Nature in need: Important Nature Sites Left Unprotected

Nature in need: Half of world’s most important nature sites left unprotected

Gland, Switzerland, 21 March, 2012 (IUCN) — The world’s governments have committed to increasing the coverage of protected areas by 2020 to address rapid rates of environmental destruction, however, a new study led by BirdLife International, with contributions from IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), shows that only half of the most important sites for wildlife have been fully protected. These findings highlight an urgent need for improved targeting of new and expanded protected areas in order to protect the planet’s wildlife.

“Protected areas are a cornerstone of conservation efforts, and cover nearly 13% of the world’s land surface,” says Dr. Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission. “In 2010, the world’s governments meeting committed to expanding this to 17% by 2020, with an emphasis on areas of particular importance for nature.”

New research has found that only half of these important areas are currently protected. Researchers discovered this trend by analyzing the overlap between protected areas and two worldwide networks of important sites for wildlife: Important Bird Areas, which comprise more than 10,000 globally significant sites for conserving birds; and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, which include 600 sites holding the last remaining population of highly threatened vertebrates and plants.

“Shockingly, half of the most important sites for nature conservation have not yet been protected,” says Dr. Stuart Butchart, BirdLife’s Global Research and Indicators Coordinator. “Only one-third to one-fifth of sites are completely protected—the remainder are only partially covered by protected areas. While coverage of important sites by protected areas has increased over time, the proportion of area covering important sites, as opposed to less important land for conservation, has declined annually since 1950.”

With governments committed to halting the extinction of threatened species and expanding protected areas, goals could be achieved and local communities could benefit by focusing new protected areas on the networks of sites considered to be the most important places for wildlife. For example, establishment of a protected area on the Liben Plain in Ethiopia would help to safeguard the future of the Critically Endangered Liben Lark, (Heteromirafra sidamoensis) which is found nowhere else. Similarly, designation of a proposed reserve in the Massif de la Hotte in Haiti would protect 15 highly threatened frog species that are restricted to this single site.

“By using the IUCN Red List Index to measure changes in the status of species, and linking this to the degree of protection for important conservation sites,” says Butchart. “We believe that protection of important sites may play an important role in slowing the rate at which species are driven towards extinction: by 50% for birds, if at least half of the Important Bird Areas at which they occur are protected, and by 30% for birds, mammals and amphibians restricted to protected areas compared with those restricted to unprotected or partially protected sites.”

In addition to designating a comprehensive network of protected areas, governments must ensure that reserves are adequately managed. It is estimated that this would cost roughly US$23 billion per year—more than four times the current expenditure. However, in countries with low or moderately low incomes, increased management funding would require less than one-tenth of this sum—double what is currently spent. Such sums may seem large, but are tiny by comparison to the value of the benefits that people obtain from biodiversity. Ecosystem services, such as pollination of crops, water purification and climate regulation, have been estimated to be worth trillions of dollars each year.

“Adequately protecting and managing Important Bird Areas and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites will help to prevent extinctions, safeguard the benefits that people derive from these sites, and contribute towards countries meeting their international commitments on protected areas,” says Butchart. “Some countries are already leading the way, with governments using these site inventories to inform designation of protected areas, for example in Madagascar, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and in the European Union. We encourage other governments to follow these examples as they expand their protected area networks and maximize the effectiveness of nature protection.”

Issues involving species survival, protected areas and conservation will be discussed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Jeju, Republic of Korea, from 6 to 15 September 2012.

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Notes:

For more information or to schedule interviews please contact:
• Maggie Roth, IUCN Media Relations, m +1 202 262 5313, e maggie.roth@iucnorg
• Martin Fowlie, Birdlife Communications Officer, t +44 (0)1223 279813 e: martin.fowlie@birdlife.org

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Journal article: Butchart, SHM et al. (2010) Protecting Important Sites for Biodiversity Contributes to Meeting Global Conservation Targets. PLoS ONE. Downloadable at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032529.

1. BirdLife International is a global alliance of conservation organisations working in more than 115 countries and territories that, together, to promote sustainable living as a means to conserve biodiversity.

2. Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are key sites for avian conservation, identified nationally, using globally standardised criteria, usually involving multiple stakeholders. They are delimited so that they are or can be managed for conservation, and do one (or more) of three things:
• Hold significant numbers of one or more globally threatened bird species;
• Are one of a set of sites that together hold a suite of restricted-range species or biome-restricted bird species;
• Have exceptionally large numbers of migratory or congregatory bird species. For more information on IBAs click here and for factsheets on individual IBAs click here.
The study analysed 10,993 IBAs in 218 countries, and found that 28% are completely covered by protected areas, 23% are partially protected and 49% are wholly unprotected.

3. The Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) is a partnership of 75 non-governmental biodiversity conservation organizations working together to prevent species extinctions. AZE sites are locations supporting at least 95% of the global population of at least one Endangered or Critically Endangered species, as listed on the IUCN Red List. Like IBAs, they have a definable boundary within which the character of habitats, biological communities, and/or management issues have more in common with each other than they do with those in adjacent areas. AZE sites have been identified globally for all mammals, birds, amphibians, selected reptile groups, conifers and corals. For more information on AZE species and sites click here. The study analyzed 588 AZE sites that hold the last remaining populations of 919 highly threatened species, and found that 22% are completely covered by protected areas, 27% are partially protected and 51% are unprotected.

4. Protected Areas are places established and managed for long-term conservation of nature, ranging from government-designated protected areas to community-managed reserves. Over 150,000 protected areas have been designated to date, covering 12.9% of the earth’s terrestrial surface outside Antarctica. Information on protected areas is managed in the World Database on Protected Areas, a joint project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IUCN, maintained at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre working with the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, governments and collaborating non-governmental organisations.

5. Governments have made commitments to address biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity. At the Tenth Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010, the 193 Parties agreed a Strategic Plan which included 20 targets. These included Target 11 “By 2020, at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water areas, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved through effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative and well-connected systems of protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, and integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes” and Target 12 “By 2020 the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained”.

About IUCN
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IUCN works on biodiversity, climate change, energy, human livelihoods and greening the world economy by supporting scientific research, managing field projects all over the world, and bringing governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice.

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About BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a partnership of 114 national conservation organizations and the world leader in bird conservation. BirdLife's unique local to global approach enables it to deliver high impact and long term conservation for the benefit of nature and people. www.birdlife.org

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