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.

Governments have agreed to expand the global protected area network from 13% to 17% of the world’s land surface by 2020 (Aichi target 11) and to prevent the further loss of known threatened species (Aichi target 12). These targets are interdependent, as protected areas can stem biodiversity loss when strategically located and effectively managed. However, the global protected area estate is currently biased toward locations that are cheap to protect and away from important areas for biodiversity. Here we use data on the distribution of protected areas and threatened terrestrial birds, mammals, and amphibians to assess current and possible future coverage of these species under the convention. We discover that 17% of the 4,118 threatened vertebrates are not found in a single protected area and that fully 85% are not adequately covered (i.e., to a level consistent with their likely persistence). Using systematic conservation planning, we show that expanding protected areas to reach 17% coverage by protecting the cheapest land, even if ecoregionally representative, would increase the number of threatened vertebrates covered by only 6%. However, the nonlinear relationship between the cost of acquiring land and species coverage means that fivefold more threatened vertebrates could be adequately covered for only 1.5 times the cost of the cheapest solution, if cost efficiency and threatened vertebrates are both incorporated into protected area decision making. These results are robust to known errors in the vertebrate range maps. The Convention on Biological Diversity targets may stimulate major expansion of the global protected area estate. If this expansion is to secure a future for imperiled species, new protected areas must be sited more strategically than is presently the case.

Extinction rates in the Anthropocene are three orders of magnitude higher than background and disproportionately occur in the tropics, home of half the world's species. Despite global efforts to combat tropical species extinctions, lack of high-quality, objective information on

Recent studies clarify where the most vulnerable species live, where and how humanity changes the planet, and how this drives extinctions. We assess key statistics about species, their distribution, and their status. Most are undescribed. Those we know best have large geographical ranges and are often common within them. Most known species have small ranges. The numbers of small-ranged species are increasing quickly, even in well-known taxa. They are geographically concentrated and are disproportionately likely to be threatened or already extinct. Current rates of extinction are about 1000 times the likely background rate of extinction. Future rates depend on many factors and are poised to increase. Although there has been rapid progress in developing protected areas, such efforts are not ecologically representative, nor do they optimally protect biodiversity.

Reducing the loss of biodiversity is key to ensure the future well being of the planet. Indicators to measure the state of biodiversity should come from primary data that are collected using consistent field methods across several sites, longitudinal, and derived using sound statistical methods that correct for observation/detection bias. In this paper we analyze camera trap data collected between 2008 and 2012 at a site in Costa Rica (Volcan Barva transect) as part of an ongoing tropical forest global monitoring network (Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network). We estimated occupancy dynamics for 13 species of mammals, using a hierarchical modeling approach. We calculated detection-corrected species richness and the Wildlife Picture Index, a promising new indicator derived from camera trap data that measures changes in biodiversity from the occupancy estimates of individual species. Our results show that 3 out of 13 species showed significant declines in occupancy over 5 years (lowland paca, Central American agouti, nine-banded armadillo). We hypothesize that hunting, competition and/or increased predation for paca and agouti might explain these patterns. Species richness and the Wildlife Picture Index are relatively stable at the site, but small herbivores that are hunted showed a decline in diversity of about 25%. We demonstrate the usefulness of longitudinal camera trap deployments coupled with modern statistical methods and advocate for the use of this approach in monitoring and developing global and national indicators for biodiversity change.

Recent studies clarify where the most vulnerable species live, where and how humanity changes the planet, and how this drives extinctions. We assess key statistics about species, their distribution, and their status. Most are undescribed. Those we know best have large geographical ranges and are often common within them. Most known species have small ranges. The numbers of small-ranged species are increasing quickly, even in well-known taxa. They are geographically concentrated and are disproportionately likely to be threatened or already extinct. Current rates of extinction are about 1000 times the likely background rate of extinction. Future rates depend on many factors and are poised to increase. Although there has been rapid progress in developing protected areas, such efforts are not ecologically representative, nor do they optimally protect biodiversity. Estudos recentes esclarecem onde as espécies mais vulneráveis vivem, onde e como a humanidade muda o planeta e como isso impulsiona as extinções. Avaliamos estatísticas-chave sobre espécies, sua distribuição e seu status. A maioria não está descrita. Os que conhecemos melhor possuem grandes intervalos geográficos e muitas vezes são comuns dentro deles. A maioria das espécies conhecidas tem pequenos intervalos. O número de pequenas espécies variadas está aumentando rapidamente, mesmo em taxons bem conhecidos. Eles estão geograficamente concentrados e são desproporcionalmente susceptíveis de serem ameaçados ou já extintos. As taxas atuais de extinção são cerca de 1000 vezes a taxa de extinção provável. As taxas futuras dependem de muitos fatores e estão preparadas para aumentar. Embora tenha havido progressos rápidos no desenvolvimento de áreas protegidas, esses esforços não são ecologicamente representativos nem protegem de forma otimizada a biodiversidade.

