The Nature Conservancy

 

First project agreement   | Second project agreement  | Proposal    

 

Thematic Network:

Ecosystems

Country:

Costa Rica

1.      Summary:

The Nature Conservancy has recently completed a comprehensive ecoregional assessment of biodiversity and threat status of Central America. Faced with the lack of spatial data and tools and the urgent management needs of local organizations, the team developed a science-based approach to conduct the regional assessment. Ecosystem, landscape and species level biodiversity elements, known as targets, that represent a full spectrum of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity were identified and mapped using combinations of biophysical factors such as climate, geology, land elevation and ocean depth.  Satellite imagery was used to create and validate habitat maps that were reviewed by local experts.  Human activities were mapped and validated to provide a set of environmental risk maps that were used as conservation area suitability maps.  Appropriate models were used for the three sets of biodiversity in the freshwater, terrestrial and marine environments.  Project results were reviewed and developed into a portfolio of conservation areas that met the conservation objectives.  These results indicate important areas to protect as well as threat status of critical ecoregions. One of the outcomes was a detailed map of the various terrestrial ecosystems. It is proposed that the ecosystems from the Central American Pine-Oak ecoregion be standardized and entered into the IABIN standard format. The general aim of this analysis is to test the standardization process and also to enrich The IABIN Ecosystem Thematic Network (ETN).

2.      Period:

September 11, 2009-Octuber 14, 2010

3.      Amount:

USD$ 14,066

4.      State:

Completed

5.      Coordinator:

Steven R Schill , Pablo Petri , Lenin Corrales , Maarten Kappelle

Deliverables

Progress report 

Final report 

 

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This page was last updated on Thursday February 17, 2011.