Over a thousand Brazilian animal species face extinction

The Ministry of Environment marked the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22 by announcing the findings of an extinction risk assessment on Brazilian fauna, which monitored more than 7,600 species between 2010 and 2014.

In total, 929 experts from Brazil and worldwide were involved in the survey. They found out that 1,051 species – 14% of the total surveyed – are still endangered, 121 of them critically. Moreover, 73% of the threatened species are in conservation areas or projects within the national conservancy program.

The president of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), Roberto Vizentin, said that creating conservation areas is crucial to protect species “in a country where natural habitats are dynamically occupied.”

In order to step up the conservation efforts within these areas, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has authorized spending up to 10% of environmental compensation funds (collected as indemnities from large, environmentally impacting enterprises during the licensing phase) on activities aimed at the conservation of endangered species. “We have gone from 1,022 to over 7,000 cataloged species, and we want to raise this number to some 14,000 or 15,000. This will require medium- and long-term strategies, networks to survey priority areas, and resources. So we're committing resources to the conservation areas for surveying and protecting these species,” she said.

The minister reported that 77 species have been ticked off the list of endangered species, with an updated list to be published by ICMBio later this year. One of them is the humpback whale. According to Teixeira, a combination of actions have helped remove the threat to the species, including “a long-term strategy to strengthen protection and ban capturing, and a broad conservancy program carried out by the Humpback Whale Institute (Instituto Baleia Jubarte) to study the behavior of the species, map its migration routes, and introduce handling and conservancy actions in these areas.”

The Brazilian government has also announced a global campaign to create an International Whale Sanctuary in the South Atlantic. A proposal will be reviewed by the International Whaling Commission in September aimed at preventing commercial whaling in the South Atlantic, where an international whaling moratorium is still in force.

Additionally, the ministry has come up with a series of policies to protect the entire Brazilian fauna, including the creation of a special task force to combat illegal trafficking of endangered species. Teixeira announced that the Environmental Protection Institute (IBAMA), ICMBio, the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police have already put permanent efforts in place to protect the Amazonian manatee, the Amazon river dolphin, Lear's indigo macaw, the jaguar, and the three-banded armadillo.

Finally, the ministry announced the creation of a National Biodiversity Award, a quarterly grant (Bolsa Verde) for communities located in relevant areas for conservancy, and the reintroduction of West Indian manatees in the Caribbean.

Translated by Mayra Borges

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