The little-known Luristan newt (also called Kaiser’s spotted newt) is a highly attractive EDGE amphibian from Iran. Its striking colouration is thought to provide a warning to potential predators of its toxicity. Sadly, however, the remarkable appearance of the Luristan newt has also resulted in this species becoming highly prized in the pet trade, where collectors will spend up to ÂŁ200 to own one. Now Critically Endangered in the wild, the combination of over-collection and habitat loss is generating a very uncertain future for this beautiful creature.
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Luristan newts are extremely sensitive to environmental change because they live in arid, marginal conditions where severe droughts can have a grave impact on population numbers as these newts depend on spring-fed streams for breeding. Worsening the precarious situation of the species in the wild, the Luristan newt is becoming increasingly popular in the international pet trade, where individuals caught in the wild are being illegally exported out of Iran and are finding their way into global markets.
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A recent article published in the Independent highlighted the grim reality that the Luristan newt faces in the wild. Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor and Kevin Rawlinson stated:
“The demand has been such that the wild population, found only in four streams of Iran’s Zagros Mountains, was reduced by 80 per cent between 2001 and 2005 alone, and is now classed as Critically Endangered. It is estimated that fewer than 1,000 mature individuals remain.”
Sadly for the newt, its rarity contributes to its collectability as some amphibian enthusiasts enjoy keeping unusual and beautiful species in their homes. Although certain amphibians can be captive bred to meet demand from the pet trade, the economic value of the Luristan newt also drives illegal collection from the wild. The risk of over-collection to the survival of this species in the wild is immense so we urge potential collectors to consider the consequences of buying a Critically Endangered species that could have been taken from a dwindling wild population. Amphibians can, after all, be driven to extinction by such incidents of over-collection from the wild.
Linking in with the current CITES meeting in Qatar, Michael McCarthy and Kevin Rawlinson added:
“Over the next few days, the 175 Cites member states meeting in Doha, including Britain, will consider whether to take a more proactive approach to regulating the online trade in endangered species. This is likely to include the creation of an international database, scientific research to gauge the correlation between wildlife loss and online trade, and closer collaboration with Interpol, the international law enforcement agency.”
To read the full article, please click here.
Forest Inventory and data collection in Sagalla Forest was done in the month of November 2009.
Method
The field plots were of size 50 by 20 with subplot of 10 by 10, with the bigger plots located along the transect running from SW to NE of the forest. The length of transects were determined by the forest boundaries from both ends. The transects were located 100m apart while the plots 80m apart with 180 and 90 degrees angle of elevation respectively regardless of the contours. The GPS points of every plot were also taken.
The tree sample were those of diameter at breast height (dbh) 12.7cm or more, while sapling were those trees with dbh <12.7 > 2.54cm. Seedling were those of dbh 2.54 and height of >15 cm. Stratified random sampling method was used where a random point was picked as a first point where first transect was marked.
The number of plots along the transect was determined by the length of the transect, while length of the transect was determined by the forest boundaries. All the sampling sub-plot were randomly picked from the left side of the plot. Tree and saplings were sampled clockwise from azimuth 0-360 degrees.
Field measurements were done using three main variables - tree species, diameter at breast height and height.
Results
There were a total of 21 species sampled the dominant being Pinus patula and Eucalyptus species. The few indigenous trees were mostly found in riverine areas e.g. Mwajika while a few inside the sampling plots which are said to have been planted.
Saplings:
There was a total of 18 species among the saplings sampled.
Seedlings:
Only 7 species and few in number per plot (<5) were recoded most of which were Garcinia volkensii. There is little undergrowth with litter of Pinus patula and Eucalyptus sp which take time to decompose, hence suppressing the growth/emergence of the indigenous plants. Other areas are covered by Cyathea sp.
An important observation made was the presence of an invasive species – Lantana camara (image above) – and action needs to be taken to ensure its spread is controlled so that it does not overrun even the small indigenous patches.
Activities for Participatory Forest Management
A Workshop was held on 29th and 30th of January 2010 for the preparation of the Articles of Association and also to prepare the Application Forms for the Sagalla Community Forest Association (SCFA). Kenya has embraced Participatory Forest Management as an approach towards sustainable forest management. This is out of the realization that involvement of the wider stakeholders would significantly contribute towards sustainable management of forest. In this approach local communities and other stakeholders participate in management of forest resources, as provided for by the Forest Act 2005.
Several sensitization meetings have been held with the interim committee of the SCFA to build their knowledge with regard to participatory forest/natural resource management and for the drafting of the Participatory Forest Management Plan.
