Abstract
Habitat loss remains the major threat to birds in the Neotropics, although there are several additional specific threats, for example trade, nest parasitism, invasives on islands, and for seabirds, bycatch. Capacity building also remains a key issue for conservation in the area. Nevertheless, the region has benefited by a surge in research, with an increase in Neotropical avian studies over the last decade, many of them incorporating modern techniques for analyzing a variety of data, for example vocalization and molecular data. These studies have improved our general understanding of the taxonomic status of several forms, and their ecology and conservation needs, and the bird-watching community has become an important force that can be mobilized to gather information and to support conservation efforts. But birds themselves are playing now a key role in the development of conservation strategies in the region. The important bird areas (IBAs) promoted by BirdLife are now a key component in our strategy for defining key biodiversity areas (KBAs), by means of which Conservation International is attempting to broaden the taxonomic spectrum of the IBA concept. Migratory birds and those with large home range are becoming important elements in our strategy as we try to move from IBAs and KBAs to large-scale biodiversity corridors.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Kimberly G. Smith for his invitation to participate in the symposium “Conservation of Birds in the Tropics” during the 24th International Ornithological Congress in Hamburg, and to DFG for its support for this work (GA 788/1-1). Thanks to T. Brooks, JMC Silva, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful discussions that helped set the framework for this essay.
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Communicated by F. Bairlein.
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García-Moreno, J., Clay, R.P. & Ríos-Muñoz, C.A. The importance of birds for conservation in the Neotropical region. J Ornithol 148 (Suppl 2), 321–326 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0194-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-007-0194-5