But not all species recognise political boundaries, and neither do the threats to their existence.
Different national conservation priorities can mean a species may be protected in one country but hunted over the border; while physical barriers, including border fences and vegetation clearing, impacts their connectivity, access to critical resources and can cause injuries or isolation.
Our research shows that over half the world’s terrestrial species—birds, mammals and amphibians—and 21 percent of threatened terrestrial species have ranges that cross a national border.
These threatened transboundary species are primarily concentrated in Asia, with smaller hotspots in eastern equatorial Africa, Central America and South America.
With extinctions now occurring up to 100 times higher than the background rate, the global community must look beyond political borders and work in collaboration with neighbouring governments, institutions and communities to implement safeguards for biodiversity.
And coordinated planning for conservation is vital to ensure the continued survival of these threatened species.
Relationships between neighbouring countries can be incredibly complex, and the drivers for successfully implementing and sustaining a transboundary conservation initiative are not currently well understood.
Differing governance capacities, historical relations and ever-increasing development pressures present significant challenges to nations when collaborating for conservation.
We’ve combined these factors to produce an index of global transboundary conservation feasibility. Regions with high feasibility scores were clear ‘low-hanging fruit’ for transboundary conservation (areas such as Fennoscandia, the United States and Canada).
Although these areas typically had fewer threatened transboundary species, it is still important to see collaborative conservation efforts in these regions.
North America has many species with large ranges, including grey wolves, grizzly bears and wolverines—and they require large-scale management planning.