In addition to the CFA representatives and facilitators from the Taita Taveta Wildlife Forum, officials from the government institutions were also involved, among them the Zonal Manager of Taita Taveta Zone from the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the local KFS forest extension agent, and the Community Development Facilitator from the County Council of Taita Taveta.
During the workshop several topics were covered as follows;
• Participatory natural resource management.
• Policy and law on natural resource management - Overview of environmental statutes where relevant sections were elaborated in Forest Act 2005, Water Act 2002, EMCA 1999, Agriculture Act, Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, Local government Act.
• Gender and the Environment – how the issue of gender relates to environmental conservation.
• Other topics included Forest User Rights, Constitution preparation and Election of interim committee.
An Interim committee was elected by the CFA representatives from among themselves under the direction of the Community Development facilitators. After the interim committee were taken through the CFA constitution making process, Participatory Forest Management Plan making and the process of entering into a PFM agreement. The Constitution has been prepared and the process for registration has been initiated.
Forest Rehabilitation and Tree Planting
4,000 tree seedlings have been raised for planting, among them Milletia oblata an endemic tree species that no longer occurs in Sagalla forest, but only in the other Taita hills forests. About 700 seedlings of M. oblata are ready for planting awaiting the onset of the rainy season. These will be used to re-introduce the tree species in the area.
In exciting news EDGE is being supported by an innovative, ambitious, and some say crazy campaign aiming to Storm The Charts in 2010. Their plan is to get 40 different unsigned bands into the top 40 chart in the same week!
On the Storm the Charts victory scale they ‘call a ’success’ finding some good new music; a ‘win’ getting 2 or more songs in the charts, and anything above that is epic’.
Storm the Charts organiser, Wes White, set up a Justgiving page in support of EDGE because he felt that the outsider musicians raising money for overlooked unusual animals just made sense.
Enter a Band
Storm The Charts is still accepting entries for bands (over 140 have applied already!) so if you qualify enter by emailing stormthecharts@gmail.com with the subject heading ‘For your consideration’. The final 40 bands will be chosen from all entries (up to the 1,000th band) by a mix of votes on Facebook and an expert panel, in preparation for the Storm The Charts week later in 2010.
Make a T-shirt
Storm The Charts are also teaming up with t-shirt printers Dizzyjam to supply the official t-shirts for the campaign, with the proceeds of the sales going to our amazing EDGE species. The official t-shirt will be chosen through a design competition. The closing date for entries it the Sunday, March 14th so there is still time to enter ; take a look at the design guidelines, and send your entries to stormthecharts@gmail.com.
So a huge thank you to both Storm the Charts and Dizzyjam for their support, now get designing, and why not listen to an original unsigned band while you think…?
I simply can’t write this blog without mentioning the devastating earthquake that hit Hispaniola on the 12 of January 2010; it was felt throughout the island although its destructive impact was concentrated on the Haitian capital (Port-Au-Prince). I was in the capital of the Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) at the time and we felt it there too; some people in Santo Domingo ran out of and away from buildings in fear.
In terms of the project, this natural disaster is likely to have a real impact in the future. Thousands of people have lost everything and many have been displaced. In the short term, the immediate humanitarian need obviously takes precedence. However, I hope that in the long term the environmental/conservation aspect is taken into account as part of Haiti’s recovery plan.
The field work has kicked off in earnest since my last blog and there has been a lot of research activity despite the fact that I spent two weeks back in the UK since then, most of this progress can be credited to our genius research assistants Nicholas and Lleyo. Not only have they surveyed some extensive areas but they have managed to get even more great video footage of solenodon and hutia in the wild. Our library of DNA samples from hutia and solenodon is also growing steadily.
Unfortunately, two lots of samples have come from animals that were found dead, one in the east of the island killed by dogs and one we found in the south west of the island which died of unknown causes but possibly poisoned. Nicolas and Lleyo’s trapping abilities have become increasingly refined so we have managed to collect most of our samples far less destructively with their help. In the future, these samples which are being analysed by a team led by Dr Sam Turvey at the Zoological Society of London (London Zoo) will establish just how genetically separated different populations of the species are.
The other exciting news is that our team is now complete since a local counterpart field project manager has been appointed. I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome and introduce you to Pedro Martinez our newest team member. Pedro is a Dominican Republic national and comes with a wealth of experience after working for several conservation organisations over a number of years. I’m sure his extensive expertise combined with his local knowledge will strengthen our team even further. You will get to know him better over the coming months as he starts to contribute to these blogs.
