Conservation in Austral and Neotropical America: How to build scientific capacity equal to the challenges

RODRÍGUEZ, J.P., J.A. SIMONETTI, A.C. PREMOLI & M.A. MARINI

Brasilia, Brasil

Congreso; 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology; 2005

Society for Conservation Biology

How large is the demand for conservation capacity building in Austral and Neotropical America (ANA)? How many people are available for the job? How much is there to conserve? To answer the first question we analyze the demand for two recent graduate-level training opportunities available to ANA students. The second and third questions are addressed by calculating the ratio between the number of conservation biology academic programs available in 26 ANA countries and (1) the total human population, and (2) the number of bird species in each country. We contrast these figures with similar figures calculated for the United States, where conservation capacity building is well developed. In the United States there are 0.329 academic programs in conservation biology for each 1 million inhabitants (A/106 people), and 8.8 academic programs for every 100 bird species (A/102 species). In ANA there are 0.064 A/106 people, and 0.1 A/102 species, one and three orders of magnitude lower, respectively. Using information on investments made in expanding conservation biology graduate studies opportunities in the United States, we estimate the costs of achieving similar objectives in ANA: 20 million U.S. dollars could change the face of the discipline of conservation biology in the region.