Abstract:
Surprisingly little attention has been paid to variation among countries in contributions
to conservation. As a first step, we developed a Megafauna Conservation Index (MCI)
that assesses the spatial, ecological and financial contributions of 152 nations towards
conservation of the world’s terrestrial megafauna. We chose megafauna because they are
particularly valuable in economic, ecological and societal terms, and are challenging and
expensive to conserve. We categorised these 152 countries as being above- or belowaverage
performers based on whether their contribution to megafauna conservation was
higher or lower than the global mean; ‘major’ performers or underperformers were those
whose contribution exceeded 1 SD over or under the mean, respectively. Ninety percent
of countries in North/Central America and 70% of countries in Africa were classified as
major or above-average performers, while approximately one-quarter of countries in
Asia (25%) and Europe (21%) were identified as major underperformers. We present our
index to emphasise the need for measuring conservation performance, to help nations
identify how best they could improve their efforts, and to present a starting point for the
development of more robust and inclusive measures (noting how the IUCN Red List evolved
over time). Our analysis points to three approaches that countries could adopt to improve
their contribution to global megafauna conservation, depending on their circumstances:
(1) upgrading or expanding their domestic protected area networks, with a particular emphasis on conserving large carnivore and herbivore habitat, (2) increase funding for
conservation at home or abroad, or (3) ‘rewilding’ their landscapes. Once revised and
perfected, we recommend publishing regular conservation rankings in the popular media
to recognise major-performers, foster healthy pride and competition among nations, and
identify ways for governments to improve their performance.
