[book] amphibian conservation action plan

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Amphibian Conservation Action PlanProceedings: IUCN/SSC Amphibian Conservation Summit 2005

Edited by Claude Gascon, James P. Collins, Robin D. Moore,Don R. Church, Jeanne E. McKay and Joseph R. Mendelson III

IUCN Species Survival Commission


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Amphibian Conservation Action PlanProceedings: IUCN/SSC Amphibian Conservation Summit 2005

Edited by Claude Gascon, James P. Collins, Robin D. Moore,

Don R. Church, Jeanne E. McKay and Joseph R. Mendelson III

IUCN Species Survival Commission


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Amphibian Conservation Action Plan

Proceedings: IUCN/SSC Amphibian Conservation Summit 2005

Edited by:

Claude Gascon

James P. Collins

Robin D. Moore

Don R. ChurchJeanne McKay

Joseph Mendelson III

IUCNThe World Conservation Union

Founded in 1948, The World Conservation Union brings together States, government agencies and a diverse range o non-

governmental organizations in a unique world partnership: over 1,000 members in all, spread across some 140 countries.

As a Union, IUCN seeks to inuence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity o

nature and to ensure that any use o natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

The World Conservation Union builds on the strengths o its members, networks and partners to enhance their capacity and to

support global alliances to saeguard natural resources at local, regional and global levels.

IUCN/Species Survival Commission

The Species Survival Commission (SSC) is the largest o IUCNs six volunteer commissions with a global membership o 8,000experts. SSC advises IUCN and its members on the wide range o technical and scientifc aspects o species conservation and is

dedicated to securing a uture or biodiversity. SSC has signifcant input into the international agreements dealing with biodiversity

conservation. Web: www.iucn.org/themes/ssc

The designation o geographical entities in this report, and the presentation o the material, do not imply the expression o any opinion

whatsoever on the part o IUCN concerning the legal status o any country, territory, or area, or o its authorities, or concerning the

delimitation o its rontiers or boundaries. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reect those o IUCN.

Published by: The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland

Copyright: 2007 International Union or Conservation o Nature and Natural Resources

Reproduction o this publication or educational or other non-commercial purposes is authorized without prior written permission romthe copyright holder provided the source is ully acknowledged. Reproduction o this publication or resale or other commercial purposes

is prohibited without prior written permission o the copyright holder.

Citation: Gascon, C., Collins, J. P., Moore, R. D., Church, D. R., McKay, J. E. and Mendelson, J. R. III (eds). 2007.Amphibian

Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. 64pp.

ISBN: 978-2-8317-1008-2

Cover photo: Male Mallorcan midwie toad,Alytes muletensis, with eggs. As a result o a successul recovery program, this species

was downlisted two categories rom Critically Endangered to Vulnerable in 2005. Photo: Richard A. Grifths, DICE, University o Kent,

Canterbury, UK.

Layout by: Glenda Fabregas, Center or Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International

Published by: The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland

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The cover o this book is printed on ChorusArt silk, 80# cover, 50% recycled paper (15% post-consumer waste), FSC, andElemental Chlorine Free. The text o this book is printed on Rolland Enviro100, 70# text, 100% recycled paper (100%post-consumer waste), certied Ecologo, Processed Chlorine Free, FSC-Recycled, and manuactured using biogas energy. Cover: 50%Recycled/15%PCW

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Contents

Foreword.2

Acknowledgements.3

Executive.Summary.4

Summary.of.Action.Steps.6

Chapter.1,.Designing.a.Network.of.Conservation.Sites.for.Amphibians.Key.Biodiversity.Areas.12D. Silvano, A. Angulo, A.C.O.Q. Carnaval and R. Pethiyagoda

Chapter.2,.Freshwater.Resources.and.Associated.Terrestrial.Landscapes.16M. Lannoo, C. Funk, M. Gadd, T. Halliday and J. Mitchell

Chapter.3,.Climate.Change,.Biodiversity.Loss,.and.Amphibian.Declines.19A. Pounds, A.C.O.Q. Carnaval and S. Corn

Chapter.4,.Infectious.Diseases.21P. Daszak, K. Lips, R. Alord, C. Carey, J.P. Collins, A. Cunningham,R. Harris and S. Ron

Chapter.5,.Over-harvesting.26A. I. Carpenter, H. Dublin, M. Lau, G. Syed, J. E. McKay andR. D. Moore

Chapter.6,.Evaluating.the.Role.of.Environmental..Contamination.in.Amphibian.Population.Declines.32

M. D. Boone, D. Cowman, C. Davidson, T. Hayes, W. Hopkins,R. Relyea, L. Schiesari, R. Semlitsch

Chapter.7,.Captive.Programs. 36 J.R. Mendelson III, R. Gagliardo, F. Andreone, K.R. Buley,

L. Coloma, G. Garcia, R. Gibson, R. Lacy, M.W. Lau, J. Murphy,R. Pethiyagoda, K. Pelican, B.S. Pukazhenthi, G. Rabb, J. Raaelli,B. Weissgold, D. Wildt and Xie Feng

Appendix.A,.Genome.Resource.Banking.38B. S. Pukazhenthi, K. Pelican, D. Wildt

Chapter.8,.Reintroductions.40R. Griths, K. Buhlmann, J. McKay, and T. Tuberville

Chapter.9,.The.Continuing.Need.for.Assessments:.Making.the.Global.Amphibian.Assessment.an.Ongoing.Process.43S. Stuart

Chapter.10,.Systematics.and.Conservation.45G. Parra, R. Brown, J. Hanken, B. Hedges, R. Heyer, S. Kuzmin,E. Lavilla, S. Ltters, B. Pimenta, S. Richards, M.O. Rdel, R.O.de S and D. Wake

Chapter.11,.Bioresource.Banking.Efforts.in.Support.of..Amphibian.Conservation.49O.A. Ryder

Chapter.12,.References.51

Appendix.1,.Declaration.to.the.Amphibian.Conservation..Summit.59

Appendix.2,.Amphibian.Conservation.Summit.62


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Extinction is inevitablemore than 99.9% o Earths species are extinct(Raup 1991). David Raup went on to observe that Extinction is a dicultresearch topic. No critical experiment can be perormed, and inerencesare all too oten infuenced by preconceptions based on general theory.Studying the causes o extinction has traditionally been the purview o

paleontologists and not ecologists and evolutionary biologists working oncontemporary systems. But accelerating losses in many species late in the20th century have altered the scholarship o extinction by bringing theextinction events typical o evolutionary time within the dimensions oecological time.

Beginning in the late 1980s, an especially prominent exampleo a global loss o biodiversity came to light as herpetologists reportedamphibians had gone missing within protected parks and reserves. Sincethen research has shown that modern amphibian declines and extinctionshave no precedent in any animal class over the last ew millennia (StuartEt al. 2004). About 32% o some 6000 amphibian species are threatenedas compared to12% o bird and 23% o mammal species. Up to 122amphibian species may be extinct since 1980, and population size isdeclining in at least 43% o species. In the last decades o the 20 th centurythe amphibian extinction rate exceeded the mean extinction rate o thelast 350 million years by at least 200 times (Roelants et al. 2007). Recentamphibian declines are an opportunity to study the causes o extinction inrecent, not ancient, populations.

Amphibian losses have engendered research and conservation programs,and a general call to prevent more species declines and extinctions in thisvertebrate class (Mendelson et al. 2006). Responding will require a novel,and cross-disciplinary initiative such as the Amphibian ConservationAction Plan or ACAP.

The global loss o amphibians illustrates how the world is changing,and in response conservation practices must also evolve. In the last decadeso the 20th century researchers identied and promoted the conservationo local areas o great biological diversity hotspots or regions with many

endemic or otherwise distinctive species. Physical and political protection was provided or these places, but since the 1980s, eld research andanecdotal observations indicate that amphibians have gone missing indiverse geographic areas and environments regardless o the protectionaorded by these locations. In 1990 the Declining Amphibian The

Foreword

Populations Task Force (DAPTF) within the Species Survival Commissiono IUCN was ormed to determine the nature, extent and causes odeclines o amphibians throughout the world, and to promote means by which declines can be halted or reversed. When DAPTF was ormedresearchers were uncertain as to whether the disappearances were cyclical

phenomena suddenly more widespread, but subsequent to the rst GlobalAmphibian Assessment (Stuart et al. 2004) [GAA] the debate has shitedto understanding and mitigating the orces causing declines.

