13.3: Prioritization - What Should be Protected?

Historically, the boundaries of protected areas was often determined through pragmatic considerations, such as the availability of funds and land, and political influence, rather than ecological considerations. Many conservation areas were thus established on “lands that nobody wants”: marginal areas with little agriculture and development potential, or areas that were too remote to have high commercial value (a trend that continues even today: Venter et al., 2018). Other protected areas were established in locations with charismatic megafauna, so ecosystems without those species remained unprotected. Consequently, some of Africa’s most threatened species and ecosystems remain under-protected (Beresford et al., 2011).

In a crowded world with finite natural resources and limited funding, it is increasingly important to be strategic about where protected areas are established.

In a crowded world with finite natural resources and limited funding, it is becoming increasingly important to be strategic about where protected areas are established. To do this, conservation biologists and policy makers must answer three key questions: (1) What is most important to protect? (2) Where would it be best protected? (3) How could it be most effectively protected? Three criteria can be used to answer the first two of these questions:

• Distinctiveness (or irreplaceability): Ecosystems with species that are distinct in their taxonomy (e.g. ecosystems that contain the only species in a taxonomic group) or geographic distribution (e.g. endemic species), or ecosystems with unique attributes (e.g. scenic landscapes, unusual geological features).
• Endangerment (or vulnerability): Areas that contain concentrations of species threatened with extinction, or ecosystems in danger of being destroyed.
• Utility: Species and ecosystems that people value, including culturally significant species, economically valuable species or ecosystems, or areas that can contribute to combating climate change.

Using these criteria, scientists have developed several broadly complementary methods to prioritise areas for protection. The approaches differ more in what traits they emphasise rather than in their fundamental principles. Thus, although some people may argue about which approach is better, each approach contributes to the protection of biodiversity.

Species approach

Many protected areas are created to protect (e.g. threatened, culturally significant, or keystone) species. Species that provide the motivation to establish a protected area are known as focal species. As a prominent example using the focal species concept, the Alliance for Zero Extinction (http://www.zeroextinction.org) identified 67 priority sites across Sub-Saharan Africa (853 sites globally) that contain the last remaining populations of one or more Endangered or Critically Endangered species. Flagship species, such as gorillas, are a special kind of focal species because they capture public attention, have symbolic value, and are important for ecotourism purposes. Many flagship species and focal species are also umbrella species, because their protection indirectly benefits other species and ecosystem components with which they share their landscape.

Protected areas are often established to protect threatened or charismatic species, unique ecosystems, and or wilderness areas.

Ecosystem approach

There is debate among conservation biologists over whether ecosystems rather than individual species should be the primary target of conservation efforts. Supporters of an ecosystem approach argue that protecting and managing ecosystems can preserve more species and provide more value to people than spending the same amount of money to protect individual species. Focusing on ecosystems also allows for greater flexibility in justifying conservation efforts, because it can be easier to demonstrate the economic value of ecosystems for helping to control floods, filtering water, and providing opportunities for recreation. To that end, the WWF has identified 238 ecoregions across the globe (the “Global 200”)—57 of them in Sub-Saharan Africa—that are most crucial to the biodiversity conservation (Olson et al., 2002). This Global 200 analysis formed the basis of a more recent global assessment that identified 41 at-risk ecoregions—areas of high conservation priorities because they are undergoing high levels of habitat conversion and have low protected areas coverage (Watson et al., 2016). Africa has several at-risk ecoregions, particularly in Angola, South Africa, the DRC, and West Africa’s Sahel region. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE, Section 8.5.1) is another example of an ecosystem-focused prioritization for conservation. While the ecosystems approach overcomes several limitations of the species approach, some conservationists argue that focussing on distinct ecosystems may, in itself, be detrimental, and that the scope of conservation should be expanded, for example by also including biogeographic transition zones (van Rensburg et al., 2013).

Wilderness approach

Wilderness areas are large areas where people have had little influence on the environment (relative to other areas), they have few people living in them, and are unlikely places for human development in the short term. These areas are conservation priorities because they may be the only places where animals that require large home ranges can continue to survive in the wild. Further, wildernesses can serve as controls or benchmarks for researchers to measure the effect of human disturbance on nature. The most popular way to identify wilderness areas is to identify areas without roads. While very few roadless areas remain, many of the world’s most important roadless wildernesses, some larger than 10,000 km2, are in Africa (Ibisch et al., 2016). Of concern is that, second to South America, Africa also leads the world in wilderness losses over the past decade (Potapov et al., 2017). It is worth emphasising that even wilderness areas have had a long history of human activity (Roberts et al., 2017). It is not always necessary or even possible to eliminate all human activity from such areas, if those activities do not obstruct conservation goals.

