Overlap between priority conservation areas and natural assets appeals to a shared responsibility for global primate conservation

Expanding protected areas (PAs) coverage to match countries’ conservation responsibility is vital to stemming global biodiversity loss. Uneven biodiversity distribution and conservation responsibility among countries pose challenges to the implementation of conservation targets, and currently diminish conservation effectiveness. Using primates as a global model, we evaluated the conservation responsibility of countries to assess if their PA coverage adequately meets their conservation responsibility. We quantified spatial national responsibility for primate species conservation in each country from their range size of priority conservation areas (PCAs) and protected areas coverage on PCAs. We identified the high-responsibility countries for global primate conservation as countries that held > 1 % of global PCAs. We paid particular attention to the circumstances associated with PCAs in the least developed countries, especially the overlap between PCAs and the areas containing natural assets (natural assets areas). Seventeen countries were identified as high-responsibility countries that in total covered 84 % area of global PCAs. Current protected areas only covered less than 50 % of PCAs for fifteen of these high-responsibility countries. Among these fifteen countries, four countries (DR Congo, PA coverage: 19 %; Myanmar, 9 %; Madagascar, 29 %; Laos, 22 %) were the least developed countries. Most existing PCAs (95 %; SD 6 %) in these 17 countries are located within natural assets areas, which creates tension between primate conservation and local development. Global primate conservation is a shared responsibility among the international community. Developing countries have greater responsibility than most because of the overlapping of their PCAs with natural assets areas. For developing countries to fulfill their conservation responsibilities requires international conservation resources (funding support and cooperation). Protected areas expansion has to be matched with a realizable target for each country to avoid crippling conflicts between conservation and local development. Community-based management models, including other effective area-based conservation measures, may reduce potential conflict and improve conservation effectiveness.