Biodiversity Conservation Priorities Research Articles

A cost-effective approach to identify conservation priority for 30 × 30 biodiversity target on the premise of food security

There is a growing consensus on expanding protected and conserved areas for biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain where to expand conserved areas as well as what appropriate management modalities to choose. Moreover, conserved areas expansion should be balanced with crop-related food security challenges. We developed a framework to identify cost-effective areas for expanding protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), and applied it to China. By combining templates for biodiversity conservation priorities at global scale and the priority conservation areas based on 2413 vertebrates' extinction risk in China, we identified areas with high biodiversity conservation value. We then categorized the priority areas according to human impact, indicating the potential cost of management. As a result of combining the two aspects above, we identified the most cost-effective areas for expanding protected areas and OECMs while excluding both the current and predicted croplands that can be used for food security. The results show that China could expand its protected areas to 22.81 % of the country's land area and establish OECMs in areas accounting for 9.82 % and 17.37 % of the country's land area in a cost-effective approach in two scenarios. In the ambitious scenario, protected and conserved areas would account for a maximum of 40.18 % of terrestrial area, with an average 62.67 % coverage of the 2413 species' suitable habitat. To achieve the goals of protected and conserved areas in Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries could apply this framework to identify their protected areas and OECM expansion priorities.

A biogeographical appraisal of the threatened South East Africa Montane Archipelago ecoregion

Recent biological surveys of ancient inselbergs in southern Malawi and northern Mozambique have led to the discovery and description of many species new to science, and overlapping centres of endemism across multiple taxa. Combining these endemic taxa with data on geology and climate, we propose the ‘South East Africa Montane Archipelago’ (SEAMA) as a distinct ecoregion of global biological importance. The ecoregion encompasses 30 granitic inselbergs reaching > 1000 m above sea level, hosting the largest (Mt Mabu) and smallest (Mt Lico) mid-elevation rainforests in southern Africa, as well as biologically unique montane grasslands. Endemic taxa include 127 plants, 45 vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and 45 invertebrate species (butterflies, freshwater crabs), and two endemic genera of plants and reptiles. Existing dated phylogenies of endemic animal lineages suggests this endemism arose from divergence events coinciding with repeated isolation of these mountains from the pan-African forests, together with the mountains’ great age and relative climatic stability. Since 2000, the SEAMA has lost 18% of its primary humid forest cover (up to 43% in some sites)—one of the highest deforestation rates in Africa. Urgently rectifying this situation, while addressing the resource needs of local communities, is a global priority for biodiversity conservation.

National scale biodiversity conservation priorities based on integrated multiple vulnerability features in China

To meet the ambitious goals of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, China’s spatial implementation plan, which will delineate which areas will be protected, requires clarity at the national level. Prioritizing biodiversity alone, especially when a single species' richness is emphasized, may lead to inadequate conservation strategies, thus making it challenging to meet the requirements of collaborative governance. Here, we provide a spatial conservation prioritization method integrating species, carbon, climate, and anthropogenic vulnerability features. As such, we identified land to prioritize in conservation efforts by constructing different conservation scenarios with different combinations of vulnerability features using Chinese terrestrial ecosystems as an example. We also analyzed the differences in the benefits of different conservation scenarios. The results showed spatial variability in the distribution of land prioritized by the various protection scenarios. The conservation scenario that combined all features best harmonized the benefits and thus avoided an imbalance in conservation caused by an undue focus on one feature. The scenarios covered 73.54% of biodiversity hotspots, 63.17% of vulnerable carbon hotspots, and 80.21% of climate hotspots. We also found that forests had a strong presence in the various configurations of prioritized land, and usually exceeded 50% of the prioritized area. Secondly, cropland accounted for a prominent proportion of prioritized land at approximately 29.72%, and ranked second only to forests. In addition, when accounting for carbon vulnerability as well, the proportion of grasslands in the prioritized land increased by about 3.35 times. This study offers valuable and citable information that may be used to support biodiversity conservation initiatives in China.

