Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation
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Edited by Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, and approved May 28, 2013 (received for review February 4, 2013)

Significance
Identifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. We mapped global priority areas using the latest data on mammals, amphibians, and birds at a scale 100 times finer than previous assessments. Priority areas have a higher—but still insufficient—rate of protection than the global average. We identify several important areas currently ignored by biodiversity hotspots, the current leading priority map. As the window of opportunity for expanding the global protected area network begins to close, identifying priorities at a scale practical for local action ensures our findings will help protect biodiversity most effectively.
Abstract
Identifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. Fundamentally, we must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, where human actions threaten them, and their levels of protection. As conservation knowledge and threats change, we must reevaluate priorities. We mapped priority areas for vertebrates using newly updated data on >21,000 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds. For each taxon, we identified centers of richness for all species, small-ranged species, and threatened species listed with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Importantly, all analyses were at a spatial grain of 10 × 10 km, 100 times finer than previous assessments. This fine scale is a significant methodological improvement, because it brings mapping to scales comparable with regional decisions on where to place protected areas. We also mapped recent species discoveries, because they suggest where as-yet-unknown species might be living. To assess the protection of the priority areas, we calculated the percentage of priority areas within protected areas using the latest data from the World Database of Protected Areas, providing a snapshot of how well the planet’s protected area system encompasses vertebrate biodiversity. Although the priority areas do have more protection than the global average, the level of protection still is insufficient given the importance of these areas for preventing vertebrate extinctions. We also found substantial differences between our identified vertebrate priorities and the leading map of global conservation priorities, the biodiversity hotspots. Our findings suggest a need to reassess the global allocation of conservation resources to reflect today’s improved knowledge of biodiversity and conservation.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: clinton.jenkins{at}gmail.com.
Author contributions: C.N.J., S.L.P., and L.N.J. designed research; C.N.J. performed research; C.N.J. analyzed data; and C.N.J., S.L.P., and L.N.J. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Data deposition: GIS files of the data described in this paper are available on the Conservation Science Around the World Website, http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cnjenki2/Projects.html.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1302251110/-/DCSupplemental.