Where are the major gaps in the reserve network for Africa's mammals?

The original publication is available from http://www.cambridge.org/The establishment of protected areas for wildlife conservation in Africa was motivated by a number of different reasons (including hunting, recreation and wildlife conservation). The current reserve network provides good coverage of the distributions of the 194 species of larger mammals (> 3 kg) and 51 species of threatened larger mammals. However, it is less effective in covering the distribution of all 197 of Africa's threatened mammal species, which includes >140 smaller bodied species ( <3 kg) often restricted to habitat patches. A fully comprehensive network of areas for the conservation of African mammals, especially those facing extinction, is not yet in place, and further reserves may be needed in the Horn of Africa (Somalia in particular), the Cameroon Highlands, parts of the eastern African coastal forests and Eastern Arc Mountains, and parts of the Albertine Rift Mountains. More and larger reserve areas are also required to adequately cover all the species of South Africa. Parts of these gaps are already covered by government forest reserves, and the importance of this reserve category for the conservation of African mammals, especially threatened species, needs to be better recognized. As many of the gaps in reserve coverage are in areas of high human population and good agricultural potential, conservation goals may be difficult to achieve unless we supplement traditional reserves with novel approaches to maintain natural habitats and wildlife outside reserves.Postprint versio

Avian endemism in northeastern tropical Africa

Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea at the Carlsberg Academy, Copenhagen, August 25-27, 1999.The avian endemism of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa was analyzed using a database where all bird distributions in Africa south of the Sahara are recorded in a one-degree grid. Applying a hierarchical classification algorithm, the tropical northeastern Subregion of Africa stands out clearly and can be subdivided in all Ethiopian Highlands Province and the Somalia-Masai. Tana-Jubba and Turkana districts and a Danakil Province. The Horn of Africa Province is associated with the Northern Arid (Sahara) Subregion in this hierarchical classification, although this reflects the replacement of savanna with desert birds more than shared endemism. Although most of the Ethiopian Highland endemics are distributed all over the highland, a more complex pattern of local endemics can also be defined, using a complementarity algorithm. Local endemism is very pronounced among the larks, Alaudidae. The majority of endemics belongs to recently radiated groups, and is mainly related to the fauna of East Africa; however, the fauna of the Sidamo district contains relict elements, two of these of a significant evolutionary age. The pattern of endemism in the birds of northeastern tropical Africa has a number of features in common with patterns found in plants

Public support for conserving bird species runs counter to climate change impacts on their distributions

The authors acknowledge the Danish Council for Independent Research, Social Science for financial support (Grant no. 75-07-0240) and the Danish National Research Foundation for support to the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate.There is increasing evidence that global climate change will alter the spatiotemporal occurrences and abundances of many species at continental scales. This will have implications for efficient conservation of biodiversity. We investigate if the general public in Denmark are willing to pay for the preservation of birds potentially immigrating and establishing breeding populations due to climate change to the same extent that they are for native species populations currently breeding in Denmark, but potentially emigrating due to climate change. We find that Danish citizens are willing to pay much more for the conservation of birds currently native to Denmark, than for bird species moving into the country - even when they are informed about the potential range shifts associated with climate change. The only exception is when immigrating species populations are under pressure at European level. Furthermore, people believing climate change to be man-made and people more knowledgeable about birds tended to have higher WTP for conservation of native species, relative to other people, whereas their preferences for conserving immigrant species generally resembled those of other people. Conservation investments rely heavily on public funding and hence on public support. Our results suggest that cross-country coordination of conservation efforts under climate change will be challenging in terms of achieving an appropriate balance between cost-effectiveness in adaptation and the concerns of a general public who seem mostly worried about protecting currently-native species.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Patterns of species richness and narrow endemism of terrestrial bird species in the Afrotropical region