Potential for Agricultural Expansion in Degraded Pasture Lands in Brazil Based on Geospatial Databases

Important public and private initiatives to map agricultural lands and natural resources have been carried out in Brazil to support land use planning. Some studies indicate that Brazil still has up to 109.7 million hectares of cultivated pastures with some level of degradation, representing around 60% of the total pasturelands, estimated at 177 million hectares. This study aimed to gather, process, and analyze publicly available databases to generate quantitative and spatial information about the potential of Brazilian degraded pastures for agricultural expansion. We considered data related to the natural agricultural potential, restrictions imposed by special areas (indigenous lands and Afro-Brazilian “quilombola” settlements), areas with high biodiversity conservation priorities, infrastructure such as distance between major highways and availability of warehouses, current agricultural areas, and the information made available by Agricultural Climate Risk Zoning. The results indicated the existence of approximately 28 million hectares of planted pastures with intermediate and severe levels of degradation that show high potential for agricultural crops. These areas could increase the planted areas with grains in Brazil by approximately 35% in relation to the total area used in the 2022/23 crop season.

Reducing the number of Data Deficient plant species

Although most plant species have yet to have their extinction risk evaluated for the IUCN Red List, current knowledge of plant diversity suggests that tens of thousands (8%–38% of species) are likely to remain assessed as Data Deficient (DD). This impacts evaluations of the overall proportion of threatened species, as well as on setting appropriate priorities for biodiversity conservation. One of the principle causes of Data Deficiency is taxonomic uncertainty: data permitting an IUCN Red List assessment is often lacking, because species that are poorly known are also taxonomically uncertain. Establishing the taxonomic status of DD species thus assists in determining whether confusion over this is causing their evaluation as DD. In this paper, three separate numerical methods – hierarchical clustering, ordination and phylogenetic ordination – were applied to three independent datasets of standardized traits for plant species from China in order to identify, for each DD species, morphologically similar Non-DD species. Semi-automated analysis of morphological disparity quickly identifies which species are in need of further taxonomic research, as shared traits can indicate either potential synonymy or, otherwise, successful adaptations of distinct species to similar ecological conditions. Extinction risk assessments of morphologically and phylogenetically distinct DD species could then be informed by data on habitat preferences, geographic range or population size from Non-DD species with the most similar traits. Ultimately, determination of the morphological distance between DD species and their most similar Non-DD species, and therefore of differences in the trait space occupied by DD and Non-DD species, could be the basis of future research for improved inference of conservation priorities, and help distinct DD species with similar ecological traits as other taxonomically accepted, threatened species to be identified as being threatened themselves.

Cost-effective priorities for prefectural biodiversity and ecosystem service conservation planning on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are seriously threatened by human activities, and there have been calls for the expansion of protected areas (PAs) to mitigate this situation. Currently, there is an urgent need to establish new PA cost-effectively from concentrating on biodiversity to including the provision of ecosystem services. Hence, a prefectural evaluation was conducted across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) to quantify endangered species habitat provision and three key ecosystem services to identify conservation priority zones (CPZs), which were then combined with low human footprint zones to determine cost–effective zones (CEZs). A scenario simulation, which contains conservative, moderate, and ambitious targets, was further proposed to conserve more CEZs for PA design. We found that biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human footprints varied significantly among the different taxonomic groups. CPZs and CEZs cover 33 and 28 % of the QTP, respectively, including almost all forest areas, and near medium and high elevations (approximately 3000 ∼ 4700 m). In comparison with existing PAs systems, the new PAs system is considering cost-effective in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services, increasing 42–60 %, 32–46 %, and 62–69 %, and 47–62 % of the important habitats that serve mammals, birds, amphibians, and plants, respectively, and promoting 48–66 % carbon service, 37–54 % soil retention, and 22–37 % water yield. More importantly, it reduces conflict with the human footprint by up to 22 %. Moreover, the conservative, moderate, and ambitious targets conserved 44, 48, and 53 % of the QTP, respectively. These three targets were set for each prefecture and prefectural–level city with spatially specific CEZs recognized, providing some implications on prefectural PAs priorities for policymakers.

