Biodiversity efforts need greater global coverage

Despite international efforts to promote biodiversity, a study has found that hundreds of the world's animal species are in imminent danger of extinction, mainly in tropical mountains and islands in developing nations.

The report, published in the journal Nature, concludes that while more than 10 per cent of Earth's land mass is afforded some environmental protection, efforts are not being focused in places that have the greatest concentration of imperilled species.

The "global gap analysis" conducted by scientists for the group Conservation International concluded that urgent action was needed to prevent hundreds of unique species from going extinct.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," said Ana Rodrigues, a research fellow at the Centre for Applied Biodiversity Science at the Washington-based Conservation International.

"Many species around the world are hanging on to little bits of habitat. These findings confirm what we already know: the worldwide protection network is far from finished and we need to expand it into regions that need it most."


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The report found that at least 300 critically endangered animals, as well as 237 endangered and 267 vulnerable species, exist in unprotected areas. A critically endangered species is defined by the World Conservation Union as having a 50 per cent probability of becoming extinct in 10 years.

The multi-year study relied on an analysis of computer databases and field studies at universities and government institutions around the world. The work is the start of a worldwide inventory of rare plants and animals that exist outside protected areas.

Dr Rodrigues cited Mexico as an example of a "megadiversity" country, with hundreds of species not found anywhere else. But she said rare animals in the Sierra Madre Mountains in southern Mexico were not protected.

Dr Rodrigues also identified sites in the Andes mountains in South America, on islands in South-East Asia, on Madagascar and in southern India as areas of high biodiversity and low protection.

At last year's World Parks Congress in Durban scientists said there was a global network of protected areas covering 11.5 per cent of Earth's surface, a figure higher than the 10 per cent goal scientists set 10 years ago.

But Dr Rodrigues said authorities needed a more targeted approach to conservation and the flexibility to shift resources to poorer countries that have many unprotected species.

"It needs to be taken care of globally," she said