Global Biodiversity Conservation and the Alleviation of Poverty

Poverty and biodiversity loss are two of the worlds dire challenges. Claims of conservations contribution to poverty alleviation, however, remaincontroversial. Here, we assess the flows of ecosystem services provided to people by priority habitats for terrestrial conservation, considering theglobal distributions of biodiversity, physical factors, and socioeconomic context. We estimate the value of these habitats to the poor, both throughdirect benefits and through payments for ecosystem services to those stewarding natural habitats. The global potential for biodiversity conservationto support poor communities is high: The top 25% of conservation priority areas could provide 56%57% of benefits. The aggregate benefits arevalued at three times the estimated opportunity costs and exceed 1 per person per day for 331 million of the worlds poorest people. Althoughtrade-offs remain, these results show winwin synergies between conservation and poverty alleviation, indicate that effective financial mechanismscan enhance these synergies, and suggest biodiversity conservation as a fundamental component of sustainable economic development.