A team of researchers at Michigan State University have said that although North America is critical in global conservation efforts, more needs to be done to protect key areas and reduce global warming.
The team whose purpose was to determine which portions of North America should be conserved in order to maximize conservation efforts have researchers drawn from the National Audubon Society, the University of East Anglia in England and James Cook University in Australia, in addition to MSU researchers.
Ideally, the data would help shape conservation programs such as the 30 by 30 plan, which aims to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans by 2030.
Sarah Saunders, a senior manager of Quantitative Science in the National Audubon Society’s Science Division and an adjunct scholar at MSU’s Department of Integrative Biology, said that the team found there’s ample opportunity for policymakers to protect refugia in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
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The team defined refugia as areas that are going to retain at least 75% of their current species under different warming scenarios from 1.5 to 4 degrees Celsius of warming.
“Policy-makers really should be considering refugia as one of the aspects to consider in conservation planning because you’re then building in this long-term forward-thinking perspective,” she said.
Saunders further said that the earth has already passed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, adding to the urgency to reduce emissions and protect refugia. She also said that less than 15% of climate change refugia have been protected.
“So there’s a lot of potentials here that exists to protect as much as 68% of refugia on average across America,” she said, adding that once global warming passes 2 degrees Celsius it becomes more difficult for species to thrive in refugia, especially for plants and fungi.
This story was adapted from WKAR.
