Madagascar plans signal hope for world's ecosystems
The largest of all living lemurs, Indri indri, at Mananara-Nord, Madagascar
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Friday, 11, Apr 2008 11:39
International conservationists have drawn up plans to conserve the maximum possible number of species in Madagascar.
They say the plans could be used to make conservation decisions in other biodiversity hotspots of the world.
About half of plant species and 70 per cent of vertebrate species are concentrated in biodiversity hotspots covering only 2.3 per cent of Earth's land surface.
Madagascar is considered to be one of the most significant of these hotspots.
A study published today in the journal Science describes how the team used distribution data from 2,315 species of ants, butterflies, frogs, geckos, lemurs, and plants found only in Madagascar to propose locations for new protected areas that will preserve the maximum number of species.
"We are the first generation to understand the impending demise of natural habitats and we are the last generation that will have the ability to do something meaningful about it," said Brian Fisher, associate curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences.
"This type of multi-taxon analysis will be critical to our efforts to preserve biodiversity for future generations."
Instead of the more usual approach to conservation planning, which generally consists of a small number of species and large sections of land, the conservationists analysed many species and broke the geographic area down into smaller pieces.
Their map of conservation areas included several regions within the island nation's central plateau massifs and littoral forests, which are areas with relatively low forest cover but considerable biodiversity.
These regions have historically been neglected in favour of protecting large forest blocks.
"This is the first time we have been able to analyse so many species in such detail over an area this large," said David Lees, butterfly researcher at the Natural History Museum and a co-author of the study.
"Our results have shown that basing conservation on the needs of single species groups like butterflies just isn't enough.
"It is now feasible to map the complex web of life in the world's richest wildlife areas to help guide tough conservation choices, and increase chances of survival in the face of climate change."