The rst GAA documented the breadth o amphibian losses worldwideand made it clear that business as usual--the customary conservationapproaches and practiceswere not working. This realization led to theassembly in September 2005 o the Amphibian Conservation Summitconvened by SSC-IUCN and Conservation International. Some 80delegates rom around the world spent our days in Washington, D.C., working on a comprehensive plan to respond to the ongoing losses oamphibian species. In addition to novel challenges such as emerginginectious diseases, toxins, and climate change, delegates also addressedamiliar threats like land use change, unsustainable taking, and exotic

species. The delegates acknowledged that we had a poor understanding othe complex relationships among all the actors.The Amphibian Conservation Summit o 2005 produced a consensus

among academic scientists, conservation practitioners, and knowledgeableindividuals infuential in diverse societal contexts (see the ACS Declaration,Appendix 1). A subset o the ACS delegation (Appendix 2) also wroteACAP, which is a multidisciplinary approach that provides a way orward inaddressing the causes o declines and slowing or reversing the losses. Thereis not a single answer to preventing the extinction o more species, and asa result the plan will evolve as new inormation becomes available. For therst time, however, in ACAP we have a response that is at the scale o thechallenge. Now we need to put the plan into action.

James P. Collins

Claude GasconJoseph R. Mendelson IIIArlington, Virginia, USA10 January 2007


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Amphibian Conservation Summit (ACS) was a response to the alarmingndings o the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) released in late 2004(see www.globalamphibians.org). Over 500 scientists contributed to theGAA. The GAA, in turn, was a response to research by an untold numbero scientists and concerned individuals worldwide. Consequently, more

people than can be listed here are responsible or the knowledge basethat has made this Action Plan possible. Many o these individuals weresupported and contributed to the Declining Amphibian Populations TaskForce (DAPTF) o the World Conservation Unions (IUCN) SpeciesSurvival Commission (SSC). Timothy Halliday, DAPTFs InternationalDirector or over a decade, deserves special mention or coordinating andadvancing amphibian decline research around the world rom 1994 to2006. The ACS was hosted by the SSC under the leadership o HollyDublin in coordination with Conservation International and co-chairedby James Collins, Claude Gascon, Thomas Lovejoy, Rohan Pethiyagoda,and Simon Stuart. One main result o the Summit was the creation othe Amphibian Specialist Group o IUCN-SSC (www.amphibians.org). Generous unding or the Summit was provided by the Gordon

and Betty Moore Foundation. Moreover, generous contributions toconservation action within the Summit context were made by GeorgeMeyer and Maria Semple, Andrew Sabin, The Zoological Society oLondon and Conservation Internationals Critical Ecosystem Partnership

Acknowledgements

Fund. Several individuals were key and played disproportionate roles thatneed to be acknowledged here. Don Church was the main operationalhand behind the complex and comprehensive process that lead to theSummit. Mike Parr o the American Bird Conservancy graciously andexpertly acilitated all three days o the ACS. Simon Stuart led the delicate

and important discussions on the content o the Declaration to the ACS,enabling consensus to be reached on many complicated and controversialissues. Rohan Pethiyagoda masterully presented the Action Plan duringthe Summits plenary session on the Summits nal day. The plenary alsobeneted greatly rom broad input by an advisory council that includedBruce Babbitt, Gonzalo Castro, Holly Dublin, Les Kauman, Sally Lahm,Thomas Lovejoy and Russell Mittermeier. Valerie Higgins supported thelogistics and smooth running o the meeting. Finally, the ollowing peopleled the development o the rst drats o the white papers that served asinput to the ACAP chapters: Ariadne Angulo, Michelle Boone, PeterDazak, Ron Gagliardo, Richard Griths, Michael Lannoo, Karen Lips,Joseph Mendelson III, Gabriela Parra-Olea, Katharine Pelican, BudhanS. Pukazhenthi, Alan Pounds, Ana Carolina O.Q. Carnaval, Michael

Wai Neng Lau, Oliver Ryder, Raymond Semlitsch, Debora-Leite Silvano,Simon Stuart, Gracia Syed, and David Wildt. To all these people, we wishto express our sincere thanks.

Fund. Several individuals were key and played disproportionate roles thatneed to be acknowledged here. Don Church was the main operationalhand behind the complex and comprehensive process that lead to theSummit. Mike Parr o the American Bird Conservancy graciously andexpertly acilitated all three days o the ACS. Simon Stuart led the delicate

and important discussions on the content o the Declaration to the ACS,enabling consensus to be reached on many complicated and controversialissues. Rohan Pethiyagoda masterully presented the Action Plan duringthe Summits plenary session on the Summits nal day. The plenary alsobeneted greatly rom broad input by an advisory council that includedBruce Babbitt, Gonzalo Castro, Holly Dublin, Les Kauman, Sally Lahm,Thomas Lovejoy and Russell Mittermeier. Valerie Higgins supported thelogistics and smooth running o the meeting. Finally, the ollowing peopleled the development o the rst drats o the white papers that served asinput to the ACAP chapters: Ariadne Angulo, Michelle Boone, PeterDazak, Ron Gagliardo, Richard Griths, Michael Lannoo, Karen Lips,Joseph Mendelson III, Gabriela Parra-Olea, Katharine Pelican, BudhanS. Pukazhenthi, Alan Pounds, Ana Carolina O.Q. Carnaval, Michael

Wai Neng Lau, Oliver Ryder, Raymond Semlitsch, Debora-Leite Silvano,Simon Stuart, Gracia Syed, and David Wildt. To all these people, we wishto express our sincere thanks.


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The Problem

Human-induced threats to biodiversity and our natural world are variedand numerous. The manner in which our species uses the worlds natural

resources induces signicant impacts on the rest o the species that inhabitour planet. As a species, we have continuously increased the proportiono overall primary productivity and its derivatives at the expense o thewell being o most other living organisms. Through this increasing globalootprint, we have decreased the amount o habitat in all biomes or thevast majority o other species, we have ragmented what little habitatremains, we have polluted most natural areas via a suite o increasinglytoxic and widely used chemicals, we have depleted natural populations omany species via large-scale harvesting to the point o near extinction, wehave altered the global climate o our planet through the massive burningo ossil uels, we have created conditions that allow or wildlie diseases tocross-over and inect other taxonomic groups including our own species,and we have seen the emergence o global collapses o biological systemssuch as coral rees. These impacts have been documented at dierent times

and in dierent places around the world. Although many o these causalrelations are direct, meaning that one type o human behavior has oneparticular eect, it is becoming apparent that our cumulative eect on theworlds natural system is close to reaching a global tipping point. Recently,the Global Amphibian Assessment has shown that over 32% o the nearly6,000 amphibian species known to science worldwide are at risk o goingextinct. This is by ar the largest proportion o an entire class o animalsthat is on the brink o extinction. Although many causes are at play increating this extinction debt, a new emerging disease or amphibians (aungal disease called chytridiomycosis) is an especially worrying causeo the disappearance o amphibians around the world. In act, there isgrowing consensus among scientists that the spread o chytridiomycosishas driven and will continue to drive amphibian species to extinction at

a rate unprecedented in any taxonomic group in human history. It is alsopossible that our global ootprint as described above has created conditionsthat synergistically act as the perect storm or amphibians to becomesusceptible to this new disease that is killing entire populations in the wild,and in some cases, leading to the extinction o species. The murder bya thousand cuts analogy is not too ar etched and amphibians, i orno other reason than their particular set o lie history traits, are the rstwhole class o animals to be globally aected by our cumulative impacton this planet.

Without a doubt, the global amphibian extinction crisis and its presentdynamics are the worst we have ever aced. For example, we know relativelylittle about the pathogen, such as its history or means o spreading. Whatwe do know is that we presently have no means to control it in the wildnor do we have any proven strategies or managing amphibian populations

being decimated by it. Two items o good news are that we can eliminate itrom captive colonies and there are emerging prospects or tools to mitigatethe eects o the disease in natural environments. We must thereore build

Executive Summary

on these successes by supporting captive breeding initiatives as a short-term response to prevent extinctions and simultaneously encourage theresearch and conservation programs that may ultimately open doors toreestablishing viable populations in secure habitats in the wild. Certainly,there are challenges. Many species have not been seen in years, most

species have never been bred in captivity, current global capacity to supportsurvival assurance colonies is ar rom adequate, and political mechanismsto acilitate an international rescue operation o hundreds o species hasnot been established. However, the actions required to overcome theseobstacles are clear.

A third item o good news is that there is still time to save habitatsor the majority o species. Whereas habitat loss remains the primary threatto amphibians worldwide and underlies most documented amphibianextinctions to date, strategic investments to saeguard critical habitatscan minimize the specter o this traditional threat. Habitat conservationmust remain a priority or amphibians because their usually small areaso occupancy make them more susceptible to extinction rom habitatloss and degradation than other vertebrates. Furthermore, the long-termsustainability o rapid responses to save species through captive breedingand disease research rests on our capacity to preserve these species nativehabitats in order to reestablish populations in the wild once we havedeveloped the technology to do so.

