Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action
Abstract Human activities are altering natural areas worldwide. While our ability to map these activities at fine scales is improving, a simplistic binary characterization of habitat and non‐habitat with a focus on change in habitat extent has dominated conservation assessments across different spat...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12692 |
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doaj-ea771f6f7dd84c43a879817500379b952020-11-25T02:37:41ZengWileyConservation Letters1755-263X2020-03-01132n/an/a10.1111/conl.12692Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated actionHawthorne L. Beyer0Oscar Venter1Hedley S. Grantham2James E.M. Watson3School of Biological Sciences University of Queensland St. Lucia Queensland AustraliaNatural Resource and Environmental Studies Institute University of Northern British Columbia Prince George British Columbia CanadaWildlife Conservation Society Global Conservation Program New York New York USAWildlife Conservation Society Global Conservation Program New York New York USAAbstract Human activities are altering natural areas worldwide. While our ability to map these activities at fine scales is improving, a simplistic binary characterization of habitat and non‐habitat with a focus on change in habitat extent has dominated conservation assessments across different spatial scales. Here, we provide a metric that captures both habitat loss, quality and fragmentation effects which, when combined, we call intactness. We identify nine categories of intactness of the world's terrestrial ecoregions based on changes in intactness across a 16‐year period. We found that highly impacted and degraded categories are predominant (74%) and just 6% of ecoregions are on improving trajectories. It is essential that management of degrading processes be targeted in international agendas in order to ensure that Earth's remaining intact ecosystems are effectively conserved and restored in order to achieve effective conservation outcomes.https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12692Aichi targetsconservationdegradationfragmentationhabitat configurationhabitat loss |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Hawthorne L. Beyer Oscar Venter Hedley S. Grantham James E.M. Watson |
spellingShingle |
Hawthorne L. Beyer Oscar Venter Hedley S. Grantham James E.M. Watson Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action Conservation Letters Aichi targets conservation degradation fragmentation habitat configuration habitat loss |
author_facet |
Hawthorne L. Beyer Oscar Venter Hedley S. Grantham James E.M. Watson |
author_sort |
Hawthorne L. Beyer |
title |
Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
title_short |
Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
title_full |
Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
title_fullStr |
Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
title_full_unstemmed |
Substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
title_sort |
substantial losses in ecoregion intactness highlight urgency of globally coordinated action |
publisher |
Wiley |
series |
Conservation Letters |
issn |
1755-263X |
publishDate |
2020-03-01 |
description |
Abstract Human activities are altering natural areas worldwide. While our ability to map these activities at fine scales is improving, a simplistic binary characterization of habitat and non‐habitat with a focus on change in habitat extent has dominated conservation assessments across different spatial scales. Here, we provide a metric that captures both habitat loss, quality and fragmentation effects which, when combined, we call intactness. We identify nine categories of intactness of the world's terrestrial ecoregions based on changes in intactness across a 16‐year period. We found that highly impacted and degraded categories are predominant (74%) and just 6% of ecoregions are on improving trajectories. It is essential that management of degrading processes be targeted in international agendas in order to ensure that Earth's remaining intact ecosystems are effectively conserved and restored in order to achieve effective conservation outcomes. |
topic |
Aichi targets conservation degradation fragmentation habitat configuration habitat loss |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12692 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT hawthornelbeyer substantiallossesinecoregionintactnesshighlighturgencyofgloballycoordinatedaction AT oscarventer substantiallossesinecoregionintactnesshighlighturgencyofgloballycoordinatedaction AT hedleysgrantham substantiallossesinecoregionintactnesshighlighturgencyofgloballycoordinatedaction AT jamesemwatson substantiallossesinecoregionintactnesshighlighturgencyofgloballycoordinatedaction |
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1724793938303254528 |