Molluscs IUCN

The IUCN Species Survival Commission The Conservation Biology of Molluscs Edited by E. Alison Kay Occasional Paper of the IUCN Species Survival Commission No.9 IUCN The World Conservation Union The Conservation Biology of Molluscs was made possible through the generous support of: Chicago Zoological Society Deja, Inc Peter Scott IUCN/SSC Action Plan Fund (Sultanate of Oman) World Wide Fund for Nature © 1995 International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Reproduction of this publication for educational and other non-commercial purposes is authorised without permission from the copyright holder, provided the source is cited and the copyright holder receives a copy of the reproduced material. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission of the copyright holder. ISBN 2-8317-0053-1 Published by IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. Camera-ready copy by International Centre for Conservation Education. Greenfield House, Guiting Power, Cheltenham, GL54 5TZ, United Kingdom. Printed by Beshara Press, Cheltenham, United Kingdom. Cover photo: Papustyla pulcherrima from New Guinea (Photo: B H Gagné). The Conservation Biology of Molluscs Proceedings of a Symposium held at the 9th International Malacological Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1986. Edited by E. Alison Kay Including a Status Report on Molluscan Diversity, written by E. Alison Kay. IUCN/SSC Mollusc Specialist Group. Contents Foreword iii SECTION 1: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM Chapter 1: Keynote address Which Molluscs for Extinction? E.A. Kay 1 Chapter 2: The vulnerability of "island" species Threatened Galapagos bulimulid land snails: an update G. Coppois 8 Demographic studies of Hawaii's endangered tree snails (Abstract) M.G. Hadfield 12 Mound spring snails of the Australian Great Artesian Basin W.F. Ponder 13 Endangered species of land molluscs in Sweden and Madeira H.W. Walden 19 Chapter 3: Endangered molluscs and methods of conservation The extinction of endemic snails (Genus Partula) in French Polynesia: is captive breeding the only solution? S.M. Wells 25 Conservation of marine molluscs in the British Isles N.A. Holmes 29 Exploitation and conservation of marine molluscs of India (Abstract) N.V. Subba Rao 33 Conservation projects for the freshwater pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera in the Federal Republic of Germany J.H. Jungbluth 34 The freshwater pearl mussel, a protected but endangered species in Finland (Abstract). I. Valovirta 38 Proposal for placing three Slovak molluscs on the IUCN red list (Abstract). J. Steffek 39 Genetic aspects of mollusc conservation (Nautilus) (Abstract) D.S. Woodruff 40 Chapter 4: Sustainable utilization The shell trade - a case for sustainable utilization E. Wood and S.M. Wells 41 SECTION 2: A REPORT ON MOLLUSCAN DIVERSITY Chapter 5: Hug a slug - save a snail: A status report on molluscan diversity and a framework for conservation action E.A. Kay 53 Appendix 1. Members of the Mollusc Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission 80 ii Foreword The Mollusc Specialist Group is one of several specialist groups Be it further resolved that the Unitas Malacologica established to provide advice and data to the Species Survival encourage and support a climate for research and education in Commission (SSC), and through it, to the International Union such areas of concern as those of economically important for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). An species like the giant clam Tridacna, of endangered species Action Plan is mandated of each Specialist Group by the such as the achatinellid snails of the Hawaiian Islands, and of Species Survival Commission and is the means by which areas of high molluscan diversity such as in the Madeira Islands. Specialist Groups provide input into an overall SSC Action And, be it further resolved that a meeting on the conservation Programme, which is in turn used to develop the IUCN of molluscs be organized for the 9th International Congress in "Conservation Programme for Sustainable Development," the Edinburgh in 1986." thesis of which is that the conservation of resources relies on sustainable development. The eight papers and five abstracts from the symposium are Recognizing the importance of molluscs in the life of arranged in Section 1 in four chapters: 1) the keynote address, humankind and the significant roles they play in ecosystems, a synthesis of what we know and what we do not know about the Mollusc Specialist Group (MSG) believes that continuing current pressures on molluscs; 2) a group of papers that address loss of mollusc diversity is detrimental not only to ecosystems the pressures on especially vulnerable groups of Mollusca, around the world, but, in the long run, to the welfare of namely those