Threats to Biodiversity. As part of WWF’s strategic planning, a threats analysis (see Table 1) and conceptual model (see Figure 2) identified the most immediate threats and drivers to biodiversity loss.
Threats to Biodiversity. The Ruvuma Landscape is undergoing an extraordinary transformation that could either lead to ecological and social degradation seen elsewhere in Africa, exacerbated by climate change, or a more secure future through protection, management, and sustainable use of the unique natural assets now at risk. The demands on this landscape are so great that trade-offs among the services and values have become the rule. The challenge is compounded as growing degradation reduces the landscape’s ability to support livelihoods, economic development, and economic opportunities. This combination of ever-growing demands seriously diminishes the prospects for achieving core development and sustainability goals, including those of the Millennium Development Goals and Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The need to identify and mediate these trade-offs is critical in securing sustainable ecosystems and livelihoods (see Figure 3).
Threats to Biodiversity. Although 75 percent of the natural cover of the ECR is still intact, a result of the inaccessibility of the ecoregion, the ECR is poised for a potentially dramatic transformation in the coming years from multiple pressures ranging from large-scale infrastructure projects to mining and petroleum development and ill-planned agricultural projects that will likely increase current rates of ecosystem loss and fragmentation. Development projects such as these are also expected to lead to new colonization and settlement, bringing with it further loss of forest cover. Together, these transformative forces will reduce the current ecological integrity of the region and, in so doing, reduce its resiliency to the expected manifestations of climate change, while potentially exacerbating regional climate changes, the number one threat facing the region (see Figure 5). Massive shifts in the distribution of ecosystems and species. In 2008, WWF and Fundación Natura completed a climate change vulnerability analysis for the ECR. The study revealed that significant shifts in precipitation and temperature will affect the distribution of ecosystems throughout the ecoregion, along with the plant and animal composition of each ecosystem. These changes may eventually result in local extinctions of vulnerable species, and will undoubtedly impair environmental flows of critical importance for the Amazon biome. According to analyses, three sites (Alto Fragua – Indi Wasi National Park in Colombia, the Sangay – Llanganates biological corridor in Ecuador, and the Tabaconas Namballe Sanctuary in Peru) and 2 Regional migrants include the golden-plumed parakeet (Leptosittaca branickii), a creature adapted to regional migrations over a wide altitudinal range. Species such as the red-bellied grackle (Hypopyrrhus pyrohypogaster) are threatened and endemic to the region. Large blocks of forest and xxxxxx of the Amazonian slopes of the ECR provide critical habitat for endangered and emblematic species such as the Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) and the mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque). their buffer zones were identified as among the most vulnerable, and adaptation measures are needed for their effective management (see Annex F). Large scale infrastructure development Road, waterway and port development aim to enable greater economic integration across the Andes, Amazon and Pacific, especially as part of the Initiative for Regional Infrastructure Integration in South America (IIRSA). Further ...
