Herpetology Notes, volume 10: 685-696 (2017) (published online on 28 November 2017) Protected areas assessment for the conservation of threatened amphibians in the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia Mónica M. Albornoz-Espinel1, Carlos H. Cáceres-Martínez1,2 and Aldemar A. Acevedo-Rincón1,3,* Abstract. The global decline of amphibians is one of the greatest challenges in Conservation Biology. In this study we assessed the level of protection in Protected Areas (PAs) in the Cordillera Oriental of Colombia for 52 species of threatened amphibians. We also determined the changes in vegetation coverage, both inside and outside the PAs. Our data collection was made between February 2015 and June 2017, when we gathered information from databases, biological collections, and the literature. Geographical records were georeferenced and overlaid on the layers of 190 PAs and on the layers of land coverage of the Cordillera Oriental. Our results confirm the limited level of protection for amphibians provided by PAs, whereby only 33 species represented in 160 out of 509 geographical records showed a report within PAs. At the same time, drastic changes were evident in vegetation coverage, which for most localities where records of vegetation were made 10–30 years ago was reduced to mosaics of fragmented forests, crops, and grasslands. This study demonstrates the need to establish priority actions and efficiently generate geographical areas of protection, in terms of coverage of the distribution of threatened amphibians in the Eastern region of Colombia. Keywords: Amphibians, Andean region, conservation, protected areas, threats Introduction (10%), Dendrobatidae (10%), and Centrolenidae (9%), and the country is classified second in South South America harbours more than 2300 of the more American species richness after Brazil (Rivera-Correa, than 6500 known amphibian species (IUCN, 2016). 2012; Acosta-Galvis, 2017). Colombia comprises 13 However, around 600 species are listed under some type ecoregions and six biomes (Sánchez-Cuervo et al., 2012) of national or international threat category, and more that offer suitable habitats for amphibians, and these than 700 remain in the data deficient category (IUCN, offer a variety of climatic and orographic characteristics 2016). It is well established that amphibians are one of that doubtlessly facilitated the establishment of the the most threatened groups of vertebrates globally (e.g., observed diversity (e.g., Ruiz-Carranza et al., 1996). On Stuart et al., 2004; Stuart, 2012). the flipside, Colombia has one of the highest numbers Colombia is ranked as a megadiverse country for of threatened amphibians in the world, with 277 species amphibians, and it is home to 812 species in 14 listed according to national and international criteria families. The highest representation is from the families (Rueda-Almonacid et al., 2004; IUCN, 2016). Known Craugastoridae (31%), Hylidae (15%), Bufonidae genera for which species are declining in this country include Pristimantis, Dendrobates, Colostethus, Centrolene, and Atelopus (Rueda-Almonacid, 1999; 1 Grupo de Investigación en Ecología y Biogeografía, IUCN, 2016), of which most are distributed in the Universidad de Pamplona, Barrio El Buque, Km 1, Vía a Andean region, probably due to intrinsic and extrinsic Bucaramanga, Pamplona, Colombia factors that act synergistically (Cooper et al., 2008). 2 Grupo de Investigación en Ecología y Conservación de Fauna Since the late 1980s, the sudden disappearance of Silvestre, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Medellín, many amphibian populations at several sites in America, Calle 59A No. 63-20, Medellín, Colombia Europe, and Australia has been documented (Stuart et 3 Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Laboratorio al., 2004), suggesting that the current extinction rate de Biología Evolutiva, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avenida Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins 340, of amphibians is 105 times the estimated historical Santiago, Chile rate for the class (McCallum, 2007). These declines, in * Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] population densities as well as in diversity, continue to 686 Mónica M. Albornoz-Espinel et al. accelerate, affecting amphibians occupying deforested of Amphibians of Colombia (Rueda-Almonacid et al., and intervening spaces but also those occupying pristine 2004), both inside and outside the PAs. In parallel, and remote sectors within the country’s system of we assessed the conservation status of amphibians Protected Areas (PAs; Gardner, 2001; Rueda-Almonacid using information on changes in land coverage where et al., 2004; Nori et al., 2015). Factors that contribute to occurrences of threatened amphibian species have been the decrease of amphibians include pollution, climate registered. change and the resulting emerging diseases, and destruction and fragmentation of habitat that create Materials and Methods isolated patches of forest. Habitat isolation has a negative Study site.