Indicator Code: AZE
Objective: Ecosystem Vitality
Policy Category: Biodiversity and Habitat
Subcategory: Biodiversity and Habitat
Indicator Short Name: Critical Habitat Protection
Indicator Full Name: Percent of Alliance for Zero Extinction Sites Protected
Indicator Description: Percent of Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) Sites Protected is designed to give more rigorous insight into the protection of highly endangered species. It catalogs whether countries provide protection for sites designated by the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE). Indices that look at species conservation by country can be difficult to develop, as the percentage of endangered species within a country is tied to the natural endowment of the country. Moreover, species are assessed as threatened on the basis of their global conservation status. This means that even if a country takes extensive measures to protect that species in its own territory, they might still rank poorly on an index that looks at the percentage of endangered species at the global level.
The Alliance for Zero Extinction is a joint initiative of 52 biodiversity conservation organizations, which aims to prevent extinctions by identifying and safeguarding key sites, each one of which is the last remaining refuge of one or more Endangered or Critically Endangered species. They follow the IUCN Red List criteria for Endangered or Critically Endangered species; therefore it uses a consistent and standardized approach and criteria across the world. To date, AZE has identified 595 sites that each represents the last refuge of one or more of the world’s most highly threatened species.
An AZE site must meet all three of the following criteria:
a) Endangerment. An AZE site must contain at least one Endangered (EN) or Critically Endangered (CR) species, as listed by IUCN – World Conservation Union.
b) Irreplaceability. An AZE site should only be designated if it is the sole area where an EN or CR species occurs, or contains the overwhelmingly significant known resident population of the EN or CR species, or contains the overwhelmingly significant known population for one life history segment (e.g., breeding or wintering) of the EN or CR species.
c) Discreteness. The area must have a definable boundary within which the character of habitats, biological communities, and/or management issues have more in common with each other than they do with those in adjacent areas.
Units: Percentage
Country Coverage: 86
Reference Year: 2004
Target: 100%
Target Source: Expert Judgment
Short Source: Conservation Strategies Division, The Nature Conservancy.
Source: Results based on Ricketts et al., 2005.
Source URL: not available
Methodology: We calculated the percent of AZE sites within each country that are within a protected area, based on the published paper by Ricketts et al. (2005).
Additional Citations: Ricketts, T.H., et al. (2005). Pinpointing and preventing imminent extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 51, pp. 18497-18501.