title: Aligning conservation priorities across taxa in Madagascar with high-resolution planning tools.
abstract: Globally, priority areas for biodiversity are relatively well known, yet few detailed plans exist to direct conservation action within them, despite urgent need. Madagascar, like other globally recognized biodiversity hot spots, has complex spatial patterns of endemism that differ among taxonomic groups, creating challenges for the selection of within-country priorities. We show, in an analysis of wide taxonomic and geographic breadth and high spatial resolution, that multitaxonomic rather than single-taxon approaches are critical for identifying areas likely to promote the persistence of most species. Our conservation prioritization, facilitated by newly available techniques, identifies optimal expansion sites for the Madagascar government's current goal of tripling the land area under protection. Our findings further suggest that high-resolution multitaxonomic approaches to prioritization may be necessary to ensure protection for biodiversity in other global hot spots.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3114, USA. ckremen@nature.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kremen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moilanen
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Beentje
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dransfield
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Glaw
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Good
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hijmans
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Lees
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Louis
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Nussbaum
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Raxworthy
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Razafimpahanana
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Schatz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vences
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Vieites
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Zjhra
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura; D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D007313:Insecta; D007900:Lemur; D008116:Lizards; D008270:Madagascar; D010944:Plants; D014197:Trees