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Bias toward legally protecting and prioritizing charismatic taxonomic groups, such as mammals and birds, and against others, such as insects and plants, is well documented. However, the relative costs of conserving various taxonomic groups and the potential of these costs to interact with existing biases have been much less explored. We analyzed conservation programs across more than 2,000 species in 3 countries to investigate the costs of conserving species within taxonomic groups and how these costs might affect conservation planning. For each data set, we tested for differences in mean annual cost among taxonomic groups. For the data set from the United States, recovery plans differed in duration, so we also tested for differences in total costs among taxonomic groups. Although the costs for individual species varied widely, there were strong international consistencies. For example, mammals cost 8-26 times more on average to conserve than plants and 13-19 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. On average, bird species cost 5-30 times more to conserve than plants and 6-14 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. These cost differences could exacerbate unequal resource allocation among taxonomic groups such that more charismatic groups both receive more attention and require more resources, leading to neglect of other taxonomic groups., (© 2019 Society for Conservation Biology.)

In 2010, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 to address the loss and degradation of nature. Subsequently, most biodiversity indicators continued to decline. Nevertheless, conservation actions can make a positive difference for biodiversity. The emerging Post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework has potential to catalyze efforts to "bend the curve" of biodiversity loss. Thus, the inclusion of a goal on species, articulated as Goal B in the Zero Draft of the Post‐2020 Framework, is essential. However, as currently formulated, this goal is inadequate for preventing extinctions, and reversing population declines; both of which are required to achieve the CBD's 2030 Mission. We contend it is unacceptable that Goal B could be met while most threatened species deteriorated in status and many avoidable species extinctions occurred. We examine the limitations of the current wording and propose an articulation with robust scientific basis. A goal for species that strives to end extinctions and recover populations of all species that have experienced population declines, and especially those at risk of extinction, would help to align actors toward the transformative actions and interventions needed for humans to live in harmony with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resources for biodiversity conservation are limited and it is therefore imperative that management actions that have the best chance of success are prioritized. Non‐native species (NNS) are one of the key problems facing biodiversity conservation, so understanding how NNS disperse and establish can inform more effective conservation planning and management. Using a novel Bayesian belief network model, we investigated non‐native plant dispersal on the approximately 550 islands along the Pilbara coast, Western Australia, and identified priority species and locations for targeted management. Of a total of around 9,000 weed arrivals onto the islands, 1,661 arrivals across 14 weed species had some probability of establishment. Suggested management actions in these cases would be education campaigns to inform visitors about the risk of accidental transport of propagules, quarantine programs, and eradication. For the seven weed species that arrived only via human dispersal and had a >10% chance of establishment on five islands, surveillance, and control of new arrivals would be the recommended management actions. Removal of propagule source populations would not be a cost‐effective management strategy. The inherent flexibility of our model means that different objectives can be analyzed in a transparent way, making it a powerful tool for guiding effective targeted action, derived from an explicit decision‐making framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses significant challenges to the long-term management of threatened species. Pre-emptive assessments of the capacity for threatened species to adapt to climate change are essential for choosing appropriate management actions that minimise extinction risk. Here, we use species traits and range metrics linked to ecological performance to assess the capacity to respond to climate change of 342 plant species, listed as threatened under IUCN-compatible criteria in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). Traits capturing variation in phenology, morphology, physiology and geographic range were used to assess species' response(s) to four factors likely to influence their climate change response: Reproduction, Movement Capability, Abiotic Niche Specialisation, and risk spreading across Spatial Coverage. Assessment scores were combined into high, medium and low rankings based on two complementary approaches for assessing climate change risk: (i) fully precautionary, where species were classified as high risk if any one of the four response factors was high; and (ii) integrative, combining scores across all four response factors to assign an overall risk ranking. 