The Response

The recent Global Amphibian Assessment has sharpened the scienticcommunitys ocus on both the nature and extent o threats to amphibians worldwide. This study received tremendous international coverage bythe general media. Now is the time to act on new knowledge regardingthe causes o an ongoing amphibian extinction event. Clear andinternationally coordinated options or thwarting urther extinctions

o threatened amphibians must be developed with parties capable oimplementing actions. The Amphibian Conservation Summit was calledbecause it is morally irresponsible to document amphibian declines andextinctions without also designing and promoting a response to this globalcrisis. To this end, the Amphibian Conservation Summit has designed theAmphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP) that is here presented in itsinitial orm, and commends it to governments, the business sector, civilsociety and the scientic community or urgent and immediate adoptionand implementation.

A steering committee convened in September 2005 to set prioritiesor conservation and research actions within nine thematic areas relevantto amphibian conservation; 1) Designing a network o conservation sitesor amphibiansKey Biodiversity Areas; 2) Freshwater resources andassociated terrestrial landscapes; 3) Climate change, biodiversity loss,and amphibian declines; 4) Inectious diseases; 5) Over-harvesting oamphibians; 6) Evaluating the role o environmental contamination inamphibian population declines; 7) Captive programs; 8) Reintroductions;

Theme Five-year Budget (US$)KeyBiodiversityAreas 120,000,000FreshwaterResourcesandTerrestrialLandscapes 125,000,000ClimateChange 7,360,000InectiousDiseases 25,455,000Over-harvest 4,300,000EnvironmentalContamination 43,190,000CaptivePrograms 41,994,000Reintroductions 4,000,000

Assessment 1,850,000Systematics 32,150,000BioresourceBanking 4,000,000Total 409,299,000


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9) The continuing need or assessments: making the Global AmphibianAssessment an ongoing process; 10) Systematics and conservation; and 11)Bioresource banking eorts in support o amphibian conservation.

A declaration was released ollowing the Summit urging our kinds ointervention that are needed to conserve amphibians, all o which need tobe started immediately:

1. Expanding our understanding o the causes o declines andextinctions

2. Continuing to document amphibian diversity, and how it ischanging

3. Developing and implementing long-term conservationprogrammes

4. Responding to emergencies and immediate crises

The ull Declaration is in Appendix 1

. The ACAP is the most ambitious program ever developed to combatthe extinction o species, refecting the reality that the amphibian extinctioncrisis requires a global response at an unprecedented scale. The ACAPrequires the international community to enter uncharted territory andto take great risks. But the risks o inaction are even greater. The ACAPcalls on all governments, corporations, civil society and the scientic

community to respond. There needs to be unprecedented commitmentto developing and implementing the ACAP with accompanying changesin international and local environmental policies that aect this class overtebrate animalsas they truly are the proverbial canaries in the globalcoal mine. This document oers practical, large-scale, creative, innovativeand realistic actions that will be required to halt the present tide oextinctions o amphibian species and includes an ambitious yet realisticbudget.

A unied global strategy incorporating survival assurance colonies,disease research, and habitat protection orms the ocus o this new plan tosave amphibians. We must, o course, also remain vigilant and act on otherthreats, including climate change, over-harvesting, and toxins. Althoughthey may not act as switly as the aorementioned actors, extinction canoccur as a consequence o these other threats. For instance, pollution led

to the extinction o Kunming Lake newt (Cynops wolterstor), climatechange contributed to the extinction o the Costa Rican golden toad(Buo periglenes), and over-harvesting is severely threatening several o

Chinas remarkable rogs and salamanders. Furthermore, research on theinteractions between amphibians and these threats allows us to detectthe early warning alarms to environmental problems that amphibianpopulations can sound so well. Lessons learned rom conronting theamphibian crisis may be transerable to other groups and ecosystems. Wehave many other potential crises-in-the-making such as coral ree collapses,sheries collapses, emerging human diseases such as Ebola, SARS, Nipahvirus, and our general management o reshwater that will certainly lead toglobal shortages o potable drinking water with its obvious consequences.

Many i not all o these environmental time bombs are the result to varyingdegrees o the same human ootprint that our species is having on thisplanet.

The road to success must include a broad set o stakeholders thatcan aid in the implementation o the ACAP. This is important notonly because there are many issues that are beyond the simple realm oamphibian conservation work, but also because it is very possible thataddressing many o the underlying causes o this crisis will help us avertthe next global environmental catastrophe. Helping curb unsustainable wildlie use would not only decrease some o the threats on particularamphibian species, but help us apply these same solutions to other speciesas well (tigers, birds, etc.). Similarly, tackling climate change, although ahuge task in its own right, will make a huge contribution to the continued

survival o all species as well as to the sustainability o lie support systemsin general.

Claude GasconCo-Chair IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group SecretariatJames P. CollinsCo-Chair IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group SecretariatRobin D. MooreCoordinator IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group SecretariatDon R. ChurchCoordinator IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group SecretariatJeanne McKayCoordinator IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group SecretariatJoseph R. Mendelson III

Acting Executive Ocer IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist GroupSecretariat


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The ACAP is designed to provide guidance or implementing amphibianconservation and research initiatives at all scales rom global down tolocal. Whether it is local NGOs seeking to incorporate amphibians intomanagement plans o protected areas or devise a regional or nationalstrategy or amphibian conservation, governments seeking to ulll their

CBD 2010 targets, or researchers working to ll crucial gaps in knowledge,the ACAP aims to provide clear guidance on the most pertinent issues. Itsbreadth in scope should not discourage individuals wishing to implementamphibian conservation actions on a small scale or covered by a smallsubset o the ACAP. To assist with the practical implementation o theACAP, this chapter distills the action points rom each chapter into a user-riendly guide. Stakeholders rom conservation practitioners to researchersto government ocials may glean rom this the actions that are applicableand reer to relevant chapters or more depth on any o the themes.

To provide an example o its implementation, the ACAP has beenadopted as a ramework or developing National Amphibian Action Plansin Madagascar and Costa Rica. Locally-held workshops addressed thethemes relevant to each region to come up with a national strategy to

combat amphibian declines. Certain themes within the ACAP were morerelevant to one country than the other and the respective National ActionPlans were tailored to refect this. For instance, over-harvesting is prevalentin Madagascar but is not considered such a pertinent threat in Costa Rica.Conversely, while chytrid ungus has decimated amphibian populationsin Central America, preliminary tests on amphibians in Madagascar haveturned up negative or the disease. While on the surace this appears likegood news or Madagascar, it could also spell potential catastrophe oramphibians i the disease reaches the island. Thereore, although diseaseis not currently a major threat to the amphibians o Madagascar, lessonsrom Central America and elsewhere suggest that it would be prudent tobe vigilant or the rst signs o disease and take necessary precautions toavoid its introduction and spread.

The ACAP provides an overview o the status o amphibians and

necessary actions to stem their decline at the time o publishing. Because thesituation is constantly changing the ACAP is by necessity a living documentand will evolve to refect these changes. We aim to build upon a growingbody o knowledge and enhance communication among stakeholders tostreamline eorts to conserve amphibians around the world. The ollowingaction steps are designed to aid the integration o ACAP into existingrameworks and new initiatives with a ocus on amphibian conservationand research. The cost associated with implementing these actions isdetailed in budgets associated with each Chapter and consolidated in theexecutive summary.

Identifying, Prioritizing and Safe-

guarding Key Biodiversity Areas

Key Biodiversity Areas, or KBAs, are globally important sites that arelarge enough or suciently interconnected to ensure the persistence opopulations o the species or which they are important. A number osteps are outlined in Chapter 1 or the development o a KBA strategy within the greater ACAP. These steps range rom identiying, reningand prioritizing KBAs to emergency, short and long-term actions. Theollowing are suggested as a rst set o actions:

Set up a KBA committee/working group to oversee and coordinate theidentication o KBAs globally.

Rank sites so as to prioritize the saeguarding o known amphibian AZEsites rst. AZE sites are a particularly sensitive subset o KBAs knownto contain the last remaining population o a Critically Endangered orEndangered species.

Encourage site investigations o historical locations where species areassessed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

Encourage eld expeditions to little known and under-sampled sites.

Once a potential site has been identied or protection, it is advisable

to conduct a preliminary assessment o the site in question. Such anassessment may include:

The identication o parties with control over land and resource use inthe near vicinity and characterization o their infuence over impacts onthe site. Such parties might include tenured and untenured landowners,resource and land managers, resource users, government agencies, andconcession holders.

A description o use o resources, local and regional demands, andprojected evolution o resource use trends.

Analyses o relevant land and resource use policies and developmentplans aecting the governance o the site.

Analyses o the current legal ramework governing the site and its

practical eectiveness (i laws are in act observed). The evaluation o existing inrastructure and/or acilities.

