Conservation International biodiversity mapping initiatives

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Conservation Internationalbiodiversity mapping
initiatives

• Who are CABS-CI?
• Why map biodiversity?
• What initiatives exist?

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Conservation International

• Founded 1987
• FY99 turnover 85m
• Field programs 30 countries worldwide
• Staff gt1,000
• Mission to conserve the Earth's living natural
  heritage, our global biodiversity, and to
  demonstrate that human societies are able to live
  harmoniously with nature

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CIs Field Programs
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Center for Applied Biodiversity Science

• Established in 1999 with a dual mandate to
• a) Supporting science in CIs field programs
• b) Facilitate stronger interaction between
  science and conservation generally
• Mission to strengthen our ability to respond
  rapidly, wisely and effectively to emerging
  threats to the Earth's biological diversity

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Why map (surrogates of) biodiversity?

• a) Identifying and filling survey gaps
• b) Biogeography and macroecology
• c) Assessing representation and prioritization
  for conservation

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Mapping museum specimens

• Points showing area of occupancy
• Undoubtedly the best biodiversity data can
  always be degraded to coarser resolution, but
  not vice versa
• but, expensive and time- consuming to collect
  and compile, causing errors of omission (false
  absences)

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Identifying survey gaps museums

• Reptiles of Sub-Saharan Africa (Biodiversity
  Foundation for Africa/Natural History Museum of
  Zimbabwe Bulawayo)
• Reptiles of Melanesia and the Pacific (Bernice
  Pauahi Bishop Museum Honolulu)
• Birds of Colombia (Natural History Museum
  London Instituto de Ciencias Naturales
  Instituto Alexander von Humboldt Bogotá)
• Bats of PNG (Papua New Guinea National Museum and
  Art Gallery Port Moresby)
• Plus Threatened Birds of Asia (BirdLife
  International Cambridge) see
  http//www.rdb.or.id

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The distribution of Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis
nigricepsFrom Collar et al. (2001) Threatened
Birds of Asia the BirdLife International Red
Data Book. BirdLife International, Cambridge, UK

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Filling survey gaps RAP
TERRESTRIAL RAP AQUARAP MARINE RAP
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Inductive range modelling

• Overlay habitat maps to determine environmental
  envelope
• Extrapolate to surrounding areas within the
  envelope
• Errors of commission (false presences) beyond
  the extent of occurrence (due to role of history)

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Why map (surrogates of) biodiversity?

• a) Identifying and filling survey gaps
• b) Biogeography and macroecology
• c) Assessing representation and prioritization
  for conservation

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Mapping species ranges

• Polygons of extent of occurrence
• Largely restricted to birds and large mammals
• Easy to interpret, e.g., for field guides
• Errors of commission within the extent of
  occurrence

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Computerizing species ranges

• Birds and mammals of the Americas (CABS- CI,
  ABI-TNC, WWF-US)
• Mammals of Asia (Univ. of Virginia)
• Birds and mammals of Melanesia (CABS-CI)
• Birds, mammals and amphibians of Africa (ZMUC,
  Univ. of Cambridge, Natural History Museum
  London, CABS-CI)

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• Species richness in all African mammals, birds,
  snakes, and amphibians, mapped on a 1-degree grid
  
• From Brooks et al. (in press) BioScience

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Deductive range modelling

• Assign habitat preferences to each species
• Identify these suitable habitats on habitat map
• Cut suitable habitats by species extent of
  occurrence

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• Modelled distribution of South African Crested
  Porcupine Hystrix africaeaustralis
• From Boitani et al. (1999) A Databank for the
  Conservation and Management of the African
  Mammals. Instituto Ecologia Applicata, Rome, Italy

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Why map (surrogates of) biodiversity?

• a) Identifying and filling survey gaps
• b) Biogeography and macroecology
• c) Assessing representation and prioritization
  for conservation

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Representation exercises

• Ecoregions (Olson Dinerstein 1998)
• Include aquatic and marine
• Terrestrial vertebrates now listed by ecoregion
• Prioritization (Global 200)

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• Ecoregions of the Philippines
• From Wikramanayake et al. (in press) Terrestrial
  Ecoregions of the Indo-Pacific a Conservation
  Assessment. Island Press, Washington, D.C., USA

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Hotspots of biodiversity

• Conservation prioritization
• Ecoregions w/ high endemism and threat
• gt1,500 (0.5 global) plant endemism
• Endemism estimated, not listed
• Myers (1988, 1990), Mittermeier et al. (1998,
  1999), Myers et al. (2000)

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HotspotsFrom Myers et al. (2000) Nature 403
853-858)
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Current hotspots efforts

• Major Tropical Wilderness Areas high
  endemism but low threat
• 10 more hotspots 1,000 endemics
• Natural break in plant endemism appears to fall
  at 500-1,000 endemics
• Dynamism considering threat

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Current hotspots efforts
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Other global prioritization exercises

• Endemic Bird Areas ecoregions with 2 bird
  species with ranges of lt50,000 sq. km
  (Stattersfield et al. 1998)
• Centers of Plant Diversity ecoregions and
  sites thought to be priorities for plant
  conservation (IUCN WWF 1994, 1995, 1997)

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Conservation Priority-Setting Workshopsincreasin
g spatial resolution
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Corridorplanninglinking protected areas with
biodiversity-friendly land use
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Other regional prioritization exercises

• Important Bird Areas sites holding
  threatened, restricted-range or biome endemic
  species, or unusual concentrations (BirdLife
  International)
• Ecoregion-Based Conservation through
  specialist workshops (WWF)

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Outstanding problems

• Data still incomplete at all levels
• Free, public, global access to data the
  internet provides the mechanism
• Referencing and dating every species- in-mapping
  -unit record
• System for continuous data updates quality vs
  quantity