I’m afraid I dropped Pedro in the deep end as his first expedition into the field as part of the project started on his third day of work when we ventured into Parque Jaragua to do our first extensive survey in the dry cactus forest. It was tough going with extremely spiny cactus surrounding us all the time and razor sharp limestone under foot, Pedro appeared to take it all in his stride. We found evidence of both species even in this harsh landscape but mainly in hollows, dips and valleys where soil was a bit deeper, temperature a bit cooler and the forest was dominated by non-cacti species.
Unfortunately during Pedro’s time in the field we also came across several charcoal ovens along a valley we surveyed near the border with Haiti – it was a sad site to come across magnificent large trees being felled for charcoal. Many of the people doing this are desperately poor and see very few viable alternatives to this activity. The people carrying out this type of deforestation are well aware that it is illegal and live in fear of getting caught, several fled into the forest when we approached a charcoal oven that was in the middle of being built.
Over the following months we are going to be pretty busy. We will continue doing a lot more extensive field work as well as stepping up on the educational and awareness raising front with the help of both the Sociedad Ornitologica de la Hispaniola and the national zoo (Parque Zoologico Nacional de la Republica Dominicana). We are also working with Daniela Rusowsky from Funk Productions to produce a series of infomercial video films. Potentially, a couple of graduate students will also be joining the project and our plan for doing research into the sounds these species make should also be taking shape. Exciting and busy times all round.
I was interviewed by an online magazine in January and you can read the results of this at: http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0118_hance_nunezmino.html. The project now also has its own dedicated website: www.thelastsurvivors.org which gives a lot more information about both species and everyone involved in the project as well as setting the project into the wider context of what’s happened to the endemic mammals of the Caribbean. If you are keen to find out more then I strongly recommend you log on, although as always we are always happy to answer any questions directly.
For now and until our next update, I bid you farewell.
A partnership of UK conservation organisations – BirdLife International, the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of Existence programme – has secured funding from Defra’s Darwin Initiative in support of vital conservation action to prevent the extinction of Haiti’s unique biodiversity.
Haiti’s forests support an incredible diversity of range-restricted endemic animals, including two highly threatened land mammals and 13 EDGE Amphibians. However, only 3% of the Haitian forests remain and these are being lost at an alarming rate (approximately 10% every five years), with the result that many species are globally threatened or even possibly extinct.
The Massif de la Hotte is a mountainous area in south-westernmost Haiti, and is one of the few areas in the country still retaining a patchwork of forest cover, all within the Macaya National Park. These forests represent one of the most important places in the world for the conservation of 42 globally threatened mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that live there. These include the Hispaniolan solenodon, ranked 4th on the EDGE mammals list, and the most highly-ranked of the Haitian EDGE amphibians, the false green robber frog and Casillon robber frog (equal 129th), which are endemic to the Massif de la Hotte.
The forests of the Massif de la Hotte also provide important ecosystem services for local communities, including the daily provision of fresh water and firewood and protection from landslides and flooding during tropical storms. It is the maintenance and improvement of these services, and increasing the resilience of the forests to the effects of global climate change, that lie at the heart of an integrated approach to conservation in the massif.
“The last patches of forest in the mountains of southern Haiti support some of the world’s highest levels of threatened unique biodiversity, and provide invaluable ecosystem services for local communities. Without immediate conservation action and sustainable management, Haiti’s last endemic vertebrates are likely to disappear,” says ZSL’s Dr Sam Turvey, who will be coordinating the project’s mammal field surveys.
An EDGE expedition in April 2007 visited the Massif de la Hotte and confirmed the continuing survival of both the Hispaniolan solenodon and Haiti’s only surviving native rodent, the Hispaniolan hutia, although solenodons were reported to be rare by local communities. EDGE has continued supporting conservation in the region through the EDGE Fellows programme - we have trained and funded OsĂ© PaulĂ©us, a young Haitian keen to protect his country’s natural heritage, to continue the research carried out on the initial expedition.
The devastating 12th January 2010 earthquake had no immediate material impact within the Massif de la Hotte. However, the aftermath is starting to be felt with people fleeing Port-au-Prince to find refuge in the remote communities around the Macaya National Park. The Darwin Initiative funding comes at a critical time to help work towards accommodating earthquake victims in the communities around Macaya, and to ensure a sustainable future for people and for the area’s unique wildlife.
If you would like to contribute to the conservation of EDGE species and training of conservationists in developing countries, then please become an EDGE Champion, or donate here.