The inormation derived rom preliminary assessments can then be usedtowards the proposal o specic conservation action at KBAs. Oncepriority KBAs have been assessed and a more thorough understanding othe complexities at specic sites is obtained, the next step would be toinitiate actions that will be conducive to saeguarding specic KBAs. Theseactions would typically include the ollowing:

Secure core areas or KBAs (proposing and establishing protected areas,negotiating land concessions, purchasing land, seeking communitystewardship, negotiations with private landowners).

Where there are already eorts to saeguard KBAs in place throughother projects, seek association with the projects executors in order tomaximize eorts and resource use.

In-country capacity building through national or regional trainingprograms.

Develop a set o measurable indicators to monitor KBAs. Include an education outreach component targeting schools and local

communities at local and national levels. Launch a publicity campaign at national levels, seeking active media

involvement.

It is important to ensure that eventually all KBAs are saeguarded. Oureorts must begin with an evaluation o the state o the biodiversity orwhich the site was identied as a KBA. Subsequently, we can establish

measurable and spatially explicit conservation parameters or the site. Toassess pressures, we must consider both direct pressures that drive speciesand habitat loss as well as conditions that prevent an eective response tothese pressures.

Priority science gaps and future focus

These are some o the questions and gaps that have to be taken intoconsideration or eective conservation o key sites:

Increase accuracy and ne-tuning o KBA delimitations.

Develop an adaptive strategy to deal with fuctuating populations,habitat ragmentation and shiting distributions. Integrate related research (disease, climate change, ecotoxicology) into

identication o KBAs as there must be connectivity and communicationbetween these dierent sub-disciplines.

Summary o Action Steps


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Engage all stakeholders that could potentially contribute to amphibianconservation, including climatologists, meteorologists, mathematicalmodelers, environmental engineers, international lawyers, educators,politicians and public relations experts.

Freshwater resources and associated

terrestrial landscapes

Threats to amphibians involve alterations to both reshwater and terrestrialhabitats. Chapter 2 addresses these threats and outlines steps to protectingcritical aquatic and terrestrial amphibian habitat. Specic actions include:

Securing existing habitat

Research: Identiy key habitat requirements (aquatic & terrestrial). Education: Develop and implement curriculum or primary through

secondary/high school students; outreach program or general public. Policy: Develop educational outreach program or policy makers. Management: Provide habitat management guidelines or amphibian

habitat to land managers and land owners.

Preventing future habitat loss

Research: Quantiy eects o anthropogenic perturbations on

amphibian populations. Education: Develop and implement curriculum or primary through

secondary/high school students and outreach program or generalpublic on how individual behaviors can be modied to improvewatershed health.

Policy: Educate policy makers on impacts o industry, land use, andagriculture on local watershed health, and long-term consequences orhuman health and local economies.

Management: Provide habitat management guidelines to minimizeuture habitat loss or land managers and land owners.

Research: Identiy restoration methods that improve amphibian habitat

and population size (adaptive management).

Restoring disturbed or compromised habitats

Education: Develop and implement educational curriculum tothe public to demonstrate value o habitat restoration and healthyamphibian communities.

Policy: Educate policy makers on the value o amphibian habitatrestoration to human and ecosystem health.

Management: Collaborate with land managers and property owners to

develop eective restoration practices.

Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss,and Amphibian Declines

To address the impacts o climate change on amphibian communitiesaddressed in Chapter 3, research is needed to:

Understand how climate change aects ecosystems and amphibians.Focus should be on changes in disease dynamics and the underlyingmechanisms.

In light o these mechanisms, identiy key elements o climate andquantiy the relevant changes. Develop a predictive model o amphibian decline patterns based on

these mechanisms and observed trends. Investigate why climate change impacts are worse today than in the

past (e.g., landscape alterations, etc.).

Examine the context o declines to understand broader implications or

biodiversity loss (what are the parallels in other groups).

Going beyond research, conservation actions in relation to climate changeand amphibian declines need to: Increase public awareness about eects o climate change: create

educational/outreach/research centers, web sites, positions in existinginstitutions.

Promote changes in energy policy. Amphibian declines are critical indening dangerous human intererence in the climate system.

Support initiatives that increase community resilience and reducesensitivity to climate change (habitat restoration, corridors, etc.).

Explore the possibility o manipulating local and micro-scale climate in

light o mechanisms identied.

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Chapter 4 outlines action steps relating to the detection and control o adisease which currently poses a threat to amphibian populations in manyregions o the world; the ungal disease chytridiomycosis.

Disease detection

Clinical signs o inection with chytrid in wild animals are either notpresent, or not obvious until close to death. As the inection progresses,animals may become lethargic, may exhibit increased sloughing o the skin,especially o the eet and ventrum in adults, or may sit in a characteristicposture in which the hind legs and drink patch are elevated o the groundto minimize contact with substrate. Many older tadpoles o some speciesmay show malormations o the keratinized mouthparts, but this is notconsistent across species, stages, or habitats and the presence o inectionneeds to be veried with histology, PCR, or microscopy. Because o thelack o grossly visible clinical signs, the pathogen needs to be detected by

either microscopy (e.g., standard histopathology o the eet or groin skin)or PCR.

Management

There are no currently available vaccines or chytridiomycosis. Thetreatment o amphibians in the wild with anti-ungal agents would alsobe problematic. Thereore, simple population management strategies arethe only viable option. These may include capture o wild individuals,treatment with drugs that kill Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis or heat,which can kill the ungus, then breeding in captivity ready or release intoan area deemed ree o disease. Collecting animals or survival assurancecolonies may be timed to move ahead o any direction o epidemic spread.

Disinection o ootwear with 10 percent chlorine bleach solution toprevent the spread o diseases by tourists and other people moving intosites with at risk populations has been proposed (www.nwhc.usgs.gov/

research/amph_dc/sop_mailing.html). We encourage projects that implement imaginative approaches to

treating animals in the wild, modiying habitats to curtail disease spread(e.g., treating vehicles and people to reduce risk o pathogen dispersal) andother procedures to prevent extinction by inection. One crucial part o thearmory is understanding why some species are tolerant (e.g., bullrogs), ableto clear inection and recover (e.g., salamanders), or completely resistantto inection. Other strategies may involve captive breeding to select orresistance to B. dendrobatidisand other diseases, or even biological controlor release o genetically modied pathogens or rogs, while assessing the

ethical and conservation implications o releasing such animals back intothe wild. One o the most important strategies to help mitigate the impacto chytridiomycosis is to develop the inrastructure or surveillance andpopulation management at the sites that are likely to be aected by thisdisease in the uture.


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Research needs

An ambitious research agenda is required, directed to understanding whysome populations and species o amphibians become extinct in someregions, whereas others do not, even when aced with the same emergingdisease. This ecological research agenda will include studying persistenceo the pathogen, reservoir hosts, mechanisms o spread, interactions withclimate change and models o disease dynamics. Crucially, these studieswill be targeted to 1) sites where amphibians are undergoing enigmatic

declines due to chytridiomycosis, linked with studies o climate change,habitat loss, etc., and 2) sites where B. dendrobatidis is present, yetpopulations o amphibians persist without declines.

Research into disease control is critical. More research into the ecologyoB. dendrobatidisis also needed, including such basic and critical aspectso its natural history as how and where it survives and how long it canpersist in the environment. One o the highest priorities is to determinethe means by which B. dendrobatidis moves among sites, species, andindividuals over local, regional and international scales. Monitoring o thetrade in amphibians, testing animals throughout that trade and dealingwith the policy implications o trying to block disease in those trades is akey priority. Studies o the ecology o chytridiomycosis and other diseasesshould include broad surveys o its altitudinal and latitudinal distribution

and impact, modeling o amphibian population responses to climatechange and how this alters disease dynamics, study o the relationshipbetween its spread and trade in amphibians and other key issues.

Finally, we need to continue to survey museum collections andconduct molecular phylogenetic studies to nd out when and whereBatrachochytrium rst emerged or whether its distribution has alwaysbeen wide, and to survey where it is now, in areas with either decliningor stable populations. Systematists are encouraged to work with diseaseresearchers to identiy declines consistent with disease and to help sampleor disease in collections. Part o this research agenda will be to continueto develop cheaper and more ecient testing methods or biological andenvironmental samplesproducts that will benet reintroduction, diseaseoutbreak investigations, as well as survey programs.

Over-harvesting

The purpose o the ACAP workshop on over-harvesting, which ormsthe ramework or Chapter 5, was to establish a harvest managementprogramme, concentrating on 15 countries that appeared to be the ocuso the heaviest levels o harvest. The actions needed to address this threatare broadly grouped into six main areas:

Sustainable use

Study the easibility and develop sustainable use projects (when thebiology o the species permits this) o common and widespread specieswith local communities.

Determine whether to implement a controlled sustainable tradethrough a trade quota.

Form alliances and allocate resources or expanding these actions toother places.