Hotspot approach

Multiple prominent initiatives have prioritised conservation in areas where large concentrations of species can be protected in a relatively small area. Perhaps the most prominent example is the Global Biodiversity Hotspots initiative. Combining a species approach with an ecosystem approach, Global Biodiversity Hotspots are areas with exceptionally high levels of biological diversity and endemism—that is, irreplaceable biodiversity—that are threatened with imminent habitat destruction (Table 13.2). Norman Myers, a British biologist who launched his conservation career as a wildlife photographer in Kenya, originally proposed the Biodiversity Hotspot concept (Myers, 1988). Working with a team of prominent scientists, Myers identified 25 Hotspots (five of them in Sub-Saharan Africa), which contained 44% of all vascular plant species and 35% of all terrestrial vertebrate species on only 1.4% of the Earth’s land surface (Myers et al., 2000). More recently, Conservation International (CI) identified an expanded set of 36 Biodiversity Hotspots (Mittermeier et al., 2005), eight of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 13.3). This expanded set of Biodiversity Hotspots covers only 2.3% of Earth’s surface yet contains over 50% of all plant species and over 40% of all terrestrial vertebrate species.

Table 13.2 A natural history comparison of Sub-Saharan Africa’s eight Global Biodiversity Hotspots.

Location	Original extent (× 1,000 km2)	Remaining undisturbed vegetation (%)	Number of species
			Plants	Birds	Mammals
Guinean Forests of West Africa	620	15	9,000	917	390
Succulent Karoo	103	29	6,356	225	75
Cape Floristic Region	90	20	9,000	320	127
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany	274	25	8,100	631	202
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa	291	10	4,050	633	198
Eastern Afromontane	1,018	11	7,600	1,300	490
Indian Ocean Islandsa	601	10	13,500	503	211
Horn of Africa	1,659	5	5,000	697	220

Source: Mittermeyer et al., 2004; https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots.

a Includes Madagascar and Mascarene islands

Figure 13.3 Sub-Saharan Africa’s eight Global Biodiversity Hotspots. These areas are targets for protection because of their high biodiversity, endemism, and significant threat of imminent extinctions. After Mittermeier et al., 2005. Map by Johnny Wilson, CC BY 4.0.

While the Global Biodiversity Hotspots highlight some of the most important global conservation priorities, none of these Hotspots are small enough to be contained in a single protected area—in fact, most of these Hotspots identify whole regions, not projects, requiring conservationists to still make decisions for prioritising protection within them. To create actionable priorities from within regional hotspots, several initiatives aim to identify local hotspots of species richness that can be conserved as one protected area of a manageable size. One such approach is the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) program (Eken et al., 2004), which identifies conservation priorities using standardised criteria and thresholds that account for concentrations of threatened species and/or globally significant population aggregations. The KBA program functions as an umbrella designation for several taxon-specific approaches, most prominently BirdLife International’s Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA) program (Fishpool and Evans, 2011). Other KBA programs include PlantLife International’s Important Plant Areas program (e.g. Smith and Smith 2004), as well as the Important Sites for Freshwater Biodiversity program (Darwall et al., 2005). One example from Guinea used KBA criteria and thresholds regarding threatened mammals to provide suggestions for expanding the country’s protected areas network (Brugiere and Kormos, 2009).

Gap analysis approach

Assessing the performance of existing protected areas can be done by spatially comparing their footprint to prioritised conservation areas (as above). Such an assessment offers not only an assessment of existing protected areas performance, but also offers a means to identify conservation gaps—important areas that still need to be protected to meet broader conservation goals. Such assessments, which systematically evaluate whether different aspects of biodiversity are adequately protected, are collectively known as systematic conservation planning assessments (McIntosh et al., 2017). Perhaps the most popular systematic conservation planning method is gap analysis, during which scientists overlay maps of species (or ecosystem) distributions with maps of protected areas to identify species (called gap species, see also Figure 10.3) or ecosystems that are not adequately protected in existing protected areas networks (Box 13.2).

Gap analysis enables conservation planners to identify species or ecosystems that are not adequately protected in existing protected areas networks.

Box 13.2 Identifying Key Sites for Conservation in the Albertine Rift

Andrew J. Plumptre12

1Albertine Rift Program,

Wildlife Conservation Society,

Kampala, Uganda.

2Current Address:

Key Biodiversity Area Secretariat,

c/o BirdLife International,

Cambridge, UK.

[e-mail]

The Albertine Rift is one of the richest regions on Earth for vertebrate diversity (Figure 13.B). Spanning about 100 km either side of the international border of the eastern DRC, it includes forests, wetlands and savannahs from eastern DRC and western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, and runs from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. It contains more than 40% of Africa’s mammals, 52% of Africa’s birds, as well as 19% of its amphibians and plants, in only 1% of the continent’s surface area. It also contains more endemic and globally threatened species than any other ecoregion in Africa (Plumptre et al., 2007). Endemic large charismatic species include the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei, CR), golden monkey (Cercopithecus kandti, EN), Congo bay owl (Phodilus prigoginei, EN), and Ruwenzori turaco (Ruwenzorornis johnstoni, LC). The lakes in the Albertine Rift each also contain several hundred unique fish species. Unfortunately, this rich biodiversity also occurs in one of the most densely populated parts of Africa, and the threats to existing protected areas are high.

