Biology subjects

Watson, J. E.

Publications and source records attributed to Watson, J. E..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

An operational methodology to identify Critical Ecosystem Areas to help nations achieve the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) will become the most important multilateral agreement to guide biodiversity conservation actions globally over the coming decades. An ecosystem goal and various targets for maintaining integrity, restoring degraded ecosystems, and achieving representation in conservation areas feature throughout the GBF. Here, we propose an operational framework that combines disparate information on ecosystem type, extent, integrity, levels of protection, and risk of collapse to support the identification of irreplaceable Critical Ecosystem Areas (CEAs), to help advance these ecosystem targets. The framework classifies each component ecosystem based on its integrity, importance in ensuring no ecosystem collapse and its relative value to achieving representation if protected. These CEAs are immediate conservation opportunities, given that they achieve multiple ecosystem goals and targets in the GBF. We showcase its application using Myanmars forested ecosystems as a case study and argue that it could be immediately used across all terrestrial ecosystems.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

The costs of global protected-area expansion (Target 3 of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework) may fall more heavily on lower-income countries

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for global environmental agreements is how higher-income and lower-income countries share the costs of implementing them. This problem has become particularly acute as biodiversity and climate ambitions have increased across recent COPs (Conferences of Parties). Here, we estimate the likely distribution of costs for one of the most ambitious proposals: draft Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which would increase coverage of protected and conserved areas (PCAs) to 30% of global land and sea area - more than triple the current value. Since the GBF does not specify where new PCAs would be placed, we use three scenarios of how Target 3 might be implemented, cost those scenarios, and then compare the mean distribution of costs across World Bank income groups. We find that in relative terms, lower-income countries could face considerably larger financial burdens than high-income countries, even though the benefits of conservation are disproportionately enjoyed by high-income countries. Lower-income countries would also face larger increases in the amount of land or sea under conservation, implying higher opportunity and establishment costs. Resolving this potential cost-sharing inequity may be a key requirement to achieve consensus on draft Target 3, and indeed on ambitious environmental proposals more generally.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

The importance of Indigenous Peoples lands for the conservation of terrestrial vertebrates

Indigenous Peoples lands cover over one-quarter of the Earths surface, a significant proportion of which is still free from industrial-level human impacts. As a result, Indigenous Peoples lands are crucial for the long-term persistence of Earths biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, information on species composition within Indigenous Peoples lands globally remains unknown. Here, we provide the first comprehensive analysis of terrestrial vertebrate composition across mapped Indigenous lands by using distribution range data for 20,328 IUCN-assessed mammal, bird and amphibian species. We estimate that 12,521 species (62%) have [≥]10% of their ranges in Indigenous Peoples lands, and 3,314 species (16%) have >half of their ranges within these lands. For threatened species assessed, 1,878 (41.5% of all threatened of all threatened mammals, birds and amphibians) occur in Indigenous Peoples lands. We also find that 3,989 species (of which 418 are threatened) have [≥]10% of their range in Indigenous Peoples lands that have low human pressure. Our results are conservative because not all known Indigenous lands are mapped, and this analysis shows how important Indigenous Peoples lands are for the successful implementation of international conservation and sustainable development agendas.

ecology↗