Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets
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Abstract
The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of threatened species will be achieved. We assembled a multi-taxa tracking dataset (11 million geopositions from 15,845 tracked individuals across 121 species) to provide a global assessment of space use of highly mobile marine megafauna, showing that 63% of the area that they cover is used 80% of the time as important migratory corridors or residence areas. The GBF 30% threshold (Target 3) will be insufficient for marine megafauna’s effective conservation, leaving important areas exposed to major anthropogenic threats. Coupling area protection with mitigation strategies (e.g., fishing regulation, wildlife-traffic separation) will be essential to reach international goals and conserve biodiversity.
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets |
| Series title | Science |
| DOI | 10.1126/science.adl0239 |
| Volume | 388 |
| Issue | 6751 |
| Publication Date | June 05, 2025 |
| Year Published | 2025 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| Contributing office(s) | Alaska Science Center Ecosystems |
| Description | 12 p. |
| First page | 1086 |
| Last page | 1097 |