Figure 13.B (Top) Mubwindi Swamp, in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, an important site for mountain gorillas and the Albertine Rift endemic Grauer’s Rush Warbler (Bradypterus grayeri, EN). (Bottom) A Grauer’s gorilla, the largest of the four gorilla subspecies and a flagship for conservation efforts in the Albertine Rift. Photographs by A.J. Plumptre/WCS, CC BY 4.0.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has been working to support the conservation of six key landscapes in the Albertine Rift (ARCOS, 2004), particularly focusing on (a) identifying critical areas for conservation of threatened and endemic species; (b) undertaking research and monitoring of species and key landscapes; and (c) supporting the conservation of critical sites and the creation of new protected areas to conserve large and small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and plants in all protected areas, as well as sites where new protected areas might be established. These surveys have identified critically important areas in eastern DRC, such as the Itombwe and Kabobo Massifs where new species have been identified and some species were rediscovered, having been last seen more than 50 years ago. Working with local communities, the surveys have been used to design the boundaries of newly established protected areas to ensure that they capture as much of the biodiversity as feasible. Once the local people in the area are presented with survey results and options for protection discussed, they often realise the importance of their site and propose more stringent protection measures than conservationists initially thought possible.

Using species distribution models (SDM) of the region’s endemic and globally threatened species, WCS gained an understanding of where these species should occur both now and under future climate change scenarios (Ayebare et al., 2018). Using Marxan software (Possingham et al., 2000), WCS then identified those areas that would conserve all the species of conservation interest at minimum cost (Plumptre et al., 2019). This procedure identified the Itombwe and Kabobo Massifs together with the Sitebi Hills east of Mahale Mountains National Park in western Tanzania as being critical for conservation of species that are currently not adequately protected (Figure 13.C).

Figure 13.C Selection frequency of 5 km2 cells in the Albertine Rift from Marxan analysis, indicating priority areas for the conservation of endemic and threatened mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and plants. Existing protected areas (all highlighted) were locked in but proposed protected areas such as Itombwe and Kabobo and community reserves (purple boundary) were not. Darker green areas indicate priority conservation sites. Image courtesy of WCS Albertine Rift Program, CC BY 4.0.

These results were used to develop an Albertine Rift Action Plan (Plumptre et al., 2016), together with detailed conservation action plans for the preservation of the six core landscapes and their unique and threatened species, both inside and outside of protected areas, now and into future.

When identifying conservation gaps, it is important to think carefully about the taxa or ecosystem used to make the assessment. Many conservation assessments assume that one well-known species group can act as a biodiversity indicator (also known as a biodiversity surrogate or surrogate species) for lesser-known taxa, so establishing a protected area to protect one gap species will also afford protection to other under-protected taxa. While this is true to some level, several studies have shown that this may not always be the case (Rodrigues and Brooks, 2007; Carwardine et al., 2008; Jones et al., 2016).

Optimization Approach

Prioritisation efforts typically need to consider multiple factors in addition to biodiversity, such as cost-effectiveness, socio-economics, site condition, and potential threats that may impact a proposed protected area. Technical computer software known as “decision support tools” are providing a new way to identify conservation priorities that meet a suite of conservation objectives. One of the most popular packages is Marxan (http://marxan.org), a freely available program that identifies the optimal location for protected areas based on flexible user-defined criteria (Watts et al., 2009). The user-defined criteria can be complex; for example, one can set the model parameters to choose the areas that best protect certain aspects of biodiversity (e.g. protect at least 25% of each vegetation type) while reducing costs and minimising impact on other stakeholders; model input can include measured data, as well as expert input. In one such example, conservation biologists from South Africa, Eswatini, and Mozambique used Marxan to identify potential locations for new protected areas in the Maputaland Centre of Endemism which the three countries share. They found that adding 4,291 km2 to the existing protected areas network could generate US $18.8 million in revenues while fulfilling their conservation objectives: protecting 44 landcover types, 53 species, and 14 ecological processes (Smith et al., 2008).

Decision support tools help identify conservation priorities that meet a suite of objectives, including cost-effectiveness, socio-economics, and site condition.

Regardless which prioritization approach one follows, it is important to remember that prioritising species and ecosystems in need of protection does not amount to “doing conservation”. Real conservation only happens when a conservation plan that will implement those suggestions is drawn up and put in place. A review of eight different systematic conservation assessments in South Africa provides a good foundation to guide conservation biologists in the process from prioritization to implementation (Knight et al., 2006).