Protecting 17% of Earth's Land Could Save Two-thirds of World's Plant Species

Protecting just 17 percent of the Earth's land could ensure the survival of two-thirds of the world's plant species.

This is the thesis of a new study published conducted by an international team of scientists and published in the journal Science.

"Our analysis shows that two of the most ambitious goals set forth by the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity -- to protect 60 percent of Earth's plant species and 17 percent of its land surface -- can be achieved, with one major caveat," Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, said in a statement. "To achieve these goals, we need to protect more land, on average, than we currently do, and much more in key places such as Madagascar, New Guinea and Ecuador."

In order to determine those regions most worth protecting, the researchers first had to identify areas with the highest concentration of endemic species relative to their geographic size. To do this, they analyzed data on more than 100,000 different species of flowering plants compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. Using this information, they then created and ran complex algorithms in order to create a color-coded map identifying high-priority regions based on their density of endemic species.

"Species endemic to small geographical ranges are at a much higher risk of being threatened or endangered than those with large ranges," said Lucas N. Joppa, a conservation scientist at Microsoft Research's Computational Science Laboratory in Cambridge, U.K. "We combined regions to maximize the numbers of species in the minimal area. With that information, we can more accurately evaluate each region's relative importance for conservation, and assess international priorities accordingly."

In addition, the researchers mapped those areas home to the greatest number of small-ranged birds, mammals and amphibians, which, it turned out, generally overlapped with the high-priority plant regions.

"The fraction of land being protected in high-priority regions increases each year as new national parks are established and greater autonomy is given back to indigenous peoples to allow them to manage their traditional lands," Pimm said. "We're getting tantalizingly close to achieving the Convention of Biological Diversity's global goals. But the last few steps remaining are huge ones."