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The researchers mapped Earth’s land mass using biodiversity data to find areas currently unprotected by conservation efforts that are home to large numbers of rare and endangered species.
They identified a total of 16,825 sites where conservation efforts should be focused.
“Most species on Earth are rare, meaning that the species either have very narrow ranges, occur at very low densities, or both,” said lead study author Dr. Eric Dinerstein.
“And the rarity is very concentrated. In our study, approaching this rarity, we found that we only need about 1.2 percent of the Earth’s surface to prevent the sixth major extinction of life on Earth.”
More efforts are already being made to protect the Earth’s deserts, with an additional 1.2 million square kilometers of land protected as of 2018.
However, the study, led by the non-profit organization Resolve, found that only 0.11 million square kilometers of this land is home to range-restricted and threatened species.
This equates to one in four animals and plants on Earth at risk of extinction – mostly due to human impacts, including deforestation, climate change and human development encroaching on natural habitats.
But if all 16,825 sites – totaling about 164 million hectares – were adequately protected, most of the predicted extinctions could be prevented.
Simply protecting sites located in the tropics could prevent most of the projected extinctions.
“These places are home to over 4,700 threatened species in some of the most biodiverse yet threatened ecosystems in the world,” said Resolve’s Andy Lee, co-author.
“These include not only mammals and birds that rely on large intact habitats – such as the tamaraw in the Philippines and the Celebes macaque in Sulawesi, Indonesia – but also range-restricted amphibians and rare plant species.”
Just three countries – the Philippines, Brazil and Indonesia – are home to 8,590 sites in need of protection, more than half of the world’s total.
Australia ranked 15th, with 137 key conservation sites covering 35,705 square kilometers of land, centered on the temperate forests of eastern Australia, stretching from the NSW south coast to southern Queensland.
However, while conservationists say protecting these places is “affordable and feasible,” it comes with a hefty price tag.
Scientists note an “extremely endangered” animal, with only about a dozen left
They estimated that protecting the sites located in the tropics alone would cost approximately $34 billion annually over the next five years.
“This represents less than 0.2 percent of United States GDP, less than 9 percent of the annual subsidies benefiting the global fossil fuel industry, and a tiny fraction of the revenue generated by the mining and agroforestry industries each year,” Lee said.
Biodiversity protection effects can also help prevent the harmful effects of climate change, as the Earth’s forest cover acts as a carbon sink.
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