Gaps within the safety of Vietnam’s amphibians

A brand new research assessing the standing of amphibians in Vietnam discovered a excessive stage of species richness and native endemism.

As was highlighted within the foreword to the famend WWF Better Mekong Report 2021, written by Prof. Dr. Thomas Ziegler, Curator for Herpetology, Ichthyology, and Invertebrates, at Cologne Zoo (Köln, Germany), there may be an pressing want for extra research that establish the gaps in species conservation. 

In a brand new scientific article, printed within the open-access peer-reviewed journal Nature Conservation, Ziegler and his group current exactly such an evaluation, specializing in the world’s most threatened vertebrate class: the amphibians. The share of amphibian taxa categorized as threatened with extinction – 41% – is a transparent indicator for the decline in international biodiversity and a warning signal for important environmental degradation. 

The scientists examined the menace standing of the Vietnamese amphibians, constructing on the bachelor thesis of Marie Krzikowski of the College of Cologne, Germany.

They recognized 275 amphibian species identified from Vietnam, noting that the quantity is prone to go up. The nation is assessed as a biodiversity hotspot, and the speed of discovering new amphibian species stays comparatively excessive. Of those 275 species, 95 (35%) species are endemic to the nation, with greater than half of them reported solely from a single locality, which makes them particularly weak to extinction. Vietnam’s Central Highlands had been revealed because the area with the very best species variety (130 species), essentially the most regionally endemic species (26 of whole 67 regionally endemic species), and essentially the most species categorized as threatened by the IUCN Crimson Listing (11 species), which highlights it as a web site of explicit amphibian conservation concern.

By way of menace standing, 50 of the 275 species recorded so removed from Vietnam (18%) are categorized by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as threatened with extinction. These embody 27 endemic species. Most of them are frogs, adopted by salamanders, the place 60% of the listed species are categorized as threatened with extinction.

Alarmingly, 13 endemic species, together with two threatened species, have been recorded solely from unprotected areas. For 2-thirds of Vietnam’s endemic amphibians, there isn’t any conservation knowledge accessible, as their IUCN Crimson Listing standing is both lacking or outdated.

In accordance with knowledge from the Zoological Data Administration System, 29 (11%) of the whole 275 species reported to happen in Vietnam are represented in international zoos, together with 5 threatened species, with the very best variety concentrated in zoos in Europe and North America. 

These details, now compiled within the overview paper by Marie Krzikowski, Truong Q. Nguyen, Cuong T. Pham, Dennis Rödder, Anna Rauhaus, Minh D. Le and Thomas Ziegler, reveal for the primary time some apparent gaps in conservation. Importantly, they are going to present a listing to authorities, conservationists, rescue facilities, and zoos, in order that they’ll comply with up with acceptable actions.

Specifically, the conservation of microendemic species can solely be addressed by organizations, NGOs or accomplice institutes on web site, for instance within the type of discipline work, regulatory assist or protected space institution. 

The place species are susceptible to disappearing quickly, for instance, species with a really restricted distribution vary, the institution of ex-situ packages by native companions in cooperation with worldwide zoos might assist, along with in-situ conservation measures as a part of the IUCN’s One Plan Strategy, which mixes in-situ and ex-situ efforts and numerous expertises for the optimum safety of a species.

Analysis article:

Krzikowski M, Nguyen TQ, Pham CT, Rödder D, Rauhaus A, Le MD, Ziegler T (2022) Evaluation of the menace standing of the amphibians in Vietnam – Implementation of the One Plan Strategy. Nature Conservation 49: 77-116. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.49.82145

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