146 Conservation news
These approaches are now well accepted and utilized in spa- tial and conservation planning. Until recently, such an approach had yet to focus on sharks
Scarabaeus laticollis on a fresh cow dung pat in southern France. Photo: C. Leandro.
The IUCN Red List conservation status assessment for
400 South African species of dung beetle began in July 2022 and soon we will launch the assessment of 200 species from Australia and 300 species from South America. In due course, we hope to engage with the agricultural sector (farmers, ranchers and veterinarians) through communica- tion outreach. In the long term, we hope to work on the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas and conservation planning for dung beetles. If you would like to get involved in the work of this new
Specialist Group or contribute your expertise to conserva- tion assessments, please fill in the form at
forms.gle/ kNW6CMxQHPbMp57b6. The more diverse the network, the more relevant our actions will be for the conservation of dung beetles globally.
CAMILA LEANDRO (
orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-326X, camila.
leandro@univ-montp3.fr) co-chair of the Dung Beetle Specialist Group, Montpellier, France. FERNANDO VAZ-DE- MELLO (
orcid.org/0000-0001-9697-320X) co-chair of the Dung Beetle Specialist Group, Cuiabá, Brazil
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits un- restricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Important Shark and Ray Areas: a new tool to optimize spatial planning for sharks
Spatial planning is a priority for biodiversity conservation, and area-based measures have become a key element for identification of sites that are particularly important for bio- diversity. Initiatives have been developed for specific taxa, such as birds (Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas) and marine mammals (Important Marine Mammal Areas) and for biodiversity more generally (Key Biodiversity Areas and Ecological or Biologically Significant Marine Areas).
and their relatives, the rays and chimaeras (hereafter collect- ively referred to as sharks), one of themost threatened faunal lineages (37%of species are categorized as threatenedwith ex- tinction on the IUCN Red List). Overexploitation, unregu- lated or poorly managed fisheries and trade and, to a lesser extent, habitat degradation and loss, are driving steep declines inmany shark populations. Existing area-based conservation approaches have not been designed with this conservation challenge in mind and have not adequately responded to the risk profile of sharks globally. To address this, the IUCN Species Survival Commission
Shark Specialist Group undertook extensive engagement and consultation to develop the Important Shark and Ray Area framework. Modelled on Important Marine Mam- mal Areas, the development of criteria considered the diverse life histories and unique attributes of sharks. The criteria are applied to identify areas based on shark vulner- ability (e.g. species assessed as threatened on the IUCN Red List), range restriction, life history (reproduction, feed- ing, resting, movement, undefined aggregations), and spe- cial attributes (distinctiveness, diversity; Hyde et al., 2022, Frontiers in Marine Science, 9, 968853). Resulting Important Shark and RayAreas are discrete, three-dimensional portions of habitat that are important for one or more shark species and have the potential to be managed for conservation. Funded by the Shark Conservation Fund, the Important
Shark and Ray Area project has begun working through 13 global regions, covering all marine and inland waters where sharks occur. The project brings together regional experts to contribute knowledge and identify important areas. In the first workshop (in Bogotá, Colombia, in October 2022), 55 experts delineated important areas from the Gulf of California, Mexico, to southern Chile in the Eastern Pacific. This week-long process identified 76 candidate Important Shark and Ray Areas, now under review by an independent review panel. The candidates accepted will appear on the Important Shark and Ray Area e-Atlas, an open access tool for exploring areas important for sharks (
sharkrayareas.org/e-atlas). The next workshop will be held in theMediterranean and Black Sea region in early 2023. The Important Shark and Ray Area process will give
governments and policy makers access to scientifically de- fined areas that can help them advance actions to conserve sharks. This tool will help countries achieve the Convention on Biological Diversity Global Biodiversity Framework 30 × 30 target (30% of global land and sea conserved through protected areas and other effective area-based con- servation measures by 2030). Complementary to other area- based measures, we anticipate that Important Shark and Ray Areas will be integrated into the recognition of global sites that hold high biodiversity. Overall, delineating Important
Oryx, 2023, 57(2), 145–148 © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322001624
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