Abstract
The global network of protected areas (PAs) is systematically biased towards remote and unproductive places. Consequently, the processes threatening biodiversity are not halted and conservation impact—defined as the beneficial environmental outcomes arising from protection relative to the counterfactual of no intervention—is smaller than previously thought. Yet, many conservation plans still target species’ representation, which can fail to lead to impact by not considering the threats they face, such as land conversion and climate change. Here we aimed to identify spatial conservation priorities that minimize the risk of land conversion, while retaining sites with high value for threatened plants at risk from climate change in the Brazilian Cerrado. We compared a method of sequential implementation of conservation actions to a static strategy applied at one time-step. For both schedules of conservation actions, we applied two methods for setting priorities: (i) minimizing expected habitat conversion and prioritizing valuable sites for threatened plants (therefore maximizing conservation impact), and (ii) prioritizing sites based only on their value for threatened plants, regardless of their vulnerability to land conversion (therefore maximizing representation). We found that scenarios aimed at maximizing conservation impact reduced total vegetation loss, while still covering large proportions of species’ ranges inside PAs and priority sites. Given that planning to avoid vegetation loss provided these benefits, vegetation information could represent a reliable surrogate for overall biodiversity. Besides allowing for the achievement of two distinct goals (representation and impact), the impact strategies also present great potential for implementation, especially under current conservation policies.
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Acknowledgements
Lara M. Monteiro received a master scholarship from CAPES. Robert L. Pressey’s research is funded by CNPq (Grant 308532/2014-7), O Boticário Group Foundation for Nature Protection (Grant PROG_0008_2013), and CNCFlora (Grant 065/2016). Fernanda Thiesen Brum received a postdoctoral scholarship from CNPq (Grant 152172/2016-5) and currently holds an industrial and technological development scholarship (DTI-A) by CNPq (Grant 381106/2017-9). Robert L. Pressey acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council. Leonor Patricia C. Morellato is funded by FAPESP, the São Paulo Research Foundation (Grants #2010/52113-5 and #2013/50155-0 FAPESP-Microsoft Research Virtual Institute) and receives a Research Productivity Fellowship from CNPq. This paper is a contribution of the Brazilian Network on Global Climate Change Research funded by CNPq (Grant 437167/2016-0) and FINEP (Grant 01.13.0353.00) and of the INCT in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation founded by MCTIC/CNPq/FAPEG (Grant 465610/2014-5).
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Monteiro, L.M., Brum, F.T., Pressey, R.L. et al. Evaluating the impact of future actions in minimizing vegetation loss from land conversion in the Brazilian Cerrado under climate change. Biodivers Conserv 29, 1701–1722 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1627-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1627-6