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Governance and the loss of biodiversity

Nature volume 426, pages 67–70 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Most of the world's biodiversity occurs within developing countries that require donor support to build their conservation capacity1. Unfortunately, some of these countries experience high levels of political corruption2, which may limit the success of conservation projects by reducing effective funding levels and distorting priorities3. We investigated whether changes in three well surveyed and widespread components of biodiversity were associated with national governance scores and other socio-economic measures. Here we show that governance scores were correlated with changes in total forest cover, but not with changes in natural forest cover. We found strong associations between governance scores and changes in the numbers of African elephants and black rhinoceroses, and these socio-economic factors explained observed patterns better than any others. Finally, we show that countries rich in species and identified as containing priority areas for conservation have lower governance scores than other nations. These results stress the need for conservationists to develop and implement policies that reduce the effects of political corruption and, in this regard, we question the universal applicability of an influential approach to conservation that seeks to ban international trade in endangered species.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Mean modelled governance scores and changes in national populations of two species, 1987–94.
Figure 3

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Durrell Institute for Conservation and Ecology for providing funding, and K. Brandon, N. Burgess, S. Elton, R. Green, J. Groombridge, A. Huggins, S. Thornton and T. Whitten for advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NS, UK

    R. J. Smith, R. D. J. Muir, M. J. Walpole & N. Leader-Williams

  2. Conservation Biology Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, CB2 3EJ, Cambridge, UK

    A. Balmford

Authors
  1. R. J. Smith
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  2. R. D. J. Muir
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  3. M. J. Walpole
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  4. A. Balmford
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  5. N. Leader-Williams
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Correspondence to R. J. Smith.

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Smith, R., Muir, R., Walpole, M. et al. Governance and the loss of biodiversity. Nature 426, 67–70 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02025

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