The importance of cities in protecting imperiled species

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. Habitat loss and alteration from urbanization threaten global biodiversity, and municipal decision-making therefore affects the persistence of many imperiled species. Using Canada as a case study, we quantified the overlap between critical habitats of imperiled species in large urban areas. Of these species, 14% were urban-restricted, and ~28% of these species, spanning nine taxonomic groups, had more than 75% of their mapped critical habitat in Canadian metropolitan areas. To explore municipal engagement in biodiversity conservation, we assessed the consideration of imperiled species in publicly available plans and strategies for 42 of the largest Canadian metropolitan areas. Over half of cities (72%) mentioned imperiled species in biodiversity or official plans and half (52%) outlined actions for these species. While biodiversity conservation is one of many competing priorities in cities, given their significant overlap with critical habitat, cities can play a large role in protecting and increasing public awareness of imperiled species. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2FC9V Biology urban conservation, imperiled species, policy review, biodiversity, Cities Published: 2025-02-10 14:32 Last Updated: 2025-02-11 22:29 Conflict of interest statement: None Data and Code Availability Statement: All primary data and outputs used in the analyses are available here: https://osf.io/dkqvj/?view_only=a191c05fbaef4e078f32a35c55bc28fe. Language: English