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Identifying priority areas for conservation: a global assessment for forest-dependent birds
Graeme M Buchanan1, Paul F Donald, Stuart H M Butchart
1The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. graeme.buchanan@rspb.org.uk
Plos One
|December 30, 2011
Summary
Identifying priority forest sites is crucial for conserving avian biodiversity. A small fraction of forest areas significantly contributes to protecting forest-dependent birds globally, highlighting urgent conservation needs.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Conservation Biology
- Biodiversity Science
Background:
- Limited resources necessitate identifying priority areas for conservation action.
- Forest-dependent birds represent a significant portion (60.6%) of all bird species.
- Understanding forest contribution to avian biodiversity is vital for effective conservation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify the contribution of remaining forests to conserving global avian biodiversity.
- To identify priority forest sites for conservation based on their impact on forest-dependent birds.
- To inform the expansion of protected areas and climate change mitigation strategies.
Main Methods:
- Utilized new distribution maps for all forest-dependent bird species worldwide.
- Estimated an impact score for each 5-km forested cell based on its contribution to avian biodiversity.
- Analyzed deforestation rates and protected area coverage in high-impact regions.
Main Results:
- A highly skewed distribution of impact scores was observed, with a small proportion of cells having disproportionately high scores.
- Ecoregions with the highest scores included islands (Hawaii, Palau, Indonesia, Philippines) and South American forests (Atlantic Forests, Andes).
- High-impact areas with high deforestation and low protection were identified, such as Indonesia's Seram rain forests and Trinidad and Tobago's moist forests.
Conclusions:
- Key sites in identified ecoregions are urgent priorities for expanding the global protected areas network.
- These findings support meeting Convention on Biological Diversity targets for protected land coverage.
- High-impact, high-deforestation, low-protection areas offer opportunities for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation (e.g., REDD+).
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