Critical research gaps in freshwater conservation planning: A perspective from World Wildlife Fund’s Conservation Science Program

R.A. Abell. Conservation Science Program, World Wildlife Fund, Washingon, DC

WWF’s Conservation Science Program focuses on applying the best science to large-scale conservation planning. We are undertaking a global delineation of freshwater ecoregions, based primarily on fish zoogeography; the ecoregions will serve as coarse conservation planning units, and the map will highlight systems for priority attention. We are completing a comprehensive assessment of Africa’s freshwater biodiversity and threats to it, following similar endeavors for North and Latin America. At the ecoregional scale, we have provided technical assistance to planning efforts in the Amazon, Congo, Niger, Indus, and Mekong basins; the Southeast U.S and the Guianas; and elsewhere. Our work’s next frontier involves designing conservation landscapes within ecoregions, integrating conservation biology, landscape ecology, hydrology, biochemistry, aquatic ecology, and socioeconomic disciplines with geographic information systems, remote sensing, and decision support systems. Critical information gaps hinder our freshwater planning efforts, and collaboration with the scientific community is essential. Research targets include mapping the distribution of freshwater species and habitats in priority areas; documenting the key habitat requirements of focal species, such as long-distance migrants; understanding the natural hydrologic regime and species adaptations to it; and quantifying how threats operate at multiple scales so that we can design conservation landscapes to mitigate them.