Extensive wildlife and plant research in Madagascar to establish a conservation guide map

An international research group recently created a new instructional map to search for and protect the remaining thousands of rare and precious animals that live only in Madagascar - one of the biodiversity hotspots. Thai in the world.

The conservation strategy of the research team led by conservation biologists at the University of California (Berkeley) not only includes lemurs - the animals of the primates have large eyes taken as images to promote. for conservation campaigns - there are also ants, butterflies, frogs, lizards and plants.

In total, more than 2,300 species live on a large area of ​​the island nation of Madagascar - 226,642 square miles (equivalent to 587,000 square kilometers) - on the Indian sea. All of them are included in the analysis. The concentration and analysis of a large amount of data to develop a map showing conservation of the most prioritized species is an unprecedented challenge. The results are explained on the April 11 issue of Science.

Firstly, numerous research teams went to collect specific information to determine the exact location of thousands of species of animals and plants on the island. They used a special software written for this project with the support of a computer science researcher at AT&T to estimate the exact territory of each species. Another optimization software is also dedicated to the project developed by researchers from Finland's Helsinki University used to find the best area to maintain a large number of species. Species that suffer from loss of habitat due to deforestation are given top priority in conservation campaigns because they are at greater risk of extinction.

Claire Kremen, an assistant professor of conservation biology and a project-directed researcher, said: 'Never have biologists nor policy makers had the tools to analyzing a large number of species at a small scale on such a large geographical area. Our analyzes provide information about the ability of conservation campaigns and help decision makers identify the most important areas to protect. '

Their research has demonstrated that relying on a single species to carry out a conservation campaign will not protect other species.

Kremen is working on this project with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York where she works as an environmentalist. She said: 'Maintaining biodiversity under extremely heavy pressures such as destroyed habitats or global warming is one of the greatest environmental challenges for humans in the century. 21. Previous conservation campaigns often focused on protecting only one species or group of species from time to time. But in the race to extinction of species that apply that method, we will not be able to win '.

It is estimated that half of the world's plants and sống vertebrate species are concentrated in biodiversity hotspots that make up only 2.3% of the Earth's surface area. Madagascar - a developing country off the southern coast of Africa - is one of the most precious biodiversity areas.

About 80% of the animals in Madagascar do not live anywhere else in the world . Half of the species of geckos as well as all lemurs are endemic to this island. They are linked by plants, insects, birds, mammals, reptiles and frogs only in Madagascar.

The co-author of the study is David Vieites, a postdoctoral fellow at the Museum of Vertebrate Animals, a unified biology department at the University of California, Berkeley. Interstitial though there have been many species discovered and there are many discoveries every year. For example, when our study was conducted three years ago, about 50 new species of amphibians were discovered. Sadly, their habitats are seriously destroyed, so many species will become extinct before scientists can find out about them. '

Western smooth-haired lemurs often live in early deciduous dry forests in western Madagascar.(Photo: Edward E. Louis Jr.)

Madagascar has only been noticed since 2003 when the national government announced its ambitious goal of triple the existing protected area network from 5 million to 15 million hectares (from 20,234 to 60,700 square kilometers), accounting for about 10% of the country's total area. Alision Cameron - a project co-lead researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the University of California (Berkeley) Department of Environmental Science, Management and Policy - said: 'Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. gender should have made the government's commitment to protecting biodiversity more remarkable. Government leaders have a very progressive outlook on socio-economic development, in which the natural environment is considered an invaluable resource . '

Funding for this project includes the MacArthur Foundation, the University of California Berkeley and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Representatives of organizations collaborated with government officials to put research findings into conservation policies. The Wildlife Conservation Society has also recently established a number of protected areas in the country.

A large group of 22 researchers from museums, zoos, orchards, Universities, NGOs and industry contributed to this new research project. In addition, the study author also received support from 62 collaborators involved in another research team with a larger number of members receiving the task of collecting data for the project.

Another author associated with the University of California Berkeley is Brian Fisher, an assistant professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and an entomology professor at the California Academy of Sciences.

To get an accurate analysis, researchers used a valuable data warehouse collected by enthusiastic biologists across Madagascar for decades.

Kremen said: 'It is very difficult to identify the species that lives on the island and determine where they live. The terrain here is quite rough, with few roads. We often have to walk up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) to get to the shelter. When we arrived, we lived in a tent for months with children roaming around, enduring torrential rainstorms, eating rice and beans so that we could record information about these plants and animals. a specific location. This is indeed an arduous result.

Abundant sources have helped researchers locate the habitat of 2,300 species per square kilometer of the island nation. Also according to Kremen - who spent nearly eight years collecting professional data only in Madagascar: 'It took us many years of life to gather this information. Sometimes people wondered why we did that. But I'm glad that the information helped us to name some species on the map to protect them. '

Based on this study, some areas have surprised everyone by being on the list of conservation priority areas, such as coastal forests, central mountains with a high concentration of endemic species. big According to the researchers, those areas were previously neglected but instead, large forests were given more attention.

Cameron, a technical adviser to the Madagascar Wildlife and Conservation Association, said: 'The conservation campaign initially focused on finding out whether protected species are in predetermined areas. No, but that area may be the home of a small number of species and is unlikely to grow in the long-term plan. In contrast, our analysis goes deeper by maximizing the proportion of species so that they can be protected at the highest level within 15 million hectares of government. This is a major method change thanks to advances in computer technology that allow us to concentrate a large amount of data and overall analysis'.

Scientists also said that such a rich source of information exists in other parts of the world and their analytical methods can also be easily applied to areas prioritized for conservation. .

Madagascar island nation

Madagascar is an island nation located 200 miles from the east coast of Africa. Due to being isolated from other lands for more than 160 million years, there is an enormous number of endemic species of plants and animals that are nowhere else on Earth. Nearly 13,000 species of plants and vertebrates are found only in Madagascar, of which over 90% are reptiles, amphibians and mammals.