Assessing Tropical Butterflies Communities When Time Is Short mongabay.com

Butterflies can be used to quickly assess the conservation value of an area, report researchers writing in the journal Tropical Conservation Science.

Timothy Bonebrake of Stanford University and Rubén Sorto of SalvaNATURA managed to sample 40-60% of the butterfly community in Playa El Icacal, El Salvador in just nine days. In the process, they identified areas in the region that hold the most conservation value.

"Butterflies are often used as bioindicators of ecosystem health and as surrogates for overall biodiversity. Sensitivity to changes in microclimate and habitat make them particularly good indicators for monitoring of natural areas undergoing change," the authors write. "As with any indicator taxa, the relationship between butterfly diversity and the diversity of other species is imperfect. However, butterflies have great potential as indicators for use in conservation efforts as their taxonomy, distributions, and natural history are better described than for any other insect taxa."

"We feel that the results presented here will helpfully guide conservation efforts in this area," they continue. "We also hope that perhaps this study will inspire a more thorough investigation of the insect and ultimately the ecological community of this Salvadoran coastal countryside and others like it."

The authors suggest using a list of widespread species and the habitats where they are found to develop an index for extrapolating the biodiversity of a site.

Bonebrake, T. C. and Sorto, R. 2009. Butterfly (Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea) rapid assessment of a coastal countryside in El Salvador. Tropical Conservation Science Vol.2 (1):34-51.

mongabay.com
March 23, 2009

14,000-barrel oil spill in the Ecuadorean Amazon

A ruptured oil pipeline caused 14,000 barrels of crude to spill into a river in the Napo region in northeast Ecuador, an area known for its high biological diversity, reports Reuters.

The pipeline operator, Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados Ecuador SA, attributed the rupture to "natural causes."

The environmental impacts of the spill were not immediately apparent but scientist Douglas Beltman told Reuters that "the river was completely covered with oil from bank to bank.... it looked like a bad spill."

At least 35 multinational oil and gas companies operate the 180 blocks that cover 266,000 square miles of the Western Amazon in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Brazil.

Beltman is evaluating oil pollution in the region on behalf of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Chevron over damages wrought by Texaco — now owned by Chevron — from 1972-1992. The stakes for Chevron are high — the suit could result in a multi-billion dollar payout to 30,000 indigenous tribe members and poor farmers.

Oil exploration in widespread in the western Amazon. A study published last year showed that 688,000 square kilometers (170 million acres) of the region is under concession for oil and gas development, including 72 percent — of the Peruvian Amazon, an area significantly larger than California. Some of the concessions overlap with protected areas and indigenous reserves.

Environmentalists have voiced grave concern over these developments. Oil and gas extraction can result in direct deforestation as well as contamination of waterways and lands with oil and drilling byproducts. In Ecuador, the law suit against Chevron estimates that Texaco spilled more than 17 million gallons (64 million liters) of crude oil and dumped some 20 million gallons (68 million liters) of other toxic chemicals into rivers during its years of operation.

Oil and gas development is often accompanied by road-building which provides access to previously remote areas and facilitates deforestation, colonization, and illegal logging, mining, and hunting.

mongabay.com
February 27, 2009

7 steps to solve the global biodiversity crisis

Many biologists believe Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction event, one that has is the direct of human activities, including over-exploitation, habitat destruction and introduction of alien species and pathogens. Climate change — largely driven by anthropogenic forces — is expected to soon increase pressure on Earth's biodiversity. With population and per-capita consumption expected to grow significantly by the mid 21st century, there seems little hope that species loss can be slowed. Nevertheless, writing in the journal PNAS, Stanford biologists Paul R. Ehrlich and Robert M. Pringle suggest seven steps to help improve the outlook for the multitude of species that share our planet.
Foremost among these is reducing the global footprint of mankind. Ehrlich and Pringle say this can be done by encouraging initiatives that slow population growth (including birth control and women's education) and diminish resource use through reduced consumption (including decreased consumption of meat) and more efficient design and technological innovation.

Scale-crested Pygmy-tyrant (Lophotriccus pileatus) at Las Cruces, Costa Rica

The Stanford professors then tout perpetual endowments for conserved areas as a means to permanently fund protection of critical areas. They highlight Costa Rica's Paz Con la Naturaleza — a plan to generate $500 million to endow the country's entire conserved-area system into perpetuity — as an example.

Ehrlich and Pringle next highlight land management techniques that enhance the biodiversity of human-dominated landscapes. Termed "countryside biodiversity," the idea is that small and inexpensive measures such as tree-planting and safeguarding riparian forests can significantly boost biodiversity without diminishing agricultural productivity.

The authors continue by arguing that emerging markets for ecosystem services — including carbon sequestration, water filtration and flood control, erosion mitigation, and pollination, among others — will provide to unlock the economic value of forests, wetlands, and other habitats. Such "natural capital" could offer new ways to finance conservation as well as increase the opportunity costs of converting wild lands for short-term exploitation.

Ehrlich and Pringle's final three recommendations are to 1) fund restoration and reclamation of degraded and destroyed ecosystems, 2) encourage community involvement in conservation efforts, and 3) promote environmental education worldwide. Noting declining interest in National Park visitation in the U.S., they write "such trends will not be reversed and the biodiversity crisis will not be resolved until nature can rival virtual reality as a source of entertainment, intrigue, and inspiration."

"People keep what they use, and increasing bioliteracy would enable more people to find uses for biodiversity. Demand for ecotourism and perceived 'existence values' would increase and, with them, biodiversity sustaining revenues," the authors continue. "In a world of stingy appropriations for conservation, we have a wonderful academic literature on how to maximize returns on conservation investments. But we have spent comparatively little effort figuring out ways to create a world of biodiversity fanatics and conservation voters,
where conservation resources would presumably flow more freely."

Ehrlich and Pringle say that interest in the natural world can be increased by greater exposure to nature at an earlier age and enhanced by creative use of popular entertainment platforms and delivery systems including — perhaps counter intuitively — youtube, Second Life, and the Internet. Scientists will play a key role in facilitating the effort.

"Profound social transformations are not impossible or 'unrealistic,'" they write. "Shifts happen. They have happened in our lifetimes. We all know these terms: segregation, Iron Curtain, apartheid. 'Anthropogenic extinction' belongs on that list."

"More than anything else, the long-term future of biodiversity will be determined by our success or failure in helping to precipitate such an overhaul in popular perceptions of nature and what it means."

mongabay.com August 11, 2008