Table 1.
Approaches for the determination of conservation priorities and respective references.
Fig 1.
Task 1 –find data on the distribution of focal species.
Here shown for four species of shrews across Europe: Crocidura sicula (endemic in Sicily, Italy), Sorex coronatus with a regional rather closed distribution, Sorex alpinus (disjunct distribution), and Sorex minutus, widely spread across Eurasia (Sources: [43–46]).
Fig 2.
Task 2 –check the suitability of the chosen reference area.
Here, the distribution area of the focal species Sorex coronatus is fully contained in the reference area Europe (sub-continental border is based on national borderlines; Sources: [43–46]).
Fig 3.
Task 3 –determine the ratio of the focal area of the country and the reference area (here FA = France; European part of the territory only; RA = Europe, sub-continental border is based on national borderlines; sources: [43–46]).
Fig 4.
Decision tree for identifying national responsibilities in species conservation after [36] (modified).
Step one is to select the taxonomic unit. Step two is to determine the distribution pattern of the species: “local” defines a species with a patchy distribution within one biogeographic region (in the case of Europe, sensu European Habitats Directive, Council Directive 92/43/EEC), and “wide” refers to a species distribution spanning more than one biogeographic region. The third category is “regional”, wherein two-thirds of the distribution area of a species is located in one biogeographic region. Examples can be found in [37]. The final step is to calculate the proportional distribution of a species in the focal area. Two proportions are calculated–the expected distribution proportion (DPexp) and the observed distribution proportion (DPobs).
Fig 5.
Task 4 –determine the overlap between the different types of distributions of the four shrew species, the different Global Environmental Zones, and the reference area of Europe (sources: [43–46, 50]).
Fig 6.
Task 5 –define the ratio of the parts of the distribution of the focal species and the Global Environmental Zones contained in the focal area of the country France (European part of the territory only) and the respective parts of the distribution of the focal species and the Global Environmental Zones fully contained in the reference area of Europe (sources: [43–46, 50]).
Table 2.
Classes of conservation priorities based on scores (in brackets) for national responsibility and IUCN threat status following [36].
Fig 7.
The workflow of the National Responsibility Assessment Tool (IUCN: International Union for Conservation of Nature; NR: National Responsibility; CP: Conservation Priority; DPexp: expected distribution proportion, and DPobs: observed distribution proportion).
Fig 8.
Number out of 258 analyzed species in Asian regions and countries for which a country has a certain national responsibility.
BUs = GEnZ.
Fig 9.
Conservation priorities for the number out of 258 analyzed species in Asian regions and countries that fall in a certain conservation priority class.
BUs = GEnZ.
Table 3.
Summary statistics for the number of species per country and the ranking of countries based on the two approaches, the Polygon Count-Approach and the Polygon Area-Approach, and stored in the results tables created by the ArcGIS NRA-Tool (see S1 and S2 Data).