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Finn C, Grattarola F, Pincheira-Donoso D. More losers than winners: investigating Anthropocene defaunation through the diversity of population trends. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2023; 98:1732-1748. [PMID: 37189305 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12974] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
The global-scale decline of animal biodiversity ('defaunation') represents one of the most alarming consequences of human impacts on the planet. The quantification of this extinction crisis has traditionally relied on the use of IUCN Red List conservation categories assigned to each assessed species. This approach reveals that a quarter of the world's animal species are currently threatened with extinction, and ~1% have been declared extinct. However, extinctions are preceded by progressive population declines through time that leave demographic 'footprints' that can alert us about the trajectories of species towards extinction. Therefore, an exclusive focus on IUCN conservation categories, without consideration of dynamic population trends, may underestimate the true extent of the processes of ongoing extinctions across nature. In fact, emerging evidence (e.g. the Living Planet Report), reveals a widespread tendency for sustained demographic declines (an average 69% decline in population abundances) of species globally. Yet, animal species are not only declining. Many species worldwide exhibit stable populations, while others are even thriving. Here, using population trend data for >71,000 animal species spanning all five groups of vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes) and insects, we provide a comprehensive global-scale assessment of the diversity of population trends across species undergoing not only declines, but also population stability and increases. We show a widespread global erosion of species, with 48% undergoing declines, while 49% and 3% of species currently remain stable or are increasing, respectively. Geographically, we reveal an intriguing pattern similar to that of threatened species, whereby declines tend to concentrate around tropical regions, whereas stability and increases show a tendency to expand towards temperate climates. Importantly, we find that for species currently classed by the IUCN Red List as 'non-threatened', 33% are declining. Critically, in contrast with previous mass extinction events, our assessment shows that the Anthropocene extinction crisis is undergoing a rapid biodiversity imbalance, with levels of declines (a symptom of extinction) greatly exceeding levels of increases (a symptom of ecological expansion and potentially of evolution) for all groups. Our study contributes a further signal indicating that global biodiversity is entering a mass extinction, with ecosystem heterogeneity and functioning, biodiversity persistence, and human well-being under increasing threat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Finn
- MacroBiodiversity Lab, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, 19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast, BT9 5DL, UK
| | - Florencia Grattarola
- Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Praha-Suchdol, 165 00, Czech Republic
| | - Daniel Pincheira-Donoso
- MacroBiodiversity Lab, School of Biological Sciences, Queen's University Belfast, 19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast, BT9 5DL, UK
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2
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Zeng Y, Senior RA, Crawford CL, Wilcove DS. Gaps and weaknesses in the global protected area network for safeguarding at-risk species. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eadg0288. [PMID: 37267362 PMCID: PMC10413669 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg0288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2022] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Protected areas are essential to biodiversity conservation. Creating new parks can protect larger populations and more species, yet strengthening existing parks, particularly those vulnerable to harmful human activities, is a critical but underappreciated step for safeguarding at-risk species. Here, we model the area of habitat that terrestrial mammals, amphibians, and birds have within park networks and their vulnerability to current downgrading, downsizing, or degazettement events and future land-use change. We find that roughly 70% of species analyzed have scant representation in parks, or occur within parks that are affected by shifts in formal legal protections or are vulnerable to increased human pressures. Our results also show that expanding and strengthening park networks across just 1% of the world's land area could preserve irreplaceable habitats of 1191 species that are particularly vulnerable to extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiwen Zeng
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Rebecca A. Senior
- Conservation Ecology Group, Department of Biosciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
| | - Christopher L. Crawford
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - David S. Wilcove
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
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3
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Devkota D, Miller DC, Wang SW, Brooks JS. Biodiversity conservation funding in Bhutan: Thematic, temporal, and spatial trends over four decades. CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/csp2.12757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Dikshya Devkota
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana Illinois USA
| | - Daniel C. Miller
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana Illinois USA
- Keough School of Global Affairs University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Indiana USA
| | - Sonam W. Wang
- Bhutan Institute of Himalayan Studies Thimphu Bhutan
- OJeong Resilience Institute Korea University Seoul South Korea
| | - Jeremy S. Brooks
- School of Environment and Natural Resources The Ohio State University Columbus Ohio USA
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4
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Wangmo S, Wangdi S, Wyatt A, Tenzin K, Lhendup J, Singh R. Driven by data: Improved protected area effectiveness in Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan. CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 2021. [DOI: 10.1111/csp2.503] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Alexander Wyatt
