Fellow Maria Lumbierres gave a talk entitled Evaluating Irreplaceability in Key Biodiversity Areas and the effects of the geographical scale on 14 December 2021 at the 30th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2021).
Abstract:
Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) are ‘sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity’ They represent an indispensable tool for effective site-based conservation because they allow us to identify and allocate protected areas and other conservation resources where most needed. Criterion E for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas is Irreplaceability through quantitative analysis. Irreplaceability metrics determine the importance of a place to achieve a set of conservation targets. This criterion is underrepresented in the KBA network as it is new in the important areas identification system. This metric uses a complementary base approach, meaning the irreplaceability value of a site depends on the biodiversity in itself and the biodiversity of the network considered in the analyses. This property makes irreplaceability calculation dependent on the scale. In this analysis, we evaluated how the patterns of irreplaceability change depending on the scale and how to quantify irreplaceability within countries while ensuring the global significance of the identified KBA. In a country-level analysis, we found that irreplaceability is driven by endemic and restricted ranges species, while in the global analysis, irreplaceability is also driven by species aggregations. We hope our results inform KBA authorities and users and help develop clear guidelines for this important conservation metric.
[Oral presentation] Lumbierres, M. (2021) Evaluating Irreplaceability in Key Biodiversity Areas and the effects of the geographical scale , 30th International Congress for Conservation Biology, online.