A new study — the first of its kind—finds that the world’s conservation areas fail to protect hundreds of rare cactus species.
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Nearly a fifth of the world's cactus species are unprotected by the world's national parks and other conservation areas, making them one of the most at-risk groups of species on the planet, a new study finds.
The study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, maps out where each cactus species grows and how those ranges compare to protected areas. The results were not good: 261 cactus species, or 18 percent, only grow outside of protected areas.
Many other species have only a portion of their ranges protected. All told the study calculates that 80 percent of cactus species are either completely unprotected or only partially sheltered by the world's network of protected areas.
This is the first time an entire plant group has been assessed with a "gap analysis"—in conservation science, a measure of how much of the range of a particular species, taxonomic group or other form of biodiversity is formally protected by the nation or government that controls it.
"We should care about cacti," says the study's lead author, Bárbara Goettsch of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, "because they're very important species in arid environments, providing, food, water and shelter for many species. This is also a plant group that's heavily utilized by people for food, medicine, construction or ornamental purposes."
The IUCN previously assessed 1,400-plus cactus species and found that 31 percent were threatened with extinction due to illegal trade and agriculture. Even with that knowledge, Goettsch said the results of the new study surprised her. "We found that more threatened cactus species lack protection by the current network of protected areas than amphibians, birds or mammals," she says. Similar analyses have found that 9.7 percent of all mammal species and 5.6 percent of birds exist completely outside of protected areas. Of species already assessed as being endangered, 32 percent of cacti have ranges outside of protected areas, compared to 26.5 percent of amphibians, 19.9 percent of birds and 16 percent of mammals.
