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162 PARALLEL SESSION HALL H IV THURSDAY LINK FOR SURVIVALPARALLE SESSION THURSDAY H III: LINK FOR SURVIVAL163Session: Link for survival - Science and the conservation of tropicallandscapesThursday, 24 February, 15:15, Hall H IVTHE GREAT GREEN MACAW (ARA AMBIGUUS): CONSERVATIONBIOLOGY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A TRANSBOUNDARYBIOLOGICAL CORRIDOR IN THE LOWER WATERSHED OF THE SANJUAN RIVER (COSTA RICA / NICARAGUA)Olivier Chassot 1,2,4 , Guisselle Monge Arias 2 , Antonio Ruiz Meléndez 3 ,Teresa Mariscal Poeyo 3 , Alfredo Figueroa Rodríez 3 , Monika Melisch 5Speaker: Monika Melisch1Latin American School for Protected Areas, University for International Cooperation,San José, CR, ochassot@uci.ac.cr. 2 3Tropical Science Center, San José, CR,Fundación del Río, San Carlos, Río San Juan, NI, 4 Deputy Vice-Chair for ConnectivityConservation, Mountains Biome, Vice-Chair for Mesoamerica, TransboundarySpecialist Group, World Commission on Protected Areas, International Union forConservation of Nature (WCPA-IUCN), 5 Tropica Verde e.V., Frankfurt, DE, monika.melisch@tropica-verde.de.The Great Green Macaw Research and Conservation Project was launched in1994 and aims to study the conservation biology of the Great Green Macawin northern Costa Rica. The project’s first-year findings indicated that thepopulation was showing a strong decrease pattern. The endangered GreatGreen Macaw (Ara ambiguus) has a limited distribution in the Atlantic wetlowlands of Central America. The survival of the Great Green Macaw dependson the availability of adequate, intact forest habitat. For this reason the TropicalScience Center proposed the implementation of a conservation plan, which isknown as the San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor, based on the scientific datagenerated by the multi-year telemetry study with the aim to protect enoughhabitat to maintain a small and viable breeding population in Costa Rica.As migrating species are not limited by borders, the successful establishmentof a bi-national biological corridor has been and remains essential for theconservation of the Great Green Macaw. The Tropical Science Center (Costa Rica)and Fundación del Río (Nicaragua) took a leading role in the consolidation andimplementation of cross-border alliances and nature conservation activitiesthrough a campaign that focuses on environmental education and promotingthe awareness. Data from a 2009 census show that the population of GreatGreen Macaws has been increasing, which is correlated with the conservationactions. The Great Green Macaw is used as a flagship species within thebiological corridor. As a consequence, the entire biodiversity benefits from theconservation measures. The project is supported by multiple sources, includingsince 2004 by Tropica Verde e.V..Session: Link for survival - Science and the conservation of tropicallandscapesThursday, 24 February, 15:30, Hall H IVADDING A DISTRIBUTION MODELLING TOOL FORCONSERVATIONISTS TO THE AFRICAN ODONATA DATABASENirmal Ojha 1 , Viola Clausnitzer 2 , Frank Suhling 3 , Gertrud Schaab 41Hochschule Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, DE, nirmal.ojha@hs-karlsruhe.de, 2 SenckenbergMuseum für Naturkunde, Görlitz, DE, 3 Technische Universität Braunschweig,Institute of Geoecology, Braunschweig, DE, 4 Hochschule Karlsruhe, Faculty ofGeomatics, Karlsruhe, DETHURSDAY 15:15 Hall H IVSpecies distribution models have often been employed to find the potentialhabitat range. Making use of the unique African Odonata database whichcovers over 800 species, we present a logistic-regression based modellingtool for predicting their potential distribution. Thus, the scientifically collecteddatabase has the potential to be useful for conservation related applications;as determining the species potential distribution range is one of them. E.g. thepotential distribution range can aid in the assessment of IUCN’s threat status.Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) serve as good indicator species forconservation and environmental monitoring and planing for various reasons:they are easy to monitor, the taxonomy is straight forward, they inhabit aquatic(larvae) and terrestrial (adults) habitats, and they are top predators. Here wepresent the example of modelling, currently based on presence-only data, oftwo Odonata species in tropical Africa categorised as vulnerable in the IUCNred list of threatened species. The tool applies the maximum likelihood methodbased on the expectation-maximisation approach. In order to develop a tool inparticular useful to conservationists, emphasis is given mainly to a) functionsto ensure proper harmonisation of raster and vector datasets, b) a user-friendlygraphical user interface, and c) a comprehensive help system.Coryphagrion grandis, mainly residing in the coastal areas of Kenya andTanzania and Pseudagrion bicoerulans, mainly found in the montane areasof Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been threatened by wood extraction(deforestation), agriculture and water pollution. Therefore, the variables usedfor modelling are surrogates of a) climate (like 6 bioclimatic variables), b) habitat(land-cover, elevation), c) resources (vegetation index, distance to water) and d)potential anthropogenic impact (population density). These example speciesshow the model’s usefulness in e.g. identifying areas in need of conservationfor these species in East-Africa. An assessment of the sensitivity of the variablesin regard to the predicted habitat ranges can help to project relative impactscaused by the various variables.THURSDAY 15:30 Hall H IVgtöSociety for Tropical Ecology | Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V. Status and future of tropical biodiversity | Frankfurt, 21 - 24 February 2011gtö