Conserving critical sites for biodiversity provides disproportionate benefits to people

Issue Date

5-2012

Abstract

Protecting natural habitats in priority areas is essential to halt the loss of biodiversity. Yet whether these benefits for biodiversity also yield benefits for human well-being remains controversial. Here we assess the potential human well-being benefits of safeguarding a global network of sites identified as top priorities for the conservation of threatened species. Conserving these sites would yield benefits - in terms of a) climate change mitigation through avoidance of CO2 emissions from deforestation; b) freshwater services to downstream human populations; c) retention of option value; and d) benefits to maintenance of human cultural diversity - significantly exceeding those anticipated from randomly selected sites within the same countries and ecoregions. Results suggest that safeguarding sites important for biodiversity conservation provides substantial benefits to human well-being. © 2012 Larsen et al.

Source or Periodical Title

PLoS ONE

Volume

7

Issue

5

Page

1-9

Document Type

Article

Physical Description

illustrations, tables, graphs

Language

English

Identifier

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036971.

Digital Copy

yes

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS