RESEARCHERS LEAP INTO ACTION TO FIND LONG LOST FROG WITH HELP FROM ABU DHABI FUND
▶ Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund support is vital to projects around world, writes Daniel Bardsley
The Lynch’s Colombian tree frog was once thought to be extinct, after conservationists failed to record a single sighting in 36 years. It took a project supported by the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund to rediscover the creature in 2022.
It was a fitting reward for an intensive nine-month search by the ProAves conservation group, in the eastern Andes of Colombia.
Sara Ines Lara, who worked as a civil engineer before founding ProAves in 1998, says finding the critically endangered species in the country was a thrilling feeling.
“It was the best feeling you can have as a conservationist … when we found it, your heart wants to explode with joy,” she says. “There’s hope that nature is there, waiting for us to help and encouraging us to continue with our work.”
Worldwide support
The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, which has its headquarters in Abu Dhabi, has supported hundreds of projects around the world through grants aimed at protecting a variety of species.
ProAves’s efforts to find and protect the tree frog is part of a $4.5 million initiative run by the fund and financed by Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment fund, to support 10 projects.
ProAves has plans for two other initiatives in Colombia, involving the Colombian oak and the Colombian mountain grackle – a scarce blackbird – while the remaining projects are focused on Indonesia, Thailand and Guinea.
“Thanks to the grant from the MBZ Species Conservation Fund and the support of Mubadala, we deployed a research team to try to find the frog where there were records before,” Ms Ines Lara says.
“That took a long time and multiple attempts.
“After nearly a year it was rediscovered, so far just at a single site – multiple individuals in a very small area. What we want to do is to try to locate more sites.”
The area where the tree frog was found covers about 30 square metres and is at a higher elevation than its original habitat. Experts at ProAves believe it has moved to cooler areas owing to climate change.
Deforestation also threatens the future of the frog.
Educating communities
A key priority for conservationists has been to teach the community in the area about the importance of protecting the species.
“We started with the landowner and educated him and his whole family,” Ms Ines Lara says.
“It’s very important to have the rural community engaged at all levels. They’re safeguarding the frog now they know how important it is.”
The group wants to establish a regional park where the frog can thrive.
Colombia was for many years blighted by conflict and, while improvements in the security situation have been welcomed, there are potential consequences for nature, with development increasing in the country, Ms Ines Lara says.
“Unfortunately, a lot of this development doesn’t take into consideration how important some of these habitats are,” she says.
Another challenge is climate change, with creeks hitting lower levels in the dry season than many species are used to.
The hunt for the African manatee
Ms Ines Lara, who is also founder of Women for Conservation, which supports women working to protect wildlife and habitats, was in Abu Dhabi last month for the World Environmental Education Congress.
Another participant was Dr Lucy Keith-Diagne, executive director of the African Aquatic Conservation Fund, which also runs a project supported by the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund and Mubadala.
Dr Keith-Diagne, who lives in Senegal, has co-ordinated efforts by conservationists to improve their understanding of where the African manatee lives in Guinea.
These fully aquatic mammals – a cousin of the dugong that is found in UAE waters – are a lifelong love of Dr Keith-Diagne. As a child growing up in New Jersey, she learnt about the herbivorous animals at school and came home to tell her parents she would one day work to save them.
She was true to her word, completing a doctorate on Florida manatees before shifting her focus to West Africa.
The African manatee is found across many countries and habitats in the region – near the coast, in flooded rainforests, in mangrove channels, and in rivers and lakes across the Sahel.
In the interior of Guinea, manatees are largely safe from hunters because local communities believe the animals were once human.
But their existence is threatened by proposed dam projects, which could restrict their ability to move to deeper waters during the dry season.
In coastal areas, manatees are under threat from illegal hunting, mangrove destruction, pollution, industrial activity and fishing.
“The coastal populations need urgent help. They’re being decimated by some of these threats,” Dr KeithDiagne says.
Determining where populations live is essential to conservation efforts, but Guinea has “been something of a black hole for manatee research”.
The animals are not easy to study. Until recently, Dr KeithDiagne had not seen a live, free-swimming manatee for about three years. But advances in technology mean it is now possible to determine the presence of manatees by analysing water samples.
It may even be possible in future to estimate population sizes using the method.
Looking at genetic differences can also indicate whether manatees in different areas are separated, or live in one large population.
Dr Keith-Diagne hopes the project will help to improve records in Guinea and elsewhere in West Africa.
In 2021, 13 trainees were taken on as part of a three-year fellowship. They have been learning about manatees in a particular area, often by carrying out interviews with people living near by.
“What I wanted to do was train up a bunch of researchers who made trust-building relationships with local communities so they would learn from and work with them,” Dr Keith-Diagne says.
“They’ve assessed all the threats … we’ve now discovered manatees in five new rivers. No one has documented it before.”
She wants to understand what the main problems facing manatees are and what could be done to help them – and to use this knowledge to boost conservation efforts.
Getting the message across
The African Aquatic Conservation Fund aims to encourage the government to tackle illegal killing and the loss of mangroves on the coast.
The organisation also plans to issue TV and radio broadcasts to help teach more people about the animals.
Dr Keith-Diagne has been impressed with the work of the trainees and hopes they will continue to conserve manatees.
“Manatees are something of a canary in the coal mine for freshwater systems,” she says.
“They’re not going to live in a highly polluted system.”
Razan Al Mubarak, founding managing director of the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, says efforts to save the African manatee and Lynch’s Colombian tree frog were “not just about saving these remarkable species”.
“It’s about maintaining the balance of ecosystems where every creature plays a pivotal role,” she says.
“These initiatives shine a light on the urgent need for conservation in areas facing severe threats, highlighting how interconnected our global biodiversity is.”
Thanks to the fund and the support of Mubadala, we deployed a research team … after nearly a year it was rediscovered SARA INES LARA
ProAves founder