84% of threatened species assessed had a high risk ranking for at least one response factor, whereas 30, 55 and 15% of species were ranked high, medium or low respectively, based on our integrative measure of risk. Importantly, basic information for at least one trait for an additional 237 threatened plants in NSW was not available, despite thorough searching across 727 resources. This lack of fundamental baseline data for threatened plants may have wide-ranging implications for their management, including an inability to assess their response capacity to threats, and plan accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammals can serve as an indicator of global climate change impacts on species' distributions due to the wide range of ecological niches they utilize. Tropical Asia encompasses several biodiversity hotspots, is the largest reservoir of mammalian diversity on earth, and has already experienced the extinction of several mammal species either regionally or locally. Global climate change could become a significant driver of species extinction, either directly or synergistically with other factors, such as habitat loss, agricultural expansion, overexploitation, and land use change. Despite the variability of climatic regimes across tropical Asia, the potential impacts of climate change on continental-scale distributions of mammals have not been examined. To address this issue, we developed habitat suitability models for four threatened large mammals (Ursus thibetanus, Elephas maximus, Hoolock hoolock, and Panthera tigris tigris), across their entire distributions in Asia. We used presence-only distribution records and nine bioclimatic and environmental variables and built species-specific habitat suitability models using a maximum entropy algorithm (MaxEnt). We used a moderate and an extreme climate scenario (RCP6.0 and RCP8.5) and three time steps: current, 2050, and 2070. Our results suggest that changes in annual precipitation, annual mean temperature, precipitation, and temperature seasonality could reduce suitable habitat for these mammals and therefore increase their extinction risks. However, several patches of stable habitat are projected to persist through the late twenty-first century, and these climate change refugia areas can be managed as an important strategy for conservation of the mammal species and the maintenance of biodiversity in the face of ongoing climate change. In this context, we recommend the following steps for the conservation of global mammal populations: (i) define the spatial extent (local, regional, or continental scale) of the target mammals, (ii) identify and prioritize climate change refugial areas following ecological niche models or other methods based on biological data, and (iii) implement management actions by analyzing current management tools and the strategies required (e.g., habitat restoration or assisted migration for prioritized species) to achieve long-term conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species' response to climate change is already occurring and managers require scenario planning with tangible actions for effective conservation. We address this need by examining the impact of projected changes in maximum temperature and sea level rise (SLR), on the future suitability of current nesting sites for two globally endangered turtle species ( Eretmochelys imbricata , hawksbill and Caretta caretta , loggerhead turtles). We parameterized the biophysical characteristics of nesting beaches in Western Australia (WA), Northern Territory (NT) and Queensland (Qld) and used climate change projections to assess future suitability. All current nesting beaches are predicted to experience increased maximum temperatures (up to 34.8 °C in NT and 38.9 °C in WA), sex ratios will become increasingly female-skewed, and embryo viability will be threatened at beaches in the north and west of Australia. Beaches in eastern Australia are less likely to flood than those in the west under sea level rise, although all beaches will experience increased flooding, with some sites projected to be below mean high water level by 2100. Many current beaches globally may become unsuitable for nesting under climate change and therefore other existing, or newly established, beaches will be critical for the persistence of turtle populations: thermally suitable climate space in Australia will undergo a southwards shift. This type of analysis can be repeated elsewhere to inform regional long-term conservation planning, such as implementation of protected areas. We demonstrate a valid approach to addressing the issue of conservation for species that use different habitats at different life stages in different parts of the world: by assessing future habitat suitability we highlight important areas for effective conservation planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the rate of species extinctions is one of the great challenges of our time. Understanding patterns in the distribution and frequency of both threatened species and the threatening processes affecting them improves our ability to mitigate threats and prioritize management actions. In this quantitative synthesis of processes threatening Australian at-risk fauna, we find that species are impacted by a median of six threats (range 1–19), though there is considerable variation in numbers of threats among major taxonomic groups. Invasive species, habitat loss, biological resource use, natural systems modification and climate change are the processes most commonly affecting Australian threatened species. We identified an uneven distribution of research knowledge among species, with half of the total number of species-specific peer-reviewed scientific publications associated with only 11 threatened species (2.7%). Furthermore, the number of threats associated with each species was correlated with the research effort for that species, and research effort was correlated with body mass. Hence, there appears to be a research bias towards larger-bodied species, and certain charismatic species, that could result in inferences biased towards these favored species. However, after accounting for these effects we found that for birds, amphibians, reptiles and marine mammals body mass is positively correlated with the number of threats associated with each species. Many threats also co-occur, indicating that threat syndromes may be common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]