BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE


H


ispanic South America (HSA) is remarkably rich in biological diversity. WWF is present in nine countries in the region — Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Colombia is rich in species diversity. Ten per cent of all plant and animal species on Earth, more species of birds than any other country, a fifth of the world's bat species, a sixth of all vertebrate species, and over a third of all neotropical primates make up Colombia's impressive inventory. In addition, a third of its flora and an eighth of its terrestrial vertebrates are found nowhere else on Earth. A variety of ecosystems ranging from deserts and savannah plains to coastal wetlands, Amazonian rainf orest, and frostlands of the Andean mountains make this diversity possible.

Peru is the largest country in the tropical Andean region. Parched coastal deserts with scanty rainfall on one side, and vast expanses of tropical rainforests (6,000mm of rain annually) on the other, make up its ecosystems. Between these extremes are dry forests, high grasslands, dwarf and cloud forests, and snow-capped mountains, some above 6,800 metres. Most of Peru's biological diversity is concentrated in the forests on the eastern slopes of the Andes and in the coastal and marine waters.

More than 1,600 bird species have been recorded in Peru and half of these are found in a single protected area, Manu National Park. Elsewhere, Peru's plankton-rich coastal and marine system supports a wide variety of fish, shellfish, birds, and marine mam mals. Eight species of whales, five species of dolphin, and one species of porpoise are found in the Peruvian sea. The vast Amazon river is home to some 900 species of fish.

Peru has about 360 mammal species. This includes endangered animals such as the yellow-tailed woolly monkey, the jaguar, and the giant river otter. It is estimated that Peru has more than five million species of beetles. On one single tree, scientists fou nd 2,000 different insect species — 48 of them ants.

At the crossroads of major large ecosystems such as Amazonia, the Chaco, the Pantanal, and the Andes, land-locked Bolivia is home to a third of the bird species found in South America. Along with Peru, Bolivia is among the 12 centres of origin for crops s uch as potatoes and beans. The country also has half of the mammal species of Mexico and Central America.

Ecuador is home to 20,000 plant species, over 1,400 bird species and some 800 reptile and amphibian species. Believed to have the highest concentration of species per unit area in South America, 1,200 species of plants from 136 different families were fou nd in a two-square-kilometre tract of Pacific lowland rainforest. Offshore lie the Galápagos Islands, among the first natural sites to receive World Heritage status.

In the heart of South America lies Paraguay. Its ecosystems range from the humid Atlantic forest in the east, to grasslands and wetlands in the centre, and dry thorn forests (chaco) — unique to South America — in the west. Although sparsely populated, it tops South America's deforestation rate largely because of agricultural expansion, fuelwood consumption, and lumbering.

Despite its estimated 8,000 species of plants, Paraguay's botanical resources are the least studied in South America. The country's vertebrates have also not been documented. The chacoan peccary, for example, was only "discovered" in 1975. Once abundant, this 40-kg pig-like animal is now endangered.

A wide variety of plants and animal species are found in Venezuela's mountains, forests, plains, and valleys. Particularly important are the mountainous regions of Mérida and La Costa, la Sierra de Perijá, and the Guyana Shield for their high concentratio n of endemic species. Some 12 per cent of its freshwater fish species are endemic, and almost half of all bird species in South America are found here.

Chile is under pressure from its trading partners to replace its distinctive temperate rainforest, known as Valdivian forest, with pine and eucalyptus plantations.
The country's marine and coastal ecosystems are particularly rich with the fifth highes t trawl of fish in the world. But, Chilean fish are still being caught at the expense of thousands of marine mammals and birds which get trapped in the nets and suffocate.

Argentina, South America's second largest country after Brazil, has 13 terrestrial and marine ecosystems. These include the high Andes, puna (cold desert), the Atlantic coast, yunga (sub-tropical cloud forest), chaco dry thorn forests, and pampas (grassla nds). Although Nahuel Huapi, the country's first national park, was established some 100 years ago, most of the land is privatized. The existing network of protected areas is not extensive enough to preserve biological diversity. WWF and Fundación Vida Si lvestre Argentina are pushing for privately owned reserves.

Argentina's neighbour Uruguay, the smallest of WWF's nine-country family in HSA, has no protected area system. The country has 36 so-called conservation areas, but only 13 of these have any sort of legal protection.



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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature