世界银行-弥合冲突和生物多样性保护_可靠和可比数据的关键作用（英）-2025.2_29页_1mb

Summary of Biodiversity Conservation in Geopolitically Sensitive Regions

Background and Importance

Biodiversity is essential for ecological stability, human well-being, and economic progress, providing critical ecosystem services like clean water, food, and climate regulation. However, it faces accelerating threats from habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution, invasive species, illegal trade, and climate change. The study emphasizes the need for urgent global conservation, particularly in areas with weak governance, such as non-determined legal status territories, fragile and conflict-affected situations, and transboundary ecosystems. Effective conservation can build trust and foster collaboration for shared goals like climate resilience.

Challenges

• Governance Issues: Weak policies, inconsistent enforcement, and institutional fragility hinder conservation in sensitive regions.
• Geopolitical Complexity: Areas like non-determined legal status territories and conflict zones lack clear authority, leading to unregulated resource exploitation and environmental degradation.
• Data Limitations: Insufficient and inconsistent data across borders impede evidence-based planning and monitoring, critical for biodiversity protection.

Methodology

The study utilized data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to create species occurrence maps using machine-based pattern recognition and cluster analysis. Occurrence data were filtered and sampled for efficiency, and maps were validated against expert data from mammals, ants, and vascular plants. Overlap with geographic boundaries (e.g., non-determined legal status areas, conflict zones, transboundary river basins) was analyzed to assess conservation risks.

Key Findings

• High concentrations of endemic species (44.7% of total) and species at high extinction risk (>80 extinction risk score) in sensitive regions, namely transboundary river basins.
• Challenges include gaps in governance coverage, low data reliability, and high human population density, exacerbating threats to biodiversity.
• Findings highlight the role of reliable data in supporting international cooperation and addressing conservation gaps, particularly for understudied groups like invertebrates and plants.

Recommendations and Conclusions

• Strengthen international collaboration and develop treaties to include biodiversity protection.
• Prioritize investments in data infrastructure for transboundary conservation to enable evidence-based decision-making and monitoring.
• Expand focus beyond vertebrates to include all species, leveraging GBIF data to enhance conservation strategies in fragile regions.
• Biodiversity conservation can serve as a neutral platform for building trust and resolving conflicts through shared environmental goals, with implications for peace and sustainable development.