IALE Landscape Research and Management papers Understanding Biodiversity Loss An overview on Forest Fragmentation in South America Edited by Maria Jose Pacha, Sandra Luque, Leonardo Galetto, Louis Iverson ISSN: 1570-6532 SANDRA LUQUE, MSc PhD Research Director at Cemagref, France. Landscape ecologist working in the development of rapid assessment methods for biodiversity evaluation and comprehensive landscape monitoring and modelling. At the present she serves as elected vice-president for IALE (International Association for Landscape Ecology). She is serving in the board of the IALE-IUFRO Working Group on Forest Landscape Ecology. For 18 years she has been working on remote sensing/GIS and landscape ecology issues in relation to change detection, forest ecology, biodiversity indicators, and biodiversity habitat quality models. At the present, she is the co-ordinator of the scientific group of experts on forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss in South-America. She is merited coordinator of international and national level research projects. MARIA JOSE PACHA MSc PhD working for the NGO Fundacion Vida Silvestre, Argentina. Her background is in Vegetation Ecology with links at the landscape level. She has worked in applied conservation projects in Argentina and the United Kingdom in Nature Reserves and National Parks. Also her research interests are about linking social and natural aspects of conservation. She has worked as project coordinator of the Atlantic Forest Programme of FVSA and at the present she coordinates a WWF UNESCO project on financing mechanisms for protected areas in South America. LEONARDO GALETTO PhD Researcher from CONICET (National Research Council of Argentina) and Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), working with plant reproductive ecology and forest fragmentation for the last 18 years. He is particularly interested about the changes on animal-plant interactions due to habitat loss, studying different processes as pollination, dispersion and herbivory. He also has worked in ethnobotany and the relationship of rural people perception of local resources and their availability. At present supervises doctoral and postdoctoral students working with different approaches in the Chaco forest. He is Editor of Kurtziana (a regional journal of Botany) and involved as Vice-President with the Asociación Argentina de Ecología LOUIS R. IVERSON PhD Research Landscape Ecologist for United States Forest Service in Delaware, Ohio. Vice-president for International Association for Landscape Ecology and book review editor for the journal, Landscape Ecology. His current research concerns potential changes in tree species following climate change in the United States, the use of fire and thinning to restore oak-hickory forest communities, and modelling the advance of the emerald ash borer, an insect killing ash trees in the central United States. IALE electronic publication series Understanding Biodiversity Loss: An overview on Forest Fragmentation in South America Edited by Maria Jose Pacha, Sandra Luque, Leonardo Galetto, Louis Iverson Target audience: The publication is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and teachers, professional landscape ecologists, policy makers and practitioners with a special interest in South American forest issues. Aim: to demonstrate the contribution that Landscape Ecology can make to forest management and the understanding of forest fragmentation and biodiversity loss. This publication is specially targeted to describe and determine causes of forest fragmentation in South America. The papers that contribute to the series present study cases from Argentina, Chile and Southern Brazil. The different forests that are covered in this issue are: Atlantic Forest of Argentina and Brazil, Gran Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia), Valdivian Forest (south of Argentina and Brazil) and Yungas rainforest (Argentina and Bolivia). Cite as: Pacha, M.J., Luque, S., Galetto, L. and Iverson, L. (2007) Understanding biodiversity loss: an overview of forest fragmentation in South America. IALE Landscape Research and Management papers. International Association of Landscape Ecology Preface This publication is the result of a series of papers presented during the workshop organized in Bariloche, Argentina: “Understanding Biodiversity Loss: A Workshop on Forest Fragmentation in South America “ (26 – 30 June 2006). The workshop allowed an assessment of the situation for the region and provided an analysis of the state of the art on the subject and an identification of gaps in research. More importantly the activity, funded by MEDD, France (Ministry of ecology and sustainable development); allowed an assembly of experts working on the evaluation of temperate and subtropical forests within the region (South America). The workshop was focused within the framework of the “Paris Declaration for the biodiversity" (Paris Conference, January 2005). As the Declaration states, we aim at bringing researchers together from developing countries and reinforcing the links between North and South in order to work towards an improved protection of biodiversity. The overall goal of creating a network of experts working more precisely on forest fragmentation, biodiversity loss and conservation issues targeted two main issues: i) improve the knowledge and the relevance of the indicators that can be developed and used in relation to forest biodiversity loss in South America. ii) facilitate building capacity not only in monitoring and evaluating forest fragmentation but also on forest restoration to mitigate the existing trends on biodiversity loss for the region. Sandra Luque S Luque Introduction Overview of Biodiversity Loss in South America S. Luque & M.J. Pacha In response to global concern over the rapid loss of the world’s biodiversity, the 6th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a global target to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 (CBD 2002). This target, which was later endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (United Nations 2002), has also been adopted by a number of regional scale policies and processes. The European Union Sustainable Development Strategy (2001a) and various other European Union policies (EC 1998, 2001b, c) set similar or even more ambitious biodiversity goals. The Pan-European Ministerial ‘Environment for Europe’ process adopted a resolution on halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010 (UN/ECE 2003). This widespread adoption of targets for reducing the rate of biodiversity loss has highlighted a need for indicators that will allow policy makers to track progress towards these ambitious goals. Recognising this need, the Convention of the parties (CoP) of the CBD identified a series of biodiversity indicators for immediate testing (UNEP 2004). Such indicators are needed at national, regional and global levels. In June 2004, the Environment Council of the EU adopted a set of 15 headline indicators for biodiversity to evaluate progress towards the 2010 target (Council of the European Union 2004). This set of indicators was recommended by the EU Biodiversity Expert Group and its Ad Hoc Working Group on Indicators, Monitoring and Assessment, and the Malahide stakeholder conference (Anonymous 2004). Both the CBD decision and the European documents recommend, among other indicators for immediate testing, indicators of trends in abundance and distribution of selected species. Species trend indicators are considered a sensitive measure of biodiversity change (Balmford et al. 2003; Ten Brink et al. 1991; Ten Brink 2000), and one such approach, composite species trend indicators, has been increasingly applied. In addition to the global-scale Living Planet Index (Loh 2002, and this volume) there are several instances of the successful implementation of such indicators, principally at national scales (Jenkins et al. 2004). The UK Headline indicator of wild bird populations (Gregory 2003a) is one example. The European Bird Census Council (EBCC) has used a similar approach to develop the Pan-European Common Bird Index for farmland and forest birds (Gregory 2003b; Gregory et al. 2004). Another set of indicators is directly related to forest biodiversity and, in particular, to forest cover loss. Valid indicators for this target area are poorly developed. During the International Conference on Biodiversity (Paris, January 2005), the workshop on “Biodiversity Indicators and the 2010 target: scientific challenges in meeting and assessing progress towards the 2010 biodiversity targets and related goals”; identified forest fragmentation as a key indicator to be added to the list. However, consensus and work is needed in the application of the indicator as a tool for monitoring forest status within the Action 6 framework. We need also to reach a consensus on the use of the indicator according to general guidelines. These guidelines, as established in the CBD 2010 targets, need to be set in order to develop suitable indicators for informing the general public on biodiversity trends. The indicators should match the set of requirements as listed in the CBD general guidelines and principles for developing national-level biodiversity monitoring programmes and indicators (UNEP 2003a). These principles require that an indicator be, among other characteristics: policy and biodiversity relevant; scientifically sound; broadly accepted; affordable to produce and update; sensitive; representative; flexible; and