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| More biodiversity could be protected in situ if the few species that
attract the most popular support (the 'flagship' species) had
distributions that also covered the broader diversity of organisms. We
studied how well different groups of mammals performed for representing
the diversity of mammals and breeding birds among 1 degrees areas of
sub-Saharan Africa. We demonstrate that choosing areas of sub-Saharan
Africa using either conservationists' six primary flagship mammals, or
the six 'Big Five' mammals popular with wildlife tourists, is not
significantly better for representing the diversity of mammals and
birds than choosing areas at random. Furthermore, neither of these
groups is significantly better for representing the diversity of
mammals and birds than groups of the same number of species chosen at
random. We show that in order to succeed in representing many mammals
and birds in area selection, it is not sufficient for the groups used
for selection to occur in many different ecoregions, they must also
have low overlaps in distribution, so as to provide high ecological
complementarity (a similar pattern of ecological complementarity must
be shared by the larger group of species to be represented). Therefore
there may be a need for an explicit policy to balance the requirements
of flagship conservation and broader biodiversity conservation, which
will have implications for the distribution of resources. | |
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