Authors: Kuemmerle, Tobias; Baumann, Matthias;Pötzschner, Florian;Pratzer, Marie;Romero-Munoz, Alfredo;

Interactions among different threats to biodiversity, such as habitat transformation and hunting, are a key reason for the global erosion of biodiversity, but these interactions remain weakly understood. A key reason for this is insufficient data on the spatial prevalence and dynamics of different threats. We here highlight the potential of mapping social-ecological systems for a deeper understanding of the geography of threats. We showcase this approach for the entire South American Gran Chaco (1.1 million km²), a global hotspot of deforestation and defaunation. Specifically, we built a typology of so-called ‘land systems’, representing distinct combinations of land-use extent, practices and actors. We then used a systematic literature review to link these land systems to portfolios of threats typical for each system and developed spatial indicators to map these system back to 1985. Together, these analyses uncover where synergistic threats occur and how the spatial footprints of threats vary over time, identifying intensifying or relaxing interactions. For conservation planning, this provides a pathway towards spatially targeting threat-specific interventions, to more directly address synergistic threats, and to identify the key actor groups associated with them.