The global exposure of species ranges and protected areas to forest management

Aim Many vertebrate species globally are dependent on forests, most of which require active protection to safeguard global biodiversity. Forests, however, are increasingly either being disturbed, planted or managed in the form of timber or food plantations. Because of a lack of spatial data, forest management has commonly been ignored in previous conservation assessments. Location Global. Methods We combine a new global map of forest management types created solely from remote sensing imagery with spatially explicit information on the distribution of forest-associated vertebrate species and protected areas globally. Using Bayesian logistic regressions, we explore whether the amount of forested habitat available to a species as well as information on species-specific threats can explain differences in IUCN extinction risk categories. Results We show that disturbed and human-managed forests dominate the distributional ranges of most forest-associated species. Species considered as non-threatened had on average larger amounts of non-managed forests within their range. A greater amount of planted forests did not decrease the probability of species being threatened by extinction. Even more worrying, protected areas are increasingly being established in areas dominated by disturbed forests. Conclusion Our results imply that species extinction risk and habitat assessments might have been overly optimistic with forest management practices being largely ignored so far. With forest restoration being at the centre of climate and conservation policies in this decade, we caution that policy makers should explicitly consider forest management in global and regional assessments.

Automated summary

This study reveals that forest management has been largely ignored in previous conservation assessments, leading to overly optimistic species extinction risk and habitat assessments. Disturbed and human-managed forests dominate the distribution ranges of most forest-associated species. The study emphasizes the importance of explicitly considering forest management in global and regional assessments.