As much as 75% of critical habitats in the Americas is falling short of a key conservation target in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), held back by issues with monitoring, researchers have found.
A study has called for the development of tailored conservation strategies to improve efforts to protect “critical vegetation types” in North, Central and South America.
“Within the US, despite decades of protections, only 12% of land is currently protected, leaving 40% of animals, 34% of plants, and 40% of nationwide ecosystems, including grasslands, forests, and wetlands, at risk for extinction or range-wide collapse,” they said. The GBF has targeted conserving 30% of land by 2030.
The study published in journal Global Ecology and Conservation also found that more than 40% of endangered bird and mammal species primarily inhabit a single vegetation type. If these vital habitats remain unprotected, these species are placed at risk of extinction.
“In hotspots like the Tropical Andes, 72% of all species and 90% of threatened endemics are not adequately covered by protected areas.”
The Americas hold eight of the top 25 biodiversity hotspots, including the so-called “hottest hotspots” in the world – Tropical Andes, Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Forest, the analysis said.
ADDRESSING THE GAP
According to the study, finer-scale and more localised assessments are needed to determine species distributions accurately and protect endangered ecosystems.
Recently, Area of Habitat (AOH) maps have gained traction as a valuable tool for investigating ecosystem patterns by combining a wide array of variables.
“AOH maps incorporate detailed data on habitat types, elevation ranges, and other environmental variables preferred by each species to exclude unsuitable areas within broad range boundaries,” the study said.
“By incorporating high-resolution AOH maps … conservation efforts can be more effectively targeted to protect the vegetation types critical for threatened, rare, and vegetation-associated species that may depend on the habitat features obscured in broader classifications.”
Researchers stressed the limits of the indicators that are being used to identify critical habitats for threatened or habitat-associated species.
“Range maps provided by authoritative organisations like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) can often be imprecise, especially for rare and threatened species with limited data.”
A group of researchers recently warned against overreliance on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species in conservation policies. Although the list assesses 150,000 species, the number is still far from reflecting the total number of the properly described global species, up to 2 million.
“Fine-scale vegetation mapping allowed us to pinpoint the localised vegetation types that harbour disproportionately high numbers of specialised species,” said lead author Lea Schulte of the Leibniz University Hannover. “This level of precision is critical for effective conservation planning.”
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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