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

cover within agricultural landscapes, supporting sustainable agricultural practices through economic incentives, restoring wetlands, reintroducing key focal species, and promoting civil responsibility among local communities to understand, advocate for, and protect their natural resources [72]. Whereas there is certainly no one-size-fits-all approach for facilitating corridor implementation, a regional climate adaptation corridor network initiative across Central America will need not only government and international support, but a strong network of local implementers familiar with local challenges and context. Conclusion Our regional-scale analysis of potential climate adaptation corridors identified 2375 potential corridors throughout Central America that link lowland protected areas with contiguous, high-elevation forests. Although these high-elevation forests may represent potential climate change refugia owing to their relatively wide elevational gradients and potential climate buffer- ing capacity, they are currently fragmented and poorly protected. Our climate adaptation cor- ridor priority index considered the ecological characteristics and protected status of potential corridors and their associated start and end points, resulting in 160 high-priority corridors that are generally well protected and forested, span wide elevational gradients, overlap with Key Biodiversity Areas, and provide connections to habitats that are also generally more pro- tected, span wide elevational gradients, and larger. However, the general lack of protection for

potential high-elevation refugia throughout the region underscores the importance of not just promoting connectivity across elevational gradients, but also the urgency of additional conser- vation in the mountainous landscapes that need to be connected. Finally, it is critical that con- nectivity research in Central America does not stop at the regional scale. Whereas our analysis can serve as an umbrella guide for regional connectivity by identifying high-priority land- scapes for future, finer-scale research, conservation, restoration, and investment, the imple- mentation of climate adaptation corridors throughout Central America will require a coordinated suite of local- to landscape-scale efforts that collectively comprise the regional cor- ridor network necessary to promote biodiversity resilience under climate change. Rebuilding ecological connectivity across elevational gradients can be a fundamental to tackling the biodi- versity and climate crises together, a critical tool for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and a crucial nature-based solution for climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation that can also play a fundamental role in achieving key global conservation tar- gets such as 30% protection by 2030 [20]. Supporting information S1 Appendix. Mapping climate adaptation corridors for biodiversity—A regional-scale case study in Central America. Supporting document containing supplementary figures and tables. (DOCX) Acknowledgments We thank an anonymous reviewer for comments and suggestions that improved this manuscript.

Author Contributions Conceptualization: Ian M. McCullough, Christopher Beirne, Carolina Soto-Navarro, Andrew Whitworth. PLOS ONE Mapping climate adaptation corridors for biodiversity PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0304756 May 31, 2024 15 / 19