Comment: Biodiversity: Mapping threats to endangered species Published on: 9 April 2021 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Louise Mair and Professor Phil McGowan discuss a new tool which measures how much certain actions are likely to help reduce the extinction risk for local species. , and , Since 1993, 15 species of bird and mammal are thought to have gone extinct, including China鈥檚 and the from Brazil. But these recent examples are a tiny fraction of what scientists estimate could disappear in the lifetimes of people living today. One million species spanning the full diversity of life on Earth are at . Trying to comprehend this scale of loss can make the problem seem insurmountable. Having a plan of action can help overcome that sense of powerlessness, and in , we鈥檝e created one. We developed a tool that can help governments, businesses and even members of the public discover how to halt wildlife extinctions. We worked with an international team of more than 80 conservationists to produce the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric 鈥� a number that measures how much certain actions are likely to help reduce the extinction risk for local species. Read more: How it works STAR uses data from the to give each species a score based on their conservation status. Species that are 鈥渘ear threatened鈥� according to the IUCN have a STAR score of 100, while species listed as 鈥渧ulnerable鈥� have a score of 200. A higher score denotes a species facing a greater risk of extinction. A critically endangered species, such as the Ka鈥檃por capuchin in Brazil, has a score of 400. Breaking this down reveals which threats most contribute to the species鈥� extinction risk, using data that quantifies their relative impacts. The greatest single threat to the Ka鈥檃por capuchin is habitat loss due to expanding towns and cities. This contributes half of its extinction risk, and so accounts for 200 of the capuchin鈥檚 points. Hunting and the selective logging of fruit trees, which this monkey forages from, make up the remaining 200. STAR scores for different species living nearby can be added up to give the local area a total score. This represents a combination of how many species are present and how threatened those species are, and it can also be broken down to reveal which threats contribute the most to extinction risks for species in that area. We applied STAR to all 5,359 amphibian, bird and mammal species on the IUCN Red List and found that halting the destruction of habitat for crop production would reduce their average extinction risk by 24%. Protecting habitats affected by the livestock industry would reduce their risk by a further 9% globally. Rearing livestock can consume a lot of land that might otherwise have been natural habitat. The expansion of agriculture plays a , but this doesn鈥檛 mean that we should grow less food. that combining more land-efficient farming practices with efforts to protect and restore habitats nearby can feed the world鈥檚 human population while conserving biodiversity. The STAR metric shows, at a 5km scale anywhere on Earth鈥檚 land surface, where the negative effects of farming are likely to be particularly severe, revealing areas that urgently need action to halt habitat loss. Threats vary between countries, as you might expect. Halting habitat loss from arable and livestock farms in Brazil would reduce the extinction risk of species nationally by 41%, whereas in South Africa, the figure is 17%. One of the major threats to wildlife here is invasive species. Controlling and eradicating non-native species could reduce extinction risk in South Africa by 15%. Tackling threats in biodiversity hotspots Areas with very high STAR scores have lots of threatened species, and we might consider them particularly important for conservation. The country with the largest STAR score is Indonesia, where eliminating threats from farmland habitat loss, logging and hunting could reduce global species extinction risk by 7%. This is followed by Colombia (7%), Mexico (6%), Madagascar (6%) and Brazil (5%). These five-highest scoring countries have much in common. In each, habitat loss due to crop production is the biggest threat and contributes at least a quarter of their national extinction risk. But in Brazil and Colombia, the next biggest threat is livestock farming, while in Indonesia, Mexico and Madagascar, it鈥檚 logging and the timber industry. There are schemes already in place in some regions to try to tackle these threats. In Indonesia, can be if they meet environmental and labour rights standards. Expanding and effectively implementing these schemes could significantly reduce species extinction risk in these countries, potentially by as much as 30% in Indonesia. Palm oil is produced on plantations that often replace tropical forest. Local contributions to global conservation While countries with high biodiversity have high STAR scores, wildlife conservation requires a global effort, and every country has an important contribution to make. In the UK, there are over 30 birds and ten mammals threatened with extinction. Here in our home city of 缅北禁地 in north-east England, the river Tyne hosts a particularly of the , while the breeds on the nearby Farne Islands. Both of these seabirds are classified as 鈥渧ulnerable鈥� by the IUCN. Overfishing of the puffin鈥檚 prey, sandeels, contributes 25% to the species鈥� extinction risk and a further 22% comes from climate change. This shows how important national and international policies are for strengthening local efforts to protect endangered species. We can even use STAR to measure local and national contributions towards the UN Convention on Biological Diversity鈥檚 2030 goal of halting biodiversity loss, so that everyone can be part of the global plan for conservation. , Research Associate in Biodiversity Conservation and Policy, and , Professor of Conservation Science and Policy, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Photograph of elephant drinking, Etosha National Park, Namibia_(c)J眉rgen Bierlein_Pixabay Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 expert highlights climate crisis in a new film A leading 缅北禁地 climate scientist is featured in a new film about how the climate and nature breakdown will affect the UK. published on: 14 April 2026 Neolithic tombs reveal ancient kinship ties Male individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland were often related to each other through the paternal line and some were interred in the same or nearby tombs, research shows. published on: 14 April 2026 We are our Memories New exhibition by Fine Art graduate Trish Hudson-Moses, 22 April 鈥� 4 May 2026 published on: 10 April 2026 Facts and figures
![缅北禁地 logo](/gomobileassets/img/logo.svg" "缅北禁地"){kind=logo}