Conservation gaps identification through patterns of species richness established from species niche models of mammals in a sector of Chaco Seco ecoregion

The identification of biodiversity conservation priority sectors that are not formally protected, have an essential part of conservation strategies and goals at global and local scale. Ecological niche modeling is a relevant and important tool for analysis and distribution of species, also is used to determine the biodiversity patterns through the regions. The main objective of this work was to identify the sites with high biodiversity patterns in a sector of Chaco Seco ecoregion that haven’t been protected with environmental legislation. Through biodiversity sampling with foot transects, camera traps and interviews, it was registered the presence of large and medium mammals in Santiago del Estero Province. Biodiversity pattern maps were then developed from potential distribution models (SDMs) of 5 mammalian species selected for being relevant for conservation. To define zones that could be characterized like conservation gaps, pattern maps were contrasted with protected areas layers and legal schemes of land use planning and also, protected forest. For the SDM, 171 records were used, 43 for M. gouazoubira, 40 for P. concolor, 20 for M. trydactila, 43 on P. tajacu and 25 on C. wagneri. Three models were used to make the biodiversity patterns, one of these, Fuzzy union, were used for the subsequent calculation. The total area of high biodiversity increases to 39.486 km², which represents the 29% of provincial area. In consequence the 81% remaining represents the conservation gaps areas for that sector of the ecoregion.

Co-Producing Narratives and Indicators as Catalysts for Adaptive Governance of a Common-Pool Resource within a Protected Area

The theory and practice of adaptive management and adaptive governance have been widely studied in the complex social contexts that mediate how humans interact with ecosystems. Adaptive governance is thought to enable adaptive management in such contexts. In this study, we examine four often-used principles of adaptive governance (polycentric institutions, collaboration, social learning and complexity thinking) to develop a framework for reflecting on adaptive governance of a social-ecological system—the Knysna Estuary in South Africa. This estuary is a priority for biodiversity conservation, as well as a common-pool resource central to livelihoods. We used the framework to structure dialogue on the extent to which the four principles of adaptive governance were being applied in the management of the Knysna Estuary. The dialogue included diverse stakeholders, from those who have the power to influence adaptive management to those most dependent on the resource for their livelihoods. Based on a combination of theory and current reality we then identified eight indicators that could be used to guide a transition towards improved adaptive governance of the estuary. These indicators were assessed and supported by most stakeholders. The main contributions of our research are (a) a process for combining theory and stakeholder dialogue to reflect on adaptive governance of a social-ecological system; (b) a set of indicators or conditions that emerged from our participatory process that can be used for reflexive monitoring and adaptation of adaptive governance of Knysna Estuary; and (c) a real-world example of seeking complementary links between adaptive governance and adaptive management to promote effective management of complex social-ecological systems.

Low‐cost management interventions and their impact on multilevel trade‐offs in agricultural grasslands

Abstract Cost‐effective strategies to increase biodiversity are a fundamental requirement to reconcile conservation and food production in agricultural landscapes. Key for the implementation of such strategies is an accurate quantification of both their benefits and potential associated trade‐offs. We therefore assessed, in a commercially managed grassland, biodiversity responses to two low‐cost management interventions and their mediating effects on ecosystem services. In a 6‐year experiment, we showed that a one‐time seed bank activation treatment had strong initial impacts on biodiversity, increasing plant richness in year 1 by 61%. Long‐term effects, which were also driven by the second management intervention, the propagation of the keystone species yellow rattle, were weaker but nonetheless substantial. These positive biodiversity responses improved ecosystem multifunctionality through additive positive effects of richness, evenness and phylogenetic distinctiveness on nectar production and structural habitat complexity. In contrast, hay biomass production was negatively affected by both management interventions, resulting in a multilevel trade‐off between biomass production competing with biodiversity conservation and the provisioning of other ecosystem services. Synthesis and applications. In this study, we demonstrate that the maximisation of either biodiversity or biomass production requires largely different land management practices. The evaluation of this trade‐off, however, is strongly dependent on its social, economic and ecological context and requires clearly defined land management priorities for both food production and biodiversity conservation.

Determination of forest priority levels for wild boar by analysis of habitat suitability and landscape connectivity

The reduction and fragmentation of forests due to human activities are two primary factors that have led to forest biodiversity losses. The lack of forest continuation may prevent organisms from escaping areas that are no longer habitable due to altered environmental conditions and the reduction in size of habitat regions. Therefore, protecting and promoting forest connectivity has become one of the important objectives of forest management. The forests were regarded as independent elements, and the connectivity of the forest itself was directly evaluated in previous studies. However, this approach ignores the maintenance of forest connectivity, while requiring the participation of other landscape elements. In this study, we indirectly determine the forest priority by evaluating the landscape priority by integrating analysis with the habitat suitability (HS) model, MSPA and and BCkPC and dPCk index. We studied the wild boar (Sus scrofa) habitats in and around Hupingshan and Houhe National Nature Reserves to illustrate the indirect evaluation method of forest priority. The results showed that forests with high priority, medium priority, low priority, and non-priority comprised 596, 64, 58 and 105 km2, respectively, accounting for the 41.2, 2.7, 3.0, and 11.9% of the total forest area. Our research revealed that evaluating the forest priority by analysing the landscape priority was an effective method for forest priority identification, and this strategy can be used to other regions or species for the goal of identifying the forest priority for biodiversity conservation.