The original publication is available at www.blackwell-science.com/ddiGeographical patterns and peaks of species richness and narrow endemism (defined by rangerestrictedness and range-size rarity) are described for terrestrial Afrotropical birds and subsets thereof based on residency, endemism, and taxonomy. Species richness for residents and Afrotropical endemics (species globally restricted to sub-Saharan Africa) peaks along the mountains and adjacent lowlands of eastern and southern Africa. Isolated mountains in central and western Africa and the lowlands of the north-eastern Congo Basin (Ituri) are highlighted to a lesser degree. Peaks of narrow endemism occur in these areas as well as in the Ethiopian Highlands (particularly for non-passerines), Somalia (particularly for passerines), and the Angolan Escarpment. Within residents, patterns of species richness vary greatly between Afrotropical endemics (which concentrate in forests on mountains and adjacent lowlands, and the southern Brachystegia woodlands) and non-endemic residents (which concentrate in Sudanian woodlands and the Ethiopian Highlands). Patterns of species richness of residents (species that breed in the Afrotropics) and non-breeding migrants (non-breeding visitors to the Afrotropics) also show notable differences. The latter concentrate in areas close to the Palaearctic, which forms their distributional range centres. Patterns of species richness and narrow endemism for Afrotropical endemics show broad-scale coincidence within mountains or mountain-lowland complexes, particularly the Cameroon-Bamenda Highland system, East African rift system and Eastern Arc mountains. However, fine-scale coincidence of peaks of species richness and narrow endemism within these complexes is low. Narrow endemism peaks occur in areas of topographical complexity, which may have conferred localized climatic stability over short-, medium-, and long-term climatic cycles (sensu Fjeldsa , 1994; Fjeldsa et al., 1997), allowing these areas to act as `species pumps'. Species accumulate in areas of high productivity. Lack of fine-scale coincidence of narrow endemism and species richness peaks have implications for conservation prioritization exercises.Dr de Klerk was funded by the Foundation for Research Development (FRD)(Postgraduate Bursary and various grants to Prof. T.M. Crowe), the University of Cape Town (Gordon Sprigg Postgraduate Scholarship), the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen. The FRD, Human Sciences Research Council, and Danish Research Academy provided funds for a collaborative research trip to work with Prof. FjeldsaÊ and Dr Burgess in Denmark. BirdLife International are thanked for allowing use of their Restricted Range Bird database. Our thanks to Dr Jane Turpie, Prof. Phil Hockey, Dr Peter Ryan, Dr Richard Dean, Louis Hansen, Rene Navarro, Alex Flemming, Prof. John Field, Gavin Heale, Andrew Lewis, Dirk Eisinger, and Melanie Simpson for comments and help with various aspects of this work. Two anonymous referees are thanked for their constructive comments. Finally a word of tribute to the late Richard Brooke for his help and inspiration with the mapping of bird species distributions.Postprint versio

Polylepis woodland remnants as biodiversity islands in the Bolivian high Andes

Mountain forests deserve special attention from ecologists and conservation biologists given the ecosystem services they provide to society, and their threat under global change. In the subalpine region of the Andes, Polylepis woodlands occur as arboreal islands in a matrix of grassland and scrub. Due to overgrazing and burning, however, these woodland patches are believed to cover only 11% of their potential area in Bolivia, core area for Polylepis. We reviewed the knowledge on the species diversity for the Bolivian Polylepis woodland remnants, assessed the conservation status of the occurring species, determined their trophic niche, and related species richness with climatic variables and elevation. Based in 31 publications, we found 780 identified species occurring in Polylepis woodlands: 425 plants, 266 birds, 46 mammals, 35 butterflies and 8 reptiles. Ten of the 13 Bolivian Polylepis species, as well as 7 other plant species, 14 bird species and 4 mammal species were categorized as threatened or near threatened according to IUCN criteria. In general, plant species richness increased with increased precipitation and length of the growth season, while it decreased with increasing elevation. There was a positive relationship between bird species richness, precipitation and length of the growth season. The highest bird endemism in Polylepis woodland remnants occurred at intermediate elevations, temperatures and precipitation. Mammal species richness decreased with increasing maximum temperature. Finally, we discuss the most important knowledge gaps regarding biodiversity in Bolivian Polylepis woodland remnants.status: publishe

Systematics and biogeography of Indo-Pacific ground-doves

Ground-doves represent an insular bird radiation distributed across the Indo-Pacific. The radiation comprises sixteen extant species, two species believed to be extinct and six species known to be extinct. In the present study, we present a molecular phylogeny for all sixteen extant species, based on two mitochondrial markers. We demonstrate that the Gallicolumba as currently circumscribed is not monophyletic and recommend reinstalling the name Alopecoenas for a monophyletic radiation comprising ten extant species, distributed in New Guinea, the Lesser Sundas and Oceania. Gallicolumba remains the name for six species confined to New Guinea the Philippines and Sulawesi. Although our phylogenetic analyses fail to support a single origin for the remaining Gallicolumba species, we suspect that the addition of nuclear sequence data may alter this result. Because a number of ground-dove taxa have gone extinct, it is difficult to assess biogeographical patterns. However, the Alopecoenas clade has clearly colonized many remote oceanic islands rather recently, with several significant water crossings. The Gallicolumba radiation(s), on the other hand, is significantly older and it is possible that diversification within that group may in part have been shaped by plate tectonics and corresponding re-arrangements of land masses within the Philippine and Sulawesi region