Mapping of biodiversity hubs and key ecosystem services as a tool for shaping optimal areas for conservation

RESEARCH ARTICLE Mapping of biodiversity hubs and key ecosystem services as a tool for shaping optimal areas for conservation Olivier Clement GatwazaID*☯, Xiangrong Wang☯ School of Landscape Architecture, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, P.R.China ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * colgat4@yahoo.com Abstract Most National Parks (NP) and nature reserves in Rwanda have been established opportu- nistically in the early 1900s, without clear consideration of ensuring the protection to all threatened different taxonomical or functional groups, such as vegetation, invertebrates, fish, and birds. With the increasing conservation objectives, raised expectations into Pro- tected Areas (PA), and within a more challenging environmental context, it is important to identify biodiversity hubs and key areas for Ecosystem Services (ES) to maximize the effi- ciency of conservation efforts by assisting priority areas under threats. To date, no compre- hensive analysis, to the best of our knowledge has been done to assess both biodiversity and ES in Rwanda. This is a notable gap, considering that global-scale research suggests that the spatial overlap between biodiversity targets and ES is low. This study reports a nationwide assessment, mapping the richness of threatened species and three key ES Car- bon Storage, Water Quantity, and Water Quality. Our analysis has shown that PAs are nei- ther perfectly delineated to protect biodiversity nor key ES. The state of PAs offers a taxonomic protection bias in favor of mammals and birds but leaves many endangered spe-

cies in other taxonomic groups in collapsing and unprotected small ecosystems scattered around the country. Rwanda’s PAs cover important carbon stock but can do better at secur- ing higher water balance regions and clean water sources. We propose an improvement of the NP system in Rwanda to help guide the economic development along a path of green growth and ensures the well-being of both people and nature. Locating biodiversity hubs and key ES can help to connect conservationists, local people, and governments in order to better guide conservation actions. 1 Introduction The degradation of natural ecosystems relentlessly continues to threaten the long-term sur- vival of many species around the world [1]. There is general consensus that establishing Pro- tected Areas (PA) is the major strategy for conserving biodiversity pools and the provision of ES worldwide [1, 2]. PA are now created not only to conserve iconic landscapes, seascapes and PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253151 August 17, 2021 1 / 20 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Gatwaza OC, Wang X (2021) Mapping of biodiversity hubs and key ecosystem services as a tool for shaping optimal areas for conservation. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0253151. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pone.0253151 Editor: Ji-Zhong Wan, Qinghai University, CHINA Received: November 30, 2020 Accepted: May 29, 2021 Published: August 17, 2021 Copyright: © 2021 Gatwaza, Wang. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.