Seeing Trees from Drones: The Role of Leaf Phenology Transition in Mapping Species Distribution in Species-Rich Montane Forests

The complex topography of subtropical montane forests favors the coexistence of diverse plant species, making these species-rich forests a high priority for biodiversity monitoring, prediction, and conservation. Mapping tree species distribution accurately in these areas is an essential basis for biodiversity research and is often challenging due to their complex structure. Remote sensing has widely been used for mapping tree species, but relatively little attention has been paid to species-rich montane forests. In this study, the capability of high-resolution UAV remote sensing imagery for mapping six tree species, standing dead trees, and canopy gaps was tested in a subtropical montane forest at an elevation of 816~1165 m in eastern China. Spectral, spatial geometrical, and textural features in a specific phenological period when obvious color differences among the leaves of different species were extracted, and four object-based classification algorithms (K-nearest neighbor (KNN), classification and regression tree (CART), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF)) were used for tree species classification. We found that: (1) mapping tree species distribution using low-cost UAV RGB imagery in a specific leaf phenological period has great application potential in subtropical montane forests with complex terrain. (2) Plant spectral features in the leaf senescence period contributed significantly to species classification, while the contribution of textural features was limited. The highest classification accuracy was 83% using KNN with the combination of spectral and spatial geometrical features. (3) Topographical complexity had a significant impact on mapping species distribution. The classification accuracy was generally higher in steep areas, especially in the low slope area.

Mapping biodiversity conservation priorities for threatened plants of Indian Himalayan Region

Mapping biodiversity conservation priorities for threatened plants of Indian Himalayan Region

The value of private properties for the conservation of biodiversity in the Brazilian Cerrado

Areas set aside for conservation within private lands may be key to enhancing biodiversity-friendly landscapes. This conservation strategy should be especially effective in highly threatened regions that are poorly protected by public lands, such as the Brazilian Cerrado. Brazil's Native Vegetation Protection Law has included set-aside areas within private properties, but their relevance to conservation has not been evaluated. We assess whether private lands are contributing to biodiversity in the Cerrado, a global biodiversity conservation priority and major region for food production, where land use conflicts are often at odds with conservation objectives. We determined that private protected areas accommodate up to 14.5% of threatened vertebrate species ranges, which increases to 25% when considering the distribution of remaining native habitat. Moreover, the spatial spread of private protected areas benefits a large number of species. Ecological restoration of private protected lands would improve the benefits of this protection system, especially in the Southeastern Cerrado, where a large economic hub meets a threat hotspot.

Surf Conservation Index: Mapping priority zones for surf protected areas in Mexico

A set of indicators was applied to 173 surf breaks in Mexico to help identify priority subregions for surf conservation. The surf conservation index developed consists of pressure, state, and response subindexes, with four scores ranging from very low priority to high priority. Priority surf breaks were defined as the surf breaks where high biodiversity overlaps with high-quality waves, reliance on tourism for income/ economic activity, and low environmental pressure. The highest priority surf breaks for conservation were found in the Gulf of California, followed by the Central-South Pacific coast. Pressure values show that a majority of surf breaks in Mexico are still in an area with low pressure or low population. Most surf breaks have relatively little coastal development and harbors or big cities. The biodiversity subindex, which considers both marine and adjacent terrestrial areas, shows that the highest biodiversity values are found in only 11% of all surf breaks, although 42% of surf breaks have at least half of their marine or terrestrial buffer in biodiversity conservation priority zones, showing a non-negligible presence in critical ecosystems. Overall, the surf break subindex values were generally high and stable, while a majority of surf breaks stand out for having a relatively important proportion of workers employed in tourism. Response analysis shows that only 3.5% of the total listed surf breaks in Mexico are already under a legal protected area framework. A strategy is needed to ensure that surfing, as a recreational activity, and surf breaks, as a natural resource, are considered in present and future management plans. Mexico finds itself at a crossroads as it aims to strengthen surf conservation efforts and preserve these unique coastal socio-ecosystems while also contributing to the sustainable development of local coastal communities.

