Data from: Microreserves are an important tool for amphibian conservation

Initiatives to protect 30% of Earth by 2030 prompt evaluation of how to
efficiently target shortcomings in the global protected area (PA) network.
Focusing on amphibians, the most vulnerable vertebrate class, we
illustrate the conservation value of microreserves, a term we employ here
to refer to reserves of <10 km2. We report that the network
continues to under-represent threatened amphibians and that, despite this
clear shortcoming in land-based conservation, the creation of PAs
protecting amphibians slowed after 2010. By proving something previously
assumed–that amphibians generally have smaller ranges than other
terrestrial vertebrates–we demonstrate that microreserves could protect a
substantial portion of many amphibian ranges, particularly threatened
species. We find existing microreserves are capable of hosting an
amphibian species richness similar to PAs 1,000–10,00X larger, and we show
that amphibians' high beta diversity means that microreserves added
to a growing PA network cover amphibian species 1.5—6x faster than larger
size categories. We propose that stemming global biodiversity loss
requires that we seriously consider the conservation potential of
microreserves, using them to capture small-range endemics that may
otherwise be omitted from the PA network entirely.