Effective global conservation strategies

Abstract

Using data on the global distribution of mammal, bird and amphibian species, Grenyer et al. conclude that planning based on individual taxa does not provide efficient solutions for the conservation of other taxa. They also report that the performance of existing global conservation strategies-endemic bird areas, biodiversity hotspots and global 200 ecoregions-in representing those taxa is often no better (and in some cases worse) than random. I argue here that the methodology used by Grenyer et al. was not appropriate for purported globally comprehensive analyses. Focusing on analyses of rare species as an example, I demonstrate how the data actually reveal substantial cross-taxon surrogacy and good performance of existing global conservation strategies.