Identifying priority areas for conserving biodiversity across 830,000 km2 of Patagonian steppe and monte, Argentina

DIDIER, KARL; CHEHEBAR, CLAUDIO; TAMMONE, MAURO; NOVARO, ANDRES; IBAÑEZ, MERCEDES; IGLESIAS, GUSTAVO; WALKER, SUSAN; FUNES, MARTIN

Congreso; 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology; 2011

Arid Patagonia encompasses steppe and monte ecosystems, which are grossly underrepresented in protected areas and have received very little attention from conservation organizations. We recognized a need for a conservation planning tool based on existing and future information on the distribution of biodiversity in arid Patagonia. Convening a workshop in 2008, we obtained the collaboration of 25 scientists from 12 institutions, as well as representatives from government natural resource agencies of all Patagonian provinces, to participate in the development of this tool. This diverse group of actors consensually chose relevant biodiversity targets, based on endemism, rarity, and level of threat, and set priorities among these targets within each taxon and desired levels of representation. We built an ArcGIS database of data provided by the collaborators on the distribution of 518 biodiversity targets, and used the program Marxan to identify a network of areas across the Patagonian steppe and monte that adequately represents the targets according to the established priorities and levels of representation. This database will be maintained by Argentine National Parks, and can be updated as needed. It can be used by government agencies, NGOs, and private companies or individuals to plan protected areas, implement conservation activities on lands between protected areas, or in environmental impact assessments, to help ensure the conservation of a wide range of Patagonian biodiversity.