Explore the vast range of titles available.

Conservation efforts are only as sustainable as the social and political context within which they take place. The weakening or collapse of sociopolitical frameworks during wartime can lead to habitat destruction and the erosion of conservation policies, but in some cases, may also confer ecological benefits through altered settlement patterns and reduced resource exploitation. Over 90% of the major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and more than 80% took place directly within hotspot areas. Less than one-third of the 34 recognized hotspots escaped significant conflict during this period, and most suffered repeated episodes of violence. This pattern was remarkably consistent over these 5 decades. Evidence from the war-torn Eastern Afromontane hotspot suggests that biodiversity conservation is improved when international nongovernmental organizations support local protected area staff and remain engaged throughout the conflict. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, the conservation community must maintain continuous involvement during periods of war, and biodiversity conservation should be incorporated into military, reconstruction, and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones.

Plant-diversity hotspots on a global scale are well established, but smaller local hotspots within these must be identified for effective conservation of plants at the global and local scales. We used the distributions of endemic and endemic-threatened species of Myrtaceae to indicate areas of plant diversity and conservation importance within the Atlantic coastal forests (Mata Atlântica) of Brazil. We applied 3 simple, inexpensive geographic information system (GIS) techniques to a herbarium specimen database: predictive species-distribution modeling (Maxent); complementarity analysis (DIVA-GIS); and mapping of herbarium specimen collection locations. We also considered collecting intensity, which is an inherent limitation of use of natural history records for biodiversity studies. Two separate areas of endemism were evident: the Serra do Mar mountain range from Paraná to Rio de Janeiro and the coastal forests of northern Espírito Santo and southern Bahia. We identified 12 areas of approximately 35 km² each as priority areas for conservation. These areas had the highest species richness and were highly threatened by urban and agricultural expansion. Observed species occurrences, species occurrences predicted from the model, and results of our complementarity analysis were congruent in identifying those areas with the most endemic species. These areas were then prioritized for conservation importance by comparing ecological data for each.

The allocation of land to biological diversity conservation competes with other land uses and the needs of society for development, food, and extraction of natural resources. Trade-offs between biological diversity conservation and alternative land uses are unavoidable, given the realities of limited conservation resources and the competing demands of society. We developed a conservation-planning assessment for the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, which forms the central component of the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biological diversity hotspot. Our objective was to enhance biological diversity protection while promoting sustainable development and providing spatial guidance in the resolution of potential policy conflicts over priority areas for conservation at risk of transformation. The conservation-planning assessment combined spatial-distribution models for 646 conservation features, spatial economic-return models for 28 alternative land uses, and spatial maps for 4 threats. Nature-based tourism businesses were competitive with other land uses and could provide revenues of >US$60 million/year to local stakeholders and simultaneously help meeting conservation goals for almost half the conservation features in the planning region. Accounting for opportunity costs substantially decreased conflicts between biological diversity, agricultural use, commercial forestry, and mining. Accounting for economic benefits arising from conservation and reducing potential policy conflicts with alternative plans for development can provide opportunities for successful strategies that combine conservation and sustainable development and facilitate conservation action. La asignación de tierras para la conservación de biodiversidad compite con otros usos de suelo y las necesidades de desarrollo, alimento y extracción de recursos naturales. Los pros y contras de la conservación biológica y de las formas alternativas de uso de suelo son inevitables, en función de la realidad de recursos limitados para la conservación y la competencia de demandas sociales. Desarrollamos una evaluación de la planificación de la conservación para la provincia sudafricana de KwaZulu-Natal, que constituye el componente central del área de importancia para la Conservación Maputaland-Pondonoland-Albany. Nuestro objetivo fue reforzar la protección de la diversidad biológica al tiempo de promover el desarrollo sustentable y proporcionar orientación para la resolución de potenciales conflictos políticos en áreas prioritarias para la conservación que estén en riesgo de transformación. La evaluación de la planificación de la conservación combinó modelos de distribución espacial de 646 atributos de conservación, modelos espaciales de retorno económico de 28 usos alternativos de suelo y mapas espaciales de 4 amenazas. Los negocios de turismo basado en naturaleza fueron competitivos con otras formas de uso de suelo y aportaron ganancias de >$60 US millones/año a accionistas locales y al mismo tiempo ayudan a alcanzar las metas de conservación para casi la mitad de los atributos de conservación en la región bajo planificación. La consideración de los costos de oportunidad disminuyó sustancialmente los conflictos entre la diversidad biológica, el uso agrícola, la silvicultura comercial y la minería. La consideración de los beneficios económicos de la conservación y la reducción de potenciales conflictos políticos mediante planes alternativos de desarrollo puede proporcionar oportunidades para estrategias exitosas que combinan la conservación y el desarrollo sustentable y facilitan las acciones de conservación

