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Áreas Protegidas y Perspectivas para la Conservación de Especies en Peligro en Canadá
Author(s) -
DEGUISE ISABELLE E.,
KERR JEREMY T.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00274.x
Subject(s) - endangered species , threatened species , geography , extinction (optical mineralogy) , wilderness area , nature reserve , protected area , wilderness , umbrella species , iucn protected area categories , biodiversity , ecology , conservation dependent species , agroforestry , environmental resource management , near threatened species , environmental protection , environmental science , biology , habitat , paleontology , archaeology
Abstract: Reserve networks figure prominently in conservation strategies that aim to reduce extinction rates. We tested the effectiveness of the current reserve network at protecting species at risk in Canada, where relatively extensive wilderness areas remain. We compared numbers of terrestrial species at risk included in existing reserves to randomly generated networks with the same total area and number of reserves. Existing reserve networks rarely performed better than randomly selected areas and several included fewer endangered species than expected by chance, particularly in the most biologically imperiled regions. The extent of protected area and density of species at risk were unrelated at either broad (countrywide) or finer spatial scales (50 × 50 km grids), although there was a tendency for the most threatened regions of the country to have few or no protected areas (1.5% of areas with >30 endangered species were in reserves). Although reserves will play a useful role in conserving endangered species that occur within them, reducing extinction rates in a region with much of the world's remaining wilderness will require integrating conservation strategies with agricultural and urban land‐use plans outside formally protected areas.