Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests of Tanzania and Kenya ...

Conservation outcomes are the full set of quantitative and justifiable conservation targets in ahotspot that need to be achieved in order to prevent biodiversity loss. These targets are definedat three levels: species (extinctions avoided), sites (areas protected) and landscapes (corridorscreated). As conservation in the field succeeds in achieving these targets, these targets becomedemonstrable results or outcomes. While CEPF cannot achieve all of the outcomes identified fora region on its own, the partnership is trying to ensure that its conservation investments areworking toward preventing biodiversity loss and that its success can be monitored andmeasured. CI’s Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) is facilitating the definition ofconservation outcomes across the 25 global hotspots, representing the benchmarks against whichthe global conservation community can gauge the success of conservation measures.Overview of Conservation OutcomesConservation outcomes focus on biodiversity across a hierarchical continuum of ecologicalscales. This continuum can be condensed into the three levels: species, sites and landscapes. Thethree levels interlock geographically through the presence of species in sites and of sites inlandscapes. They are also logically connected. If species are to be conserved, the sites on whichthey live must be protected and the landscapes must continue to sustain the ecological serviceson which the sites and the species depend. At the landscape level, conservation corridors (withinwhich sites are nested) can sometimes be defined and investments can be targeted at increasingthe amount of habitat with ecological and biodiversity value within these corridors. Giventhreats to biodiversity at each of the three levels, quantifiable targets for conservation can be setin terms of extinctions avoided, sites protected and, where appropriate, conservation corridorscreated or preserved. This can only be done when accurate and comprehensive data are availableon the distribution of threatened species across sites and landscapes.Defining conservation outcomes is therefore a bottom-up process through which species-leveltargets are defined first and based on the species information, site-level conservation targets areidentified. Landscape-level targets are delineated subsequently, if appropriate for the region. Theprocess requires knowledge on the conservation status of individual species. This informationhas been accumulating in the Red Lists of Threatened Species developed by IUCN and partners.The Red List is based on quantitative, globally applicable criteria under which the probability ofextinction is estimated for each species. Species outcomes in the hotspot include those speciesthat are globally threatened (Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered) according toThe 2002 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Outcome definition is a fluid process and, asdata become available, species-level outcomes will be expanded to include other taxonomicgroups that previously had not been assessed, as well as restricted-range species. Avoidingextinctions means conserving globally threatened species to make sure that their Red List statusimproves or at least stabilizes. This in turn means that data are needed on population trends; formost of the threatened species, there are no such data.Recognizing that most species are best conserved through the protection of the sites in whichthey occur, site outcomes are defined for each target species. Site outcomes are focused onphysically and/or socioeconomically discrete areas of land that harbour populations of at leastone globally threatened species. These sites need to be protected from ecological transformationto conserve the target species. Sites are scale-independent and, ideally, should be manageable assingle units.Corridor outcomes are focused on landscapes that need to be conserved to allow the persistenceof biodiversity over time. Species and site outcomes are nested within corridors. The goal ofcorridors is to preserve ecological and evolutionary processes, as well as enhance connectivitybetween important conservation sites by effectively increasing the amount of habitat withbiodiversity value near them. Unlike species and site outcomes, the criteria for determining17