Drivers of change and conservation needs for vertebrates in drylands: an assessment from global scale to Sahara-Sahel wetlands

Figures & data

Figure 1. Global distribution of drylands (top: aridity index < 0.65; Trabucco & Zomer 2009), relative proportion of dry sub-humid, semi-arid, arid and hyper-arid categories (bottom left) and percentage of protected areas in drylands afforded by each category (left small inset), and cumulative number of protected areas and their area established in drylands (bottom right) (IUCN and UNEP-WCMC 2019)

Table I. Selection of direct threats acting on drylands, local conservation actions being developed, and research needs for biodiversity conservation and sustainable human development. Numbering and nomenclature follow IUCN (2019) classification schemes of Threats, Conservation Actions, and Research Needs

Direct threats	Conservation actions	Research needs
1. Residential and commercial development 1.1 Housing and urban areas 1.3 Tourism and recreation areas 2. Agriculture and grazing 2.1 Annual and perennial non-timber crops 2.3 Livestock farming and ranching 3. Energy production and mining 3.1 Oil and gas drilling 3.2 Mining and quarrying 4. Transportation and service corridors 4.1 Roads and railroads 4.2 Utility and service lines 5. Biological resource use 5.1 Hunting and collecting terrestrial animals 6. Human intrusions and disturbance 6.1 Recreational activities 6.2 War, civil unrest and military exercises 7. Natural system modifications 7.2 Dams and water management/use 8. Invasive and other problematic species, genes and diseases 8.1 Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases 8.2 Problematic native species/diseases 9. Pollution 9.1 Domestic and urban waste water 9.2 Industrial and military effluents 9.3 Agricultural effluents 9.4 Garbage and solid waste 9.6 Excess energy 11. Climate change and severe weather 11.1 Habitat shifting and alteration 11.2 Droughts 11.3 Temperature extremes 12. Other options 12.1 Other threat	1. Land/water protection 1.1 Site/area protection 1.2 Resource and habitat protection 2. Land/water management 2.1 Site/area management 2.2 Invasive/problematic species control 3. Species management 3.1 Species management 3.2 Species recovery 3.3 Species re-introduction 3.4 Ex-situ conservation 4. Education and awareness 4.1 Formal education 4.2 Training 4.3 Awareness and communications 5. Law and policy 5.1 Legislation 5.2 Policies and regulations 5.3 Private sector standards and codes 6. Livelihoods, economic and other incentives 6.1 Linked enterprises and livelihood alternatives 6.2 Substitution 7. External capacity building 7.1 Institutional and civil society development 7.2 Alliance and partnership development 7.3 Conservation finance	1. Scientific research 1.1 Taxonomy 1.2 Population size, distribution and past trends 1.3 Life-history and ecology 1.4 Harvest, use and livelihoods 1.5 Threats 1.6 Conservation actions 2. Conservation planning 2.1 Species action/recovery plan 2.2 Area-based management plan 3. Monitoring 3.1 Population trends 4. Other 4.1 Land-degradation status and trends 4.2 Quantifying socioeconomic factors

Figure 2. Relationships between average regional values of socioeconomic indicators in 70 dryland countries. Global peace (low values = more peace) and global terrorism (low values = less terrorism) indexes (top left), human development (HDI) and corruptions perception (low values = more corruption) indexes (top right), and net migration rate (per 1,000 people) (bottom left), and international tourist arrivals (millions) (bottom right). Regions: North America (Dark blue), South America (Light blue), Europe (Yellow), North Africa (Dark Orange), South Africa (Light Orange), West Asia (Dark green), East Asia (Light green), and Australia (Grey). Indexes and data from IEP (2018a, 2018b), UNDP (2018), UNWTO (2018), and Transparency International (2019)

Figure 3. The wetlands of the west Sahara-Sahel. Location of four hydrographic networks in the African context (left insets), distribution of 696 wetlands and 181 oases, and a selection of pictures of values (+) and pressures (-) associated to wetlands

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