A place-based assessment of biodiversity intactness in sub-Saharan Africa.

ABSTRACT: Maintaining biodiversity is central to the sustainable development agenda¹. However, a lack of context-specific biodiversity information at policy-relevant scales has posed major limitations to decision-makers^2,3. To address this challenge, we undertook a comprehensive assessment of the biodiversity intactness of sub-Saharan Africa⁴ using place-based knowledge of 200 African biodiversity experts⁵. We estimate that the region has on average lost 24% of its pre-colonial and pre-industrial faunal and floral population abundances, ranging from losses of <20% for disturbance-adapted herbaceous plants to 80% for some large mammals. Rwanda and Nigeria are the least intact (<55%), whereas Namibia and Botswana are the most intact (>85%). Notably, most rem

SUBMITTER: Clements HS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12727506 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature