An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages
Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. This study takes identifies landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages and ecoregions that could be restored.
Study link: Ecography, NSO (2022)
Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. Loss of these assemblages destabilizes natural systems, while their recovery can restore ecological integrity. This study takes an ecoregion-based approach to identify landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages, and map ecoregions where reintroduction of 1–3 species could restore intact assemblages.
Intact mammal assemblages occur across more than one-third of the 730 terrestrial ecoregions where large mammals were historically present, and 22% of these ecoregions retain complete assemblages across > 20% of the ecoregion area. Twenty species, if reintroduced or allowed to recolonize through improved connectivity, can increase the area of the world containing intact large mammal assemblages by 54% (11.1 million km2). Each of these species have at least two large, intact habitat areas (> 10 000 km2) in a given ecoregion.
Given the disproportionate contribution of intact large mammal faunas to the structure and function of ecosystems, the paper calls for a new wildlife recovery index – a set of metrics and indicators that could track the restoration of endangered large mammal populations and provide a simple, clear metric to assess global conservation efforts. New technologies and freely available data can identify potential landscapes for restoration and track progress over time.
Lead author: Carly Vynne, Resolve
Contributing authors: Joe Gosling (WCMC), Calum Maney (WCMC), Eric Dinerstein, Andy Lee, Neil Burgess (WCMC), Néstor Fernández (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research), Sanjiv Fernando, Harshini Jhala (Wildlife Inst. India), Yadvendradev Jhala (Wildlife Inst. India), Reed Noss (Florida Inst. for Conservation Science), Michael Proctor (Birchdale Ecological), Jan Schipper (Arizona Center for Nature Conservation), José González-Maya (ProCAT Colombia), Anup Joshi (U Minnesota), David Olson (WWF Hong Kong), William Ripple (Oregon State U), Jens-Christian Svenning (BIOCHANGE, Aarhus U)