TY - JOUR

T1 - The pitfall-trap of species conservation priority setting

AU - Martín-López, Berta

AU - González, J. A.

AU - Montes, Carlos

PY - 2011/3

Y1 - 2011/3

N2 - To elucidate the factors underlying species conservation priority setting, we analysed the relationships among species' structural complexity, scientific attention, threatened species listing, and conservation investments at different organisational levels, including global, European, national, and sub-national. Although the literature often highlights the need to consider criteria other than extinction risk status, our results show that an excessive use of Red lists still persists in the setting of conservation priorities. We found that organismal complexity, available scientific information, and species listing combine together to create a positive feed-back loop, in which more complex organisms have a larger proportion of threatened species in the Red lists and legal lists. This bias promotes research that is devoted to understanding conservation problems as well as more funds invested to solve them. We propose that a sort of pitfall-trap is currently constraining the species conservation priority setting, in which few species, mainly threatened and better-known species, tend to receive most of the funds and policy attention. To counteract this pitfall-trap, we highlight the need to increase scientific effort on lower taxa and expand Red lists to assess lesser-known taxonomic groups as well as the need to use other criteria for species conservation prioritisation.

AB - To elucidate the factors underlying species conservation priority setting, we analysed the relationships among species' structural complexity, scientific attention, threatened species listing, and conservation investments at different organisational levels, including global, European, national, and sub-national. Although the literature often highlights the need to consider criteria other than extinction risk status, our results show that an excessive use of Red lists still persists in the setting of conservation priorities. We found that organismal complexity, available scientific information, and species listing combine together to create a positive feed-back loop, in which more complex organisms have a larger proportion of threatened species in the Red lists and legal lists. This bias promotes research that is devoted to understanding conservation problems as well as more funds invested to solve them. We propose that a sort of pitfall-trap is currently constraining the species conservation priority setting, in which few species, mainly threatened and better-known species, tend to receive most of the funds and policy attention. To counteract this pitfall-trap, we highlight the need to increase scientific effort on lower taxa and expand Red lists to assess lesser-known taxonomic groups as well as the need to use other criteria for species conservation prioritisation.

KW - Bias in conservation

KW - Conservation legislation

KW - Conservation priorities

KW - IUCN Red Lists

KW - Multi-scale analysis

KW - Threat status

KW - Threatened species

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79951773015&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10531-010-9973-z

DO - 10.1007/s10531-010-9973-z

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:79951773015

VL - 20

SP - 663

EP - 682

JO - Biodiversity and Conservation

JF - Biodiversity and Conservation

SN - 0960-3115

IS - 3

ER -