Waterbird Biodiversity and Conservation Threats in Coastal Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

Abstract

Within the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the United Nations Environment Programme, the conservation of biodiversity is one of the major goals devoted to minimize and mitigate significantly the existing rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national scales. At this level, birds are exemplary sentinels and bioindicators for the conservation and monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem health. While 1226 bird species are considered globally threatened with extinction due to small and declining populations or ranges (BirdLife International, 2008), a substantial number of seabird populations are declining and threatened with extinction at the global level because of several conservation threats both on land and at sea, including fishery interactions, predation by invasive species and habitat loss due to coastal development (BirdLife International, 2010). The Pacific is an important area for threatened seabirds, where their ranges span multiple Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) as well as many areas beyond National Jurisdictions (ABNJs). Although seabirds represent only 3% of the total number of bird species in the world, about 28% (over 130 species) are listed as threatened on the IUCN red list for birds, under which 10% of seabirds are Critically Endangered (BirdLife International , 2010). Under the CBD, Ecuador is a signatory country (1992) and ratified the Convention in 1993 with the aim to pursue and establish conservation efforts and action plans to preserve the national biodiversity, including birds. Despite of being one of the smallest countries of the world (i.e., 0.19% of the terrestrial surface of the Earth) with 256 370 km2 and a human population close to 14 millions inhabitants, Ecuador is one of 17 world’s megadiverse countries due to its rich biodiversity and high degree of bird endemism (Mittermeier et al., 1997; Stattersfield et al., 1998). Of the 151 wetlands identified as key habitats for Neotropical waterbirds in Ecuador, 40% are present on the continental coast (i.e., 59 wetlands), while 14 exist in the Galapagos (Santander et al., 2006). There, a total of 1640 species of birds are geographically distributed into four well defined geographical zones: the coast (coastal