Forest conservation: Remember Gran Chaco

ZAK, MARCELO; YANOSKY, ALBERTO; TORRES, RICARDO; TORRELLA, SEBASTIÁN; SEMPER-PASCUAL, ASUNCIÓN; ROMERO-MUÑOZ, ALFREDO; NOSS, ANDREW; PARUELO, JOSÉ; MACCHI, LEANDRO; MASTRANGELO, MATIAS; GRAU, H. RICARDO; JOBBÁGY, ESTEBAN; GAVIER-PIZARRO, GREGORIO; GINZBURG, RUBÉN; DECARRE, JULIETA; DÍAZ, SANDRA; CABIDO, MARCEL; CAMINO, MICAELA; KUEMMERLE, TOBIAS; ALTRICHTER, MARIANA; VOLANTE, JOSÉ N.; THOMPSON, JEFFREY; PIQUER-RODRÍGUEZ, MARIA; MATTEUCCI, SILVIA D.; LEYNAUD, GERARDO; GIORDANO, ANTHONY J.; GASPARRI, IGNACIO; CUELLAR, ROSA LENY; BALDI, GERMÁN

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2017 vol. 355

0036-8075

TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL dry forests around the globe are experiencing rapidclearing and concomitant biodiversity loss (1). In their Research Article ?Plantdiversity patterns in neotropical dry forests and their conservation implications? (23 September 2016, p. 1383), DRYFLOR et al.highlight the often underappreciated, yet exceptional floristic richness and uniqueness of these forests, and they provide compelling arguments for ramping up efforts to protect them. We applaud the DRYFLOR team for their seminal work, but we are also concernedabout the exclusion of the Gran Chaco, frequently considered the world?s largestcontinuous tropical dry forest region (2?4).The Gran Chaco covers more than 1,100,000 km2 in Northern Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. The DRYFLOR team used a restrictive definition of dry forest that excludes the Gran Chaco because of some temperate elements in the Chaco?s flora and occasional freezing temperatures there.However, that applies only to parts of the Gran Chaco, and other neotropical dryforests that were included in the analysis experience such temperatures (5).The Gran Chaco harbors high biodiversity, including many endemic species (3, 6,7). This region is also a global deforestation hotspot (8) due to the recently accelerated expansion of cattle ranching and soybean cultivation there (9, 10). Given the agricultural potential of the region and the growing global demands for agricultural products, the pressure to convert additional natural ecosystems into agricultural land remains very high. Yet, only 9% of the Gran Chaco is currently protected (6). For these reasons, the Gran Chaco is one of themost threatened ecoregions worldwide.Various definitions of dry forests exist, but the Gran Chaco should not be neglected when raising awareness to the urgent conservation needs in the often forgotten neotropical dry forests.