About

The Global Mammal Assessment (GMA) is a programme carried out at the Department of Biology and Biotechnologies of Sapienza University of Rome, a member of the IUCN Red List Partnership. Our laboratory includes academics, researchers, graduate students, and programme officers dedicated to assessing mammal extinction risk, developing mammal distribution maps, and forecasting future biodiversity loss driven by global environmental change.

The goals of the GMA programme include:

• Assessing global and regional trends in mammal extinction risk through Red List assessments
• Investigating the ecological and anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity decline across spatial scales
• Developing mammal distribution maps, species range models, and spatial conservation datasets
• Forecasting the impacts of climate and land-use change on mammal biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
• Evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas and supporting the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs)
• Advancing innovative approaches in conservation science, ecological modelling, and biodiversity assessment

Research activities within the laboratory span conservation biology, macroecology, spatial ecology, and applied conservation science. Current projects include evaluating protected area effectiveness through spatial analyses and camera-trapping data, investigating the ecological role of megafauna in ecosystem restoration, assessing Nature Futures scenarios for mammal biodiversity, and developing new approaches to species range mapping using Asian bears as model systems. Additional work applies demographic and ecological modelling across spatial scales to support mammal conservation under climate and environmental change.

Alongside research, the GMA programme actively supports project management, international collaborations, outreach and dissemination activities, and grant development, contributing to evidence-based biodiversity conservation at both regional and global scales.