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In the past two decades, religious leaders have garnered increased interest from health ministries and NGOs as promoters, educators, and implementers of sensitive health programs such as family planning in several African countries. While religious leaders' role as public health actors has been well-documented, there are few ethnographic accounts of how religious leaders engage with public health programs, especially family planning. Informed by twelve months of ethnographic study in three rural and peri-urban locations in Kilombero district in 2014–2016, this article examines how Muslim religious leaders experienced and negotiated their role as implementers of family planning services. Governments and NGOs seek religious leaders' social capital to increase community's knowledge of and demand for family planning as well as to diffuse the community's moral anxieties surrounding its use. Participant observation and interviews, however, show that religious leaders selectively engage with family planning projects, balancing project demands, their own interests and the existing norms and perceptions in the community. Religious leaders stood beside other team members promoting condoms, but they remained silent themselves on condom promotion selecting instead to speak on the dangers of teenage pregnancy. Tensions, power differentials and a mélange of interests, existing and emergent, set the stage for religious leaders to selectively engage with the family planning project. Selective engagement was beneficial for both parties. Religious leaders received training on modern family planning, gained symbolic capital by associating with a powerful NGO, and expanded their social networks while government officials and NGOs received indirect support for family planning programs. • Religious leaders use selective engagement to build coalitions with NGO projects. • NGOs need religious leaders on controversial issues like family planning. • Religious leaders are part of the health intermediaries' convention in Tanzania. • NGOs overstate religious leaders' authority and power in rural Tanzania. • Religious leaders and NGOs can work together even with opposing beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Numerous studies have examined the role of community health workers (CHWs) in improving the delivery of health services and accelerating progress towards national and international development goals. A limited but growing body of studies have also explored the interactions between CHWs' personal, communal and professional identities and the implications of these for their profession. CHWs possess multiple, overlapping roles and identities, which makes them effective primary health care providers when properly supported with adequate resources, but it also limits their ability to implement interventions that only target certain members of their community, follow standard business working days and hours. In some situations, it even prevents them from performing certain duties when it comes to sensitive topics such as family planning.Methods: To understand the multiple identities of CHWs, a mixture of qualitative and ethnographic methods was utilized, such as participant observation, open-ended and semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions with CHWs, their supervisors, and their clients. The observation period began in October 2013 and ended in June 2014. This study was based on implementation research conducted by the Connect Project in Rufiji, Ulanga and Kilombero Districts in Tanzania and aimed to understand the role of CHWs in the provision of maternal and child health services in rural areas.Results: To our knowledge, this was the first study that employed an ethnographic approach to examine the relationship between personal, communal and professional identities, and its implications for CHWs' work in Tanzania. Our findings suggest that it is difficult to distinguish between personal and professional identities among CHWs in rural areas. Important aspects of CHW services such as personalization, access, and equity of health services were influenced by CHWs' position as local agents. However, the study also found that their personal identity sometimes inhibited CHWs in speaking about issues related to family planning and sexual health. Being local, CHWs were viewed according to the social norms of the area that consider the gender and age of each worker, which tended to constrain their work in family planning and other areas. Furthermore, the communities welcomed and valued CHWs when they had curative medicines; however, when medical stocks were delayed, the community viewed the CHWs with suspicion and disinterest. Community members who received curative services from CHWs also tended to become more receptive to their preventative health care work.Conclusion: Although CHWs' multiple roles constrained certain aspects of their work in line with prevalent social norms, overall, the multiple roles they fulfilled had a positive effect by keeping CHWs embedded in their community and earned them trust from community members, which enhanced their ability to provide personalized, equitable and relevant services. However, CHWs needed a support system that included functional supply chains, supervision, and community support to help them retain their role as health care providers and enabled them to provide curative, preventative, and referral services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate maps of species ranges are essential to inform conservation, but time-consuming to produce and update. Given the pace of change of knowledge about species distributions and shifts in ranges under climate change and land use, a need exists for timely mapping approaches that enable batch processing employing widely