Publication:
Spatial Priorities for Conserving the most intact biodiverse forests within Central Africa

dc.contributor.authorGrantham, H.S.
dc.contributor.authorShapiro, A.
dc.contributor.authorBonfils, D.
dc.contributor.authorGond, V.
dc.contributor.authorGoldman, E.
dc.contributor.authorMaisels, F.
dc.contributor.authorPlumptre, A.J.
dc.contributor.authorRayden, T.
dc.contributor.authorRobinson, J.G.
dc.contributor.authorStrindberg, S.
dc.contributor.authorStokes, E.J.
dc.contributor.authorTulloch, A.
dc.contributor.authorWatson, J.E.M.
dc.contributor.authorWilliams, L.
dc.contributor.authorRickenbach, O.
dc.date.accessioned2022-01-23T18:57:22Z
dc.date.available2022-01-23T18:57:22Z
dc.identifier.urihttps://open.fsc.org/handle/resource/921
dc.titleSpatial Priorities for Conserving the most intact biodiverse forests within Central Africaen
dcterms.abstractThe forests of Central Africa contain some of Earth's few remaining intact forests. These forests are increasingly threatened by infrastructure development, agriculture, and unsustainable extraction of natural resources (e.g. minerals, bushmeat, and timber), all of which is leading to deforestation and forest degradation, particularly defaunation, and hence causing declines in biodiversity and a significant increase in carbon emissions. Given the pervasive nature of these threats, the global importance of Central African forests for biodiversity conservation, and the limited resources for conservation and sustainable management, there is a need to identify where the most important areas are to orientate conservation efforts. We developed a novel approach for identifying spatial priorities where conservation efforts can maximize biodiversity benefits within Central Africa's most intact forest areas. We found that the Democratic Republic of Congo has the largest amount of priority areas in the region, containing more than half, followed by Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. We compared our approach to one that solely prioritizes forest intactness and one that aims to achieve only biodiversity representation objectives. We found that when priorities are only based on forest intactness (without considering biodiversity representation), there are significantly fewer biodiversity benefits and vice versa. We therefore recommend multi-objective planning that includes biodiversity representation and forest intactness to ensure that both objectives are maximized. These results can inform various types of conservation strategies needed within the region, including land-use planning, jurisdictional REDD + initiatives, and performance related carbon payments, protected area expansion, community forest management, and forest concession plans.en
dcterms.accessRightsPublic
dcterms.accessRightsOpen access
dcterms.bibliographicCitationGrantham, H.S., Shapiro, A., Bonfils, D., Gond, V., Goldman, E., Maisels, F., Plumptre, A.J., Rayden, T., Robinson, J.G., Strindberg, S. and Stokes, E., 2020. Spatial priorities for conserving the most intact biodiverse forests within Central Africa. Environmental Research Letters, 15(9), p.0940b5.en
dcterms.issued2020
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-4.0en
dcterms.typeJournal Article
dspace.entity.typePublication
is.availability.fullTextFull text available
is.contributor.funderTypePrivate funds (NGOs, companies, VSS self-funded etc)
is.coverage.countryDemocratic Republic of the Congo
is.coverage.countryGabon
is.coverage.countryCongo
is.coverage.countryCameroon
is.coverage.geographicLevelCountry
is.coverage.latitude-4.038333
is.coverage.latitude-0.803689
is.coverage.latitude-0.228021
is.coverage.latitude7.369722
is.coverage.longitude21.758664
is.coverage.longitude11.609444
is.coverage.longitude15.827659
is.coverage.longitude12.354722
is.coverage.regionCentral Africa
is.evaluation.collectionMapping e.g. remote sensing
is.evaluation.dataSourceGeospatial data layers
is.evidenceSubTypeModeling study - future scenario or potential effects
is.evidenceTypeModeling study
is.focus.productsOther forestry and logging
is.focus.sdgSDG 15 - Life on Land
is.focus.sectorsForestry
is.focus.sustainDimensionEnvironmental
is.focus.sustainIssueForests and other ecosystems
is.focus.sustainLensEcosystem
is.focus.sustainLensLandscape Approaches
is.focus.sustainLensJurisdictional Approaches
is.focus.sustainOutcomeDeforestation and forest protection
is.focus.sustainOutcomeSpecies Composition
is.focus.systemElementMandE outcomes and impacts
is.focus.systemElementMandE performance monitoring
is.identifier.codeImpacts
is.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.34800/fsc-international794
is.identifier.schemeTypeSustainability performance and progress reporting
is.identifier.schemeTypeJurisdictional Approaches
is.journalNameEnvironmental Research Letters
is.link.urlhttps://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9fae
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