Conservation Groups, Including National Audubon Society, Rally to Safeguard Hundreds of Imperiled Species

Reprinted from the Audubon Newswire

The National Audubon Society is joining conservation groups around the world to help stave off an imminent extinction crisis. New research, published December 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org), shows that safeguarding 595 sites would save hundreds of Earth's species.

Conducted by scientists working with the 52 member organizations of the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE - http://www.zeroextinction.org), of which Audubon is a member, the study identifies 794 species threatened with imminent extinction, each of which is in need of urgent conservation action at a single remaining site on Earth.

AZE sites and bird species in the United States include: Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, winter home to the endangered Whooping Crane; Gunnison Basin in Colorado, where the endangered Gunnison's Sage Grouse can be found; and the Cache River Area in Arkansas, where the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was rediscovered.

Globally, particular concentrations of sites are also found in Hawaii, the Andes of South America, in Brazil's Atlantic Forests, throughout the Caribbean, and in Madagascar. "This report gives us the opportunity to concentrate our conservation efforts on the species and sites most likely to disappear in the next few years," said Greg Butcher, director of Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society. "We can't afford to pass up this chance."

For more information about AZE, including a list of current members, go to http://www.zeroextinction.org/.