Biodiversity Conservation Programs Research Articles

Landowners and conservation markets: Social benefits from two Australian government programs

Market-based approaches to conservation provide two novel policy outcomes. First, they secure public environmental benefits through incentive payments to private landowners to deliver those conservation outcomes that are unlikely to be achieved through regulation. Second, they provide opportunities to influence perceptions, motivations and values, and shift behaviors among landowners towards biodiversity conservation.Here we report on our experiences in engaging private landowners through two large market-based conservation programs funded by the Australian government. The Forest Conservation Fund was run in Tasmania from 2006 to 2009 and protected over 28,000ha of high conservation value forests through contracts with over 125 landowners. The Environmental Stewardship Program was run in temperate south eastern Australia from 2008, targets nationally endangered ecological communities and has so far secured over 45,000ha through contracts with over 260 landowners to improve habitat condition. In total these two programs have, at various stages in their implementation, engaged with over 1400 landowners.Participating landowners benefited from their engagement in three major ways. Firstly, landowner appreciation that their land had both production and commercial conservation values grew, as did their interest in better understanding these values and their measurement. Secondly, was the flow of information to build capacity through improved awareness, knowledge transfers and skills development. Effective landholder engagement was strengthened by targeted communications and information support. Landowners received detailed information on the ecology of their properties, and workshops and on-site field surveys provided practical exposure that filled a conservation information and extension void. Some landowners who had been unsuccessful in bidding for funding said they would change aspects of their land management because of what they learned. Thirdly was a group of benefits associated with property planning and management. The competitive and commercial nature of these two programs prompted many landholders to think more about the mix of revenue and cost drivers for their enterprise, and in particular those associated with new conservation market opportunities. Participation encouraged many landholders to redesign their properties into production and conservation zones that supported improved management for both productive and conservation outcomes.These observations suggest that participation in market-based conservation programs encourage social learning and build social capital in ways that can facilitate additional positive biodiversity outcomes on private land. The effectiveness of biodiversity conservation policies and programs would be strengthened by the inclusion of specific social outcomes.

Challenges for conserving biodiversity and developing sustainable island tourism in North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

Recent conditions in North Sulawesi Province (NSP) have become favorable for the development of tourism. In this paper, we present the recent status of biodiversity and tourism in NSP as a basic consideration towards integrative biodiversity conservation strategy. Overall, biological accounts suggest that NSP is important for the world biodiversity conservation program. NSP`s biodiversity makes the area a major nature-based tourism (ecotourism) site in the world. Development of diverse tourism programs in NSP has provided new opportunities for balancing development and conservation of regional ecosystems. However, the excessive tourism growth in some particular areas in NSP has been identified as the primary factor of environmental degradation. Nowadays, biodiversity of North Sulawesi regions are suffering from the number of tourist impacts and facilities. Based on those conditions, tourism planning and development in NSP is needed to formulate a proper strategy to protect the ecosystem and biodiversity from degradation and extinction. This will be a new challenge of sustainable island tourism development and biodiversity conservation in NSP.

Fire regimes, biodiversity conservation and prescribed-burning programs

In the trend towards the domestication, or taming, of fire regimes in Victoria, Australia, the level of prescribed burning has been stepped up due to a recommendation from the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. While prescribed burning programs may be instituted for a number of reasons, especially the protection of life and property, they have consequences for the conservation of biodiversity. Not all vegetation types can be prescribed burned because the weather does not always allow it to occur under safe working conditions; where prescribed burning programs are carried out, unplanned fires may still occur. Thus, the general issue is the effect on biodiversity of both prescribed and unplanned fires, neither alone. Here, the importance to biodiversity conservation of all the components of the fire regime– interval, season, intensity and type (peat fire or otherwise) – and their domain of variability is emphasized. If conservation of biodiversity is to be guaranteed in a changing fire world, then much more knowledge about the systems being managed, gained in large part through effective monitoring, is needed. Issues such as targets and some assumptions of management are addressed here.

