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| There is increasing evidence that areas of outstanding conservation
importance may coincide with dense human settlement or impact. We
tested the generality of these findings using 1 degrees -resolution
data for sub-Saharan Africa. We find that human population density is
positively correlated with species richness of birds, mammals, snakes,
and amphibians. This association holds for widespread, narrowly
endemic, and threatened species and looks set to persist in the face of
foreseeable population growth. Our results contradict earlier
expectations of low conflict based on the idea that species richness
decreases and human impact increases with primary productivity. We find
that across Africa, both variables instead exhibit unimodal
relationships with productivity. Modifying priority-setting to take
account of human density shows that, at this scale, conflicts between
conservation and development are not easily avoided, because many
densely inhabited grid cells contain species found nowhere else. | |
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