Biodiversity conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas

Although Brazil is a megadiverse country and thus a conservation priority, no study has yet quantified conservation gaps in the Brazilian protected areas (PAs) using extensive empirical data. Here, we evaluate the degree of biodiversity protection and knowledge within all the Brazilian PAs through a gap analysis of vertebrate, arthropod and angiosperm occurrences and phylogenetic data. Our results show that the knowledge on biodiversity in most Brazilian PAs remain scant as 71% of PAs have less than 0.01 species records per km2. Almost 55% of Brazilian species and about 40% of evolutionary lineages are not found in PAs, while most species have less than 30% of their geographic distribution within PAs. Moreover, the current PA network fails to protect the majority of endemic species. Most importantly, these results are similar for all taxonomic groups analysed here. The methods and results of our countrywide assessment are suggested to help design further inventories in order to map and secure the key biodiversity of the Brazilian PAs. In addition, our study illustrates the most common biodiversity knowledge shortfalls in the tropics.Fil: Oliveira, Ubirajara. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Soares-Filho, Britaldo Silveira. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Paglia, Adriano Pereira. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Brescovit, Antonio Domingos. Governo do Estado de Sao Paulo. Secretaria da Saude. Instituto Butantan; BrasilFil: De Carvalho, Claudio J. B.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Silva, Dasniel Paiva. Instituto Federal Goiano; BrasilFil: Teixeira de Rezende, Daniella. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”; ArgentinaFil: Leite, Felipe Sá Fortes. Universidade Federal de Vicosa; BrasilFil: Batista, João Aguiar Nogueira. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Barbosa, João Paulo Peixoto Pena. Governo do Estado de Sao Paulo. Secretaria da Saude. Instituto Butantan; BrasilFil: Stehmann, João Renato. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Ascher, John S.. National University Of Singapore; SingapurFil: De Vasconcelos, Marcelo Ferreira. Instituto Prístino; BrasilFil: De Marco, Paulo. Universidade Federal de Goiás; BrasilFil: Löwenberg-Neto, Peter. Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana; BrasilFil: Ferro, Viviane Gianluppi. Universidade Federal de Goiás; BrasilFil: Santos, Adalberto J.. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; Brasi