Conservation cornerstones: Capitalising on the endeavours of long-term monitoring projects

Ecological monitoring is widely used to measure change through time in ecosystems. The current extinction crisis has resulted in a wealth of monitoring programs focussed on tracking the status of threatened species, and the perceived importance of monitoring has seen it become the cornerstone of many biodiversity conservation programs. However, many monitoring programs fail to produce useful outcomes due to inherent flaws. Here we use a monitoring program from south-eastern Australia as a case study to illustrate the potential of such endeavours. The threatened carnivorous marsupial, the brush-tailed phascogale (Phascogale tapoatafa), has been monitored at various locations between 2000 and 2010. We present strong evidence for a decline in relative abundance during this period, and also describe relationships with environmental variables. These results provide insights likely to be valuable in guiding future management of the species. In the absence of the monitoring program, informed management would not be possible. While early detection of population declines is important, knowledge of the processes driving such declines is required for effective intervention. We argue that monitoring programs will be most effective as a tool for enhanced conservation management if they test specific hypotheses relating to changes in population trajectories. Greater emphasis should be placed on rigorous statistical analysis of monitoring datasets in order to capitalise on the resources devoted to monitoring activities. Many datasets are likely to exist for which careful analysis of results would have benefits for determining management directions.

Top predators as biodiversity regulators: the dingo Canis lupus dingo as a case study

Top-order predators often have positive effects on biological diversity owing to their key functional roles in regulating trophic cascades and other ecological processes. Their loss has been identified as a major factor contributing to the decline of biodiversity in both aquatic and terrestrial systems. Consequently, restoring and maintaining the ecological function of top predators is a critical global imperative. Here we review studies of the ecological effects of the dingo Canis lupus dingo, Australia's largest land predator, using this as a case study to explore the influence of a top predator on biodiversity at a continental scale. The dingo was introduced to Australia by people at least 3500 years ago and has an ambiguous status owing to its brief history on the continent, its adverse impacts on livestock production and its role as an ecosystem architect. A large body of research now indicates that dingoes regulate ecological cascades, particularly in arid Australia, and that the removal of dingoes results in an increase in the abundances and impacts of herbivores and invasive mesopredators, most notably the red fox Vulpes vulpes. The loss of dingoes has been linked to widespread losses of small and medium-sized native mammals, the depletion of plant biomass due to the effects of irrupting herbivore populations and increased predation rates by red foxes. We outline a suite of conceptual models to describe the effects of dingoes on vertebrate populations across different Australian environments. Finally, we discuss key issues that require consideration or warrant research before the ecological effects of dingoes can be incorporated formally into biodiversity conservation programs.

Participation in biodiversity conservation: Motivations and barriers of Australian landholders

Biodiversity conservation programs that appeal to landholders’ motivations and minimise their barriers to participation may result in both increased uptake rates and improved ecological outcomes. To understand their motivations and barriers to conserve biodiversity, qualitative interviews were conducted with 45 landholders who had participated in one of three different programs in Queensland, Australia. The results revealed that the landholders’ decisions to participate depended on the level of formal biodiversity protection offered by the program, potential changes to their property rights, personal benefits of participation, and the program objectives. Landholders’ motivations related to conservation, production, financial and experimental imperatives. Common barriers to participation were lost productivity, different interpretations of what constituted “conservation”, and limits to future development and land use options. Voluntary and economic policy instruments can be used to stimulate participation and overcome barriers, but must be applied with care to reduce the creation of perverse ecological outcomes, such as slippage and low additionality.

South-South exchanges enhance resource management and biodiversity conservation at various scales

International conservation organisations have invested considerable resources in fostering biodiversity conservation programs in the humid tropics, the most biologically diverse areas on earth. Recent approaches to conservation have centered on integrated conservation and development projects and participatory resource management programs, co-managed between governments and local communities. But these programs have had only mixed success and often suffer from insufficient quantity or quality of participation by local communities. We pose that participatory resource management is more likely to succeed when community members, 1) gain a global perspective on how their social, economic and environmental conditions compare with peer communities in other similar areas of the world, and thus better understand issues of relative scarcity and the benefits of sustainable resource management, and 2) engage as decision-makers at every stage of the conservation process up to reflective program evaluation. This paper examines the role of South-South exchanges as a tool to achieve these intermediate goals that ultimately foster more effective and participatory conservation and support sustainable local livelihoods. The data are extracted from the initiatives of the authors in two different environments- marine and coastal communities in Central America and the Caribbean, and lowland rainforest communities in the western Amazon of South America. We conclude that the exchanges are effective ways to build stakeholder comprehension about, and meaningful engagement in, resource management. South-South exchanges may also help build multi-local coalitions from various remote areas that together support biodiversity conservation at regional and global scales.

