Ranking the direct threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa benefits from large investments in biodiversity conservation, yet there is no prioritization of the many direct threats to biodiversity available to inform organizations developing sub-Saharan or sub-regional conservation strategies. Consequently, regional investments by funders of biodiversity conservation such as international conservation organizations, foundations, and bilateral and multilateral donors may be suboptimal. To identify the priority threats to biodiversity in sub-Saharan Africa, we classified the direct threats to biodiversity using standardized threats categories and triangulated data from a Delphi consensus of sub-Saharan Africa biodiversity experts, known threats to IUCN Red-listed sub-Saharan African species, and National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans from 47 sub-Saharan African countries. After ranking the threats from each source and averaging the rankings, we find that the highest threats are: annual and perennial crops (non-timber); logging and wood harvesting (natural forests); fishing and harvesting aquatic resources (marine and freshwater); and hunting and collecting terrestrial animals. Within the sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa there is considerable variation. The highest ranked threat in Central Africa is hunting. In East Africa, it is agriculture. In Southern Africa, it is invasive non-native/alien species, and in West Africa, agriculture and logging are tied as the highest threats. There are known ways to address all of these threats, and concentrating investments on these threats while accounting for unique socio-ecological contexts across sub-Saharan Africa is essential for the sustained conservation of biodiversity.