Rapid biological and social inventories in the neotropics

Background/Question/Methods The goal of our rapid inventories program is to catalyze effective action for conservation in threatened regions of high biological diversity and uniqueness. Since 1999, The Field Museum and collaborators have carried out 20 Rapid Biological and Social Inventories in Bolivia (3), Cuba (6), Ecuador and Peru (10), and China. Our focus has been Andean and Amazonian foothill regions. Rapid biological inventory teams focus primarily on groups of organisms that indicate habitat type and condition and can be surveyed quickly and accurately: a typical inventory includes vegetation and flora, fishes, herps, birds, and mammals. These inventories do not attempt to produce an exhaustive list of species or higher taxa. Rather, they (1) identify the important biological communities in the site or region of interest, and (2) determine whether these communities are of outstanding quality and significance in a regional or global context. Rapid social inventory teams of scientists collaborate with local communities to identify patterns of social organization and opportunities for capacity building. The teams use participant observation and semi-structured interviews to evaluate quickly community assets that can serve as points of engagement for long-term participation in conservation. In-country scientists are central to the field teams. The experience of local experts is crucial for understanding areas with little or no history of scientific exploration. After the inventories, protection of natural communities and engagement of social networks rely on initiatives from host-country scientists and conservationists. Once the fieldwork is complete (typically within a month), the teams immediately relay summaries of the information to local and international decision-makers who set priorities and guide conservation action in the host country.

Results/Conclusions To date, our efforts have led to the protection of over 19,400 square miles (5.0 million hectares) as new national parks or wildlife reserves, with an additional 16,000 sq. mi. (4.2 M ha) in the process of review and designation. We have also found more than 180 species previously unknown to science, discovered known species in new areas (range extensions), and contributed thousands of specimens to museum collections. In this poster, we present the results from our most recent rapid inventory, Cuyabeno-Güeppí, in the trinational border region of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. We also present examples from other inventories to illustrate our methods (from initial review of satellite data to fieldwork), and strategies for effective dissemination of information so as to link our scientific information with successful conservation action.