A place-based assessment of biodiversity intactness in sub-Saharan Africa

Journal article

Maintaining biodiversity is central to the sustainable development agenda1. However, a lack of context-specific biodiversity information at policy-relevant scales has posed major limitations to decision-makers2, 3. To address this challenge, we undertook a comprehensive assessment of the biodiversity intactness of sub-Saharan Africa4 using place-based knowledge of 200 African biodiversity experts5. We estimate that the region has on average lost 24% of its pre-colonial and pre-industrial faunal and floral population abundances, ranging from losses of <20% for disturbance-adapted herbaceous plants to 80% for some large mammals. Rwanda and Nigeria are the least intact (<55%), whereas Namibia and Botswana are the most intact (>85%). Notably, most remaining organisms occur in unprotected, relatively untransformed rangelands and natural forests. Losses in biodiversity intactness in the worst-affected biomes are driven by land transformation into cropland in grasslands and fynbos (Mediterranean-type ecosystems), by non-agricultural degradation in forests and by a combination of the two drivers in savannas. This assessment provides decision-makers with multifaceted, contextually appropriate and policy-relevant information on the state of biodiversity in an understudied region of the world. Our approach could be used in other regions, including better-studied localities, to integrate contextual, place-based knowledge into multiscale assessments of biodiversity status and impacts.

Authors: Clements, HS; Biggs, R; De Vos, A; Do Linh San, E; Hempson, GP

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature
• Volume: 649
• Issue: 8095
• Pages: 113-121
• Publication date: 2025-12-03
• Acceptance date: 2025-10-20
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09781-7
• EISSN: 1476-4687
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English