Species Action Plans

Continually identiy endangered species threatened by over-harvestingrom the inormation generated rom trade monitoring and the GAAdataset.

Establish conservation action plans or threatened species based on themost updated inormation.

Allocate adequate resources or implementation o such plans incollaboration with relevant local bodies and stakeholders.

Trade monitoring

Establish national networks in priority countries to monitor trade. This will involve gathering import/export statistics, commercial breedingarm data and regular visits to the ood, medicinal and pet markets.

Establish collaboration with TRAFFIC to monitor the Internationaltrade and trade in CITES-listed species.

Provide data directly to the GAA team or assessment anddissemination.

Commercial breeding/raising

Determine the easibility o establishing new breeding acilities byusing scientic data and business costs.

Ensure that commercial captive breeding acilities use only speciesnative to their regions to reduce the risk o the spread o disease andinvasive exotics.

Careully monitor commercial breeding arms or highly valuablespecies to prevent wild-caught individuals rom entering into thetrade.

Establish operational certication systems and allocate resources toexplore how to help bring such conditions into place.

Channel (wherever possible) the benets generated rom commercialcaptive breeding operations with a proportion o prots returning toconservation in the wild.

Law and enforcement

Strengthen enorcement o relevant law and regulations should bestrengthened through capacity-building and the input o adequateresources to prevent over-harvesting.

Clariy the authority over the conservation, trade and use o amphibians.Better coordination between government bodies and scientic/conservation organizations is needed or eective enorcement.

Review national law and regulations to make sure they oer adequate

protection to the threatened amphibians. Improve bilateral cooperation between countries involved in the

cross-border trade to prevent over-harvesting and illegal trade oamphibians.

List species that are threatened by international trade on the appropriateappendices o CITES so that their trade can be regulated and eectivelymonitored.

Awareness raising

Convey the importance o amphibians and the widespread impact oover-harvesting to the general public and those in charge o biodiversityconservation in the priority countries through the local media and

publicity campaigns. Provide local examples o amphibians that should be used in such

campaigns. Link the publicity campaign with other themes to give a comprehensive

picture o the global crisis o amphibian declines.

Mitigating Impacts of Environmental Con-

tamination on Amphibian Populations

Evidence suggests that contaminants in the presence o other stressors havea strong potential to impact amphibians negatively. Eorts to mitigate

these impacts, detailed in Chapter 6, are divided into emergency, short-term, and long-term actions that would be protective o amphibiansand the communities in which they live.

Sites where declines are occurring should be evaluated or environmentalcontamination that may be present through direct application or movement


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through air or water; this survey data would help us determine i dangerouslevels o contamination are present, which may necessitate emergencyclean-up action, and would establish chemicals present to guide pertinentresearch eorts (e.g., interactive eects o contamination and pathogens).Short-term goals should ocus on examining the relationships betweendeclines and potential causes; evidence that contaminants routinely arecorrelated with declines would oer a weight o evidence to supportthe relationships between declines and contaminants, which would justiy regulating contaminant application more rigorously. Long-term

goals should ocus on experimental studies that lead to cause-and-eectrelationships to urther infuence regulatory standards in ways that havemeaningul impacts on organisms, as well as urther our understanding ohow contaminants are infuencing community regulation o amphibiancommunities.

Captive Programs

Chapter 7 ocuses on captive programs, which may be an essentialcomponent o integrated amphibian conservation plans to avoidimminent extinction o populations. The traditional zoo/aquarium/garden inrastructure cannot currently accommodate a program on the

scale required. A global network o captive breeding programs that areexplicitly linked to conservation and research programsThe AmphibianArk (AArk see www.aamphibianark.org)has thereore been ormed toimplement the ex situ component o ACAP. Activities will be implementedin our phases:

Information gathering and emergency collections;

preliminary captive operations

Operating in response to recommendations rom local biologists, nationalgovernments, and the various ACAP research branches, rapid-responseteams would travel to sites predicted to suer catastrophic losses to

implement pre-emptive collections o animals that will orm the basis ocaptive programs. A prototype o such a program has been used eectivelyto rescue the rog auna o a site in Panama (see www.savearog.org).

Establishment of captive operations in the range

countries

Central to the long-term success o a captive program is the establishmento captive operations in range countries. Inrastructure or such acilitiesmay be reasonably established with portable, modular units (e.g.,modied shipping containers) or by simply adapting local warehousesor houses or local inrastructure such as botanic gardens, universitybiology departments, industrial or government complexes that are either

under-utilized or purpose adapted or the management o amphibianspecies. Local biologists or citizens must quickly be identied, hired, andtrained in basic amphibian husbandry. A steady program o internshipsin established amphibian acilities in other countries will be critical tomaintaining intellectual and practical capacity at range-country acilities.Close contact and communication among all acilities in the network mustbe maintained by a global supervisory sta. Range-country programs willoperate in native languages, and will be aimed to ensure that operativeprotocols are matched to local conditions, culture, and inrastructure.

Research and long-term maintenance of captive

operations

In addition to securing captive colonies in small, modular acilities, back-up populations will be secured in larger, multi-species acilities that provideor ecient care, breeding, and research on many species. These largeracilities may be in the range country and/or in acilities and programs

outside the range country. Furthermore, these acilities will provide thecapacity and acilities or research and implementation o cryobanking ogametes o threatened species, thereby serving as an additional saeguardor species, populations and specic genetic lineages.

Providing animals for research and reintroduction

programs

The captive colonies will produce the animals needed to meet long-term research needs and to provide animals or the ultimate goal oreintroduction to natural habitats.

Priority science gaps for research and future

focus

Many o the species in need o urgent implementation o captive programshave never beore been maintained in captivity. Thus, most programs willace substantial challenges related to basic husbandry and reproduction atthe outset. While these captive colonies will represent a crucial element othe overall survival plan or a particular species, they will simultaneouslyprovide important opportunities to conduct research related to disease

susceptibility, management and treatments, reproductive biology, andtolerance o environmental elements related to climate and toxins. Forexample, while various ACAP groups work to better understand thebiology, pathology, and potential to control chytrid ungi, captive programsmust work with geneticists and immunologists to research the potentialor populations to evolve resistance to the ungal pathogen.

Cryobanking

Our general aim is to establish and sustain an active genome resource bankthat can contribute to conserving rare amphibians. To achieve this aim, theimmediate research objectives are to:

determine optimal model species that represent a range o amphibianorders and then, through systematic studies, determine undamentalreproductive strategies or each.

develop sae, non-invasive methodologies or recovering viable sperm. increase our understanding o cryosensitivity o amphibian

spermatozoa. develop eld-riendly sperm cryopreservation technologies and tools

or assessing the viability/unctionality o thawed sperm. establish methods or recovering viable spermatozoa rom resh

carcasses. demonstrate the biological competence o cryopreserved spermatozoa

through the production o healthy ospring. conduct the necessary computer modeling required to determine the

optimal number o individuals to be banked. implement and maintain an inventory and database or eective

management o cryopreserved samples. Increase scientic capacity in-country through training to routinely

allow large-scale and sae collection and cryopreservation o germplasmrom ree-living and captive amphibians.

Most o the research objectives could be met, at least initially, by scientistsworking in (or with) zoological collections. These individuals must havea strong commitment to capacity building, especially the training ocounterparts in range countries that have high priority species requiringattention. Ideally, studies would begin in North American zoos and,once the models were identied and research colonies developed, studieswould begin, preerably with a senior scientist mentoring multiple post-

doctoral ellows, graduate or undergraduate students. Some o the traineeseventually must come rom range countries where there is an eventual goalto develop research/propagation programs or high priority species. Thiswill require the development o laboratory and ex situbreeding acilities.


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Reintroductions

The IUCN (1998) guidelines or reintroductions provide a ramework orthe protocols to be ollowed or amphibians, but may need modiying inview o species-specic requirements or linkages to other themes withinACAP. Aspects to take into consideration when planning a reintroductionare detailed in Chapter 8 and summarized below.

Selecting species for reintroduction

It is essential that species are careully appraised or their suitability orreintroduction. The ollowing criteria, which are elaborated in Chapter8, provide guidance or evaluating whether a species is suitable orreintroduction:

Status and distribution o species. Reversibility o threats. Lie history. Geographical priorities.

Pre-release assessment of the wild

populations

The status and distribution o the species will be assessed by a combinationo interrogation o existing sources o inormation (e.g., GAA, local atlasesetc.) and eld survey. Renement o existing survey methodologies maybe required as an adjunct research activity to allow this. Priority specieswill be those that have undergone clear contractions in historical range,and which would be unable to re-establish unctional populations (ormetapopulations) within that range without reintroduction. Introductionsto areas outside the historical range will usually be discouraged, althoughclimate change data may suggest that unsuitable areas outside the naturalrange may become suitable sometime in the uture. Equally, restocking (orsupplementing) existing populations carries disease and genetic risks (see

below) and should not be considered unless numbers have allen belowthose required or a minimum viable population and the associated riskshave been assessed.

