Abstract
Using spatial prioritization, we identify priority areas for the expansion of the global protected area network. We identify a set of unprotected key biodiversity areas (KBAs) that would efficiently complement the current protected area network in terms of coverage of ranges of terrestrial vertebrates. We show that protecting a small fraction (0.36%) of terrestrial area within KBAs could increase conservation coverage of ranges of threatened vertebrates by on average 14.7 percentage points. We also identify areas outside both the protected area and KBA networks that would further complement the priority KBAs. These areas are likely to hold populations of species that are poorly protected or covered by KBAs, and where on-the-ground surveys might confirm suitability for KBA designation or protection.
Highlights
Protected areas (PA) are the cornerstone for halting the global biodiversity crisis (UNEP-CBD, 2010)
Using the Zonation software (Moilanen et al 2014), we identify global conservation priority areas for expansion of the PA network by highlighting a set of unprotected key biodiversity areas (KBAs) that, if protected, would area113 efficiently increase mean coverage of threatened vertebrate species ranges in the global PA network while improving balance by paying highest attention to species with lowest coverage
We found that the highest ranking unprotected KBAs would be very effective in improving the representation of species ranges within the PA network (Fig. A3). Zonation produces a continuous ranking of the priority areas, but from here on, we focus on 10% of the highest ranking unprotected KBAs, which are referred to as top priority KBAs
Summary
Protected areas (PA) are the cornerstone for halting the global biodiversity crisis (UNEP-CBD, 2010). While there has been a steady increase in the coverage of PAs over the last decades (UNEP-WCMC and IUCN, 2016), further expansion is needed urgently (Tittensor et al, 2014; WWF, 2016). Computation power has increased in recent years allowing finer scale analyses at the global extent, prioritization analyses are still typically being run using rather large grids (from 10km to 200 km2)(Di Marco et al, 2017). One reason for this is the coarse resolution of globally available datasets - especially the species range maps that most of the analyses are relying on (Di Marco et al, 2017)
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