18 November 2015

Conservation Suggestions

One of my friends at an NGO asked me for suggestions of locations in tropical countries which are not getting the conservation attention that they deserve. I sent him my thoughts, but I’m sure I missed some. Do any of you have suggestions?

Ben

 

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6 Comments

  • 18 November 2015
    vdinets

    How many does he need? I could probably name at least a hundred off the top of my head.

    • 20 November 2015
      geomalia

      As many as you care to write down, and the more specific the better. I’ll pass them all along. From what I understand, he plays a large role in deciding which sites the NGO will work on, and his metric is protecting biodiversity.

      • 20 November 2015
        vdinets

        Well, pretty much all high-endemism areas in SE Asia are in worse shape than those in Lat America or E & S Africa. The only places in Lat America where things are really bad are isolated cloud forest fragments such as Sierra de Los Cuchumatanes in Guatemala. In Africa, places with most endemism and less protection are E DRC, forests of Somaliland, all parks in Ethiopia except Simien, and Cameroon Volcano (I am not talking about countries W of Cameroon as I’ve never been there). As for SE Asia, the Philippines are a total disaster, Sumatra and Sulawesi are going up in smoke as we speak, many small Indonesian islands have lots of endemics and no protected areas whatsoever, and no park in mainland Indochina has good anti-poaching protection. Annamite Mountains are being thoroughly hunted out, for example.

        Interestingly, one reason nobody cares about Philippine endemics is that the country virtually never allows its animals to be exported for zoos, so there are no cute photos.

        Another problem pretty much everywhere is that while a lot of people care about birds and colorful herps, small mammals don’t have a fan club.

  • 19 November 2015
    tomeslice

    Which ones did you give him?

    I’m sure the DRC can use more conservation, and so can Indonesian Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Central and Southern Sumatra, well, all of Sumatra, really..
    That’s it off the top of my head.

    • 20 November 2015
      geomalia

      I suggested a few specific sites, such as the Annamite Range, a couple places in Sulawesi, and perhaps beginning to get a site ready to establish a second population of Javan Rhino. I also gave him a list of endangered species that I thought weren’t getting enough (any?) attention (Masked Finfoot, Kha-nyou, both Chinchillas, the Solenodons, Northern Muruqui, Tooth-billed Pigeon, etc). Suggestions of species, rather than sites, are also good.

      He is already doing work in Sumatra and Kalimantan. PNG is very tough because of how property rights are treated there.

  • 19 November 2015
    Klaus

    The countries in West Africa especially the biome of the Upper Guinean Forest seems to be out of Focus of the Major cinservation organisations but have a highly endangered endemic Fauna.

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