Applied ecological research on life historyand habitat requirements

Basic population demographic data on the species will be gathered i theseparameters are not already known, as these will be required or populationviability analysis and or inorming decisions about which stages othe lie cycle should be used or the reintroductions. Similarly, habitatrequirements will be determined so that habitat management, restorationand creation can be carried out in a way that will maximize the chances othe reintroduction succeeding.

Threat mitigation, habitat management,restoration and creation

The threats leading to the decline or extinction o the species will beevaluated and neutralized ollowing the protocol described by Caughley(1994). It is unlikely that some important threats to amphibians (e.g.,climate change, UV-B, etc.) can be neutralized, at least in the short tomedium term. In such cases, reintroduction is unlikely to be a sensibleoption.

Following the assessment o habitat requirements, potential

reintroduction sites will be evaluated or management requirements. Theprogram o habitat management will involve maintaining or enhancingexisting areas, restoring areas that still exist but have become unsuitable andcreation o new habitat where appropriate (or a combination thereo).

Population viability analysis, releaseprotocols, and strategic recovery plandevelopment

Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA) may assist indetermining targets or minimum viable populations, habitat requirements,and the time rames required to establish such populations. These targetsshould then be embraced within a staged planning process, with interim

milestones i necessary to monitor progress as the project develops.Knowledge o the lie history o the species should be used to determineappropriate targets and time rames or success. EU legislation requiresmember states to maintainor restore toavorable conservation statusthose species o community interest, and this is being used as a generictarget in many species recovery programs (although explicit denitions othis term may vary rom species to species, and region to region).

The reintroductions will involve the release o eggs, larvae and/ormetamorphs, as previous reintroduction programs have shown that usingthese stages is most likely to lead to success. However, urther researchis needed on release protocols (e.g., the relative proportions o thedierent stages, sot vs. hard releases, trade-os o captive vs. wild stock,applicability o head-starting technologies). The reintroductions willthereore serve as ecological experiments or testing hypotheses concerning

these issues, and protocols will be rened accordingly.An appropriate organizational inrastructure needs to be established

to ensure the success o the program. This will invariably require thecooperation o a wide spectrum o stakeholders ranging rom localcommunities to government ocials. There may be legal obstaclesassociated with the release o organisms into the wild that need to beovercome. Eective lines o communication need to be established,language barriers overcome and transparent mechanisms or resolvingdierences o opinions established.

Risk analysis

The movement o living organisms rom one place to another carriesvarious risks. These risks may be genetic, ecological or socio-economic.Genetic risks are associated with the release o maladapted animals intoan area. Donor populations will be screened or any potential problemsassociated will possible maladaptations or inbreeding. This will becombined with a landscape level analysis o the release site to ensure thatthe released population will not suer rom any genetic problems as aresult o habitat isolation in the uture. There may also be concern over therelease o animals whose taxonomic relationships are unresolved. Linkagewith the ACAP Systematics Working Group will be maintained to resolveany issues in this area.

Ecological risks embrace issues associated with the inadvertenttransmission o disease or other organisms. Apparently benign organismsmay have unoreseen impacts on ood chains when transmitted to new

environments. Protocols will thereore be in place to minimize the risk otransmission o propagules o potentially invasive species. Comprehensivehealth screening will be carried out on 1) animals rom the donorpopulation (captive or wild); 2) all amphibian species present at the releasesite. The protocols will ollow those established by the ACAP DiseaseWorking Group (See Chapter 4). Socio-economic risks are associated withimpacts on the livelihoods o local people. I the reintroduction results inthe exclusion o people rom traditional areas or ecological impacts thatimpact on agriculture or other income-generating activities, there maybe ramications or its likely success. Surveys o attitudes towards thereintroduction within local communities will thereore be carried out andany conficts o interest resolved.

Post-release monitoring

Many amphibian species have cryptic lie styles that render themextremely dicult to monitor. Consequently, research on the renement


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o monitoring protocols will inorm the design o post-release monitoring.Equally, the longer the generation time o the species the longer thetimerame needed or establishing success. In order to demonstratewhether the reintroduction has resulted in the ounding o sel-sustainingpopulations, each reintroduced species will be monitored or multiplegenerations. Population and habitat viability analysis will be used todevelop the timerames over which success can be realistically assessedusing demographic and habitat data.

Systematics

Chapter 10 ocuses on Systematics and Conservation and proposes theollowing activities:

Naming species (1000 spp. over the next ve years). Training in-country students and auxiliary personnel (e.g, park guards,

etc.) and support or in-country experts: Short term visitation o experts and students to research centers. Systematic workshops or students and young proessionals. Grants to pursue graduate school or postdoctoral work in systematics,

this grant could be or in-country or oreign institutions. Amphibians eld surveys in poorly known areas and areas that have not

being survey in the last decade. Genetic bar coding (1000 spp.). Frozen tissue bank o all taxa or molecular analysis and orcell banks.

Evaluation o Critically Endangered and Endangered species in aphylogenetic analysis to prioritize taxa or conservation.

Evaluation o Data Decient taxa or conservation. Publication o eld guides, in local languages. Establishment, improvement, and maintaining local collections.

Bioresource Banking

Genome Resource Banks (GRBs), which orm the ocus o Chapter 11,can provide vital materials, such as high quality DNA, cellular RNAs andcell ractions, or research as well as enhancing reproduction and rescuinggenetic variation that would otherwise be lost. Collection o researchsamples most easibly could come rom salvaged specimens and entailno harm to wild or captive populations. The highest quality resourcethat might be obtained rom individuals at post-mortem examinationwould likely be viable cell cultures. Because only a small literature existsdescribing establishment and reezing o cell cultures rom amphibians,priority action in bioresource banking will need to concentrate eort onproductive collaboration among eld biologists, captive breeding eorts,pathologists and those involved in cell culture and cell banking. TheFrozen Zoo at the San Diego Zoos center or Conservation and Researchor Endangered Species (CRES), which demonstrates a successul historyin mammalian, avian and reptile cell culture, is suitable and willing toimmediately undertake eorts to establish cell cultures or the rst time inaccordance with the ACAP.


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. Introduction

Results rom the Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA: www.globalamphibians.org) provide a much-needed baseline or globalamphibian conservation. These data can be used to design strategies toconserve the worlds rapidly declining amphibian populations. For nineout o every ten amphibian species that are classied as threatened, habitatloss is a key threat (Baillie et al. 2004). It is thereore critical to identiyand saeguard those sites where highly threatened amphibians occur in theshort term. Strengthening and expanding systems o protected areas (PAs),private reserves, and other conservation sites containing critical habitator amphibians must be the top priority or conservationists (Young et al.2004) as we seek to maximize the return rom conservation investments.

Current PA systems, however, are incomplete and do not adequatelycapture global biodiversity; oten leaving out threatened species or whichsite conservation is more urgently needed (Pressey 1994). Althoughthe current network covers 11.5% o the terrestrial land surace, globalassessments reveal large gaps in the existing network o protected areas inalmost all regions, particularly in the tropics (Brooks et al. 2004; Ferrieret al. 2004). Filling these gaps requires the establishment o explicit,measurable, and repeatable targets or biodiversity conservation (Rodrigueset al. 2004a).

Global assessments are extremely important or audiences operating atthe same scale, including bilateral and multilateral organizations such as theWorld Bank, international policies such as the Convention on BiologicalDiversity (CBD), and nongovernmental organizations with a globalscope. However, this kind o global assessment is ar rom providing anaccurate picture o the coverage, et al. one the viability and eectiveness, oprotected areas on a country-by-country or region-by-region scale (Brookset al. 2004). Such assessment needs to be driven rom sub-global scales toincorporate the complexities o ne-scale data, but it also needs to ollowinternational standards and criteria i it is to be globally comparable. Theconcept o Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) is a tool or achieving this (Ekenet al. 2004). Site-by-site assessment o the management eectiveness osuch areas in saeguarding the biodiversity or which they are important willbe necessary to produce a truly accurate analysis.

. Key Biodiversity Areas

Key Biodiversity Areas, or KBAs, are globally important sites that arelarge enough or suciently interconnected to ensure the persistence opopulations o the species or which they are important (Eken et al. 2004).The KBA approach, based on the concepts o threat and irreplaceabilitythat are central to systematic conservation planning (Margules & Pressey2000), incorporates detailed inormation on dierent species conservationneeds and on the adequacy o particular areas or the conservation o eachspecies. In proposing a universal standard set o thresholds, it is possible

to minimize subjectivity in the selection o globally important sites and toensure repeatability in the application o KBA criteria. The application o

these criteria should be straightorward, so that they may be consistentlyapplied across dierent biogeographic regions and taxonomic groups; ateither national or regional levels.

