Systematic Conservation Assessment for Most of the Colombian Territory as a Strategy for Effective Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

Colombian ecosystems maintain key ecological processes that support thousands of species, including human beings. With the expansion of the country's population, and the implementation of a government's development plan based on an economy centred on extraction patterns, the conservation of these ecosystems is at serious risk. It is a priority to implement effective strategies that ensure the protection of the country's biological diversity as well as the mitigation and prevention of threats and to contribute to its proper use. Colombia's development strategies as well as its peoples' wellbeing depend on the suitable condition of its natural assets. The identification of surrogates of conservation, the formulation of conservation goals, the prioritization of key areas and the formulation of conservation strategies based on the preservation, restoration and sustainable use of the territory and its biodiversity are proposed for 60% of the emerged land (~ 700,000 Km 2). This research aims at giving proper guidelines to manage the territory and finding common points between development and biodiversity conservation, as well as to use this input for the development and implementation of a National Decision-making Support System (DSS) that will potentially have an impact on Colombia's environmental policies and territorial planning schemes.

Spatial autocorrelation reduces model precision and predictive power in deforestation analyses

“…), methodological choices can have profound consequences in shaping international initiatives such as REDD+, or national policies such as designation of land for legal protection (Portocarrero‐Aya et al. ). Capturing the geographic structure of observations is thus an important requirement to model deforestation for policy decisions.…”

“…3), and prediction improves with spatially explicit methods such as CAR. But there are many methods to quantify and address residual autocorrelation (Cliff and Ord 1970, Lam 1983, Portocarrero-Aya et al 2014, and how to interpret results from different approaches is often uncertain (Getis 2007). A comparison between the LME geospatial and the CAR models illustrates the difference between models.…”

A new species of Hyphessobrycon (Characiformes, Characidae) from the upper Guaviare River, Orinoco River Basin, Colombia

“…The loss of habitat for fish species is caused by many different human activities such as dam construction, urban water pollution, mining, poor agricultural and animal husbandry practices, the introduction of non-native species and overfishing (Barletta et al 2012). The Guaviare River drainage in Colombia is an area of high priority for conservation (Machado-Allison et al 2010), and even with greater recent efforts to sample this system, our knowledge of its fish fauna remains poor, categorized as medium (30–38%) by Portocarrero-Aya et al (2014). In this contribution a new species, Hyphessobrycon klausanni , is described which shows that new taxa will continue to be discovered as more and better inventories are carried out in the upper Guaviare.…”

Prioridades para la conservación de los peces de agua dulce en la Orinoquia andina de Colombia

“…El análisis de riesgo empleado aquí, el cual incluye la dimensión de amenazas y vulnerabilidad a las que están sometidas las cuencas hidrográficas y su efecto sobre las comunidades de peces, permite un mayor grado de certeza en la selección de áreas. Los ecosistemas de agua dulce están experimentando fuertes impactos antrópicos (Reis et al 2016), por lo cual la inclusión del riesgo en la planeación de la conservación en Colombia ha tenido gran importancia (Lasso et al 2011, Portocarrero-Aya et al 2014, Mesa-S et al 2017, Tognelli et al 2018.…”