Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 May 5;4(1):17.
doi: 10.1038/s44185-025-00088-4.

Caught in statistical noise: pitfalls of a unidimensional approach to understanding biodiversity-conflict relationships

Kier Mitchel E Pitogo  1 , Camila G Meneses  2 , Andrie Bon A Flores  3   4 , Aljohn Jay L Saavedra  5 , Ace Kevin S Amarga  3   4 , Marjorie Delos Angeles  6   7   8 , Cristian C Lucañas  9 , Syrus Cesar P Decena  2   10 , Russell Evan L Venturina  11 , Jay S Fidelino  12 , Dexcem Pantinople  13 , Al John C Cabañas  14 , Mark William Herr  2 , Justin M Bernstein  15 , Kin Onn Chan  2 , Marites B Sanguila  16 , Neil Aldrin Mallari  17   18 , Rafe M Brown  2 , Christian E Supsup  2
Affiliations

Caught in statistical noise: pitfalls of a unidimensional approach to understanding biodiversity-conflict relationships

Kier Mitchel E Pitogo et al. NPJ Biodivers. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Discrepancies with analyses of Hilario–Husain and colleagues.
a Two potential approaches for calculating provincial species richness without reducing the distance from conflict variable into a single value per province: treating each taxon-specific occurrence record independently (per point species richness, right panel) or assigning uniform species counts to all taxon-specific occurrence records within a province (provincial species richness of each taxonomic group, left panel). Solid arrow shows the nearest conflict point to species occurrence, and light dashed arrows show other nearby conflict points. b Relationship between species records and the average distance from conflict points (m) per taxonomic group.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Geographical distribution of raw conflict points (left panel) and species occurrence records (right panel) in Mindanao.
Forest cover on Mindanao in 1988 and 2020, overlaid with conflict points and species occurrence records, shows predominant conflict occurrence in open areas rather than closed forested areas. Land cover data for 1988: Swedish Space Corporation and 2020: Philippine National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, retrieved from geoportal PH (https://www.geoportal.gov.ph/).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Gaynor, K.M. et al. War and wildlife: linking armed conflict to conservation. Front. Ecol. Environ.14, 533–542 (2016).
    1. Rist, L., Norström, A. & Queiroz, C. Biodiversity, peace and conflict: understanding the connections. Curr. Opin. Env. Sust.68, 101431 (2024).
    1. Hilario-Husain, B.A. et al. Caught in the crossfire: biodiversity conservation paradox of sociopolitical conflict. Npj Biodivers.3, 10 (2024). - PMC - PubMed
    1. UN OCHA. Conflict Data for Philippines (Humanitarian Data Exchange, 2023).
    1. Bautista-Cespedes, O.V., Willemen, L., Castro-Nunez, A. & Groen, T.A. The effects of armed conflict on forest cover changes across temporal and spatial scales in the Colombian Amazon. Reg. Environ. Change.21, 70 (2021).

LinkOut - more resources