29 Jun
2006 - Juruena National Park, Brazil – A WWF expedition
into the newly created Juruena National Park deep
in the Amazon forest has revealed several potentially
new species to science.
Following a preliminary survey,
expedition scientists from Brazil's National Institute
for Amazon Research and the Amazonas Secretariat
for the Environment and Sustainable Development
discovered two new frog, fish and bird species,
one tree species and one primate.
"These are exciting discoveries,"
said Claudio Maretti, WWF-Brazil's Coordinator
for Protected Areas.
"But to confirm that the
species are really new to science we have to carry
out a series of tests," he cautioned. "This
will be done as soon as the expedition comes to
a close."
Identification of some endemic
flora and fauna species was anticipated by most
of the researchers visiting the area, which is
difficult to access and has hardly been studied
up to the present day.
In addition to these potentially
new scientific discoveries, experts on the expedition
came across 200 species of birds, ocelots (wild
cats), and a pink dolphin.
"Finding a pink dolphin
was a complete surprise since we didn't imagine
that this animal lived in the area," Maretti
said.
The Amazon river dolphin, one
of the world's three freshwater dolphins, is widely
distributed throughout much of the Amazon and
Orinoco river basins. Its habitat, however, is
threatened by river development projects, and
is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species.
In addition to the river dolphin,
there are at least 40,000 plant species, 427 mammals,
including jaguars, anteaters and giant otters,
1,294 birds, 378 reptiles, 427 amphibians and
around 3,000 fish found in the Amazon.
Covering 1.9 million hectares,
the establishment of the Juruena National Park
is part of ongoing efforts by the Amazon Region
Protected Areas (ARPA) Programme, a large-scale
conservation programme aimed at creating and supporting
a system of well-managed protected areas and sustainable
natural resource management reserves in the Amazon.
ARPA is a partnership between
the Brazilian government, the World Bank, Global
Environment Facility, German Development Bank,
Brazilian Biodiversity Fund and WWF.
The Juruena National Park expedition
was an initiative of WWF-Brazil's Protected Areas
Programme, together with Brazil's Institute for
the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources
(IBAMA); the Amazonas Secretariat for the Environment
and Sustainable Development (SDS-AM), with support
from ICV (Centro da Vida Institute) and WWF-Germany.
Mariana Ramos