available data. We develop a systematic approach of batch-processing range maps and derived Area of Habitat maps for terrestrial bird species with published ranges below 125,000 km2 in Central and South America. (Area of Habitat is the habitat available to a species within its range.) We combine existing range maps with the rapidly expanding crowd-sourced eBird data of presences and absences from frequently surveyed locations, plus readily accessible, high resolution satellite data on forest cover and elevation to map the Area of Habitat available to each species. Users can interrogate the maps produced to see details of the observations that contributed to the ranges. Previous estimates of Areas of Habitat were constrained within the published ranges and thus were, by definition, smaller—typically about 30%. This reflects how little habitat within suitable elevation ranges exists within the published ranges. Our results show that on average, Areas of Habitat are 12% larger than published ranges, reflecting the often-considerable extent that eBird records expand the known distributions of species. Interestingly, there are substantial differences between threatened and non-threatened species. Some 40% of Critically Endangered, 43% of Endangered, and 55% of Vulnerable species have Areas of Habitat larger than their published ranges, compared with 31% for Near Threatened and Least Concern species. The important finding for conservation is that threatened species are generally more widespread than previously estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aichi Target 12 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) contains the aim to 'prevent extinctions of known threatened species'. To measure the degree to which this was achieved, we used expert elicitation to estimate the number of bird and mammal species whose extinctions were prevented by conservation action in 1993–2020 (the lifetime of the CBD) and 2010–2020 (the timing of Aichi Target 12). We found that conservation action prevented 21–32 bird and 7–16 mammal extinctions since 1993, and 9–18 bird and two to seven mammal extinctions since 2010. Many remain highly threatened and may still become extinct. Considering that 10 bird and five mammal species did go extinct (or are strongly suspected to) since 1993, extinction rates would have been 2.9–4.2 times greater without conservation action. While policy commitments have fostered significant conservation achievements, future biodiversity action needs to be scaled up to avert additional extinctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article published in PLOS ONE. The correction states that the authors of the article did not cite a preprint of a similar article published by Palacio et al. in Diversity and Distributions. Both articles address similar research questions and use different methods to build species distribution maps. The PLOS ONE study included more details and discussion of limitations compared to the Diversity and Distributions study. The authors of the correction notice are listed at the end. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract Determining whether species have gone extinct requires considering the timing and reliability of records, the timing and adequacy of surveys, and the timing, extent and intensity of threats. However, previous assessments have either applied qualitative approaches or considered only the first of these factors. We applied quantitative methods encompassing all three factors to a suite of 61 potentially or confirmed extinct species of birds. We tested six different methods, each with a range of thresholds, for assigning species to IUCN Red List Categories, and compared the results with species' current categories. We recommend that if both the probability that a species remains extant based on threats and the probability based on records and surveys fall below 0.5, it should qualify as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct), while if both probabilities fall below 0.1 it should qualify as Extinct. This novel approach resulted in an 80% match with the current IUCN Red List classification of species. The exceptions largely reflect species whose reclassification was pending the outcome of this work. Consequently, we recommend that nine species are reclassified on the IUCN Red List, with cryptic treehunter (Cichlocolaptes mazarbarnetti), Alagoas foliage-gleaner (Philydor novaesi) poo-uli (Melamprosops phaeosoma) now qualifying as Extinct. We estimate a revised total of 187 extinctions since 1500, of which 90% have been of insular species. The major drivers were invasive alien species (46%) and hunting/trapping (26%). Application of this approach in non-avian groups would increase the robustness of extinction rate estimates and species' classifications on the IUCN Red List. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Raptors provide critical ecosystem services, yet there is currently no systematic, global synthesis of their conservation status or threats. We review the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List to examine the conservation status, distributions, threats, and conservation recommendations for all 557 raptor species. We further assess the significance of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) for raptor conservation. We also determine which countries contain the most species listed under the Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MoU). Raptors, especially Old World vultures, are more threatened than birds in general. Eighteen percent of raptors are threatened with extinction and 52% of raptors have declining global populations. South and Southeast Asia have the highest richness and the largest number of threatened raptor species. By country, Indonesia has the highest richness of raptor species (119) and most