Regional scientific research benefits threatened species conservation

Although conventional wisdom considers knowledge of threatened species’ ecology and status essential for conservation, few studies demonstrate this in a quantitative way across many species and within the same political entity. Here, we evaluated the impacts of scientific research against conservation interventions (including funding) and species-level correlates, accounting for phylogenetic relatedness, on the conservation of 162 threatened mammal species in China. We did so at three levels: global (all scientific papers published on the species), regional (a subset of the global papers that included at least one author from a local organization) and regional conservation-related (a subset of the regional papers that focused only on ecology and conservation). In addition to protected-area coverage and certain biological traits, regional conservation-related research emerged as an important predictor of species recovery. The same was not the case for global research. We should particularly encourage future regional research effort that has direct relevance to specific conservation issues.