Creating Protected Areas for Threatened Amphibians and Reptiles By James P. Lewis1
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n 2004, the Global Amphibian Assessment identified habitat loss as one of the major causes of amphibian declines throughout the world. This should have sparked a major global effort to protect as many key sites for amphibians as possible. After all, many highly threatened amphibians are range-restricted – therefore it is very possible to protect a significant percentage of a global species population by safeguarding an individual site. Despite this opportunity, however, relatively few Protected Areas have been created specifically for amphibians. The unfortunate reality for many threatened species is that if they are not large and charismatic, they are often not the focus of high priority conservation action. Of course there is a very sound argument that when an extensive landscape is protected, the habitats of many species that use that area are safeguarded. However, there are times when this broad landscape approach misses some of the most important sites for range-restricted species, specifically amphibians and reptiles. That is why Rainforest Trust always considers the biodiversity value of sites, no matter how large, small or seemingly “dull” the key species might be. Throughout our history, we have focused on helping protect key sites for amphibians and reptiles. Rainforest Trust has helped support a range of herpetofauna related projects, including the protection of Ankaratra Massif and Mangabe in Madagascar, securing of key habitat for the Geometric Tortoise in South Africa, and protection of many sites in Colombia and Ecuador that are home to a range of threatened species. In early 2016 I joined the Rainforest Trust conservation team as their Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Officer to help scale up our efforts to protect the most important sites for amphibians and reptiles in the tropics.
RAINFOREST TRUST SAVES CHALLENGE: SAFEGUARDING AREAS VITAL TO ENDANGERED SPECIES
At last year’s IUCN World Conservation Congress in Hawaii this September, we launched the SAVES Challenge with the purpose of Safeguarding Areas Vital to Endangered Species. Through our SAVES Challenge, Rainforest Trust has committed to raise $50 million as a challenge match that will direct a total of $100 million to establish new Protected Areas to save the world’s most endangered species. Ensuring the full integration of amphibians and reptiles into this SAVES Challenge is of utmost importance to us. We are eager to connect with and hear from all individuals and teams working in the tropics with threatened amphibians and reptiles that might benefit from a new Protected Area. Rainforest Trust initiatives are true conservation partnerships. This means that if you are a researcher who knows of an important area but you don’t have the capacity to move forward with the development of a Protected Area, then we can help connect you with one of our partners on the ground. If you are a conservation NGO that would like to engage more in amphibian and reptile conservation issues, then we can help you build connections with the research community. We recognize that strong and committed
partnerships are critical in supporting Rainforest Trust’s mission of helping protect the most important sites for threatened species throughout the World’s tropics. The Rainforest Trust conservation team is constantly looking for new opportunities to help local partners create new Protected Areas in the tropics. Through the SAVES Challenge, we will support a range of approaches to create new Protected Areas, including but not limited to: government designation as a Protected Area; conversion of logging concessions to reserves; community protection; the expansion of existing Protected Areas; and land purchase. Identification of priority areas is based around the occurrence of species categorized as Endangered or Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is important that the proposed sites do not currently receive any level of formal protection based on the IUCN Protected Areas categories one through six. Partnership applications should be submitted by a local NGO that has the capacity to implement the proposed project, with evidence of support from both local communities and the government of the country where the project will be located.
RAPID PROTECTED-AREA FEASIBILITY AWARDS
The conservation partnership application for the SAVES Challenge assumes that much of the fundamental information needed to develop a Protected Area is already available. As we know, especially with amphibians and reptiles, this is often not the case. Therefore, Rainforest Trust has developed Rapid Protected-Area Feasibility Awards to help researchers and NGOs obtain the answers they need in order to ascertain the viability of creating a Protected Area. These awards can be used for a range of activities, from rapid biological surveys to evaluating land ownership and assessment of community interest in the establishment of a Protected Area. This is an exciting time for those interested in creating Protected Areas for threatened amphibians and reptiles in the tropics. With significant habitat loss occurring each and every day, we need to actively protect as many key sites as possible to ensure we don’t lose these amazing species. If you know of a threatened amphibian or reptile that will benefit from the creation of a new Protected Area, please reach out to me directly at james@rainforesttrust.org to discuss partnership opportunities. We look forward to you joining the SAVES Challenge.
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Officer James Lewis. Photo: James Lewis.
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Officer, Rainforest Trust. Email: james@rainforesttrust.org
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FrogLog 25 (1), Number 118 (February 2017) | 23