The ocus o KBAs is on those species most vulnerable to extinction:globally threatened species3 and geographically concentrated species.Inormation on the distribution and needs o these species is used to denethose sites that will be critical to their survival. A proposed approach toprioritization among KBAs incorporates considerations o irreplaceability,threat, and cost.. KBAs are dened and mapped using biological and geophysical data.The boundaries are urther rened using sociopolitical data, such as existingPAs, land tenure and other management units. Inormation is compiled oreach site on threats, protected status, and key conservation actions. TheKBA selection process uses our criteria, based on the presence o speciesor which site-scale conservation is appropriate: (1) globally threatenedspecies, (2) restricted-range species, (3) congregations o species thatconcentrate at particular sites during some stage in their lie cycle, and (4)bioregionally restricted assemblages (Eken et al. 2004). A KBA networkdened according to the presence o these species would, thereore, beexpected to embrace all sites that play a critical role in maintaining theglobal population o a particular species (Eken et al. 2004). All ourcriteria have been applied to identiy KBAs or one higher level taxonomicgroup (birds) or over 20 yearsby BirdLie International, through

their Important Bird Areas (IBA) programand the eectiveness o thisapproach in identiying site conservation priorities has been validated byextensive research (BirdLie International 2004).

A particularly sensitive subset o KBAs, are those sites known to containthe last remaining population o a Critically Endangered or Endangeredspecies (Ricketts et al. 2005). Such sites, identied by the Alliance orZero Extinction (AZE; www.zeroextinction.org), a joint partnership omore than 60 biodiversity conservation organizations, orm the highestpriority subset o KBAs. Currently, about 260 AZE sites are triggeredby amphibians (representing some 380 species). It should be stressed atthis point that or many o these species, the nature o threat is such thathabitat protection alone may not be sucient to ensure the long-term,or even short-term persistence o the species, particularly not in the aceo insidious threats such as disease (specically chytridiomycosis) andclimate change. Nonetheless, habitat protection must be a necessary insitu conservation action implemented in tandem with complementary exsitu measures (such as captive breeding).

. Key Conservation Actions

There are a number o steps that must be taken towards the developmento a KBA strategy within the greater ACAP. These steps range romidentiying, rening and prioritizing KBAs to emergency, short and long-term actions.

3 Species listed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN) or Vulnerable(VU) on the IUCN Red List o Threatened Species (www.iucnredlist.org)

Chapter1

Designing a Network o Conservation Sites orAmphibians Key Biodiversity Areas

D.Silvano,A.Angulo,A.C.O.Q.CarnavalandR.Pethiyagoda


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.. Initial ActionsSetup and Frameworko KBAs

As a rst set o actions required to move orward with the KBA componento ACAP, we suggest the ollowing:

Set up a KBA committee/working group to oversee and coordinate theidentication o KBAs globally.

Rank sites so as to prioritize the saeguarding o known amphibianAZE sites rst. While all AZE sites/species are important and absolutelyurgent, in the context o site-scale conservation, the most immediatepriorities will be those sites/species or which the overwhelming threatis loss o native habitat and or which the most obvious conservationaction involves habitat protection, maintenance, or restoration. Forexample, the Massi de la Hotte in Haiti is the only known site or noewer than 13 Critically Endangered or Endangered amphibians, andthe overwhelming threat at this site is not one o disease but ratherongoing habitat loss and degradation. Such sites (i.e., those wheresite-based threat and habitat loss are high) should represent the mostimmediate priorities or saeguarding.

Continue rening the KBA analysis when new inormation becomesavailable.

Encourage site investigations o historical locations where species areassessed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

Encourage eld expeditions to little known and under-sampled sites.

.. Preliminary site conservationassessment o KBAs

Site and resource management planning tends to be very complex andcannot be entered into lightly. Once a potential site has been identied,it is advisable to conduct a preliminary assessment o the site in question.Such an assessment may include:

The identication o parties with control over land and resource use inthe near vicinity and characterization o their infuence over impacts onthe site. Such parties might include tenured and untenured landowners,resource and land managers, resource users, government agencies, andconcession holders

A description o use o resources, local and regional demands, andprojected evolution o resource use trends

Analyses o relevant land and resource use policies and developmentplans aecting the governance o the site

Analyses o the current legal ramework governing the site and itspractical eectiveness (i laws are in act observed)

The evaluation o existing inrastructure and/or acilities.

The inormation derived rom preliminary assessments can then be usedtowards the proposal o specic conservation action at KBAs.

.. Implementation o conservationactions at KBAs

Once priority KBAs have been assessed and a more thorough understandingo the complexities at specic sites is obtained, the next step would beto initiate actions that will be conducive to saeguarding specic KBAs.These actions would typically include the ollowing:

Securing core areas or KBAs (proposing and establishing protectedareas, negotiating land concessions, purchasing land, seeking community

stewardship, negotiations with private landowners). Where there are already eorts to saeguard KBAs in place through

other projects, seek association with the projects executors in order tomaximize eorts and resource use.

In-country capacity building through national or regional trainingprograms.

Develop a set o measurable indicators to monitor KBAs. Include an education outreach component targeting schools and local

communities at local and national levels. Launch a publicity campaign at national levels, seeking active media

involvement.

It is worth mentioning that, with regards to protected areas, which are

one o the means o saeguarding KBAs, the Convention on BiologicalDiversity program o work on protected areas contains a worthy targetto address the unding gap: By 2008, sucient nancial, technical andother resources to meet the costs to eectively implement and managenational and regional systems o protected areas are secured, includingboth rom national and international sources, particularly to support theneeds o developing countries and countries with economies in transitionand small island developing States (CBD 2004).

. Challenges and Opportunities

.. Challenges

Attempting to implement KBAs as part o a global ACAP can be attimes daunting, i only because o the scope and magnitude o thetask. Considering those practical aspects involved, we identiy the mainchallenges as ollows:

Finding unding sources and sequestering unds to implement ACAPthis is likely to be one o the most challenging points, in relation notonly to KBAs, but also to other thematic areas o ACAP.

Balancing the needs o multiple stakeholderstypically a numbero dierent stakeholders will be involved in the process o KBA

delimitation and conservation o sites. Many stakeholders will havedierent agendas and vested interests and it is also probable that orseveral actors, interest levels will have to be raised with a hard-sell caseor amphibians.

There is the very real potential or existence o actors external to thesites in question that can adversely aect the populations within thesites themselves (e.g. disease, pollution, introduced species, etc.), andidentiying and containing these actors will not only be a challengebut also a priority to ensure that these actions occur in parallel withon-going work to saeguard KBAs.

.. Opportunities

There are a number o opportunities and advantages that come with thedevelopment and conservation o KBAs, some o which can act as catalyststowards other conservation actions, such as:

The establishment o an emergency action element, to identiy andsaeguard the 120 KBAs most at risk o being lost.

Some o these prospective KBAs are already protected, so it would notbe necessary to start rom scratch (i.e. potential or leveraging withother existing NGOs or existing projects).

The protection o sites or amphibians is likely to include protectiono other fora and auna, or on a community assemblage, having thusadded benets in the orm o maintenance o ecosystem balance.

People interested in conserving sites may come rom dierentconstituencies, increasing the potential or urther outreach,communication and collaboration, and diversity o stakeholders.


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.. Logistics, inrastructure, policy andcapacity needs

It is important to ensure that eventually all KBAs are saeguarded whether that is through government designation, ormal agreementwith the landholder, or other mechanismsand eectively managed toconserve the biodiversity they contain. Our eorts must begin with anevaluation o the state o the biodiversity or which the site was identied

as a KBA, which involves consolidating key data on, and assessing thestatus o, the globally threatened and geographically concentrated speciesor which a site has been identied as globally important or biodiversityconservation. Subsequently, we can establish measurable and spatiallyexplicit conservation parameters or the site. To assess pressures, we mustconsider both direct pressures that drive species and habitat loss as wellas conditions that prevent an eective response to these pressures. Wehave identied the ollowing needs to bring orward the identication,assessment, and conservation o KBAs.

.. Needs or Initial Actions

Identiy those qualied specialists who would be willing to be a parto the KBA committee/working group to oversee and coordinate theidentication and prioritization o KBAs globally.

Establish a KBAidentication seed grant system whereby eldresearch o historical locations and little-known, under sampled sites,are emphasized.

Hire qualied personnel to carry out coordination and implementationo seed grant system and reporting back to KBA working group.

Identiy unding sources, proposal-writing and lobbying to access unds

to cover priority actions.

.. Needs or a preliminary assessment o

prospective KBAs

Access to records and inormation that will allow or the identicationo parties with control over land and resource use in the near vicinity,communication with these parties and their cooperation to realisticallycharacterize their infuence over impacts on the site.

