Global Ecology and Conservation, 24, e01359
Nov 17, 2020
Global assessment of critical forest and landscape restoration needs for threatened terrestrial vertebrate species
David Luther, Craig R. Beatty, Justin Cooper, Neil Cox, Sarah Farinelli, Matt Foster, John Lamoreux, P.J. Stephenson, Thomas M. Brooks
Habitat restoration will prove critical if we are to reverse current population declines and extinction rates of Threatened species. This is particularly the case for forest restoration, given that >80% of Threatened species live in forests and they are habitat for 80% of amphibians, 75% of birds, 68% of mammals and approximately 60% of all tropical vascular plants. While the UN General Assembly has declared 2021 to 2030 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and the Bonn Challenge aims to place at least 350 million hectares of degraded landscapes under restoration, to date there remains little guidance on where to target restoration efforts to support Threatened species. We conduct a global analysis of terrestrial vertebrate species listed as Threatened and Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species that occur in forests and have Habitat and Natural Processes Restoration as a recommended conservation action. The analysis identifies critical restoration regions that host Threatened species whose recovery could benefit from effective forest or landscape restoration strategies. With habitat restoration as an important solution to reversing declining population trends and extinctions of Threatened forest species, identification of these critical landscapes should help guide future forest restoration efforts towards locations where they may benefit the maximum number of Threatened species.