Conserving critical sites for biodiversity provides disproportionate benefits to people

Frank Wugt Larsen; Will R. Turner; Thomas M. Brooks

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036971

Conserving critical sites for biodiversity provides disproportionate benefits to people

Frank Wugt Larsen, Will R. Turner, Thomas M. Brooks

Ecology and Evolution

26 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	e36971 EP
Journal	PLOS ONE
Volume	7
Issue number	5
Number of pages	9
ISSN	1932-6203
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036971
Publication status	Published - 30 May 2012

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10.1371/journal.pone.0036971

Cite this

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