- World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF‐Cambodia Phnom Penh Cambodia
| | | | | | - Rohit Singh
- World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF‐Singapore Singapore Singapore
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Jackson HB, Kroetz K, Sanchirico JN, Thompson A, Armsworth PR. Protected area, easement, and rental contract data reveal five communities of land protection in the United States. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 31:e02322. [PMID: 33655588 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Revised: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/06/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Land protection efforts represent large societal investments and are critical to biodiversity conservation. Land protection involves a complex mosaic of areas managed by multiple organizations, using a variety of mechanisms to achieve different levels of protection. We develop an approach to synthesize, describe, and map this land protection diversity over large spatial scales. We use cluster analysis to find distinct "communities" of land protection based on the organizations involved, the strictness of land protection, and the protection mechanisms used. We also associate identified land protection communities with socioenvironmental variables. Applying these methods to describe land protection communities in counties across the coterminous United States, we recognize five different land protection communities. Two land protection communities occur in areas with low human population size at higher elevations and include a large amount of protected land primarily under federal management. These two community types are differentiated from one another by the particular federal agencies involved, the relative contributions of smaller actors, and the amount of protection by designations vs. conservation easements or covenants. Three remaining land protection communities have less overall protection. Land in one community is primarily protected by federally managed rental contracts and government managed easements; another is managed by a diversity of non-federal actors through fee-ownership and easements; and the third stands out for having the lowest amount of formally recorded protection overall. High elevation and poor quality soils are over-represented in U.S. protected lands. Rental contracts help fill in gaps in counties with high productivity soil while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fills in gaps in low-elevation counties. Counties with large numbers of threatened species have more and stricter protection, particularly by regional entities like water management districts. The ability to synthesize and map land protection communities can help conservation planners tailor interventions to local contexts, position local agencies to approach collaborations more strategically, and suggest new hypotheses for researchers regarding interactions among different protection mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heather B Jackson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA
- Department of Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, 1474 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, Colorado, 80523, USA
| | - Kailin Kroetz
- School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, PO Box 875502, Tempe, Arizona, 85287-5502, USA
- Resources for the Future, 1616 P St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20036, USA
| | - James N Sanchirico
- Resources for the Future, 1616 P St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20036, USA
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, California, 95616, USA
| | | | - Paul R Armsworth
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, 569 Dabney Hall, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA
- National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee, 1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106, Knoxville, Tennessee, 37996, USA
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Bowyer RT, Boyce MS, Goheen JR, Rachlow JL. Conservation of the world’s mammals: status, protected areas, community efforts, and hunting. J Mammal 2019. [DOI: 10.1093/jmammal/gyy180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- R Terry Bowyer
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Mark S Boyce
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Jacob R Goheen
- Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
| | - Janet L Rachlow
- Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA
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Gallo-Cajiao E, Archibald C, Friedman R, Steven R, Fuller RA, Game ET, Morrison TH, Ritchie EG. Crowdfunding biodiversity conservation. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2018; 32:1426-1435. [PMID: 29802734 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2018] [Revised: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Raising funds is critical for conserving biodiversity and hence so is scrutinizing emerging financial mechanisms that may help achieve this goal. Anecdotal evidence indicates crowdfunding is being used to support activities needed for biodiversity conservation, yet its magnitude and allocation remain largely unknown. To help address this knowledge gap, we conducted a global analysis based on conservation-focused projects extracted from crowdfunding platforms. For each project, we determined the funds raised, date, country of implementation, proponent characteristics, activity type, biodiversity realm, and target taxa. We identified 72 relevant platforms and 577 conservation-focused projects that raised $4,790,634 since 2009. Although proponents were based in 38 countries, projects were delivered across 80 countries, indicating a potential mechanism of resource mobilization. Proponents were affiliated with nongovernmental organizations (35%) or universities (30%) or were freelancers (26%). Most projects were for research (40%), persuasion (31%), and on-the-ground actions (21%). Projects were more focused on species (57.7%) and terrestrial ecosystems (20.3%), and less focused on marine (8.8%) and freshwater ecosystems (3.6%). Projects focused on 208 species, including a disproportionate number of threatened birds and mammals. Crowdfunding for biodiversity conservation is a global phenomenon and there is potential for expansion, despite possible pitfalls (e.g., uncertainty about effectiveness). Opportunities to advance conservation through crowdfunding arise from its capacity to mobilize funds spatially and increase steadily over time, inclusion of overlooked species, adoption by multiple actors, and funding of activities beyond research. Our findings pave the way for further research on key questions, such as campaign success rates, effectiveness of conservation actions, and drivers of crowdfunding adoption. Even though crowdfunding capital raised has been modest relative to other conservation-finance mechanisms, its contribution goes beyond funding research and providing capital. Embraced with due care, crowdfunding could become an important financial mechanism for biodiversity conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Carla Archibald
