Prioritizing candidate areas to achieve species richness representation is relatively straightforward when distributions are known for many taxa; however, it may be challenging in data-poor regions. One approach is to focus on the distribution of a few charismatic species in areas that overlap with areas with little human influence, and another is to expand protection in the vicinity of existing protected areas. We assessed the effectiveness of these two approaches for protecting the potential distribution of 21 bird species affiliated with the piedmont dry forest in Argentina. We assessed the degree to which current protected areas met the representation target for each bird species. We found that 8% of the piedmont dry forest and 11% of the extent of occurrence of the bird species within piedmont dry forest were protected, indicating a shortfall. Areas with little human influence that overlap with the distribution of charismatic species had a higher number of bird species than areas with high human influence. Areas within the vicinity of protected areas performed similarly to priority areas, but included high human influence areas. We suggest that a prioritization scheme based on areas of charismatic species distribution that overlap with areas of low human influence can function as an effective surrogate for bird species affiliated with the piedmont dry forest in Argentina. Our results have operational implications for conservation planning in those regions of the world where biodiversity data are poor, but where decisions and actions to sustain biodiversity are urgently needed.

当许多类群的分布已知时，优先考虑候选区域以实现物种丰富度表示相对简单；但是，在数据匮乏的地区这可能是一个挑战。一种方法是着眼于一些具有超凡魅力的物种在与人类影响较小的区域重叠的区域中的分布，另一种方法是在现有保护区附近扩大保护范围。我们评估了这两种方法在保护21种与阿根廷山前干旱森林有关的鸟类中的潜在分布的有效性。我们评估了当前保护区达到每种鸟类代表性目标的程度。我们发现山麓干旱森林中有8％的山麓干旱森林和11％的鸟类物种受到保护，这表明短缺。与人类影响力高的地区相比，人为影响较小的地区与具有魅力的物种分布重叠的地区的鸟类种类更多。保护区附近的地区的表现与优先地区相似，但其中包括人类影响力较高的地区。我们建议，基于具有超凡魅力的物种分布区域并与人类影响力低的区域重叠的优先方案可以作为替代阿根廷皮埃蒙特干旱森林的鸟类的有效替代品。我们的结果对世界上生物多样性数据较差但急需维持生物多样性的决定和行动的那些地区的保护规划具有业务意义。