Poorer countries do more for the conservation of large mammals

Megafauna Conservation Index

A group of colleagues and I set about to try to do just that. The idea was to identify a benchmark such that countries that are underperforming, in conservation terms, could be encouraged to do more.

We created a “megafauna conservation index” where we measured 152 countries on the following three areas based on the latest available information:

• The proportion of the country occupied by each megafauna species - spatial contribution
• The proportion of the range of these species that’s strictly protected in each country - ecological contribution
• The amount of money spent on conservation by each country – either domestically or internationally, relative to GDP - financial contribution

These data were extremely challenging to collect, particularly information on the expenditures of countries on conservation. Improving the data on megafauna specific expenditure is an important next step.

We found wide divergence among nations. Poorer countries tend to contribute more and have a higher megafauna conservation index while richer countries contribute less. The reason for this varies from country to country, and continent to continent. For example, African countries tended to score more highly than other parts of the world in terms of the distribution and diversity of megafauna species.

The index classified 90% of countries in North/Central America and 70% of countries in Africa as major or above average performers. But approximately one quarter of countries in Asia (25%) and Europe (21%) were identified as major underperformers. Asia as a region scored the lowest megafauna conservation index, and is home to the greatest number of countries classified as conservation underperformers.

Although challenged by poverty and instability in many parts of the continent, Africa prioritises and makes more of an effort for large mammal conservation than any other region in the world. In fact, Africa accounts for four of the five top performing megafauna conservation nations, including Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The United States ranked 19 out of the top 20 performing countries.

Improving scores

At the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, developed nations vowed to allocate at least USD$2 billion per annum towards conservation in developing nations. However, current conservation contributions from industrialised nations have reached just half of that amount, averaging USD$1.1 billion per year.

The world needs to do much more for megafauna conservation. But some countries need to step up more than others. Several developed countries in particular need to make much more of an effort in what’s a global asset and a shared responsibility.

There are three ways in which countries can improve their score:

1. “Re-wilding” landscapes by reintroducing megafauna or by allowing the distribution of such species to increase;

2. Setting aside more land as strictly protected areas; and

3. Investing more in conservation, either at home or abroad.

We hope that in creating this conservation index, nations around the globe will be mobilised to invest more in international conservation support to save the planet’s large and magnificent wildlife species.

_Read Panthera’s press release to learn more about this study. _

Peter Lindsey, Policy Coordinator, Lion Program, Panthera, University of Pretoria

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.