Wildlife Threatened by Human Activity, New Data Can Boost Conservation Efforts

Scientists have just been able to create a new database that will aid in filling in the gaps in our understanding regarding where and how human activities threaten wildlife across the globe.

Filling in the Gaps of How Humans Threaten Wildlife Species

According to conservationists, there is a large gap in available data on different locations, threats, and the taxonomy of groups. A recent study found that 75% of threat maps produced were only at a national scale or below. This means that a considerable amount of evidence has potentially been overlooked when basing our insights on global threats on maps produced on a global scale.

To address the issue, a team of conservationists created a searchable database allowing anyone to access the studies found easily. The database presents a key tool for planning conservation actions at any spatial scale, preventing species extinction on a global level. This represents a large volume of evidence that captures many threats, such as the collection of medical plants, pollution, hunting, and invasive alien species, which are difficult to account for in a global dataset.

The journal Environmental Evidence published the database "The scope and extent of literature that maps threats to species globally: a systematic map." This allows decision-makers at both local and national scales to quickly access relevant evidence.

Biases in Studies Lead to Miscalculation of Conservation Priorities

The study led by Francesca Ridley, Ph.D., a researcher at Newcastle University, involved a rigorous search and screening of more than 14,000 articles, looking for maps where threatening human activities came into contact with wildlife species and plants across the globe.

Ridley explains that the findings have vital implications for how conservation efforts are planned to reduce the extinction rate of various species—adding that with the second part of UN Biodiversity COP15 and the finalization of the 2020 Biodiversity Framework looming near, there is a need to consolidate what we know about where and how anthropogenic activities threaten species with extinction. In this pursuit, the team's findings are a vital step forward, reports ScienceDaily.

Previous attempts to observe the global distribution of threats to species have only relied on globally available data that does not account for the knowledge gained on a local scale and do not represent the full scope of threatening human activities across freshwater, terrestrial, and marine realms. The recent study reinforces the need to use findings of smaller-scale studies to inform a much broader understanding of where species are at risk.

Also, the study observed biases in sampling. One example, studies on animals were three times more than taxonomically specific studies on plants. Additionally, there were twice as many studies on terrestrial species than both aquatic realms together. The sampling biases can distort our knowledge of what actions and areas need prioritization.

Ridley adds that a more critical appraisal and extraction of the magnitude of threats for each study is necessary to translate evidence into reducing threatening activities. Reproducing the analyses for non-English languages and making more efforts to identify grey literature could fill in more gaps in threat mappings available.

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