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Rachel Friedman
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Rochelle Steven
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Richard A Fuller
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Edward T Game
- School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
- The Nature Conservancy, South Brisbane, QLD, 4101, Australia
| | - Tiffany H Morrison
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia
| | - Euan G Ritchie
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia
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8
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Pressey RL, Visconti P, Ferraro PJ. Making parks make a difference: poor alignment of policy, planning and management with protected-area impact, and ways forward. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 370:rstb.2014.0280. [PMID: 26460132 PMCID: PMC4614736 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Policy and practice around protected areas are poorly aligned with the basic purpose of protection, which is to make a difference. The difference made by protected areas is their impact, defined in program evaluation as the outcomes arising from protection relative to the counterfactual of no protection or a different form of protection. Although impact evaluation of programs is well established in fields such as medicine, education and development aid, it is rare in nature conservation. We show that the present weak alignment with impact of policy targets and operational objectives for protected areas involves a great risk: targets and objectives can be achieved while making little difference to the conservation of biodiversity. We also review potential ways of increasing the difference made by protected areas, finding a poor evidence base for the use of planning and management ‘levers’ to better achieve impact. We propose a dual strategy for making protected areas more effective in their basic role of saving nature, outlining ways of developing targets and objectives focused on impact while also improving the evidence for effective planning and management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert L Pressey
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia
| | - Piero Visconti
- Microsoft Research, Computational Science Laboratory, 21 Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2FB, UK
| | - Paul J Ferraro
- Carey School of Business and Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
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Craigie ID, Barnes MD, Geldmann J, Woodley S. International funding agencies: potential leaders of impact evaluation in protected areas? Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2016; 370:rstb.2014.0283. [PMID: 26460135 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0283] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Globally, protected areas are the most commonly used tools to halt biodiversity loss. Yet, some are failing to adequately conserve the biodiversity they contain. There is an urgent need for knowledge on how to make them function more effectively. Impact evaluation methods provide a set of tools that could yield this knowledge. However, rigorous outcome-focused impact evaluation is not yet used as extensively as it could be in protected area management. We examine the role of international protected area funding agencies in facilitating the use of impact evaluation. These agencies are influential stakeholders as they allocate hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support protected areas, creating a unique opportunity to shape how the conservation funds are spent globally. We identify key barriers to the use of impact evaluation, detail how large funders are uniquely placed to overcome many of these, and highlight the potential benefits if impact evaluation is used more extensively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian D Craigie
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
| | - Megan D Barnes
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jonas Geldmann
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Stephen Woodley
- Woodley and Associates, and World Commission on Protected Areas, IUCN, 64 Ch. Juniper, Chelsea, Quebec, Canada
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10
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Larson ER, Howell S, Kareiva P, Armsworth PR. Constraints of philanthropy on determining the distribution of biodiversity conservation funding. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2016; 30:206-215. [PMID: 26460820 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.12608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2014] [Revised: 06/23/2015] [Accepted: 07/01/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
Caught between ongoing habitat destruction and funding shortfalls, conservation organizations are using systematic planning approaches to identify places that offer the highest biodiversity return per dollar invested. However, available tools do not account for the landscape of funding for conservation or quantify the constraints this landscape imposes on conservation outcomes. Using state-level data on philanthropic giving to and investments in land conservation by a large nonprofit organization, we applied linear regression to evaluate whether the spatial distribution of conservation philanthropy better explained expenditures on conservation than maps of biodiversity priorities, which were derived from a planning process internal to the organization and return on investment (ROI) analyses based on data on species richness, land costs, and existing protected areas. Philanthropic fund raising accounted for considerably more spatial variation in conservation spending (r(2) = 0.64) than either of the 2 systematic conservation planning approaches (r(2) = 0.08-0.21). We used results of one of the ROI analyses to evaluate whether increases in flexibility to reallocate funding