Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration

Strassburg, Bernardo B. N.; Iribarrem, Álvaro; Beyer, Hawthorne L.; Cordeiro, Carlos Leandro; Crouzeilles, Renato; Jakovac, Catarina C.; Junqueira, André Braga; Lacerda, Eduardo; Latawiec, Agnieszka E.; Balmford, Andrew; Brooks, Thomas M.; Butchart, Stuart H. M.; Chazdon, Robin L.; Erb, Karl‐Heinz; Brancalion, Pedro Henrique Santin; Buchanan, Graeme M.; Cooper, David; Dı́az, Sandra; Donald, Paul F.; Kapos, Valerie; Leclère, David; Miles, Lera; Obersteiner, Michael; Plutzar, Christoph; Scaramuzza, Carlos Alberto de Mattos; Scarano, Fábio Rúbio; Visconti, Piero

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2784-9

Cited by 703 publications

(576 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

559

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The imprint of the human-induced degradation on the Atlantic Forest may be an indicator of the future condition of other tropical forests. Thus, the fate of tropical forests depends not only on avoiding the deforestation of intact forests or on promoting the reforestation of degraded lands 9,12,52 , but also on mitigating forest degradation in the remaining forest fragments 10,13,17,25 . The impacts of forest degradation are hard to quantify at regional scales and have therefore received less priority in the climate change and conservation agendas.…”

Section: Index Of Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

Lima¹,

Oliveira²,

Pitta³

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

125

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tropical forests are being deforested worldwide, and the remaining fragments are suffering from biomass and biodiversity erosion. Quantifying this erosion is challenging because ground data on tropical biodiversity and biomass are often sparse. Here, we use an unprecedented dataset of 1819 field surveys covering the entire Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot. We show that 83−85% of the surveys presented losses in forest biomass and tree species richness, functional traits, and conservation value. On average, forest fragments have 25−32% less biomass, 23−31% fewer species, and 33, 36, and 42% fewer individuals of late-successional, large-seeded, and endemic species, respectively. Biodiversity and biomass erosion are lower inside strictly protected conservation units, particularly in large ones. We estimate that biomass erosion across the Atlantic Forest remnants is equivalent to the loss of 55−70 thousand km2 of forests or US$2.3−2.6 billion in carbon credits. These figures have direct implications on mechanisms of climate change mitigation.

show abstract

Section: Index Of Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

Lima¹,

Oliveira²,

Pitta³

et al. 2020

Nat Commun

125

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Substantial environmental benefits could be achieved while avoiding a scenario of overproduction if marginal growing areas, where footprints p.y. are particularly high (even for optimised yields), were abandoned and allowed to naturally regenerate-a key mechanism for reducing pressures on biodiversity [58,59] and increasing carbon sequestration [60]. Indeed, both species richness [61][62][63][64][65][66] and carbon stocks [63,64,[67][68][69][70] on abandoned cropland can often approach pre-disturbance levels within several decades.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Species Richness and Carbon Footprints of Vegetable Oils: Can High Yields Outweigh Palm Oil’s Environmental Impact?

Beyer

Rademacher

2021

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Palm oil has been widely criticised for its high environmental impacts, leading to calls to replace it with alternative vegetable oils in food and cosmetic products. However, substituting palm oil would be environmentally beneficial only if the environmental footprint per litre oil were lower than those of alternative vegetable oils. Whether this is the case is not obvious, given the high oil yields of oil palm of up to 10 times those of alternative crops. Here, we combine global agricultural and environmental datasets to show that, among the world’s seven major vegetable oil crops (oil palm, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, groundnut, coconut, olive), oil palm has the lowest average species richness and carbon footprint associated with an annual production of one litre of vegetable oil. For each crop, these yield-adjusted footprints differ substantially between major producer countries, which we find to be largely the result of differences in crop management. Closing agricultural yield gaps of oil crops through improved management practices would significantly reduce the environmental footprints per oil yield. This would minimise the need for further land conversion to oil cropland and indeed could increase production to such an extent that a significant area of oil croplands could be ecologically restored.

show abstract

“…europa.eu; accessed between February and May 2020). Note that we focused here on a species-level conservation approach [9], in contrast with other more general conservation measures (such as socio-ecological approaches [15,16] and others [17]) that are only indirectly covered by LIFE projects. We first filtered LIFE projects specifically aimed at species conservation, using the query STRAND = 'All'; YEAR = 'All'; COUNTRY = 'All'; THEMES = ' Species'; SUB-THEMES = 'Amphibians'; 'Birds'; 'Fish'; 'Invertebrates'; 'Mammals'; 'Reptiles'.…”

Section: Methods (A) Extraction Of Data From the Life Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a taxonomically unbiased European Union biodiversity strategy for 2030

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Through the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) and the financial investments of the LIFE projects, Europe has become an experimental arena for biological conservation. With an estimated annual budget of €20 billion, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 has set an ambitious goal of classifying 30% of its land and sea territory as Protected Areas and ensuring no deterioration in conservation trends and the status of protected species. We analysed LIFE projects focused on animals from 1992 to 2018 and found that investment in vertebrates was six times higher than that for invertebrates (€970 versus €150 million), with birds and mammals alone accounting for 72% of species and 75% of the total budget. In relative terms, investment per species towards vertebrates has been 468 times higher than that for invertebrates. Using a trait-based approach, we show that conservation effort is primarily explained by species' popularity rather than extinction risk or body size. Therefore, we propose a roadmap to achieve unbiased conservation targets for 2030 and beyond.

show abstract

Global priority areas for ecosystem restoration

Cited by 703 publications

References 70 publications

The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

The erosion of biodiversity and biomass in the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

Species Richness and Carbon Footprints of Vegetable Oils: Can High Yields Outweigh Palm Oil’s Environmental Impact?

Towards a taxonomically unbiased European Union biodiversity strategy for 2030

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About