Targeting Ocean Conservation Outcomes Through Threat Reduction

Authors

Joseph A. Turner, The Biodiversity Consultancy
Malcolm Starkey, The Biodiversity Consultancy
Nicholas K. Dulvy, Simon Fraser University
Frank Hawkins, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Louise Mair, Newcastle University
Adeline Serckx, The Biodiversity Consultancy
Thomas Brooks, University of Tasmania
Beth Polidoro, Arizona State University
Stuart H. M. Butchart, BirdLife International
Kent Carpenter, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
Minna Epps, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Rima W. Jabado, Elasmo Projact
Nicholas B. W. Macfarlane, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Leon Bennun, The Biodiversity Consultancy

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Publication Title

npj Ocean Sustainability

Volume

3

Issue

1

Pages

4 (1-10)

Abstract

Nations have committed to reductions in the global rate of species extinctions through the Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15, for ocean and terrestrial species, respectively. Biodiversity loss is worsening despite rapid growth in the number and extent of protected areas, both at sea and on land. Resolving this requires targeting the locations and actions that will deliver positive conservation outcomes for biodiversity. The Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric, developed by a consortium of experts, quantifies the contributions that abating threats and restoring habitats in specific places offer towards reducing extinction risk based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species^TM. STAR is now recommended as an appropriate metric by recent disclosure frameworks for companies to report their impacts on nature and STAR has seen widespread uptake within the private sector. However, it is currently only available for the terrestrial realm. We extend the coverage of the threat abatement component of the STAR metric (STAR_T), used to identify locations where positive interventions could make a large contribution to reducing global species extinction risk and where developments that increase threats to species should be mitigated, to the marine realm for 1646 marine species. Reducing unsustainable fishing provides the greatest opportunity to lower species extinction risk, comprising 43% of the marine STAR_T score. Three-quarters (75%) of the global marine START score falls entirely outside the boundaries of protected areas and only 2.7% falls within no-take protected areas. The STAR metric can be used both to guide protected area expansion and to target other actions, such as establishment and enforcement of fishing limits, to recover biodiversity.

Comments

An Author Correction to this article was published on 02 March 2024.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2024, corrected publication 2024.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "Species extinction risk categories, threat data, elevation limitations, habitat associations, and distribution polygons are publicly available under specified terms and conditions of use from the IUCN Red List website¹⁰. Key Biodiversity Area boundaries are available from the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas²⁸ and Protected Area boundaries are available from the World Database of Protected Areas²⁶, again under specified terms and conditions of use. Natural Earth country boundaries (1:50 m scale)⁶² are available online at www.naturalearthdata.com and EEZ shapefiles are available from the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase⁶³ at www.marineregions.org. Spatial data are also available online for Large Marine Ecosystems²⁵ (https://www.lmehub.net/) and IMMAs³⁰ (https://www.marinemammalhabitat.org/immas/imma-spatial-layer-download/). Depth data is available at www.ncei.noaa.gov. Global START scores at a grid cell resolution of 50 × 50 km are available in TIFF file format on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/10641700. The 5 km × 5 km layer will be made available in the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT)."

Original Publication Citation

Turner, J. A., Starkey, M., Dulvy, N. K., Hawkins, F., Mair, L., Serckx, A., Brooks, T., Polidoro, B., Butchart, S. H. M., Carpenter, K., Epps, M., Jabado, R. W., Macfarlane, N. B. W., & Bennun, L. (2024). Targeting ocean conservation outcomes through threat reduction. npj Ocean Sustainability, 3(1), 1-10, Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-023-00040-8

Repository Citation

Turner, Joseph A.; Starkey, Malcolm; Dulvy, Nicholas K.; Hawkins, Frank; Mair, Louise; Serckx, Adeline; Brooks, Thomas; Polidoro, Beth; Butchart, Stuart H. M.; Carpenter, Kent; Epps, Minna; Jabado, Rima W.; Macfarlane, Nicholas B. W.; and Bennun, Leon, "Targeting Ocean Conservation Outcomes Through Threat Reduction" (2024). Biological Sciences Faculty Publications. 583.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/biology_fac_pubs/583

ORCID

0000-0003-3618-1811 (Carpenter)