How well do protected areas represent the terrestrial mammal fauna of South America?

TOGNELLI MARCELO

The quintessential naturalist: honoring the life and legacy of Oliver P. Pearson

University of California Publications in Zoology

Año: 2007; p. 1 - 25

Long-term conservation of species requires the establishment of a network of protected areas. In the past, these have been established on an opportunistic basis without considering how many and which taxa were protected. I assessed the effectiveness of protected areas to adequately represent the diversity of terrestrial mammal species, as well as threatened and restricted-range species, in South America. Protected areas were analyzed hierarchically as (a) all protected areas, and (b) only IUCN-coded (categories I-VI) areas. The proportion of species represented in grid cells covered by protected areas was compared against randomly selected sets of cells. Significant gaps exist in the coverage of all species, as well as both threatened and restricted-range species. In most cases, IUCN reserves are more efficient, protecting approximately the same percentage of species as all protected areas, but using fewer cells. Major gaps in protected area coverage are in eastern Brazil, particularly the Atlantic Forests, the high Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia, and the southern Yungas.