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300 critically endangered animals have no protection in conservation areas.
Having assessed 11,633 species of amphibians, birds, mammals, and turtles, the scientists identified more than 300 critically endangered animals living wholly outside protected areas. Left unprotected, these species face an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Dr Ana Rodrigues of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (Cabs) in Washington, US, and her international colleagues used a technique called gap analysis to assess the current network of protection and identify holes in its coverage. They found the relationship between protected areas and patterns of biodiversity was uneven -- suggeting that conservation efforts have been more successful in largely uninhabited ecosystems of low economic value rather than biodiversity hotspots. "Most places where we've found these gaps are amongst the poorest countries in the world - poorest from an economic perspective, but richest in biodiversity," Dr Rodrigues told BBC News Online. Countries with high densities of gap species include China, India, Sri Lanka and Madagascar. Overall, 20% of threatened species were identified as so-called "gap species" with no protection. Of the threatened species, 14% of mammals, 19.8% of birds, 10.1% of turtles and 26.6% of amphibians were gap species. Scientists behind the study are calling for an urgent review of global conservation strategies. They say national parks and wildlife reserves, no matter how large, won't prevent wide-scale extinctions in coming decades if they aren't created in the right places. "No matter how appealing arbitrary percentage targets might be from a political standpoint, we should focus specifically on those places with the greatest concentrations of threatened and endemic species," said Gustavo Fonseca, professor of zoology at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Fonseca is also vice president for programs and science at Washington, D.C.-based Conservation International, the lead research organization behind the study. The authors claim the number of species covered by the current network in their paper may be an overestimate because they had to assume that protected areas are adequate for protecting all species and that species can be protected equally effectively in any part of their range. Scientists do not know whether populations of endangered species -- even when protected areas -- are viable in the long term or can survive ecological changes that may occur with global warming This report used information and excertps from the following sources: Protected Areas Don't Protect Many Endangered Species, Study Finds Protected Areas Don't Protect Many Endangered Species, Study Finds Conservation strategy needed for 300 species: study |
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