Sri Lanka one in seven spots in the world with high concentration of vulnerable amphibians
Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats in India are two of seven areas in the world with the “greatest” concentration of threatened species among amphibians, a global assessment has determined.
Reiterating that amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate group in the world, this global assessment has been published in the prestigious journal ‘Nature’ of Springer Nature on October 12, titled ‘Ongoing declines for the world’s amphibians in the face of emerging threats’.
The other five of the seven areas found to have the greatest concentration of threatened amphibian species are the Caribbean islands; Mesoamerica; the Tropical Andes; the mountains and forests of western Cameroon; and eastern Nigeria and Madagascar.
Amphibians are cold-blooded vertebrates and include frogs, toads, newts, salamanders and wormshaped caecilians. They have an aquatic gill-breathing larval stage usually followed by a terrestrial lung-breathing adult stage.
The second Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA2) completed in June 2022 (last year), had evaluated 8,011 species for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Some of the crucial findings of GAA2 are:
Amphibians are the “most” threatened vertebrate group in the world
Their overall conservation status, based on IUCN’s Red List categories, is globally declining – changing to more threatened categories compared to previous assessments. If any species falls under the Red List categories of ‘Critically Endangered’, ‘Endangered’ or ‘Vulnerable’ it is considered to be ‘threatened’.
Disease and habitat loss have been the major causes of declines (hence change of status) in the past. While these continue, additionally, climate change is now posing an increasing threat. However, Sri Lanka is shown as one of only two areas where the primary driver of deteriorating status of species is undetermined
The largest decline in status is in the Neotropical region (Central & South America and the Caribbean)
The Western Ghats of India are mentioned as one of three areas in the world where “conservation actions” such as effective habitat protection and improved habitat management have resulted in improved status of species. The other two areas are Costa Rica (in Central America) and Sabah Malaysia (in Borneo).
The information on Sri Lanka had been contributed to GAA2 by Anslem de Silva who is Co-chairman of the Amphibian Specialist Group, Sri Lanka of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission (SSC). (KH)