Abstract:
Threatened species lists continue to grow while the world’s governments fail to
meet biodiversity conservation goals. Clearly, we are failing in our attempts to conserve
biodiversity. Yet 37 mammal species genuinely improved in status in the 2009 IUCN Red
List, suggesting there are ways to successfully conserve biodiversity. Here, I compare the
threats and conservation actions (proposed and implemented) by the expert assessors of the
Red List of improving species to a further 144 declining mammal species to determine
whether specific threats were more easily remedied, and whether certain conservation
actions were more successful than others. Declining species were faced with different
threatening processes to mammals improving in status suggesting some threats were easier
to treat (e.g. hunting) than others (climate change, invasive species). Declining species had
different proposed and implemented conservation actions than improving species suggesting
some actions are more successful than others. Threatened species were invariably
found in conservation areas, suggesting protected area creation alone is not an overly
successful strategy for species at risk of extinction. Conservation actions were more frequently
implemented for improving than declining species suggesting active conservation
is effective in improving the status of biodiversity. There were significant differences
between proposed and implemented conservation actions suggesting some actions are
easier to implement than others. Reintroduction, captive breeding and hunting restriction
were more effective in conserving mammals than site creation and invasive species control. These findings highlight effective conservation actions for mammals worldwide
and allow the rationalisation of threat mitigation measures to ensure economically justifiable
biodiversity conservation strategies.
