An ecosystem risk assessment of temperate and tropical forests of the Americas with an outlook on future conservation strategies

R., Ferrer-Paris José; Zager, Irene; Keith, David A.; Oliveira‐Miranda, María A.; Rodrı́guez, Jon Paul; Josse, Carmen; González‐Gil, Mario; Miller, Rebecca M.; Zambrana‐Torrelio, Carlos; Barrow, Edmund G. C.

doi:10.1111/conl.12623

Cited by 67 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Information on nationally and globally rare or endemic vegetation communities does not yet exist because Canada's national vegetation classification system is incomplete, and vegetation communities are not tracked and ranked by many Conservation Data Centres. Better information on the distribution and status of vegetation communities, including current initiatives to identify Red List ecosystems (Ferrer-Paris et al 2018;Rodríguez et al 2015), would help support future iterations of this assessment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern Canada’s crisis ecoregions: identifying the most significant and threatened places for biodiversity conservation

Kraus

Hebb

2020

Biodivers Conserv

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Identifying and protecting key areas for biodiversity is a cornerstone of effective nature conservation. This conservation assessment analyzes 77 ecoregions across the southern, settled part of Canada to identify priorities for conservation action. Our analysis included 34 measures of biodiversity, threat and conservation response. We categorized all ecoregions based on their overall biodiversity and threat scores. This categorization identified nine “crisis ecoregions.” These ecoregions have higher biodiversity and threat scores compared to other ecoregions in the study area. These ecoregions represent less than 5% of Canadian lands and inland waters but provide habitat for over 60% of Canada’s species at risk. Twenty-one ecoregions have higher biodiversity but lower threat scores. Primarily distributed in the more intact portions of the study area, these ecoregions generally have lower biodiversity scores for species diversity, but score very high for intactness, habitat diversity and congregatory species. This assessment can help to contextualize existing and proposed conservation actions by highlighting key biodiversity, threat and conservation attributes of ecoregions across southern Canada. Our assessment can be used to focus efforts on new protected areas, species at risk recovery, capacity building and ecological monitoring. The results of the conservation assessment can be applied to set and track progress toward national, regional and organizational conservation goals, including post-2020 biodiversity targets. Regular reanalysis of the ecoregions to track their trends in biodiversity, threat and conservation responses will support monitoring the effectiveness of conservation programs and highlight ecoregions where continued focus is most needed to conserve Canada’s biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern Canada’s crisis ecoregions: identifying the most significant and threatened places for biodiversity conservation

Kraus

Hebb

2020

Biodivers Conserv

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“…The dry forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems in the Americas; specifically, the Tumbes-Piura dry forest ecosystem is critically endangered (Ferrer-Paris et al 2019). Despite the threat, it seems to receive less attention than the other Ecuadorian ecosystems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dry forest is more threatened but less protected than evergreen forest in Ecuador’s coastal region

et al. 2020

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SummaryThe Ecuadorian coast has two main types of forests, which are differentiated by their phenology: dry forests are deciduous and more humid forests are evergreen. Less of the dry forests on the Ecuadorian coast is protected (13% of its area) than the evergreen forests (28%), and the area devoted to the protection of dry forests (1069 km2) is substantially less than the area devoted to the protection of evergreen forests (2800 km2). Yet the conservation status of dry forests is more critical, with 83% of their area classified as having very low connectivity, 70% as being highly fragile and 86% as being highly threatened. In addition, the dry forests have fewer protected areas than the evergreen forests. It is therefore necessary to increase the protection of deciduous ecosystems as part of a comprehensive national strategy because they support high levels of biodiversity and many endemic species.

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“…We applied the indices to the continental‐scale RLE assessments of 136 temperate and tropical forests across 51 countries/territories in the Caribbean and Americas (Ferrer‐Paris et al., ). Our results provide an overview of trends among similar forests grouped in eight forest formations (Faber‐langendoen et al., ) (Figure ; Supporting Information Appendix D).…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Skewed intervals can differentiate instances where an index is affected by a few highly degraded ecosystems from cases where all ecosystems are similarly degraded. Understanding the nuances of risk among ecosystems can inform appropriate management actions and prioritization (Ferrer‐Paris et al., ).…”

Section: Exploring the Ecosystem Indicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem indices to support global biodiversity conservation

Rowland

Bland

Keith

et al. 2019

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Governments have committed to global targets to slow biodiversity loss and sustain ecosystem services. Biodiversity state indicators that measure progress toward these targets mostly focus on species, while indicators synthesizing ecosystem change are largely lacking. We fill this gap with three indices quantifying past and projected changes in ecosystems using data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Ecosystems. Our indices quantify changes in risk of ecosystem collapse, ecosystem area and ecological processes, and capture variation in underlying patterns among ecosystems. We apply the indices to three case studies of regional and national assessments (American/Caribbean forests, terrestrial ecosystems of Colombia, and terrestrial ecosystems of South Africa) to illustrate the indices’ complementarity and versatility in revealing patterns of interest for users across sectors. Our indices have the potential to fill the recognized need for ecosystem indicators to inform conservation targets, guide policy, and prioritize management actions.

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An ecosystem risk assessment of temperate and tropical forests of the Americas with an outlook on future conservation strategies

Cited by 67 publications

References 35 publications

Southern Canada’s crisis ecoregions: identifying the most significant and threatened places for biodiversity conservation

Southern Canada’s crisis ecoregions: identifying the most significant and threatened places for biodiversity conservation

Dry forest is more threatened but less protected than evergreen forest in Ecuador’s coastal region

Ecosystem indices to support global biodiversity conservation

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