Integrated terrestrial-freshwater planning doubles conservation of tropical aquatic species

Abstract

Conservation initiatives overwhelmingly focus on terrestrial biodiversity, and little is known about the freshwater cobenefits of terrestrial conservation actions. We sampled more than 1500 terrestrial and freshwater species in the Amazon and simulated conservation for species from both realms. Prioritizations based on terrestrial species yielded on average just 22% of the freshwater benefits achieved through freshwater-focused conservation. However, by using integrated cross-realm planning, freshwater benefits could be increased by up to 600% for a 1% reduction in terrestrial benefits. Where freshwater biodiversity data are unavailable but aquatic connectivity is accounted for, freshwater benefits could still be doubled for negligible losses of terrestrial coverage. Conservation actions are urgently needed to improve the status of freshwater species globally. Our results suggest that such gains can be achieved without compromising terrestrial conservation goals.

Conservation of migratory fishes in the Amazon basin

“…There are policies relevant for aquatic conservation in most countries of the basin, including protected areas, regulation on forests in private properties, water resource management, and environmental licensing of hydropower dams. Together, however, these policies have limited capacity to curb current trends, largely because they ignore the role of hydrological connectivity in freshwater ecosystem structure and functioning (Anderson et al, 2019; Castello & Macedo, 2016; Leal et al, 2020).…”

“…Although, to some extent, the numerous protected areas can be seen as the paradigm in Amazon conservation, they were primarily designed to preserve terrestrial ecosystems and are largely ineffective in protecting aquatic ecosystems and biota (Azevedo‐Santos et al, 2019; Castello, McGrath, Hess, et al, 2013; Frederico, Zuanon, & De Marco, 2018; Leal et al, 2020). This situation also holds true for the Andean portion of the basin (Anderson et al, 2019), where the breeding grounds of many migratory species are located.…”

Durable Freshwater Protection: A Framework for Establishing and Maintaining Long-Term Protection for Freshwater Ecosystems and the Values They Sustain

“…The authors do not suggest that protected areas and OECMs not be considered as protection mechanisms, as they are included in the DRP framework under "Designations, and Acquisition of enforceable rights in land or water" and they are widely implemented. Improvements in their designs, management, and implementation with attention to freshwater ecosystem needs offer opportunities to contribute significantly to freshwater protection [10,14,16,81]. The framework we present is partly intended to fill gaps where possible in and around protected areas.…”

“…Protected areas continue to be a dominant strategy for conservation [7,8], yet efforts have focused mainly on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, [9][10][11], or have emphasized specific protection strategies, such as increasing protected area coverage [12]. While valuable, these approaches have either assumed-often falsely-that measures to protect lands will afford the same level of benefits for freshwater ecosystems or they have neglected to consider freshwater ecosystems at all [10,13]. International goals for protection (e.g., Aichi 2020 targets, Convention for Biological Diversity) have focused on terrestrial, area-based metrics.…”

Safeguarding Free-Flowing Rivers: The Global Extent of Free-Flowing Rivers in Protected Areas

“…Protected areas are often established based primarily, or exclusively, on terrestrial resources and, consequently, often fall short of protecting rivers and their ecosystems and species, because they were not designed and/or are not managed to address the patterns and processes that structure and sustain natural aspects of rivers [35]. Given these limitations of protected areas, fully protecting free-flowing rivers will likely require a range of additional mechanisms not limited by protected area boundaries, whether that is a terrestrially defined PA, such as a national park, or a river-specific designation, such as Wild and Scenic.…”