| Abstract Detail
Conservation Biology Diazgranados, Mauricio [1], Cadena, Camilo [2]. Current protection status of frailejones species (Espeletia s.l., Asteraceae: Heliantheae) in Colombia. Colombia has the highest richness of frailejones (ca. 79 species of Espeletia s.l.), plants which are of critical ecological importance for the Andean forests and páramos. However, in Colombia 36 spp. (46%) are listed as threatened, 16 are endangered and seven critically endangered. The goal of this project was to evaluate the current protection status based on presence/absence of species in protected areas, ultimately to assess conservation priorities. We geo-referenced and mapped in a GIS 780 collections for 69 species from different herbaria. Herbarium specimens with inaccurate or incomplete geographic information were not geo-referenced. Layers of national parks, private nature reserves and indigenous reserves were cross-referenced with the collection localities to produce the statistics. The Colombian national parks system has currently 54 areas, covering 116.629,4 km2 (10.21% of the country area), and 19 of them protect Andean forest and/or páramo. In addition, there are 232 private nature reserves, covering 556.6 km2 (0.049%). Our data suggest that at least 27 species are protected in national parks, two in private nature reserves and seven in indigenous reserves. Forty-one species were not found in any of the protection areas (59.4% of the analyzed species). None of the seven critically endangered species is in a protected area, and only three of the 16 endangered species are present in these areas. In light of rapid climate change and land use change in these areas, it is critical that measures be taken immediately to protect these ecologically important species.
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Related Links:
Mauricio Diazgranados\' personal webpage
1 - Saint Louis University, Department of Biology, 3507 Laclede Ave., Macelwane Lab 231, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103-2010, United States of America
2 - Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Departamento de Biología, Carrera 30 No 45 – 03, Edificio 421, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia
Keywords:
Espeletia
Espeletiopsis
Libanothamnus
Paramiflos
Tamania
Espeletiinae
paramo
Andean Forest
National Parks
Conservation biology
Nature Reserves
Endangered species.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Topics
Session: P2
Location: Event Tent/Cliff Lodge
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: P2CB004
Abstract ID:707 |