Are the remnants of old-growth mountain forests always relevant to inspire close-to-nature forest management and efficient biodiversity conservation?

Primary and old-growth forests have been identified as a high priority for biodiversity conservation and for identifying benchmarks for biodiversity-friendly forestry. However, they remain rare and not randomly distributed across Europe, concentrated mainly in the boreal zone or in mountainous areas such as the Pyrenees where both ancient (i.e. with a high degree of continuity) and mature (i.e. with old-growth attributes) forests (hereafter AMFs) have been identified and accurately delimited on the French side of the border. Can these AMF remnants provide suitable benchmarks and insure biodiversity conservation? This study aimed to (i) identify factors that explain the current location of AMFs; (ii) assess the potential of these AMFs as reference ecosystems; and (iii) discuss the relevance of the current AMF network for biodiversity conservation. We used a set of 10,344 1 ha-plots, described by 10 metrics for both abiotic conditions and the socio-economic context, to compare AMFs with both forests that are ancient but not mature, and recent forests. AMFs significantly differed from other forests for most of the variables tested, but effect sizes were rather weak, with the exceptions of the occurrence of late frost, exposition and ownership type. Our study provides important insights for biodiversity conservation beyond the case of the northern slope of the Pyrenees. Indeed, our results clearly show that broad-scale patterns require complementary investigations at a regional scale to better understand the influence of past-human activity on the spatial distribution of reference ecosystems. We also illustrate the added value of including geological features and plant communities in the analysis of ecological representativeness of networks dedicated to biodiversity conservation.

Species-level dataset is required for setting biodiversity conservation priorities for freshwater macroinvertebrates in Melbourne streams

Family-level identification of freshwater macroinvertebrates is often used to monitor the health of streams due to the lower cost and higher accuracy of identification compared to identifying species. While data on the presence of families from stream monitoring programs can also be used for biodiversity conservation planning, the ability of family-level datasets to accurately reflect regional biodiversity patterns for freshwater macroinvertebrates in Australia remains untested. This study compares family-level and species-level datasets for freshwater insects identified using morphological features and collected over 16 years from 140 sites in Greater Melbourne, Australia. Similar to the results of other studies, our results show a strong positive relationship between family- and species-level taxon richness. However, using the planning software Marxan to compare conservation priorities in our study region, we found that a data analysis of the family-level dataset underestimated the minimum sampling effort required to accurately reflect species diversity. It also identified sub-optimal conservation priority sites and overlooked regionally rare species. We recommend that aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring programs aimed at understanding regional biodiversity patterns and conservation priorities should routinely include species-level identification, which is now becoming feasible with advances in molecular methods.

Pasture management intensification shifts the soil microbiome composition and ecosystem functions

Natural grasslands are important reservoirs of animal and plant biodiversity and provide several ecosystem services, through the action of soil microorganisms. The increased demand for food, energy, and cattle activity has led to the conversion of natural grasslands to cultivated systems. However, the consequences of this conversion for soil microbial diversity and ecosystem functioning are yet to be discovered. Here, we used the 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing and a large set of soil and environmental variables to understand the possible effects of natural grasslands to cultivated pasture conversion on the soil microbial structure, composition, diversity, and functions. The study areas followed a gradient of increasing soil disturbance intensity, as follows: Natural grassland (NG), Improved-natural grassland (IG), Perennial-cultivated pasture (PP), and Annual-cultivated pasture (AP). Natural grassland conversion to managed and cultivated pastures decreased the abundances of Acidobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, while increased α-, γ-, and δ-Proteobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, Bacteroidetes, Patescibacteria, and Latescibacteria. The predicted functional profiles have also changed, as functions like ‘cellulolytic and symbionts/parasites’ decreased after natural to cultivated pastures conversion, while ‘nitrogen respiration’, ‘sulfur respiration’, and ‘aromatic compound degradation’ functions increased. Aboveground plant diversity decrease influenced belowground microbial diversity. The main drivers of diversity, composition, and functional potential are associated with soil attributes affected by liming, like aluminum complexation. In conclusion, we have found taxonomic and functional differences between natural and managed grasslands (NG and IG, respectively) and cultivated pastures (PP and AP), with consequences for management strategies and biodiversity conservation priorities.