The nexus between sustainable livelihoods and ecological management of the World Heritage Sites: lessons from iSimangaliso World Heritage Park, South Africa

This paper explores the suitability of the ecological management approach to the management of the world heritage sites with an aim of linking sustainable livelihoods of local people and the protection of the resource. There are eight World Heritage Sites in South Africa; two of these, UKhahlamba Drakensberg and iSimangaliso Wetland Park are located in KwaZulu-Natal. The communities that live within and around these World Heritage Sites depend on the sites for their livelihoods through various tourism related activities. There is therefore a need for an approach that integrates biodiversity conservation with local and regional development which ensures sustainable livelihoods for local communities that depend on the resource for their survival. The objectives of the study were four-fold: (a) To explore the possibility of introducing and implementing ecological management at the world heritage sites, (b) To establish the local communities’ understanding of the impacts of human-use on ecosystems and biological resources, (c) To assess the extent to which local communities are involved in biodiversity conservation programmes and (d) To find out if the programmes currently in place are directed at integrating social, economic and environmental issues of the study area. The findings of this study indicate that people living inside and on the buffer of iSimangaliso Wetland Park are aware of the activities that may lead to the degradation of the ecosystems. They are also willing to learn more about the ways in which the resource can be optimally used for their economic survival but at the same time protected from overuse. The findings of the study further indicate that with the common understanding between the site authorities and local communities it is possible that ecological management can be introduced and implemented within the World Heritage Sites.

Does a top predator suppress the abundance of an invasive mesopredator at a continental scale?

Aim We examined evidence for the mesopredator release hypothesis at a subcontinental scale by investigating the relationship between indices of abundance of the dingo Canis lupus dingo (top-order predator) and the invasive red fox Vulpes vulpes (mesopredator) in three large regions across mainland Australia. The red fox is known to be one of the major threats to the persistence of small and medium-sized native vertebrates across the continent. Location Australia. Methods Indices of abundance were calculated from three independently collected datasets derived from bounty returns and field surveys. Data were analysed using univariate parametric, semi-parametric and nonparametric techniques. Results Predator abundance indices did not conform to a normal distribution and the relationships between dingo and fox abundance indices were not well described by linear functions. Semi-parametric and nonparametric techniques revealed consistently negative associations between indices of dingo and fox abundance. Main conclusions The results provide evidence that mesopredator suppression by a top predator can be exerted at very large geographical scales and suggest that relationships between the abundances of top predators and mesopredators are not linear. Our results have broad implications for the management of canid predators. First, they suggest that dingoes function ecologically to reduce the activity or abundance of red foxes and thus are likely to dampen the predatory impacts of foxes. More generally, they provide support for the notion that the mesopredator-suppressive effects of top predators could be incorporated into broad-scale biodiversity conservation programmes in many parts of the world by actively maintaining populations of top predators or restoring them in areas where they are now rare. Determining the population densities at which the interactions of top predators become ecologically effective will be a critical goal for conservation managers who aim to maintain or restore ecosystems using the ecological interactions of top predators.

Assessing the diversity pattern of cryophilous plant species in high elevation habitats

This study aimed to better document the diversity and distribution patterns of vascular cryophilous species across major habitat types in a high-elevation Mediterranean system in central Italy. The research addressed the following questions: (a) whether different habitats support similar levels of biodiversity in terms of total vascular plants richness and cryophilous species richness, and (b) how each habitat contributes to the total cryophilous species diversity. A random stratified sampling approach based on a habitat map was applied to construct rarefaction curves for overall cryophilous species richness and habitat type-specific cryophilous richness. Rarefaction curves were also constructed for all-species and exclusive species. To determine whether the targeted species represented a constant proportion of all species, the ratio between the rarefaction curves of the cryophilous species and all species was also calculated. The results highlight the importance of the different habitat types in overall and cryophilous species conservation because these different habitat types had progressively higher richness values. At the regional scale, steep slopes had the highest species diversity, the greatest exclusive species richness and a steep rarefaction curve. The diversity pattern of cryophilous taxa was not related to the general pattern of total species richness, with these species being more common in three habitat types with extreme environmental conditions: ridges, cliffs, and screes. For the establishment of successful biodiversity conservation programs, it is imperative to include species-poor habitats containing a high proportion of cryophilous species, which are considered to be threatened by climate warming.

