Financial Costs of Meeting Global Biodiversity Conservation Targets: Current Spending and Unmet Needs

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 338; no. 6109; pp. 946 - 949
• Main Authors: McCarthy, Donal P., Donald, Paul F., Scharlemann, Jörn P. W., Buchanan, Graeme M., Balmford, Andrew, Green, Jonathan M. H., Bennun, Leon A., Burgess, Neil D., Fishpool, Lincoln D. C., Garnett, Stephen T., Leonard, David L., Maloney, Richard F., Morling, Paul, Schaefer, H. Martin, Symes, Andy, Wiedenfeld, David A., Butchart, Stuart H. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 16.11.2012; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biodiversity; Biodiversity conservation; Biological and medical sciences; Birds; Capital Financing; Conservation (Environment); conservation areas; Conservation biology; Conservation of Natural Resources - economics; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Convention on Biological Diversity; Cost estimates; Cost estimation models; Costs; Costs and Cost Analysis; economic costs; Economics; ecosystems; Extinct species; Extinction; Extinction, Biological; Extrapolation; Finance; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; funding; Governments; Humans; Meetings; Nature conservation; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Protected areas; risk; Species; Species extinction; Threatened species; United States; Wildlife conservation; World; United States; Vertebrata; Costs; Endangered species; Aves; Biodiversity; Animal conservation; Geographical variation
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1229803

World governments have committed to halting human-induced extinctions and safeguarding important sites for biodiversity by 2020, but the financial costs of meeting these targets are largely unknown. We estimate the cost of reducing the extinction risk of all globally threatened bird species (by > 1 International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List category) to be U.S. $0.875 to $1.23 billion annually over the next decade, of which 12% is currently funded. Incorporating threatened nonavian species increases this total to U.S. $3.41 to $4.76 billion annually. We estimate that protecting and effectively managing all terrestrial sites of global avian conservation significance (11,731 Important Bird Areas) would cost U.S. $ 65.1 billion annually. Adding sites for other taxa increases this to U.S. $76.1 billion annually. Meeting these targets will require conservation funding to increase by at least an order of magnitude.