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Introduction


Amazonian forests and its plants are under increasing pressure of deforestation, fire, forest resources extraction and climate change. As with the other taxa dealt with in this symposium, currently no comprehensive assessment has been made to report the threat level for Amazonian plant species based on a complete set of Red List criteria.

An earlier attempt was made for c. 5000 tree species based on population changes as caused by deforestation and a second attempt was made for c. 10,000 tree species combining the effect of deforestation and climate change. These studies also estimated population and area loss in 2050, based on two deforestation scenarios and the second study included two climate change scenarios. These studies showed that currently 25% of all Amazonian trees may be threatened according to a limited set of IUCN criteria but that this number may increase to 57% caused by ongoing deforestation and even if deforestation would be halted (e.g. 2030 - Glasgow) over 50% may be in threat due to warming.


Objectives/Hypothesis


We believe that more scientific information is available on tree species and the Global Tree Specialist Group has made several advances in the IUCN assessment. For this reason, we also intend that with the RedListing evaluations we will be able to compare the information related to geographic and taxonomic datasets for 50% of tree and non-vascular species. In this way, we will determine the species with the greatest threat and the least attention.


Methods


Using recently developed algorithms to extract museum collections from large repositories and literature information, to clean and check the data, and analyzing the cleaned data against a near complete set of RL criteria, we will show the current threat level of over 10,000 Amazonian trees and x,000 non-tree [vascular] plants.


Implications/Conclusions


By developing a procedure based on data algorithms from scientific collections, the exercise of considering a region as wide and biologically diverse as the Amazon in terms of threatened species compromises the focus on two groups of aspects: 1 species with a wide and restricted distribution, 2 similar or particular sources of threat. Thus, different current situations that are representative of the Amazon region are considered. Perhaps this alternative shows a more realistic spectrum than just working by country. Therefore, the approach of strategies and solutions may involve measures supported by more than one country and thus organize actions that are more appropriate.

Keywords:

Amazon redlisting evaluation; trees; non vascular plants; threats; conservation

Mónica Moraes, Renato Lima, Hans ter Steege, Alexandre Antonelli, Lucia Lohmann, Freddy Ruiz, Julia Arieira

Presentation within symposium:

S-20 Status of biodiversity in the Amazon

Red listing of Amazonian plant species

-Review-

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