- A new study has pinpointed the most crucial areas around the world for protecting Earth’s rarest and most endangered species, the vast majority of which are found in tropical and subtropical moist forests.
- Just five countries — the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Colombia — contain 59% of all identified sites globally.
- Only 7% of land protected over the past five years overlapped with these critical areas for rare species, suggesting conservation efforts could be better targeted to protect biodiversity.
- Protecting the majority of species would cost approximately $34 billion per year — less than 0.2% of the U.S. GDP, less than 5% of U.S. fossil fuel subsidies or around 16% of Elon Musk’s current net worth.
Can we save thousands of the world’s most threatened animals and plants from extinction by protecting just a tiny fraction of the Earth’s surface? A new study in Frontiers in Science suggests that safeguarding just 1.2% of the planet’s land surface, about 1.64 million square hectares (633,200 square miles), or an area slightly smaller than Alaska, could do just that.
Researchers mapped out 16,825 unprotected sites harboring rare and threatened species. Dubbed “Conservation Imperatives,” these are the areas they say must be protected within the next five years to avoid imminent extinctions.
The researchers combined six different global biodiversity data sets and used satellite imagery to determine which places still contain suitable habitat for rare species, excluding urban areas, farmland and severely degraded land.
The vast majority (about 75%) of these high-priority “Conservation Imperatives” are located in tropical and subtropical moist forests. Geographically, the sites are highly concentrated, with just five countries — the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Colombia — containing 59% of all identified sites globally.
Eric Dinerstein, the study’s lead author and senior biodiversity expert at the NGO RESOLVE, explains that many species on Earth are rare, with limited geographic ranges or low density populations. He notes that these rare species tend to be clustered in specific areas. “In our study, zooming in on this rarity, we found that we need only about 1.2% of the Earth’s surface to head off the sixth great extinction of life on Earth.”
“These [Conservation Imperative] sites are home to over 4,700 threatened species in some of the world’s most biodiverse yet threatened ecosystems,” said study co-author Andy Lee, also of RESOLVE. “These include not only mammals and birds that rely on large intact habitats, like the tamaraw [Bubalus mindorensis] in the Philippines and the Celebes crested macaque [Macaca nigra]in Sulawesi, Indonesia, but also range-restricted amphibians and rare plant species.”
Portrait of a critically endangered female Celebes crested macaque (Macaca nigra) in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, who triggered photographer David Slater’s camera in 2011. Public Domain.
Protecting these areas isn’t without challenges.