Resident Motivations and Willingness-to-Pay for Urban Biodiversity Conservation in Guangzhou (China)

The monetary assessment of biodiversity measures the welfare damages brought by biodiversity losses and the cost-benefit analysis of conservation projects in a socio-economic context. The contingent valuation method could include motivational factors to strengthen economic analysis of nature conservation. This study analyzed Guangzhou residents' motivations and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for an urban biodiversity conservation program in the National Baiyun Mountain Scenic Area (BMSA). The peri-urban natural site, offering refuge to some endemic species, is under increasing development pressures for recreational and residential use. A questionnaire survey was conducted in the Guangzhou metropolitan area during June to October 2007. We interviewed face-to-face 720 stratified sampled households to probe residents' attitudes towards the city's environmental issues, motivations for urban nature conservation, and WTP for biodiversity conservation. Principal component analysis identified five motivational factors, including environmental benefit, ecological diversity, nature-culture interaction, landscape-recreation function, and intergenerational sustainability, which illustrated the general economic values of urban nature. Logistic regression was applied to predict the probability of people being willing to pay for the urban biodiversity conservation in BMSA. The significant predictors of WTP included household income and the factor nature-culture interaction. The median WTP estimated RMB149/household (about US$19.5/household) per year and an aggregate of RMB291 million (approximately US$38.2 million) annually to support the urban conservation project. Including public motivations into contingent valuation presents a promising approach to conduct cost-benefit analysis of public projects in China.

Managing rock outcrops to improve biodiversity conservation in Australian agricultural landscapes

Summary Rocky outcrops are prominent geological features in agricultural landscapes worldwide. Reptiles are a major component of these habitats and some species are restricted to, and more abundant on, rocky outcrops than in remnant vegetation. Rock outcrops are important to reptiles because they provide resources that are often limited in the surrounding landscape (e.g. micro‐gradients in climatic conditions, basking‐ and retreat‐sites). However, there is a knowledge gap in the literature addressing the conservation value of small, rocky outcrops. Management may be necessary to reverse habitat degradation in these systems. We identify four key areas of management that need to be addressed to improve outcrop habitat values and enhance biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. Specific actions involve: (i) protecting outcrops from processes that cause damage to rock microhabitat, (ii) monitoring and managing changes in vegetation structure to maintain thermally suitable environments, (iii) applying integrated pest animal control and (iv) improving matrix management to enhance inselberg function and landscape connectivity. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of different management regimes on outcrop biota. We hope this paper will provide the stimulus for land managers to incorporate rocky outcrops in future biodiversity conservation programmes.

Successional and Seasonal Changes in a Community of Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) in a Brazilian Tropical Dry Forest

We tested the following hypotheses on the dynamics of a dung beetle community in a Brazilian Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest: (1) successional changes of dung beetle community, with species composition, richness and overall abundance increasing with the successional stages; (2) dung beetle community changes between dry and wet seasons, with species composition, richness and abundance decreasing in the dry season. Dung beetles were sampled in 15 plots from three different successional stages in both wet and dry seasons. We sampled a total of 2,752 individuals, representing 38 beetle species and 14 genera. The composition, richness, and abundance of dung beetles changed along the successional gradient and was strongly related to seasonal variation. The highest diversity of dung beetles was found in the intermediate aged forest fragments. These findings highlight the importance of secondary forests to biodiversity conservation and restoration programs in seasonally dry tropical

The Philippine Owl Conservation Programme: Why is it Needed?