Uncertainty in the implementation and outcomes of conservation actions that is not accounted for leaves conservation plans vulnerable to potential changes in future conditions. We used a decision-theoretic approach to investigate the effects of two types of investment uncertainty on the optimal allocation of global conservation resources for land acquisition in the Mediterranean Basin. We considered uncertainty about (1) whether investment will continue and (2) whether the acquired biodiversity assets are secure, which we termed transaction uncertainty and performance uncertainty, respectively. We also developed and tested the robustness of different rules of thumb for guiding the allocation of conservation resources when these sources of uncertainty exist. In the presence of uncertainty in future investment ability (transaction uncertainty), the optimal strategy was opportunistic, meaning the investment priority should be to act where uncertainty is highest while investment remains possible. When there was a probability that investments would fail (performance uncertainty), the optimal solution became a complex trade-off between the immediate biodiversity benefits of acting in a region and the perceived longevity of the investment. In general, regions were prioritized for investment when they had the greatest performance certainty, even if an alternative region was highly threatened or had higher biodiversity value. The improved performance of rules of thumb when accounting for uncertainty highlights the importance of explicitly incorporating sources of investment uncertainty and evaluating potential conservation investments in the context of their likely long-term success.

In light of limited conservation funding, global conservation initiatives are increasingly focused on regions of the planet that have been identified as valuable on the basis of their species diversity, the vulnerability of resident species to extinction, or the perceived pristine nature of their ecosystems. Regions that have been resilient to high rates of extinction have not yet been systematically considered in conservation efforts. We used published range maps for 392 vertebrate species to compare historical and current species ranges. We used the results of the comparison to identify regions of the globe in which no known vertebrate species has been extirpated in the past 200 years. In 17 regions, no detectable vertebrate extinctions occurred in the past 200 years. In 6 other regions, reintroductions of species restored the full historic complement of vertebrate species. The effects of humans on a landscape, as measured by the human-footprint index, although useful, was not a singularly good predictor of faunal intactness because more than 20% of intact land area was in heavily affected areas (50% of Earth's land area), and several regions where humans have had very little effect did not have intact faunas. Only 22% of intact land area was within protected-area networks. High-latitude areas were particularly underrepresented; they made up 3 of the 4 least-protected areas in our analyses. Our results indicate that although protected areas are in some cases associated with the prevention of extinctions, there are many regions in which human activity coexists with intact vertebrate assemblages. In addition, our new approach for assessing the value of global regions for conservation identifies several regions that are not represented in other prioritization metrics. A la luz de la limitación en el financiamiento de la conservación, las iniciativas globales de conservación se concentran cada vez más en regiones del planeta que han sido identificadas como valiosas con base en su diversidad de especies, la vulnerabilidad a la extinción de especies residentes, o la percepción de naturaleza prístina de sus ecosistemas. Regiones que han sido resilientes a tasas de extinción altas sistemáticamente no han sido consideradas por esfuerzos de conservación. Utilizamos mapas de distribución publicados de 392 especies de vertebrados para comparar su distribución histórica y actual. Usamos los resultados de la comparación para identificar regiones del mundo en donde no se sabe de la extirpación de especies de vertebrados en los últimos 200 años. En 17 regiones no ocurrieron extinciones de vertebrados detectables en los últimos 200 años. En otras 6 regiones la reintroducción de especies restauró todo el complemento histórico de especies de vertebrados. Los efectos de humanos sobre un paisaje, medido como el índice de huella humana, aunque útil, no fue un predictor particularmente bueno de la fauna intacta porque más de 20% de la superficie intacta estaba en áreas fuertemente afectadas (50% de la superficie de la Tierra), y varias regiones donde había poco efecto de humanos no tuvieron faunas intactas. Solo 22% de la superificie intacta estaba dentro de redes de áreas protegidas. Las áreas en latitudes altas estuvieron particularmente mal representadas; comprendieron 3 de las 4 áreas menos protegidas en nuestro análisis. Nuestros resultados indican que, aunque las áreas protegidas en algunos casos se asocian con la prevención de extinciones, hay muchas regiones en las que la actividad humana coexiste con ensambles de vertebrados intactos. Adicionalmente, nuestro nuevo método para estimar el valor de regiones globales para la conservación identifica varias regiones que no están representadas en otras métricas de priorización.

Central America is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, but varies widely in the attention its countries devote to conservation. Protected areas, widely considered the cornerstone of conservation, were not always created with the intent of conserving that biodiversity. We assessed how well the protected-area system of Central America includes the region's mammal diversity. This first required a refinement of existing range maps to reduce their extensive errors of commission (i.e., predicted presences in places where species do not occur). For this refinement, we used the ecological limits of each species to identify and remove unsuitable areas from the range. We then compared these maps with the locations of protected areas to measure the habitat protected for each of the region's 250 endemic mammals. The species most vulnerable to extinction--those with small ranges--were largely outside protected areas. Nevertheless, the most strictly protected areas tended toward areas with many small-ranged species. To improve the protection coverage of mammal diversity in the region, we identified a set of priority sites that would best complement the existing protected areas. Protecting these new sites would require a relatively small increase in the total area protected, but could greatly enhance mammal conservation.