Conservation implications of protected areas’ coverage for Paraguay’s reptiles

Abstract

In Paraguay the highest rate of deforestation was reached in the 2000s, and in some places protected areas are the only remnant of the original ecosystem structure. Paraguay currently has 57 protected areas amounting to 15.2 per cent of the country under protection. In this paper we assess the effectiveness of the Paraguayan system of protected areas (SINASIP) for reptiles' conservation. We generate a matrix of taxa × areas according to 1,789 records for 182 taxa. Areas with the highest number of documented species were Reserva Ecológica Banco San Miguel y Bahía de Asunción and Reserva de Recursos Manejados Ñu Guazú.Eleven protected areas showed no records. Some species are widely distributed in the country and present in several protected areas, but in other cases numerous species have never been recorded in the protected areas. Three nationally (Phalotris nigrilatus, Philodryas agassizii, and Rhachidelus brazili) and one globally (Philodryas livida) threatened species are currently without protection in Paraguay, as well as the endemic species Homonota rupicola, Ophiodes luciae, Phalotris normanscotti, and Phalotris nigrilatus. At present 90.1 per cent of the total reptiles are found in at least one protected area in the country. Additionally, we show how sampling effort is biased and concentrated around the capital city; and thus a better systematic sampling of the whole country should be considered. Beyond the legal protection provided by protected areas and the strategies to conserve species and their populations, an analysis of the effectiveness of protected areas should be undertaken to secure conservation in perpetuity.

Climate change shrinks environmental suitability for a viviparous Neotropical skink

“…As there are few protected areas, several South American species have a tiny portion of their distribution protected, such as Chaco reptiles in several countries (Bax & Francesconi, 2019), Paraguayan reptiles (Cacciali et al, 2015), lizards endemic to the Cerrado (Novaes e Silva et al, 2014), and Amazonian lizards (Ribeiro‐Júnior & Amaral, 2016), for example. Like us, Ribeiro‐Júnior and Amaral (2016) observed a low proportion of the N. frenata distribution within protected areas, but specifically for the Brazilian Amazonia in their work.…”

First record of Xenodon nattereri (Steindachner, 1869) (Reptilia, Squamata, Dipsadidae) from Paraguay

“…However, it still has high conservation value in containing an impressive number of reptiles endemic to the Cerrado (Smith et al 2016). It was considered the first important area for the conservation of amphibians and from the Paraguayan Cerrado (Smith et al 2016), and the second important area is the CCNP, from where there are also many records of species endemic to this ecoregion (Cacciali et al 2015(Cacciali et al , 2016. Our record of a newly discovered snake from the Cerrado in Paraguay highlights the importance of maintaining and increasing conservation of this threatened ecoregion in this country.…”

Barcoding Analysis of Paraguayan Squamata

“…and then the long-term maintenance of their biodiversity is not guaranteed [80]. There are some reptile species absent from protected areas in Paraguay; therefore, monitoring and conservation efforts should be intensified for these taxa [83]. One species recently revalidated is Colobosaura kraepelini.…”