Wild, connected, and diverse: building a more resilient system of protected areas

Abstract

Abstract. Current systems of conservation reserves may be insufficient to sustain biodiversity in the face of climate change and habitat losses. Consequently, calls have been made to protect Earth's remaining wildlands and complete the system of protected areas by establishing conservation reserves that (1) better represent ecosystems, (2) increase connectivity to facilitate biota movement in response to stressors including climate change, and (3) promote species persistence within intact landscapes. Using geospatial data, we conducted an assessment for expanding protected areas within the contiguous United States to include the least humanmodified wildlands, establish a connected network, and better represent ecosystem diversity and hotspots of biodiversity. Our composite map highlights areas of high value to achieve these goals in the western United States, where existing protected areas and lands with high ecological integrity are concentrated. We also identified important areas in the East rich in species and containing ecosystems that are poorly represented in the existing protected area system. Expanding protection to these priority areas is ultimately expected to create a more resilient system for protecting the nation's biological heritage. This expectation should be subject to rigorous testing prior to implementation, and regional monitoring will ensure areas and actions are adjusted over time.

Quantifying the National Significance of Local Areas for Regional Conservation Planning: North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

“…A conservation reserve system that is ecologically intact, connected in a network of protected areas, and representative of ecosystem and species diversity may provide the greatest degree of adaptive capacity in the face of a global change [9,29]. Unprotected lands that possess these qualities may be considered high priorities for adding to the existing system of conservation reserves [4]. The Mountain Treasures are not currently designated as highly protected lands.…”

“…Finally, we derived an index of composite wildland conservation values, which was produced by summing normalized indices of each quality described above [4]. This index map shows important priorities for adding lands to the national system of conservation reserves.…”

“…" Recent calls have been made to add to the system of protected areas by establishing an ecologically connected network that is more inclusive of ecosystems and species currently underrepresented in protected areas [2,3]. In response to these calls, Belote et al (2017) [4] recently conducted a national assessment of wildland values and priorities for expanding the U.S. protected area system to include the most ecologically intact and wildest lands [5], establish a national connected network [6], and better represent ecosystem diversity [7] and hotspots of range-limited species [8]. Establishing a system of conservation reserves that is more resilient to climate change may require adding intact lands that connect existing protected areas and add ecosystem and species representation to the existing system [9][10][11].…”

“…In this paper, we use data compiled by Belote et al (2017) to evaluate the national wildland conservation significance of the "Mountain Treasures" of western North Carolina for their value in completing a regional network of conservation reserves. Ranging in size from 80 to 11,810 hectares, the Mountain Treasures are 53 units of land in the Southern Appalachian Mountains first identified in 1992 by citizens in conjunction with a management plan amendment conducted by the United States Forest Service (Appendix A).…”

A landscape index of ecological integrity to inform landscape conservation

“…An alternative approach, but not without its critics (e.g., Brown and Williams 2016), has been to focus on ecosystems, with attention to both the biotic as well as geophysical environment, and 80 use the concept of ecological integrity to identify and prioritize places of conservation value (e.g., Tierney et al 2009, Theobald 2013, Wurtzebach and Schultz 2016, Belote et al 2017. Here the goal is to conserve the "ecological stage" by focusing on places with high ecological integrity that can sustain the biota and critical ecological processes.…”