Establish communication (and potentially uture partnerships) withparties with infuence over the conservation o the protected area andthe broader landscape, and cooperation o these parties to characterizetheir infuence and impact on the site.

Access to records and inormation (e.g. through surveys) on use oresources, local and regional demands.

Access to current government policies regarding land and resource use

as well as access to development plans aecting the governance o thesite.

Access to current legal ramework governing the site; compilation oinormation on practical eectiveness (i.e., through surveys).

Access to site and vicinity to conduct evaluation o existing inrastructureand/or acilities and identication o relevant parties.

Increased human resources (trained personnel) to conduct assessmentsthrough seed grants.

.. Needs or the implementation oconservation action in KBAs

Availability o unds, negotiating ability and leverage to secure coreareas or KBAs.

Developing and strengthening partnerships where there are alreadyexisting projects that require some/ull implementation o conservationin KBAs.

Establishing a seed grant und to encourage in-country students andresearchers to conduct research in KBAs.

Availability o unds and qualied instructors or in-country capacity-building through national or regional training programs.

Establishing a permanent emergency und or critical site-basedactions.

Elaborating a conservation strategy and site management plan or eachpriority KBA.

Lobbying to engage governments in national conservation eorts.

Building partnerships with local NGOs and grassroots organizations. Planning and developing a conservation education program targeting

schools and local communities at national levels. Producing publicity outputs (brochures, posters) and involving the

media in a publicity campaign.

.. Priority science gaps and uture ocus

There are a number o ronts that need to be developed and issues thatneed to be addressed simultaneously in order to increase the eciency oACAP as a whole. With regards to KBAs, these are some o the questionsand gaps that have to be taken into consideration or eective conservation

o key sites:

Increase accuracy and ne-tuning o KBA delimitations. Develop an adaptive strategy to deal with fuctuating populations,

habitat ragmentation and shiting distributions. Integrate related research (disease, climate change, ecotoxicology) into

identication o KBAs as there must be connectivity and communicationbetween these dierent sub-disciplines.

Engage all stakeholders that could potentially contribute to amphibianconservation. Although its scope is integrated in the eld, as it seeksto connect the dierent thematic areas, a wealth o expertise outsideo the amphibian experts community will be needed to address theproblem o the amphibian extinction crisis in an ecient manner. Thiswill require the support o climatologists, meteorologists, mathematicalmodelers, environmental engineers, international lawyers, educators,politicians and public relations experts, to mention a ew. In order toincrease the eciency o ACAP, additional expertise in a diversity oelds should be enlisted. Although it would appear that this wouldlikely increase costs, it would probably be more cost-ecient in thelong run by decreasing the time span needed to carry out specicactions that would otherwise take longer i perormed in isolation, andperhaps not be as ecient as a multidisciplinary approach.

. Budget

Bruner and colleagues (2004), recently published an article where theydraw on published cost studies, working sessions on protected area costsrom the Fith World Parks Congress (WPC) in 2003, and post-WPCanalyses to quantiy the unding shortall or terrestrial protected areasacross developing countries and to assess necessary actions to close thegap. Their study indicates that the costs o establishing and managing anexpanded protected-area system (approximately 3.5 million km2) wouldtotal at least $4 billion per year over the next decade, an amount that arexceeds current spending, but is well within the reach o the internationalcommunity. These ndings indicate the need or rapid action to mobilizesignicant new resources or the developing worlds protected areas. Inparticular, this will require (a) the use o a range o tools to generate undsand improve eciency o management; (b) greater precision and better

communication o the costs and benets o protected areas, both locallyand globally; and (c) increased, stable support rom developed countriesor on-the-ground management o protected area systems in developingcountries.

There is a diversity o ways to address conservation o KBAs (landmanagement concessions, community stewardship, designation o


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Cost US$MechanismtoupdateKBAidentifcation 1,000,000Fieldsurveys(seedgrantsystem) 5,000,000In-countrycapacitybuilding 4,000,000Kickstartund* 60,000,000Emergencyundorcriticalsitebasedactions 20,000,000Sustainabilityundtoensureutureprotectionosites 30,000,000Total 120,000,000

protected areas, land purchase) so that the development o PAs is notthe only means by which KBAs can be secured. This diversity in KBAconservation strategies is also refected in the global budget, coming tomuch more manageable costs than those estimated by Bruner et al. (2004).The ollowing global budget plan, constructed on estimates or a period ove years, is proposed:

*US$ 500,000 per site: buying or securing core area, paperwork, inrastructure, basic stang or 5 years,etc. Projection o 120 sites eectively conserved (removal o the threats that we are concerned about).

Designation costs are dicult to estimate because they are highlyvariable, ranging rom zero (when governments allocate uninhabitedpublic lands) to the ull cost o land purchase. However, we believe that,taking these variations into consideration, costs may even out acrossthe board as the cost o land purchase in one area may be oset by thedesignation o a protected area or community stewardship in another.


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. Introduction

Most o the worlds amphibian species exhibit a complex lie history,with aquatic egg and larval stages ollowed by a rapid metamorphosis toa terrestrial adult stage. Some amphibian species are completely aquatic,with eggs, larval, and adult stages taking place either in the same watersystem (rivers, lakes) or in associated water systems (with short migrationsoverland). Still other amphibian species orgo the larval stage altogetherand complete their lie cycle on land, in terrestrial ecosystems. Most

people associate amphibians with reshwater habitats, particularly ponds,and most active conservation eorts are aimed at the protection o suchhabitats. For most species that use reshwater habitats only to breed,the time they and their larvae spend in water represents only a smallproportion o their lie history. On land, amphibians are secretive andwidely dispersed and relatively little is known about their natural historyin terrestrial habitats. As a result, techniques to conserve amphibians interrestrial habitats are poorly developed.

A number o recent studies that have compared the ecology o speciesthat have declined dramatically with those that have not, have identiedhigh altitude as a signicant risk actor or amphibians (DecliningAmphibian Database; Hero and Morrison 2004; Lips et al. 2003). Thiseect is rather surprising, because upland habitats are generally not asaected by habitat change (e.g., agriculture) as lowland habitats, and or

many o the declines that occur at higher altitudes, the immediate cause isnot obvious.

It ollows that i amphibians are to persevere, it is critical, not only thathigh quality aquatic ecosystems persist, but also that associated terrestrialhabitat is protected. The degradation o either ecosystem type derailsamphibian lie cycles and aected populations become compromised,perhaps extirpated. It is particularly important that upland habitats,aquatic and terrestrial, be protected.

A majority o the worlds 5,883 species (AmphibiaWeb, 9 Sept.,05) are ound in tropical and low temperate ecosystems (see Fig. 1 anddiscussion below). Within these regions, direct developing (terrestrial)amphibians can be ound almost anywhere on land except at very highaltitudes. Amphibians with complex lie histories are typically ound

within the vicinity o sources o reshwater that can be used or breeding. While several studies have attempted to document the distance adultamphibians move rom their breeding sites, David Green (pers. comm.) hasobserved that the maximum distance noted by these studies is correlatedwith the geographic scope o the study. Our knowledge o the dispersal oamphibians across land is very poor and requires major research input, notleast because understanding this aspect o amphibian ecology is vital oreective conservation.

. Ecosystems

Aquatic ecosystems used by amphibians are typically reshwater, although

some species breed in brackish water. Lentic reshwater ecosystems thatsupport amphibians range rom seasonal wetlands, through semi-permanentand permanent wetlands, to lakes and ponds. Lotic reshwater ecosystemsthat support amphibians range rom seeps and springs, through small

and large streams, to rivers. As a general rule, shes exclude amphibians,thereore ecosystems with ewer shes provide habitat or more amphibianspecies: seasonal wetlands support more species than lakes; seeps andsprings support more species than rivers. Upland ecosystems are not onlyimportant to amphibians by providing habitats, but also human activitiesat higher watershed levels aect both terrestrial and aquatic habitat qualityat lower levels.

. Facts About Freshwater (Leanand Hinrichsen ; AAAS 000)

Less than 3% o the earths surace is composed o reshwater. More than 75% o this is locked up (although likely not or long) as

polar ice. 98% o the remaining reshwater lies underground. Thereore, only about 0.01% o the worlds total reshwater is readily

available to terrestrial lie. Freshwater is unevenly distributed throughout the world, e.g., Canada

has 30 times as much reshwater available to each o its citizens asChina

Freshwater is being contaminated by saltwater infuxes, human wasteand other byproducts o human use (e.g., endocrine disruptors, acidrain), as well as agricultural ertilizers and pesticides.

Since 1950, the number o people on earth has increased rom 2.5 to6.5 billion, and the per capita use o reshwater has tripled.

More than 60% o all reshwater used in the world is diverted orirriga

[book] amphibian conservation action plan

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