For most countries of the region, environment is mostly dealt with as a separate sector in national planning, and has hitherto not been effectively mainstreamed across development sectors (well established). Moreover, the development pressures outpace or outweigh the development and implementation of policies that can attend to the growing drivers affecting biodiversity and ecosystem services. This is especially true for the developing countries in the Americas region; and accounts for many of the negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services that are evident across the region (well established). For example, in Latin America and the Caribbean, natural resource use policies often come into place only when fundamental shifts in land-use are already underway such that interventions tend to become more costly and have limited influence (established but incomplete). Despite reported reductions in the rate of loss in specific biomes in the Americas, the net loss that is currently evident in almost every aspect of the region’s natural ecosystems is expected to continue through to 2050, driven largely by unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change (established but incomplete). This will result in reductions in the adaptive capacity of the societies throughout the region, especially economically vulnerable communities in Latin America and the Caribbean (established but incomplete). There are threats to the goal of achieving a fair balance between a healthy environment and enhanced quality of life across the region. In addition to the speed of climate and land use change, and the persistence of poverty, the region continues to be challenged by failure to implement designed policies, lack of transparency and/or accountability of key stakeholders, failure to acknowledge indigenous and local knowledge and practices, difficulty in engaging the public or developing truly participatory mechanisms for decision-making (established but incomplete). To be cited as: Scarano, F. R., Garcia, K., Diaz-de-Leon, A., Queiroz., H. L., Rodríguez Osuna., V., Silvestri, L. C., Díaz M., C. F., Pérez-Maqueo, O., Rosales B., M., Salabarria F., D. M., Zanetti, E. A., and Farinacci, J. S. Chapter 6: Options for governance and decision-making across scales and sectors. In IPBES (2018): The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for the Americas. Rice, J., Seixas, C. S., Zaccagnini, M. E., Bedoya-Gaitán, M., and Valderrama, N. (eds.). Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn, Germany, pp. 644-721.

The human impact on life on Earth has increased sharply since the 1970s, driven by the demands of a growing population with rising average per capita income. Nature is currently supplying more materials than ever before, but this has come at the high cost of unprecedented global declines in the extent and integrity of ecosystems, distinctness of local ecological communities, abundance and number of wild species, and the number of local domesticated varieties. Such changes reduce vital benefits that people receive from nature and threaten the quality of life of future generations. Both the benefits of an expanding economy and the costs of reducing nature’s benefits are unequally distributed. The fabric of life on which we all depend—nature and its contributions to people—is unravelling rapidly. Despite the severity of the threats and lack of enough progress in tackling them to date, opportunities exist to change future trajectories through transformative action. Such action must begin immediately, however, and address the root economic, social, and technological causes of nature’s deterioration.

The global biodiversity crisis has invigorated the search for generalized patterns in most disciplines within the natural sciences. Studies based on organismal functional traits attempt to broaden implications of results by identifying the response of functional traits, instead of taxonomic units, to environmental variables. Determining the functional trait responses enables more direct comparisons with, or predictions for, communities of different taxonomic composition. The North American freshwater fish fauna is both diverse and increasingly imperiled through human mediated disturbances, including climate change. The Tennessee River, USA, contains one of the most diverse assemblages of freshwater fish in North America and has more imperiled species than other rivers, but there has been no trait-based study of community structure in the system. We identified 211 localities in the upper Tennessee River that were sampled by the Tennessee Valley Authority between 2009 and 2011 and compiled fish functional traits for the observed species and environmental variables for each locality. Using fourth corner analysis, we identified significant correlations between many fish functional traits and environmental variables. Functional traits associated with an opportunistic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to greater land use disturbance and less flow regulation, while functional traits associated with a periodic life history strategy were correlated with localities subject to regular disturbance and regulated flow. These are patterns observed at the continental scale, highlighting the generalizability of trait-based methods. Contrary to studies that found no community structure differences when considering riparian buffer zones, we found that fish functional traits were correlated with different environmental variables between analyses with buffer zones vs. entire catchment area land cover proportions. Using existing databases and fourth corner analysis, our results support the broad application potential for trait-based methods and indicate trait-based methods can detect environmental filtering by riparian zone land cover.

