Diversitas and the challenge of latin american biodiversity conservation

    It is well known that out of the 17 mega-diverse countries, six are located in the Neotropics. Individually, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela have more plant, vertebrate and invertebrate species than the majority of nations on the planet. Equally, nine out of ten of the world’s eco-regions richest in plants are in Central and South America. However, many of the species present in the region are being negatively threatened by human activities, particularly by the conversion of ecosystems: 20% of mammals, 12% of birds and 41% of amphibians endemic to the Neotropics have been classified as endangered species. Latin America is also home to seven of the Earth’s 25 regions richest in endemism, all of which are also among the most threatened.

 As happened centuries ago in Europe and North America, as societies of Latin American countries advance and pursue the living standards known in developed countries, more pressure is exercised on the region’s natural resources. Coupled to this situation of extremely rich biodiversity and extraordinary threat, a central problem is that we know very little about the distribution, abundance and ecology of the species with which we coexist in our region. For instance, even among the better studied organisms (eg. birds and mammals) new species are regularly discovered.

    The global scientific community has begun to organize itself so as to respond to the demand of information required by society to orient decision-making about sustainable use of goods and services provided by ecosystems. For instance, on March 30, 2005, the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment published its results. It is the joint effort by 1300 scientists from 95 countries who worked arduously towards the goal of synthesizing current knowledge of the benefits humans obtain from ecosystems, and the options that could be adopted to improve ecosystem management, thereby contributing to poverty reduction at local, national or global levels. In addition, scientists have begun to quantify a set of indicators (agreed upon by the signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity) in order to support the follow up of the proposed 2010 Targets.

    In this same vein of updating information and improving communication about these topics, DIVERSITAS, an international program for biodiversity science, will hold its First International Open Science Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico (November 9-12, 2005). With the theme "Integrating biodiversity science for human well-being" the meeting will provide opportunity to explore recent advances and probe pressing issues across the breadth of biodiversity science. Combining plenary sessions with symposia and presentations by members of the global scientific community, many relevant matters will be addressed, such as data collection and management for conservation, the impact of human activities on natural resources, new techniques and challenges of taxonomy, biodiversity’s common property regimes, and the design of national and international biodiversity policies. The overwhelming response to DIVERSITAS call for abstracts reflects the great worldwide interest for this subject.

    Integration is a fundamental element of the Conference, not only among biological and social disciplines, but also among the various actors responsible for the biodiversity management. Academia, corporations, governments and society at large (civil groups) will interact by attending lectures and presentations, round table discussions, DIVERSITAS National Committee meetings and, invariably, through exciting informal dialogue.

    There is a great inequality in the world between the distribution of biodiversity (concentrated particularly in developing countries) and the availability of technical and economical resources for its study, management and conservation (concentrated primarily in developed countries). Improved communication and cooperation are essential to addressing these imbalances in order to protect Earth’s valuable biological resources. Such is the spirit of the Oaxaca Conference.

Jon Paul Rodríguez¹, Tatjana Good², Rodolfo Dirzo³

¹bioDESCUBRIMIENTO, DIVERSITAS, Ecology Center, IVIC, Venezuela

²bioDESCUBRIMIENTO, DIVERSITAS, International Center for Tropical Ecology, IVIC, Venezuela

³Scientific Committee, DIVERSITAS, UNAM, México y Stanford University, EEUU