 2 global progress assessments (Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). We analyzed the data with ordinal logistic regressions. We found significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between progress and the extent to which the target elements were perceived to be measurable, realistic, unambiguous, and scalable. There was some evidence of a relationship between progress and specificity of the target elements, but no relationship between progress and ambition. We are the first to show associations between progress and the extent to which the Aichi Targets meet certain SMART criteria. As negotiations around the post‐2020 biodiversity framework proceed, decision makers should strive to ensure that new or revised targets are effectively structured and clearly worded to allow the translation of targets into actionable policies that can be successfully implemented nationally, regionally, and globally.
Relación de las Características de los Objetivos Mundiales de Biodiversidad con el Progreso Reportado
Resumen
Para informar las discusiones gubernamentales sobre la naturaleza de una revisión del Plan Estratégico para la Biodiversidad del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CBD, en inglés), revisamos la literatura relevante y evaluamos el marco de 20 Objetivos de Biodiversidad de Aichi en el plan estratégico actual. Le pedimos a expertos internacionales de organizaciones no gubernamentales, de la academia, de agencias gubernamentales, organizaciones internacionales, de institutos de investigación y de la CBD que puntuaran los Objetivos de Aichi y sus elementos constituyentes frente a un conjunto de criterios específicos, medibles, ambiciosos, realistas (basados en SMART las iniciales en inglés y excluyendo aquellos limitados por el tiempo, pues todos los objetivos están limitados al 2015 o al 2020), inequívocos, expansibles y completos (excluyendo aquellos limitados por el tiempo). Después investigamos la relación entre los puntajes de estos expertos y el progreso reportado hacia los elementos objetivo usando los resultados de dos valoraciones mundiales del progreso (el Pronóstico Mundial de la Biodiversidad y la Plataforma Intergubernamental de Ciencia y Política sobre la Biodiversidad y los Servicios Ambientales). Analizamos los datos con regresiones logísticas ordinales. Encontramos relaciones positivas significativas (p < 0.05) entre el progreso y el alcance al que fueron percibidos como medibles, realistas, inequívocos y expansibles los elementos objetivo. Hubo algo de evidencia de la relación entre el progreso y la ambición. Somos los primeros en mostrar las asociaciones entre el progreso y la extensión hasta la que los Objetivos de Aichi cumplen con ciertos criterios SMART. Conforme proceden las negociaciones en torno al marco de trabajo de biodiversidad post‐2020, quienes toman las decisiones deberían esforzarse por asegurar que los objetivos nuevos o revisados estén estructurados efectivamente y redactados claramente para permitir la traducción de los objetivos hacia políticas factibles que puedan implementarse exitosamente a nivel nacional, regional y mundial.
Article impact statement: A post‐2020 framework for biodiversity conservation must ensure targets are clearly structured and worded to allow translation into policy.
Aichi Target 11 of the CBD Strategic Plan for Biodiversity commits countries to the effective conservation of areas of importance for biodiversity, through protected areas and “other effective ...area‐based conservation measures” (OECMs). However, the prevalence and characteristics of OECMs are poorly known, particularly in sites of importance for biodiversity. We assess the prevalence of potential OECMs in 740 terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) outside known or mapped protected areas across ten countries. A majority of unprotected KBAs (76.5%) were at least partly covered by one or more potential OECMs. The conservation of ecosystem services or biodiversity was a stated management aim in 73% of these OECMs. Local or central government bodies managed the highest number of potential OECMs, followed by local and indigenous communities and private landowners. There was no difference between unprotected KBAs with or without OECMs in forest loss or in a number of state‐pressure‐response metrics.