The Philippine Archipelago is widely acknowledged as one of the world's major biodiversity and endemism ‘hot-spots’. However, as a result of a burgeoning human population increase and resultant destruction and exploitation of the native forests over the past half century, the Philippines has gone from being one of the most biologically rich areas on earth, to one of the most endangered. Nowhere else in the world has this decline taken place so rapidly. Once, the Philippines had virtually a 100% forest cover, now this figure is down to less than 10%. The significance of this to Philippine owls cannot be overstated. This country has more threatened owls than any other part of the world, and of the 16 species recorded from this archipelago, 14 are almost totally dependent upon this habitat. Unless something is done quickly to protect the last few remaining forest remnants and replant those lost, virtually all of the Philippine owls, and certainly the endemic species, will soon join the New Zealand Laughing Owl Sceloglaux albifacies in the ranks of extinct birds. In an attempt to rectify this situation the World Owl Trust signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Philippine Government to manage the ‘Philippine Owl Conservation Programme’ as part of the overall ‘Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Programme’ overseen by Fauna & Flora International. This has been very successful in carrying out field research, education and conservation-breeding programmes focused on some of the threatened taxa. Another major objective is to involve the local people in conservation initiatives by means of education, providing employment and alternative life-styles.

Ecological thresholds in European alpine lakes

Summary1. Species assemblages of diatoms, rotifers, chydorids, planktonic crustaceans and chironomids were studied in 235 alpine lakes in the Alps, Pyrenees, Tatras (Western Carpathians), Retezat (Southern Carpathians) and Rila Mountains (Balkans).2. For all taxonomic groups we found a hierarchical structure in the community assemblage using distinct scales of lake clustering (number ofk‐means groups) based on species composition similarity (Hellinger distance). We determined the optimal partition in assemblage types (i.e. number of lake clusters) for each taxonomic group by maximising the sum of the taxon indicative value (IndVal) and performed discriminant analyses, using environmental variables not conditioned by geographical patterns. Relevant environmental variables differed among and within taxonomic groups. Therefore the assemblages respond to a complex environmental mosaic, with the exception of diatom assemblages, which followed an acid–base gradient.3. The significant environmental variables could be grouped into four general factors: lake size, tropho‐dynamic status, acid–base balance and ice‐cover duration (i.e., altitudinal gradient). Lake size was significant for the highest number of assemblage types; however, the most significant factor differed among taxonomic groups: acid–base balance for diatoms, lake size for rotifers, ice‐cover duration for chydorids and planktonic crustaceans and tropho‐dynamic status for chironomids. No single environmental typology accounted for the assemblage structure of all taxonomic groups.4. However, defining ecological thresholds as values within environmental gradients at which the rate of change in assemblages is accelerated relative to points distant from that threshold, we were able to find specific threshold values for each of the four main general environmental factors identified, which were relevant across several taxonomic groups: 3 ha for lake area; 0.6 mg L−1for dissolved organic carbon; 190 days for ice‐cover duration and 200 μeq L−1for acid neutralising capacity. Above and below these values ecosystem organisation change substantially. They have direct applications in establishing lake typologies for environmental quality and biodiversity conservation programmes, and in improving predictions about global change impacts.

Effect of mycorrhizae on seedlings of six endemic Mimosa L. species (Leguminosae–Mimosoideae) from the semi-arid Tehuacán–Cuicatlán Valley, Mexico

Mimosa is an important genus of legumes in arid and semi-arid ecosystems of the world, but scarce information is available about its interaction with microbial symbionts. In Mexico, there are no reports on the responsive of endemic Mimosa species to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization. In this study, the AM association with seedlings of six endemic Mimosa species, M. adenantheroides, M. calcicola, M. lacerata, M. luisana, M. polyantha and M. texana var. filipes, is reported. Field conditions were simulated in the greenhouse. Seeds were collected from plants and soil from the localities where the species occur within the semi-arid Tehuacan–Cuicatlan Valley, Mexico. Four treatments were applied: (1) control, (2) benomyl, (3) phosphorus, and (4) benomyl plus phosphorus. Mycorrhizal seedlings of five species, M. adenantheroides, M. lacerata, M. luisana, M. polyantha and M. texana var. filipes, showed a higher shoot and total dry weight than non-mycorrhizal seedlings. The only species that did not show any difference between mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal seedling performance was M. calcicola. M. luisana, M. polyantha and M. texana var. filipes had a higher root/shoot ratio; in general, benomyl treatments promoted seedling biomass allocation to the root, while control, phosphorus and benomyl plus phosphorus treatments decrease root/shoot ratio. Shoot P content was significantly higher in mycorrhizal than in non-mycorrhizal plants, although no significant differences were found for M. adenantheroides in all treatments. Benomyl and benomyl plus phosphorus treatments reduced AM colonization in all the species under study. Benomyl significantly reduced the number of N2-fixing root nodules, while the phosphorus treatment generally stimulated nodulation. The species M. lacerata, M. luisana, M. polyantha and M. texana var. filipes had a high mycorrhizal dependency index indicating that plant growth was strongly increased by arbuscular mycorrhiza activity. Our results indicate that the response of all Mimosa species to mycorrhization was highly variable. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the effect of AM fungi and phosphorus on Mimosa species, which may be useful in biodiversity and soil conservation programs.