declining species (63). China and Russia contain the most Raptors MoU species, although they are not yet signatories to the agreement. Raptor species that require forest are more likely to be threatened and declining than those that do not. Agriculture and logging are the most frequently identified threats, although poisoning is especially detrimental to Old World vultures. Of the 10 most important IBAs for raptors, six are in Nepal. Highest priority conservation actions to protect raptors include preventing mortality and conserving key sites and priority habitats. Improved long-term monitoring would allow for conservation to be appropriately targeted and effectiveness of interventions to be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Malnutrition has long been associated with poverty, poor diet and inadequate access to health care, and it remains a key global health issue that both stems from and contributes to ill-health, with 50 % of childhood deaths due to underlying undernutrition. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among children under-five seen at Bagamoyo District Hospital (BDH) and three rural health facilities ranging between 25 and 55 km from Bagamoyo: Kiwangwa, Fukayosi, and Yombo.Methods: A total of 63,237 children under-five presenting to Bagamoyo District Hospital and the three rural health facilities participated in the study. Anthropometric measures of age, height/length and weight and measurements of mid-upper arm circumference were obtained and compared with reference anthropometric indices to assess nutritional status for patients presenting to the hospital and health facilities.Results: Overall proportion of stunting, underweight and wasting was 8.37, 5.74 and 1.41 % respectively. Boys were significantly more stunted, under weight and wasted than girls (p-value < 0.05). Children aged 24-59 months were more underweight than 6-23 months (p-value = <0.0001). But, there was no statistical significance difference between the age groups for stunting and wasting. Children from rural areas experienced increased rates of stunting, underweight and wasting than children in urban areas (p-value < 0.05). The results of this study concur with other studies that malnutrition remains a problem within Tanzania; however our data suggests that the population presenting to BDH and rural health facilities presented with decreased rates of malnutrition compared to the general population.Conclusions: Hospital and facility attending populations of under-five children in and around Bagamoyo suffer moderately high rates of malnutrition. Current nutrition programs focus on education for at risk children and referral to regional hospitals for malnourished children. Even though the general population has even greater malnutrition than the population presenting at the hospital, in areas of high malnutrition, hospital-based interventions should also be considered as centralized locations for reaching thousands of malnourished children under-five. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation actions need to be prioritized, often taking into account species' extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides an accepted, objective framework for the assessment of extinction risk. Assessments based on data collected in the field are the best option, but the field data to base these on are often limited. Information collected through remote sensing can be used in place of field data to inform assessments. Forests are perhaps the best-studied land-cover type for use of remote-sensing data. Using an open-access 30-m resolution map of tree cover and its change between 2000 and 2012, we assessed the extent of forest cover and loss within the distributions of 11,186 forest-dependent amphibians, birds, and mammals worldwide. For 16 species, forest loss resulted in an elevated extinction risk under red-list criterion A, owing to inferred rapid population declines. This number increased to 23 when data-deficient species (i.e., those with insufficient information for evaluation) were included. Under red-list criterion B2, 484 species (855 when data-deficient species were included) were considered at elevated extinction risk, owing to restricted areas of occupancy resulting from little forest cover remaining within their ranges. The proportion of species of conservation concern would increase by 32.8% for amphibians, 15.1% for birds, and 24.7% for mammals if our suggested uplistings are accepted. Central America, the Northern Andes, Madagascar, the Eastern Arc forests in Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia are hotspots for these species. Our results illustrate the utility of satellite imagery for global extinction-risk assessment and measurement of progress toward international environmental agreement targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring the conservation of wild relatives of domesticated animals that are important food sources for humans forms part of targets for both the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). There is, however, no indicator allowing progress toward these aims to be measured. We identified 30 domesticated mammal and bird taxa that are sources of food for humans and consider 55 mammal and 449 bird species to be their wild relatives. We developed a Red List Index for these wild relatives, which declined by 2.02% between 1988 and 2016. Currently, 15 species are Critically Endangered, indicating that the Red List Index could deteriorate sharply unless action is taken to ensure the survival of highly threatened species and the reversal of their declines. This Index can meet a range of global policy needs, including reporting on progress toward Aichi Target 13 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and SDG Target 2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]