The geography of high-value biodiversity areas for terrestrial vertebrates in Western Europe and their coverage by protected area networks

Assunção–Albuquerque, M. J. T.; Benayas, José M. Rey; Albuquerque, Fábio Suzart de; Rodrı́guez, Miguel Á.

doi:10.5194/we-12-65-2012

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(53 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In some of these groups, Spain hosts 80-90% of the total taxa found in the European Union. Within this framework, the portion of the Iberian Peninsula located in the Atlantic biogeographical region plays a key role in the conservation of the main components of biodiversity, since it meets the optimum conditions for a significant diversity of different taxon groups [24][25][26][27][28]. (Table 3), and they also exceed the index values of 11th Aichi Biodiversity Targets [5].…”

Section: Natura 2000 Network and Diversity Of Habitats In Spainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region

Costa¹,

Rego²

2018

Selected Studies in Biodiversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the fact that the loss of biodiversity continues to be an unresolved problem at a global level, it is possible to identify new alternatives and initiatives in biodiversity conservation. From the environmental strategic framework created worldwide, an important World Network of Biosphere Reserves has been implemented under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which in the European Union in general, and in Spain in particular, is strongly interrelated with Natura 2000 network that is created under Directive 92/43/EEC. In the present work, the importance of the Spanish Atlantic region for biodiversity is assessed, contextualizing the networks of protected areas created in this territory and valuing the created synergies that have favored the start-up of projects and agreements aimed at reducing the loss of biodiversity and achieving sustainability.

show abstract

Section: Natura 2000 Network and Diversity Of Habitats In Spainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region

Costa¹,

Rego²

2018

Selected Studies in Biodiversity

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Until recently, few maps featuring equal area grid cells that harbor the largest numbers of terrestrial birds, endangered terrestrial birds or range-restricted terrestrial birds were produced in Europe (e.g. [17,18,19,20,21]). However, species richness could be a poor indicator of bird diversity because richness does not reflect complementarity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The geography of hotspots of rarity-weighted richness of birds and their coverage by Natura 2000

Albuquerque

Gregory

2017

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A major challenge for biogeographers and conservation planners is to identify where to best locate or distribute high-priority areas for conservation and to explore whether these areas are well represented by conservation actions such as protected areas (PAs). We aimed to identify high-priority areas for conservation, expressed as hotpots of rarity-weighted richness (HRR)–sites that efficiently represent species–for birds across EU countries, and to explore whether HRR are well represented by the Natura 2000 network. Natura 2000 is an evolving network of PAs that seeks to conserve biodiversity through the persistence of the most patrimonial species and habitats across Europe. This network includes Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), where the latter regulated the designation of Special Protected Areas (SPA). Distribution maps for 416 bird species and complementarity-based approaches were used to map geographical patterns of rarity-weighted richness (RWR) and HRR for birds. We used species accumulation index to evaluate whether RWR was efficient surrogates to identify HRRs for birds. The results of our analysis support the proposition that prioritizing sites in order of RWR is a reliable way to identify sites that efficiently represent birds. HRRs were concentrated in the Mediterranean Basin and alpine and boreal biogeographical regions of northern Europe. The cells with high RWR values did not correspond to cells where Natura 2000 was present. We suggest that patterns of RWR could become a focus for conservation biogeography. Our analysis demonstrates that identifying HRR is a robust approach for prioritizing management actions, and reveals the need for more conservation actions, especially on HRR.

show abstract

Planning for the future: identifying conservation priority areas for Iberian birds under climate change

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context Species are expected to shift their distributions in response to global environmental changes and additional protected areas are needed to encompass the corresponding changes in the distributions of their habitats. Conservation policies are likely to become obsolete unless they integrate the potential impacts of climate and land-use change on biodiversity.Objectives We identify conservation priority areas for current and future projected distributions of Iberian bird species. We then investigate the extent to which global change informed priority areas are: (i) covered by existing protected area networks (national protected areas and Natura 2000); (ii) threatened by agricultural or urban land-use changes.Methods We use outputs of species distributions models fitted with climatic data as inputs in spatial prioritization tools to identify conservation priority areas for 168 bird species. We use projections of land-use change to then discriminate between threatened and nonthreatened priority areas.Results 19% of the priority areas for birds are covered by national protected areas and 23% are covered by Natura 2000 sites. The spatial mismatch between protected area networks and priority areas for birds is projected to increase with climate change. But there are opportunities to improve the protection of birds under climate change, as half of the priority areas are currently neither protected nor in conflict with urban or agricultural land-uses. ConclusionsWe identify critical areas for bird conservation both under current and climate change conditions, and propose that they could guide the establishment of new conservation areas across the Iberian Peninsula complementing existing protected areas.

show abstract

The geography of high-value biodiversity areas for terrestrial vertebrates in Western Europe and their coverage by protected area networks

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region

Biological Conservation and Nature Protection Strategies in Spanish Atlantic Region

The geography of hotspots of rarity-weighted richness of birds and their coverage by Natura 2000

Planning for the future: identifying conservation priority areas for Iberian birds under climate change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About