Key Points • There will be trade-offs between SDG 15 and other SDGs resulting from competition for land, but there are also synergies and opportunities. • The principal opportunity of SDG 15 is that it will be recognised and integrated, along with the other SDGs, in all developments. • The main risk is that short-term priorities and a 'business as usual' approach will undermine this opportunity for integration and synergy and SDG 15 will often be overlooked. • The scale, and complexity, of challenges for conserving life on land, versus the limited resources available, pose many challenges. • Greater cross-sectoral integration, not just sectoral policy reform, is essential to advancing SDG 15.

This discussion paper looks into the links between human wellbeing and the biosphere, and describes why and how these links should influence the formulation of the future global Sustainable Development Goals. It explores what we can learn from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and how existing international agreements can be reflected in the Post-2015 MDG process. The paper also seeks to contribute to the elaboration of targets, including process-oriented targets and scalable indicators suitable for a rapidly changing world.

Plants are essential sources of food, medicine, shelter, fuel, feed, and forage, and provide a wide range of additional ecosystem and cultural services to humanity. In recognition of the tremendous value of useful plants and of the increasing threats to their persistence, international agreements including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture have created ambitious conservation targets which must be measured through quantitative indicators so as to facilitate the development and implementation of strategies aimed at safeguarding their genetic diversity. Gaps in the current list of functioning indicators for these targets suggest that the development of effective measurements of the state of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful plants is a major challenge. Here we present a gap analysis indicator methodology that provides a pragmatic estimate of the comprehensiveness of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful wild plants, both ex situ and in situ. The methodology compares the geographic and ecological variation evident from analyses of the 'site of collection' of samples of plant taxa that are safeguarded in genebanks and other living plant repositories, as well as the variation evident in the proportion of species' ranges inhabiting protected areas, against the full range of geographic and ecological variation in their native distributions. The methodology enables a prioritization of species for immediate conservation action, and, when measured periodically, can quantify progress toward comprehensive conservation of these plants at global, regional, and national scales, including determining when that goal has been reached. Assessing almost 7000 taxa with the "Comprehensiveness of conservation of useful wild plants" indicator, we find that they are currently highly under-conserved, with less than three out of every 100 taxa assessed as sufficiently conserved or of low priority for further conservation action (overall global indicator = 2.78). Indicator results at the national and regional scales as well as by species use type varied, although virtually all countries, regions, and use categories were found to require further conservation action, particularly with regard to ex situ conservation. The results as well as input data and method code are available for indicator reporting and for conservation prior-itization setting.

Amphibians are undergoing a global conservation crisis, and they are one of the most underrepresented groups of vertebrates in the global network of protected areas (PAs). In this study, we evaluated the ability of the world's PAs to represent extant amphibian species. We also estimated the magnitude of the human footprint along the geographic distributions of gap species (i.e., those with distributions totally outside PAs). Twenty-four percent of species (n = 1535) are totally unrepresented, and another 18% (n = 1119) have less than 5% of their distribution inside PAs. Nearly half of all species with ranges under 1000 km 2 do not occur inside any PA. Furthermore, more than 65% of the distribution of gap species is in human-dominated landscapes. Although the Earth's PAs have greatly increased during the last ten years, the number of unprotected amphibians has also grown. Tropical countries in particular should strongly consider (1) the importance of using amphibians to drive conservation policies that eventually lead to the implementation and management of PAs, given amphibians' extinction risk and ability to act as bioindicators; (2) the effectiveness of national recovery plans for threatened amphibian species ; and (3) the need for increased funding for scientific research to expand our knowledge of amphibian species. Meanwhile, data-deficient amphibian species should receive a higher priority than they usually receive in conservation planning, as a precautionary measure. Throughout this paper, we point out several challenges in creating more comprehensive amphibian conservation strategies and opportunities in the next decade.