Priority areas for conservation of Old World vultures

Abstract

The prosperity and well‐being of human societies relies on healthy ecosystems and the services they provide. However, the biodiversity crisis is undermining ecosystems services and functions. Vultures are among the most imperiled taxonomic groups on Earth, yet they have a fundamental ecosystem function. These obligate scavengers rapidly consume large amounts of carrion and human waste, a service that may aid in both disease prevention and control of mammalian scavengers, including feral dogs, which in turn threaten humans. We combined information about the distribution of all 15 vulture species found in Europe, Asia, and Africa with their threats and used detailed expert knowledge on threat intensity to prioritize critical areas for conserving vultures in Africa and Eurasia. Threats we identified included poisoning, mortality due to collision with wind energy infrastructures, and other anthropogenic activities related to human land use and influence. Areas important for vulture conservation were concentrated in southern and eastern Africa, South Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula, and over 80% of these areas were unprotected. Some vulture species required larger areas for protection than others. Finally, countries that had the largest share of all identified important priority areas for vulture conservation were those with the largest expenditures related to rabies burden (e.g., India, China, and Myanmar). Vulture populations have declined markedly in most of these countries. Restoring healthy vulture populations through targeted actions in the priority areas we identified may help restore the ecosystem services vultures provide, including sanitation and potentially prevention of diseases, such as rabies, a heavy burden afflicting fragile societies. Our findings may guide stakeholders to prioritize actions where they are needed most in order to achieve international goals for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

The mesoscavenger release hypothesis and implications for ecosystem and human well‐being

“…These efforts could be expanded to include the protection of apex scavengers, particularly in places where mesoscavenger release could have negative consequences for humans or ecosystems. Areas such as southern and eastern Africa, South Asia and the Iberian Peninsula appear to be of high priority for Old World vulture conservation given current threats and lack of protection (Santangeli et al 2019). Additionally, developing nations may be particularly susceptible to the consequences of apex scavenger loss due to a lack of waste disposal infrastructure and increased disease risk from harmful mesoscavengers.…”

Half of the world’s tree biodiversity is unprotected and is increasingly threatened by human activities

“…S1), particularly between taxonomic diversity on one hand and phylogenetic and functional diversity on the other, indicating the importance of considering multiple biodiversity dimensions in conservation planning (27,43). Previous conservation priority studies have frequently used just one dimension, typically taxonomic diversity (55)(56)(57), as a surrogate for other aspects of biodiversity and ecosystem function (28,58,59), and sometimes argued that incorporating phylogenetic and functional data would not be necessary.However, each diversity facet represents important ecological and evolutionary elements of biodiversity, and many studies report spatial mismatches among these dimensions (28,(60)(61)(62)(63)(64), as we found for tree diversity globally. We found the non-taxonomic prioritization analysis could provide ca.…”

Quantifying the spatial distribution and trends of supplementary feeding sites in South Africa and their potential contribution to vulture energetic requirements

“…The high mobility and wide ranging behaviours of vultures make conserving them challenging because conventional conservation measures, such as protected areas, may be insufficient (Santangeli et al , ). In South Africa, there has been a strong emphasis on providing additional food through supplementary feeding sites (SFS; often also referred to as “vulture restaurants”, Cortés‐Avizanda et al , ).…”