Conservation commitments should focus on the best places to protect rare species

Date:
September 7, 2021
Source:
University of York
Summary:
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has pledged to protect 30%
of land to support the recovery of nature, but a new study finds
that much of the new land that has been allocated to meet this
aspiration is not in the highest priority areas for biodiversity
conservation.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has pledged to protect 30%
of land to support the recovery of nature, but a new study finds that
much of the new land that has been allocated to meet this aspiration is
not in the highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation.


========================================================================== Currently, only 9% of Britain's land area has a legal status that
specifically mandates biodiversity protection.

The UK 30by30 commitment includes land that is currently designated as 'protected landscapes' in England, such as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but these areas were not originally chosen
nor managed for biodiversity.

New research by the University of York and Natural England finds that 58%
of British 'protected landscapes' lie outside the highest 30% priority
land for species conservation.

The study comes in response to the UK Government's pledge to protect 30%
of land to support the recovery of nature by 2030, made last September.

The authors of the report say the 30by30 commitment is a positive step
for UK conservation, but requires better planning and implementation if
it is to deliver its intended goals.



==========================================================================
They argue that designating areas with high landscape value does not
offer efficient protection of high priority species (such as tree sparrows
and white- letter hairstreak butterflies) and habitats. This is because
many attractive landscapes are not in the right places to enhance the
country's existing protected area network.

The team identified potential areas for nature recovery, which they
say could improve species representation outcomes by 68%, compared to
only 38% using the pledged landscapes The study found the most important
areas to prioritise, in a way that is likely to benefit the most species,
are largely concentrated in southern and eastern England. Northern and
upland areas of Britain have disproportionately larger areas protected
for biodiversity, so the greatest gains in species representation can potentially be achieved by increased levels of protection and habitat restoration in southern and lowland areas.

Charles Cunningham, a PhD researcher from the University of York's
Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity who is first author of
the study, said: "Increasingly, ambitious conservation pledges that focus
on large areas may draw attention away from where threatened species
are actually located." "Our findings show that including all of these landscapes is an inefficient way to expand the existing conservation
network, and a mixture of landscapes inside and outside of protected
landscapes would result in much better species protection." "In our
paper, we demonstrate the importance of carefully and systematically considering where new conservation areas should be located to ensure
they include the most important Dr Humphrey Crick, Principal Specialist
in Conservation Ecology at Natural England, said, "The research shows
how we can most effectively use our landscape designations, like
National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, to help meet
the Prime Minister's goal of protecting 30% of our land for nature
by 2030. This is a great example of how, by working together with
research councils, like the Natural Environment Research Council,
to support PhD students, we can develop the science that will be the
backbone of our evidence base to underpin our work in conservation." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_York. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Charles A. Cunningham, Humphrey Q. P. Crick, Michael D. Morecroft,
Chris
D. Thomas, Colin M. Beale. Translating area-based
conservation pledges into efficient biodiversity protection
outcomes. Communications Biology, 2021; 4 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s42003-021-02590-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210907094715.htm

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