Spatially explicit trends in the global conservation status of vertebrates.

Ana S. L. Rodrigues,Simon N. Stuart,Janice Chanson,Thomas M. Brooks,Michael Hoffmann,Neil Cox,Stuart H. M. Butchart,Francisco Moreira

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0113934

Abstract

The world's governments have committed to preventing the extinction of threatened species and improving their conservation status by 2020. However, biodiversity is not evenly distributed across space, and neither are the drivers of its decline, and so different regions face very different challenges. Here, we quantify the contribution of regions and countries towards recent global trends in vertebrate conservation status (as measured by the Red List Index), to guide action towards the 2020 target. We found that>50% of the global deterioration in the conservation status of birds, mammals and amphibians is concentrated in <1% of the surface area, 39/1098 ecoregions (4%) and eight/195 countries (4%) – Australia, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and the United States. These countries hold a third of global diversity in these vertebrate groups, partially explaining why they concentrate most of the losses. Yet, other megadiverse countries – most notably Brazil (responsible for 10% of species but just 1% of deterioration), plus India and Madagascar – performed better in conserving their share of global vertebrate diversity. Very few countries, mostly island nations (e.g. Cook Islands, Fiji, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Tonga), have achieved net improvements. Per capita wealth does not explain these patterns, with two of the richest countries – United States and Australia – fairing conspicuously poorly. Different countries were affected by different combinations of threats. Reducing global rates of biodiversity loss will require investment in the regions and countries with the highest responsibility for the world's biodiversity, focusing on conserving those species and areas most in peril and on reducing the drivers with the highest impacts.

Highlights

Increasing awareness about the accelerating rates of species extinctions [1] had prompted the 193 governments Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to commit in 2002 to ‘‘achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss’’ [2]
We investigated how the results per country would be affected if all Data Deficient (DD) species were threatened, and that their Red List status had changed at the same average rate as the threatened species within each country
Though, a good performance under national biodiversity indicators is not necessarily evidence of good performance towards global targets

Summary

Introduction

Increasing awareness about the accelerating rates of species extinctions [1] had prompted the 193 governments Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to commit in 2002 to ‘‘achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss’’ [2] This target was missed, as the mounting pressure from threats to biodiversity surpassed the conservation efforts to reduce them [3]. Governments have recently agreed to an ambitious strategic plan for biodiversity, aiming at inspiring broad-based action by all countries and stakeholders in support of biodiversity between 2010 and 2020 [4] This plan includes a new target 12 stating that ‘‘by 2020 the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained’’. Recent studies revealed a mean decline in the Red List Index in recent years of 0.02% per year for birds, 0.07% for mammals, and 0.14% for amphibians, an acceleration in the rates of loss for these taxa [7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion