Systematic Conservation Planning in a Mediterranean island context: The example of Cyprus

Abstract

Cyprus’ biodiversity is under increasing pressure due to anthropogenic activities. TheNatura 2000 (N2K) sites under the Habitats Directive cover 10.4% of its island’s land surface while designation has been hindered by a complex political situation. We used a comprehensive dataset of Red Data Book (RDB) plants for the island and applied systematic conservation planning (SCP) to, (i) assess whether plant conservation features are adequately represented in the current Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) of the N2K, (ii) evaluate the effectiveness of the protected areas designated for plants by assessing the solutions of SCP against five widely used criteria and iii) suggest alternative protected areas configurations following basic principles of SCP. We run two scenarios in Marxan, using different cost surface and Boundary Length Modifier (BLM) parameters, one for all Annex II plant species and one for RDB plants. Targets were set for all conservation features (CFs) on the basis of their endangered status and endemism. The total area required to satisfy the targets ranged from 2.23% to 5.46% of the island’s area. Solutions with uniform cost achieve targets for the lowest cost but have the smallest overlap with the existing N2K (52.5–60.3%). Solutions with variable cost achieve significantly higher overlap with N2K (72.9–75.9%). The use of BLM reduces fragmentation and increases the number of irreplaceable PUs in both scenarios. The overlap of irreplaceable PUs with Critically Endangered species is high. Results corroborate that state-owned land provide protection to most threatened species, but there is a need for additional protected areas. Our findings provide a basis for improving the N2K network design in Cyprus to achieve biodiversity targets set for 2030, such as the increase of the land area providing legal protection to threatened plant species by considering our priority list of species and sites for future designation.