Failing to protect ‘irreplaceable’ areas threatens species' survival

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http://theconversation.com/failing-to-protect-irreplaceable-areas-threatens-species-survival-20332

15 November 2013, 6.19am GMT

Failing to protect ‘irreplaceable’ areas threatens species' survival

Researchers working with the world’s most complete data on threatened species have pinpointed the most irreplaceable regions, whose existence is not only vital to species' survival, but which are also unprotected by law.

The report, drawn up by scientists from France, Switzerland, the UK, Australia, US and the United Arab Emirates, pored over the data to map areas where threatened or unique species were present. What, if any, protection they were afforded by being designated as National Parks, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, or other forms of recognition.

Using the IUCN’s World Database of Protected Areas, the report – published in the journal Science – examined all 173,461 protected areas and 2,059 proposed protected areas. The researchers then checked for the presence of 21,419 vertebrate species found on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species data, which encompasses 6,240 species of amphibians, 5,263 non-marine mammals, and 9,916 birds.

The regions, largely concentrated in southern and central America, tropical Africa, and Indonesia, were ranked according to their “irreplaceability factor”. This was calculated by combining the number of species found in a protected area with a measure of how dependent each species is on it. Those regions that represented the only areas where certain species, or many species, were found would therefore rank as more highly irreplaceable than others.

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