Conserving critical sites for biodiversity provides disproportionate benefits to people.
Protecting natural habitats in priority areas is essential to halt the loss of biodiversity. Yet whether these benefits for biodiversity also yield benefits for human well-being remains controversial. Here we assess the potential human well-being benefits of safeguarding a global network of sites identified as top priorities for the conservation of threatened species. Conserving these sites would yield benefits--in terms of a) climate change mitigation through avoidance of CO(2) emissions from deforestation; b) freshwater services to downstream human populations; c) retention of option value; and d) benefits to maintenance of human cultural diversity--significantly exceeding those anticipated from randomly selected sites within the same countries and ecoregions. Results suggest that safeguarding sites important for biodiversity conservation provides substantial benefits to human well-being.
Science & Knowledge Division, Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America. frankwugtlarsen@gmail.com
Frank W
FW
Larsen
Will R
WR
Turner
Thomas M
TM
Brooks
D044822:Biodiversity; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D057231:Climate Change / Q000191:economics; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D056727:Endangered Species; D038622:Internationality; D008962:Models, Theoretical
D002245:Carbon Dioxide