The future-focused Proactive Conservation Index highlights unrecognized global priorities for vertebrate conservation.

ABSTRACT: Human-induced environmental pressures are expected to intensify worldwide during the 21st century. Consequently, future-focused tools and approaches to anticipate pressures on biodiversity are key to effectively prioritize conservation actions and supplement existing approaches. Here, we develop a continuous conservation prioritization index, the Proactive Conservation Index (PCI), that integrates projected future extrinsic threats and traits that can predispose species' vulnerability. We used the PCI to assess the conservation priority of 33,560 species of land vertebrates worldwide, compared our results to the extinction risk categories of these species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, and examined spatial and phylogenetic patte

SUBMITTER: de Oliveira Caetano GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12539808 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature