Protected areas network and conservation efforts concerning threatenedamphibians in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

摘要

One of the most common conservation strategies used to preservethreatened species is the establishment of protected areas (PAs), providinga maximum representation of biodiversity with the smallest possible cost.The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the 35 global biodiversity hotspotsfor conservation priorities, having high rate of habitat loss, which is oneof the main factors driving threatened amphibians to extinction. Consideringthat amphibians are the vertebrate group with the largest number of speciesgeographically excluded from global PAs, gap analysis was employed toevaluate whether or not the PAs of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest safeguardthe threatened amphibian species in this region. Species status werecompared through the official list of threatened species of the BrazilianFauna and occurrence maps were obtained from the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List database.Thirty-eight threatened amphibian species were found, accounting for 17critically endangered (CR), 10 endangered (EN), and 11 vulnerable (VU).The PAs distributed in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest corresponds to only9?% of the region's entire area. This protected network covers only 30?%of the total geographical range of the assessed species. Besides, a shift inBrazil's environmental policy has led to PAs downgrading. Therefore, themaintenance of PAs integrity is essential, as well as further investment isnecessary for the creation of new reserves, avoiding species loss andreducing the extinction risk of the threatened amphibian species in theBrazilian Atlantic Forest.