Race to save species hotspots

Abstract

A new study has defined precise areas containing threatened species where habitat destruction of their final remaining toehold may lead to imminent extinction. But many might be saved if relatively cheap action is taken quickly. Nigel Williams reports. A new study has defined precise areas containing threatened species where habitat destruction of their final remaining toehold may lead to imminent extinction. But many might be saved if relatively cheap action is taken quickly. Nigel Williams reports. A new study that has identified the remaining habitat of threatened species finds nearly three times as many are on the brink of extinction than have died out in the past 500 years. The new global analysis of the most threatened habitats was carried out by an international alliance of conservation scientists who spent three years locating the last remaining sites where species labelled endangered or critically endangered are known to be located. The researchers identified 794 species, including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and conifers, in habitats so disrupted — usually by human development — that they are now confined to just one region. In total, 595 regions were found to be home to at least one threatened species, with large clusters in the Andes, Brazil's Atlantic forests, the Caribbean, and Madagascar. Only a third of the sites are legally protected and nearly all are surrounded by intense human activity: logging, forest clearing or home building. The study was carried out to pinpoint conservation hotspots where emergency measures are needed to prevent species losing their last footholds. Taylor Ricketts, a conservationist with the World Wide Fund for Nature and lead author of the study, said: “We now know where the emergencies are, the species that will be tomorrow's dodos unless we act quickly.” Among the threatened animals are the mangrove finch, one of the species known as Darwin's finches in the Galapagos. Ricketts, whose study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published last month, said the findings show where urgent conservation measures are needed. In calculations based on local costs, the authors conclude that saving all 565 of the threatened environments would cost between $200 million and $300 million. The median cost of saving a single site is a little as $220,000, the authors suggest. “We want governments and local organisations to think about what they can do for the sites nearest them. Some sites can be conserved for as little as $30,000,” Ricketts said. Estimates suggest that, although species become extinct naturally, the rate of human-induced loss is 100 to 1,000 times faster. Although the species identified in the study require immediate attention and may prove difficult to conserve, the authors believe their recovery is within reach. Indeed, several species that would have met all the researchers' criteria as endangered are now recovering as a result of successful conservation measures. These include the Seychelles warbler, the Seychelles magpie-robin and the Rodrigues Fody. “The 794 trigger species represent similar opportunities for conservation,” the researchers report. “Clearly, the primary response to avoid these impending extinctions will be to safeguard their sites through land purchase, conservation easements, community management, or protected area enforcement and to monitor their condition over time,” the researchers say. The researchers also point out that some species with wider geographical diversity, which were excluded from this study of locally distributed species, are also under serious threat and also in need of urgent conservation plans. The dramatic decline of the Asian Gyps vultures, is highlighted. “The sites we identify are a critical subset of global conservation priorities, complementing other efforts by focusing on relatively small scales and short time horizons: they are known places where extinctions are imminent unless immediate conservation action is taken,” the authors say. Mike Parr, secretary of the Alliance for Zero Extinction, the conservationist organisation that carried out the study, said: “At stake are the future genetic diversity of Earth's ecosystems and the global ecotourism economy worth billions of dollars per year. We have a moral obligation to act.”