Human Expansion-Induced Biodiversity Crisis over Asia from 2000 to 2020.

Asia stands out as a priority for urgent biodiversity conservation due to its large protected areas (PAs) and threatened species. Since the 21st century, both the highlands and lowlands of Asia have been experiencing the dramatic human expansion. However, the threat degree of human expansion to biodiversity is poorly understood. Here, the threat degree of human expansion to biodiversity over 2000 to 2020 in Asia at the continental (Asia), national (48 Asian countries), and hotspot (6,502 Asian terrestrial PAs established before 2000) scales is investigated by integrating multiple large-scale data. The results show that human expansion poses widespread threat to biodiversity in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia, with Malaysia, Cambodia, and Vietnam having the largest threat degrees (∼1.5 to 1.7 times of the Asian average level). Human expansion in highlands induces higher threats to biodiversity than that in lowlands in one-third Asian countries (most Southeast Asian countries). The regions with threats to biodiversity are present in ∼75% terrestrial PAs (including 4,866 PAs in 26 countries), and human expansion in PAs triggers higher threat degrees to biodiversity than that in non-PAs. Our findings provide novel insight for the Sustainable Development Goal 15 (SDG-15 Life on Land) and suggest that human expansion in Southeast Asian countries and PAs might hinder the realization of SDG-15. To reduce the threat degree, Asian developing countries should accelerate economic transformation, and the developed countries in the world should reduce the demands for commodity trade in Southeast Asian countries (i.e., trade leading to the loss of wildlife habitats) to alleviate human expansion, especially in PAs and highlands.

Thermal unmanned aerial vehicles for the identification of microclimatic refugia in topographically complex areas

Biodiversity loss is one of the most relevant consequences of climate change. Therefore, identifying areas and environmental features that allow certain organisms to be less exposed to the effects of the current global warming is priority for biodiversity conservation. In this study, we describe a novel approach for the identification of microclimatic refugia in rugged mountain areas, specifically for the detection of most thermally stable areas, using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of recording in the visible and thermal infrared spectral bands. We estimated land surface temperatures (LST) at very-high spatial resolution in six topographically complex sectors of the Pyrenees (NE Spain), across seasons with vegetative activity (summer 2020, autumn 2020, spring 2021, and summer 2021), and at two thermally contrasted times of the day (early in the morning: LSTmin, and in the afternoon: LSTmax). LST were validated with a network of miniaturized temperature sensors in the field. LSTmin and LSTmax allowed us to calculate the daily thermal range of each sector across the seasons, and thus the most thermally stable areas over the year. To reveal the importance of different variables on low and narrow thermal ranges we applied Gradient Boosted Models to seven terrain variables derived from ALS-LiDAR (slope, northness, eastness, heat load, wind exposure index, SAGA's topographic wetness index, and vector ruggedness measure) and a proxy of forest density through the three-dimensional point clouds of the UAV data. The northness was the variable that most promoted thermal stability, followed by the slope and forest density, so that microclimatic refugia resulted to be located in northern slopes, small sites under rocky cliffs, and forested areas. Our results demonstrate that thermal UAVs can become promising tools for the identification of microclimatic refugia in topographically complex areas, providing information at unprecedented spatial resolution, and thus of high interest for biodiversity conservation.

Global priorities for biodiversity conservation in the United Kingdom

Many countries identify lists of priority species for biodiversity conservation. These are developed using different criteria which can change over time. We argue that priority species need to be selected using both global and national criteria, and make recommendations for identifying global priority sites and species in the United Kingdom (UK). We compiled lists of 187 globally threatened species and 661 species endemic to the UK, and compared these with a UK national priority species list compiled from each of the four countries of the UK. We show that 55.1 % of globally threatened species, and up to 87.5 % of the UK's endemic species are not found on UK priority species lists. Compiling data on the distribution of the endemic and globally threatened species from the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas, we show that 117 species are not recorded in any protected area designated for nature conservation and 43 of these species are apparently not recorded in any protected areas in UK. It was also found that only 31 globally threatened and 17 endemic species are notification features for Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in the UK. These findings indicate that much of the focus of UK conservation is on nationally important populations of species, but globally important species are comparatively neglected. We propose that an assessment of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in the UK, using a global standard, could be used as a tool to identify sites containing globally significant populations of species which are not currently recognised.