—The study was carried out in the Cordillera impact on biotic components, affecting dispersion Oriental of Colombia, including the inter-Andean valley patterns and gene flow of amphibians (Gardner, 2001; of the Magdalena River (Fig. 1). This region is one of the Rueda-Almonacid et al., 2004; Cushman, 2006). three main branches into which the Andean Cordillera in PAs are natural regions of ecological importance that Colombia is divided. The region extends in a southwest- safeguard biodiversity (Dudley, 2008) over roughly 13% to-northeast direction from the Colombian Massif in of the Earth’s habitable area (Bertzky et al., 2012). The Cauca to the Serranía de Perijá in La Guajira (Morales rate of PA expansion has varied in different regions of et al., 2007). Different life zones are represented within the world, with North and South America representing this ecoregion, including premontane humid forest, the fastest-growing regions (Zimmerer et al., 2004). montane forest, rainforest, and premontane dry forest, This fast rate of expansion is the result of government with foothills supporting forests in the south that are support, placing emphasis on PA expansion strategies connected to the humid forests of the northwestern (Naughton-Treves et al., 2005; Le Saout et al., 2013; Amazonas (Fund, 2014). Nori et al., 2015). However, gaps in the efficiency at protecting biodiversity are evident in some regions, Data collection.—A list of threatened amphibian particularly for certain organismal groups (Rodrigues species in the Cordillera Oriental was assembled and et al., 2004; Venter et al., 2014; Butchart et al., 2015; species were categorized as Vulnerable, Endangered, Nori et al., 2015), including amphibians. Amphibians or Critically Endangered according to IUCN criteria are considered the group with the most gaps in terms of and the Red Book of Amphibians of Colombia (Rueda- protection, which is demonstrated by the high number Almonacid et al., 2004). Once species were identified, a of species that occur in the various threat categories search of their occurrences was conducted by reviewing (Rodrigues et al., 2004; IUCN, 2016). scientific publications, original descriptions, online The PA system of Colombia covers 9.98% of the databases (IUCN, SiB-Colombia, Amphibian Species national territory, and is distributed across 59 National of the World, HerpNET, GBIF, ICN online collection Natural Parks and more than 700 other protected areas at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and an on- (Parques Nacionales de Colombia, 2017). However, site review of the biological collection of amphibians the scope of protection provided by these PAs remains at the Insituto de Ciencias Naturales at the Universidad limited, considering that the areas with high species Nacional de Colombia and the biological Collection richness do not generally coincide with areas that may José Celestino Mutis at the University of Pamplona. At have a high number of threatened or endemic species the same time, we included the time interval between and which are not spatially protected under any special the oldest record, taken from the original descriptions, management area (Forero-Medina and Joppa, 2010). and the most recent record, obtained from scientific The Cordillera Oriental is considered one of the publications and a review of national and international areas lacking information about threatened amphibian databases. species, yet it is the region with most of the endemic Each amphibian record was verified by checking species (Bernal and Lynch, 2008). Only nine National against the original description and examination of Natural Parks exist in this region as of this writing, museum specimen, and each geographic record was and this small number severely limits the level of georeferenced using ArcGIS 10.1 (ESRI, 2011), protection given to several species of amphibians. Our producing a buffer of 500 m around each record to study in the Cordillera Oriental aims to determine the represent a possible margin of error for the locality. percentage of amphibian species found there that are We then developed a database of amphibian species listed as threatened by the International Union for the to determine the historical distribution of each species. Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and in the Red Book This database was later supplemented with information Protected areas assessment for the conservation of amphibians in Colombia 687 Figure 1. Map of northwestern Colombia, with geographical records of threatened amphibians in the Cordillera Oriental