Summary

The world faces unprecedented biodiversity loss driven by habitat destruction, climate change, and biological invasions, jeopardizing the structure and function of ecosystems on which people depend. Protected areas alone have proven insufficient to stem this crisis, and spatial conservation planning that bridges science and policy is urgently needed to safeguard both nature and human well‑being [29].

Oceanic islands host disproportionate levels of endemism and provide sensitive natural laboratories for detecting and understanding anthropogenic impacts at accelerated rates [7,8,9]. Their compressed spatial scales and relatively simple biotas make islands ideal for testing integrative conservation strategies that can then be scaled to continental contexts [7].

The Azores archipelago has built one of the world's most complete biodiversity datasets for bryophytes, vascular plants, spiders and beetles through 20+ years of standardized monitoring, a conservation achievement providing unparalleled baseline data for future protection efforts [9-13]. Yet its network of protected areas remains largely unchanged, frequently misaligned with contemporary patterns of species distribution, functional trait variation, and emerging threats [14].

In an era of ecological transitions, the RECAP project aims to redesign and expand the archipelago’s protected‑area network using an adaptive, science-based and stakeholder‑driven conservation planning framework. By integrating public demands with taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional, and high‑resolution threat data across multiple taxa, RECAP will generate a dynamic conservation blueprint that maximizes biodiversity protection while balancing social and economic considerations in the Azores.

To achieve this, RECAP will: i) Implement participatory spatial planning to co‑design conservation priorities with local and regional stakeholders; ii) Develop FAIR‑compliant, publicly accessible databases of occurrence, abundance, trait, and phylogenetic data; iii) Model species distributions, community dynamics, and ecosystem services using hierarchical Bayesian joint species distribution models and multivariate diversity metrics; iv) Redesign protected‑area boundaries and corridors through multi‑objective optimization with Marxan [48].

We will assemble and harmonize occurrence and abundance records from 1970 onward, augment trait datasets via direct measurement, and construct time‑calibrated phylogenetic trees for target taxa. Concurrently, we will generate bi‑annual, 10 m‑resolution land‑cover maps from Landsat and Sentinel imagery and refine global threat layers from SPECTRE to create precise, temporally explicit threat surfaces [39, 43].

Our participatory process will establish governance frameworks that balance ecological integrity with socioeconomic equity, foster local stewardship, and ensure compliance with the EU Nature Restoration Law and IUCN protected‑area guidelines. We also have the support of the Azorean Government (see Letter of Support in the Supplementary Material) responding to the EU 2030 Restoration Law.

By uniting cutting‑edge spatial analyses with structured stakeholder engagement, RECAP will deliver a science‑based blueprint for adaptive conservation planning in island systems, offering transferable methodologies to other regions facing similar ecological transitions. Overall, RECAP is poised to become a reference framework for proactive, evidence‑driven conservation under ecological change, ensuring that the unique biodiversity of the Azores, and beyond, is safeguarded for future generations (see Graphical Abstract in the Supplementary Material).

RECAP builds on six FCT‑funded projects led by the PI and leverages platforms such as the Azores BioPortal and Island‑Lab, consolidating over 20 years of standardized biodiversity monitoring in the archipelago [9,12,13,14]. Collectively, the team’s recent achievements—spanning the development of extensive biodiversity datasets, the deployment of advanced modeling and decision-support tools, the co-creation of participatory governance frameworks, and the integration of science into regional conservation policy—align seamlessly with RECAP’s work packages. These achievements ensure the feasibility, timeliness, and scientific robustness required for delivering a high-impact, adaptive conservation framework tailored to the Azores. This alignment not only capitalizes on existing capacity and long-term monitoring networks (e.g., BALA, SLAM) but also fosters innovation in biodiversity assessment and stakeholder engagement, essential for responding to the EU 2030 Restoration Law and the ongoing ecological transition in island systems

Funding Institution

FCT-2025.00398.AZO,

DOI https://doi.org/10.54499/2025.00398.AZO

Partners

- Brent Emerson (Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (Canary Islands)

- Pedro Cardoso; Fernando Ascensão, Hugo Rebelo (CE3C - Universidade de Lisboa (UL) - Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa

- Helena Calado (Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade de Lisboa)