across space provides conservation gains. Small but plausible "tax" increments of 1-10% on states redistributed to the optimal funding allocation from the ROI analysis could result in gains in endemic species protected of 8.5-80.2%. When such increases in spatial flexibility are not possible, conservation organizations should seek to cultivate increased support for conservation in priority locations. We used lagged correlations of giving to and spending by the organization to evaluate whether investments in habitat protection stimulate future giving to conservation. The most common outcome at the state level was that conservation spending quarters correlated significantly and positively with lagged fund raising quarters. In effect, periods of high fund raising for biodiversity followed (rather than preceded) periods of high expenditure on land conservation projects, identifying one mechanism conservation organizations could explore to seed greater activity in priority locations. Our results demonstrate how limitations on the ability of conservation organizations to reallocate their funding across space can impede organizational effectiveness and elucidate ways conservation planning tools could be more useful if they quantified and incorporated these constraints.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric R Larson
- Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801, U.S.A
| | - Stephen Howell
- The Nature Conservancy, 4245 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203, U.S.A
| | - Peter Kareiva
- The Nature Conservancy, 4245 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203, U.S.A
| | - Paul R Armsworth
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, U.S.A
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McCreless E, Visconti P, Carwardine J, Wilcox C, Smith RJ. Cheap and nasty? The potential perils of using management costs to identify global conservation priorities. PLoS One 2013; 8:e80893. [PMID: 24260502 PMCID: PMC3829910 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2013] [Accepted: 10/07/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The financial cost of biodiversity conservation varies widely around the world and such costs should be considered when identifying countries to best focus conservation investments. Previous global prioritizations have been based on global models for protected area management costs, but this metric may be related to other factors that negatively influence the effectiveness and social impacts of conservation. Here we investigate such relationships and first show that countries with low predicted costs are less politically stable. Local support and capacity can mitigate the impacts of such instability, but we also found that these countries have less civil society involvement in conservation. Therefore, externally funded projects in these countries must rely on government agencies for implementation. This can be problematic, as our analyses show that governments in countries with low predicted costs score poorly on indices of corruption, bureaucratic quality and human rights. Taken together, our results demonstrate that using national-level estimates for protected area management costs to set global conservation priorities is simplistic, as projects in apparently low-cost countries are less likely to succeed and more likely to have negative impacts on people. We identify the need for an improved approach to develop global conservation cost metrics that better capture the true costs of avoiding or overcoming such problems. Critically, conservation scientists must engage with practitioners to better understand and implement context-specific solutions. This approach assumes that measures of conservation costs, like measures of conservation value, are organization specific, and would bring a much-needed focus on reducing the negative impacts of conservation to develop projects that benefit people and biodiversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin McCreless
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America
| | - Piero Visconti
- Computational Ecology and Environmental Science Group, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Global Mammal Assessment Program, Department of Biology and Biotechnologies, Sapienza Università di, Roma, Rome, Italy
| | - Josie Carwardine
- CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Dutton Park, Queensland, Australia
| | - Chris Wilcox
- CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
| | - Robert J. Smith
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom
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Targeting global conservation funding to limit immediate biodiversity declines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2013; 110:12144-8. [PMID: 23818619 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221370110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 212] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Inadequate funding levels are a major impediment to effective global biodiversity conservation and are likely associated with recent failures to meet United Nations biodiversity targets. Some countries are more severely underfunded than others and therefore represent urgent financial priorities. However, attempts to identify these highly underfunded countries have been hampered for decades by poor and incomplete data on actual spending, coupled with uncertainty and lack of consensus over the relative size of spending gaps. Here, we assemble a global database of annual conservation spending. We then develop a statistical model that explains 86% of variation in conservation expenditures, and use this to identify countries where funding is robustly below expected levels. The 40 most severely underfunded countries contain 32% of all threatened mammalian diversity and include neighbors in some of the world's most biodiversity-rich areas (Sundaland, Wallacea, and Near Oceania). However, very modest increases in international assistance would achieve a large improvement in the relative adequacy of global conservation finance. Our results could therefore be quickly applied to limit immediate biodiversity losses at relatively little cost.
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Miller DC, Agrawal A, Roberts JT. Biodiversity, Governance, and the Allocation of International Aid for Conservation. Conserv Lett 2012. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263x.2012.00270.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 82] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
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