Rapid Assessment Program RAP Working Papers 2 Status of Forest Remnants in the Cordillera de la Costa and Adjacent Areas of Southwestern Ecuador CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL OCTOBER 1992 Conservation Priorities: The Role of RAP Our planet faces many serious environmental problems, among them global climate change, pollution, soil erosion, and toxic waste disposal. At Conservation International (CI), we believe that there is one problem that surpasses all others in terms of importance because of its irreversibility, the extinction of biological diversity. Conservation efforts still receive only a tiny fraction of the resources, both human and financial, needed to get the job done. As a result of this, we must use available resources efficiently, applying them to those places with the highest concentrations of diversity which are at most immediate risk of disappearing. CI uses a strategic, hierarchical approach for setting conservation investment priorities. At a global level, we have targeted the “hotspots,” 15 tropical areas that hold a third or more of all terrestrial diversity and are at great risk. Our global priorities also focus on major tropical wilderness areas and the “megadiversity” country concept, which highlights the importance of the national entities that harbor high biodiversity. We are now undertaking a series of priority-setting exercises for other major categories of ecosystems, among them marine systems, deserts, and dry forests. The next level of priority setting is the bio-regional workshop, a process where experts assemble their combined knowledge of an area to map regional conservation priorities using CI’s geographic information system (CISIG). We have also taken a taxon-based approach, working with the Species Survival Commission of IUCN to produce action plans for key groups of organisms. These priority-setting exercises provide the scientific underpinning for urgent conservation decisions in hotspot regions. Although the hotspots we have identified occupy less than 3-4 percent of the land surface of the planet, they still cover several million square kilometers, only small areas of which have been properly inventoried. To fill the gaps in our regional knowledge, CI created the Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) in 1989. RAP assembles teams of world-renowned experts and host country scientists to generate first-cut assessments of the biological value of poorly known areas. An area’s importance can be characterized by its total biodiversity, its degree of endemism, the uniqueness of an ecosystem, and the degree of risk of extinction. As a conservation tool, RAP precedes long-term scientific inventory. When satellite images of an area targeted for a RAP assessment are available, the team consults them prior to a trip to determine the extent of forest cover and likely areas for exploration. Once in-country, the scientists make overflights in small planes or helicopters to identify forest types and points for field transects. Ground travel often requires a combination of vehicles, boats, pack animals, and foot travel to get the team to remote sites where few, if any, roads exist. Trips last from two to eight weeks. On each trip, in-country scientists form a central part of the team. Local experts are especially critical to understanding areas where little exploration has been undertaken. Subsequent research and protection of habitats following a RAP trip depends on the initiatives of local scientists and conservationists. The RAP concept was born during a field trip by Murray Gell-Mann of the MacArthur Foundation, Spencer Beebe, one of CI’s founders, and Ted Parker, current leader of the RAP team. RAP has been generously funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s World Resources and Environment Program, headed by Dan Martin. RAP reports are available to the host governments of the countries being surveyed and to all interested conservationists, scientists, institutions, and organizations. We hope that these reports will catalyze the effective conservation action on behalf of our planet’s biological diversity, the legacy of life that is so critical to us all. Russell A. Mittermeier Adrian Forsyth President Director, Conservation Biology Heliconia latispatha in the Jauneche reserve, July 1991. Watercolor by Bonnie Mitsui. Rapid Assessment Program RAP Working Papers 2 Status of Forest Remnants in the Cordillera de la Costa and Adjacent Areas of Southwestern Ecuador Edited by Theodore A. Parker, III and John L. Carr The research presented in this report was conducted in collaboration with the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito, Ecuador. CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL OCTOBER 1992 RAP Working Papers are occasional reports published three to five times a year. For subscription information write to: Conservation International Publications 1015 18th Street, NW Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20036 U.S.A. Tel: 202/429-5660 Fax: 202/887-5188 Conservation International is a private, nonprofit organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. © 1992 by Conservation International. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 92-73741 Suggested citation: Parker, T.A., III, and J.L. Carr, eds. 1992. Status of forest remnants in the Cordillera de la Costa and adjacent areas of southwestern Ecuador. Conservation International, RAP Working Papers 2. Printed on recycled paper in the United States of America CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL Rapid Assessment Program Table of Contents Participants 2 Appendices 66 Preface 3 1. Ecuador Trip Itineraries 67 Organizational Profiles 4 Codes for Avian Data 68 Acknowledgments 6 2. Preliminary List of the Birds of Cabeceras de Bilsa 69 Overview 8 3. Preliminary List of the Landbirds Introduction 8 of Parque Nacional Machalilla 76 Summary 10 4. Preliminary List of the Birds Conservation Opportunities 14 of Cerro Blanco 84 Technical Report 20 5. Preliminary List of the Birds of Jauneche 90 Introduction to the Sites 20 6. Preliminary List of the Birds Cerro Mutiles 20 of Manta Real 96 Cabeceras de Bilsa 24 7. Preliminary List of the Birds of the Reserva Militar de Arenillas 103 Cerro Pata de Pájaro 29 8. Birds of Six Forests in Tabuga-Río Cuaque 32 Western Ecuador 108 Parque Nacional Machalilla 34 9. Mammal List; January-February Trip 120 Cerro Blanco 42 10. Mammal List; July Trip 124 Jauneche 45 11. Amphibian and Reptile List; Manta Real 49 January-February Trip 128 Reserva Militar de Arenillas 54 12. Amphibian and Reptile List; July Trip 131 Biogeographic Overviews 56 13. Plant List: Cerro Mutiles 133 Phytogeography 56 14. Plant List: Cabeceras de Bilsa 138 Vegetation 58 15. Plant List: Cerro Pata de Pájaro 145 Bird Fauna 59 16. Plant List: Tabuga - Río Cuaque 149 Mammal Fauna 60 17. Plant List: Parque Nacional Herpetofauna 62 Machalilla 152 Literature Cited 63 18. Plant List: Cerro Blanco 162 19. Plant List: Manta Real 165 RAP Working Papers Two October 1992 1 Participants SCIENTIFIC PERSONNEL Carmen Josse (Jan-Feb) Botanist Theodore A. Parker, III EcoCiencia Ornithologist Conservation International Patricio Yanez (July) Botanist Robin B. Foster Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Plant Ecologist Conservation International Alfredo Luna (July) Protected Area Specialist Louise H. Emmons (Jan-Feb) FEDIMA Mammalogist Conservation International FIELD ASSISTANCE Alwyn H. Gentry (Jan-Feb) Botanist Ramiro Barriga Conservation International Escuela Politécnica Nacional John L. Carr N. Lajones (Jan - Feb) Herpetologist Universidad Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres” Conservation International Esmeraldas Luis Albuja V. Tomiche Quiñonez (Jan - Feb) Mammalogist Universidad Técnica “Luis Vargas Torres” Escuela Politécnica Nacional Esmeraldas Ana Almendáriz Herpetologist Escuela Politécnica Nacional 2 CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL Rapid Assessment Program Preface By the time this document is published, much of the forest that we saw during our travels through western Ecuador will have been destroyed. Indeed, the forests at Bilsa and near Pedernales were being felled faster than we could study them. It is our fervent hope that this report will serve to inform a wide audience concerning the grim conservation status of the varied forest types in this biologically priceless region. We further hope that the national and local governments, military authorities, private conservation organizations, and concerned citizens, will act quickly and decisively to preserve at least some of the forests described in this report. Failure to do so will result in the loss of countless species of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. Once gone, the unique forests of the region will never be regrown. Tree plantations may one day at least partially meet the needs of the human population, but many valuable plant species adapted to the soils and climates of the region will have been lost forever. The extinction of such species— indeed of entire ecosystems—will severely limit the possibilities for long-term economic growth and prosperity in western Ecuador. We hope that this call for action will not go unheeded. RAP Working Papers Two RAP Working Papers Two October 1992 3 Organizational Profiles conservation activities and programs devel- CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL oped by governmental institutions and non- Conservation International (CI) is an inter- governmental organizations. national, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to con- Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas serve biological diversity and the ecological Escuela