found in island habitats; 3) several papers dealing humankind itself. In an effort to ameliorate the increasing loss with the current status of molluscs on continents; and 4) a final of diversity suffered by molluscs worldwide, this volume has paper representing a major statement on the economics of the been developed to provide a resource on the conservation status shell trade, a continuing source of pressure on marine molluscs. of molluscs today and some suggestions for the conservation of Section 2 presents a report on molluscan diversity. This molluscan diversity in the future. There are two parts: 1) a series status report focuses on the diversity of molluscs on continents, of papers summarizing the current status of molluscs presented on islands, in freshwater, on coral reefs, as economic resources, at a Symposium on Endangered Molluscs at the 9th as alien species, and as model systems. Five major actions are International Malacological Congress, held in Edinburgh, in proposed for the conservation of molluscan diversity: September 1986; and 2) a status report on molluscan diversity 1) the acquisition and management of threatened habitats on worldwide. islands, in aquatic ecosystems, on continents and on coral The Symposium on Endangered Molluscs was reefs; commissioned by Resolution of the 8th International 2) the development of a data base necessary for knowledge Malacological Congress, held in Budapest in September 1983: of molluscan diversity; 3) the prevention of the introduction of alien species that "Recognizing that all biotic diversity is changing in a have negative impacts on native mollusc species and control dramatic manner as a result of increasing pressures of man, and and eradication of those exotic species where such recognizing the need for the enunciation of priorities if we are introductions have already occurred; to develop a world strategy which will insure the survival of 4) the establishment of self-sustaining captive populations species and genetic diversity, be it resolved that the Unitas of endangered mollusc species and support of their eventual Malacologica encourage and support the activities of the re-introduction into their native habitats; Species Survival Commission on Invertebrates of the 5) the promotion of public awareness and concern for International Union for Conservation of Nature, and in molluscan conservation programmes. particular the work of the Species Survival Commission on Mollusca. E. Alison Kay Mollusc Specialist Editors Note: The publication of the Proceedings of the Symposium held at the 9th International Malacological Congress, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 31 August - 6 September 1986 was subject to a number of delays. Because of the lateness of publication, authors of the papers making up the report of the proceedings were given an opportunity to check their original text and correct errors which appeared in the orginal text (which may have come to light after the text was submitted). Authors were specifically asked to refrain from updating their text with new information, but were invited to refer to sources of updated information if they wished, in a separate section to be inserted just after their original text. iii SECTION 1: PROCEEDINGS OF THE SYMPOSIUM Chapter 1: Keynote address Which molluscs for extinction? E. Alison Kay Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822, U.SA. Abstract Molluscs, along with other animals and plants, are undergoing an that in geological time in that it is occurring much more rapidly unprecedented rate of extinction. Does the record show and is largely the result of human activities rather than of natural differentially threat-prone groups of molluscs among major causes. Where the Permian and Cretaceous extinctions occurred taxonomic categories? A data base of about 1130 species (and over periods of a million or more years, the present extinctions of subspecies) considered threatened, endangered, rare and/or species occur in time spans of less than ten years. In the Hawaiian recently extinct was compiled from sources around the world. Islands before human colonization, the extinction rate for molluscs Three patterns emerge. The list is essentially geographically may have been on the order of one species per million years. With restricted to North America (the United States), Australia-New settlement by the Polynesians, it increased to perhaps one species Zealand, and Europe. Ninety-eight percent of the species are per 100 years. Since 1778, the year Captain Cook discovered freshwater and terrestrial molluscs, and 61% of the list is from nine Hawaii for the western world, the extinction rate for molluscs has families. The common characteristics of these "threat-prone" reached a rate of between one and

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