title: Restoration planning to guide Aichi targets in a megadiverse country.
abstract: Ecological restoration has become an important strategy to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems services. To restore 15% of degraded ecosystems as stipulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi target 15, we developed a prioritization framework to identify potential priority sites for restoration in Mexico, a megadiverse country. We used the most current biological and environmental data on Mexico to assess areas of biological importance and restoration feasibility at national scale and engaged stakeholders and experts throughout the process. We integrated 8 criteria into 2 components (i.e., biological importance and restoration feasibility) in a spatial multicriteria analysis and generated 11 scenarios to test the effect of assigning different component weights. The priority restoration sites were distributed across all terrestrial ecosystems of Mexico; 64.1% were in degraded natural vegetation and 6% were in protected areas. Our results provide a spatial guide to where restoration could enhance the persistence of species of conservation concern and vulnerable ecosystems while maximizing the likelihood of restoration success. Such spatial prioritization is a first step in informing policy makers and restoration planners where to focus local and large-scale restoration efforts, which should additionally incorporate social and monetary cost-benefit considerations.
authors.affiliation: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (Conabio), Liga Periférico-Insurgentes Sur 4903, Parques del Pedregal, Ciudad de México, C.P., 14010, Mexico.|UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tobón
authors.affiliation: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (Conabio), Liga Periférico-Insurgentes Sur 4903, Parques del Pedregal, Ciudad de México, C.P., 14010, Mexico.
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Urquiza-Haas
authors.affiliation: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (Conabio), Liga Periférico-Insurgentes Sur 4903, Parques del Pedregal, Ciudad de México, C.P., 14010, Mexico.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koleff
authors.affiliation: UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schröter
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Av. Universidad 3000, Circuito Exterior S/N, Delegación Coyoacán, Ciudad de México, C.P., 04510, Mexico.
authors.forename: Rubén
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ortega-Álvarez
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Circuito Exterior S/N anexo Jardín Botánico exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México, C.P., 04500, Mexico.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Campo
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (IIES), Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro 8701, Col. Ex Hacienda de San José de la Huerta, Morelia, Michoacán, C.P., 58190, Mexico.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lindig-Cisneros
authors.affiliation: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (Conabio), Liga Periférico-Insurgentes Sur 4903, Parques del Pedregal, Ciudad de México, C.P., 14010, Mexico.
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sarukhán
authors.affiliation: UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.|German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.|Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Institut für Ökologie, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Aletta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonn
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D008800:Mexico; D011336:Probability
keywords: análisis espacial multicriterio; factibilida de restauración; key biodiversity sites; participatory process; planificación sistemática de la conservación; proceso participativo; restoration feasibility; sitios clave de biodiversidad; spatial multicriteria analysis; systematic conservation planning