A review of connectivity literature in South Asia

‘Connectivity conservation’ is increasingly being recognized as critical to species conservation and planning. A recent review analysed the trends in the literature, identified gaps, and highlighted future directions. The review was carried out by a team of scientists from the World Wide Fund for Nature- India (WWF- India), The Shola Trust, Network for Conserving Central India (NCCI), National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER)- Tirupati. The Coalition for Wildlife Corridors helped in bringing together some of the scientists and coordinating the effort.

Some of the key findings of the review are:

1. There is a species bias in connectivity literature towards ‘charismatic megafauna’.
2. A majority of studies do not use animal movement data and fall short of capturing functional connectivity.
3. There is a research- implementation gap. This is critical because connectivity conservation requires managing regions outside of formal conservation zones and protected areas, and these regions are changing at a fast pace.
4. Anthropogenic impacts on animal movement in terms of development trajectories as well as human culture and tolerance to wildlife have not received much attention.

Link to the paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs41745-021-00240-6