Mapping climate adaptation corridors for biodiversity—A regional-scale case study in Central America

strategies to implementing corridors [26, 61]. We helped address this by prioritizing potential climate adaptation corridors based on the ecological characteristics and the conservation status of individual corridors and their associated lowland protected area starting points and poten- tial high-elevation refugia destinations. In doing so, we identified several ‘high-priority land- scapes’ that offer strong potential as critical components of a regional climate adaptation corridor network in Central America due to their relatively high concentrations of high-prior- ity corridors (S3 Fig in S1 Appendix). These landscapes can represent starting points for land managers and conservation practitioners aiming to implement climate adaptation corridors by highlighting where coordinated research, investment, conservation, or restoration activities could simultaneously benefit biodiversity resilience under climate change for multiple lowland protected areas. It is important to note, however, that our analysis prioritized potential corri- dors based on existing ecological landscape conditions, resulting in an uneven distribution of high-priority landscapes throughout Central America. Many other landscapes, such as por- tions of El Salvador or western Nicaragua, should still serve important roles in regional con- nectivity, particularly to leverage inclusivity and participation across all states and countries. There are many factors to consider when moving from the regional scale to that of individ-

ual landscapes. The fact that even high-priority corridors are typically long and span multiple countries underscores the importance of international coordination for realizing a regional cli- mate adaptation corridor network. Specifically, clear and coordinated objectives, management, and monitoring plans are necessary for all corridor initiatives, but particularly when envision- ing a regional corridor network [5]. Weak, inconsistent, or overall lack of these things contrib- uted substantially to the failures of the MBC [23]. Whereas our analyses applied global- or regional-scale geospatial datasets available for the entire study area, landscape-scale analyses would also benefit from more detailed integration of biodiversity data (e.g., species distribu- tions, wildlife tracking, or camera trap data), forest characteristics, land-use types and agricul- tural practices, or barriers to fine-scale connectivity [62–64]. Other considerations could include loss of water resources due to climate or land use change (e.g., [65]), artificial light (e.g., [66]), or urban infrastructure such as buildings or roads (e.g., [67]). Such information could be used to determine necessary widths of individual corridors or be incorporated into corridor management and monitoring plans to track outcomes across different corridor proj- ects throughout the region. Socio-economic costs and benefits of conservation and restoration activities associated with implementing corridors must also be considered to ensure stake-

holder support and project durability [5]. Corridor projects may also be more likely to succeed when recognizing climate adaptive co-benefits for biodiversity and human well-being, includ- ing forest restoration and extreme temperature mitigation [68–70]. Successful implementation of climate adaptation corridors will require not only govern- ment and international support, but also a strong network of on-the-ground, site-based imple- menters that have been working in and understand the unique local realities that each landscape faces. Although local-scale climate adaptation corridor initiatives are largely in their infancy, illustrative examples are beginning to appear. In Costa Rica, efforts are ongoing to link lowland protected areas in the Osa Peninsula to the high-elevation La Amistad Interna- tional Park (known as the ´AmistOsa´ landscape), and that includes the AmistOsa Biological Corridor designated by the Government of Costa Rica in 2017 [71]. The lowland protected areas have become isolated through deforestation and rapid encroachment by large and small- scale agriculture over the last 30 years, resulting in a mosaic of fragmented old growth and sec- ondary forest, sun coffee farms, cattle pastures, and industrial-scale pineapple, teak, and oil palm plantations. Using the existing AmistOsa landscape as an example of on-the-ground ini- tiatives to rebuild ecological connectivity along elevational gradients includes developing a habitat restoration network with over 200 local stakeholders to maintain and increase forest PLOS ONE

Mapping climate adaptation corridors for biodiversity PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304756 May 31, 2024 14 / 19