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of conservation: The UK Biodiversity Action Plan

Ecological and economic evaluation should be a key component of biodiversity conservation programmes since it underpins the efficient allocation of resources. However, most such programmes are not currently assessed in terms of the rate of return on investment that they provide. The UK Government launched the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in 1994. We collected data from those responsible for monitoring this programme, then used a form of cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency at meeting the targets of individual Species Action Plans. In this context, effectiveness refers to the goal of maximising total conservation gains, whereas efficiency refers to maximising conservation gain per unit cost. We define the latter as a basic economic objective for conservation resource allocation. We find that the distribution of spending across plans was highly biased towards vertebrates and there was no correlation between cost and effectiveness. Non-vertebrate plans tended to be more efficient than vertebrate plans. However, following a species utility-based weighting, this tendency was less pronounced and a significant positive correlation between cost and effectiveness emerged. Nevertheless, this evidence suggests that the efficiency of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan could be improved by correcting the imbalance in spending between vertebrate and non-vertebrate plans. This study highlights the importance of effective monitoring and reporting in determining the utility of biodiversity conservation programmes. It demonstrates how explicit cost-effectiveness analysis can be used to evaluate such programmes, and shows that it could also be adapted to accommodate other forms of ecological and social value.

Does a top‐predator provide an endangered rodent with refuge from an invasive mesopredator?

AbstractIn arid environments, ecological refuges are often conceptualised as places where animal species can persist through drought owing to the localised persistence of moisture and nutrients. The mesopredator release hypothesis (MRH) predicts that reduced abundance of top‐order predators results in an increase in the abundance of smaller predators (mesopredators) and consequently has detrimental impacts on the prey of the smaller predators. Thus according to the MRH, the existence of larger predators may provide prey with refuge from predation. In this study, we investigated how the abundance of an endangered rodent Notomys fuscus is affected by Australia's largest predator, the dingo Canis lupus dingo, introduced mesopredators, introduced herbivores, kangaroos and rainfall. Our surveys showed that N. fuscus was more abundant where dingoes occurred. Generalised linear modelling showed that N. fuscus abundance was associated positively with dingo activity and long‐term annual rainfall and negatively with red fox Vulpes vulpes activity. Our results were consistent with the hypothesis that areas with higher rainfall and dingoes provide N. fuscus with refuge from drought and predation by invasive red foxes, respectively. Top‐order predators, such as dingoes, could have an important functional role in broad‐scale biodiversity conservation programmes by reducing the impacts of mesopredators.

Assembling the Tree of Life in Europe (AToLE)

AbstractA network of scientists under the umbrella of 'Assembling the Tree of Life in Europe (AToLE)' seeks funding under the FP7-Theme: Cooperation - Environment (including Climate Change and Biodiversity Conservation) programme of the European Commission.

Gender identification of five genera of stingless bees (Apidae, Meliponini) based on wing morphology

Currently, the identification of pollinators is a critical necessity of conservation programs. After it was found that features extracted from patterns of wing venation are sufficient to discriminate among insect species, various studies have focused on this structure. We examined wing venation patterns of males and workers of five stingless bee species in order to determine if there are differences between sexes and if these differences are greater within than between species. Geometric morphometric analyses were made of the forewings of males and workers of Nannotrigona testaceicornis, Melipona quadrifasciata, Frieseomelitta varia, and Scaptotrigona aff. depilis and Plebeia remota. The patterns of males and workers from the same species were more similar than the patterns of individuals of the same sex from different species, and the patterns of both males and workers, when analyzed alone, were sufficiently different to distinguish among these five species. This demonstrates that we can use this kind of analysis for the identification of stingless bee species and that the sex of the individual does not impede identification. Computer-assisted morphometric analysis of bee wing images can be a useful tool for biodiversity studies and conservation programs.