Several of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science projects reflect the efforts to address threats to biodiversity at regional and local levels. For example, CABS researchers are working with specialists in the South Africa to model the impact of climate change on the Succulent Karoo and Cape Floristic biodiversity hotspots.
With a consortium of partners (including the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, The Jane Goodall Institute, World Wildlife Fund (US), and the Wildlife Conservation Society), CABS has also helped launch the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force to address the most significant immediate threat to wildlife populations in West and Central Africa today.
In West Africa, CABS and its partners are now engaging local and regional decision makers in building strategies that will curb the growing commercial trade of bushmeat and other wildlife products in that region by funding pilot initiatives investigating some of the possible solutions for the crisis.
In Brazil, a multidisciplinary team in collaborative research funded by CABS, PROBIO (an initiative on biodiversity by the Government of Brazil) and the World Bank is studying conservation of the Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia.
CABS is now actively involved in the Tropical Andes, which is arguably the richest biodiversity hotspot in the world. Also rich in ethnic and cultural diversity, it is home to 165 different ethnic forest-dweller groups. CABS and other CI researchers are studying the biological, economic, political, and cultural systems in this region, and helping to construct methods to assist indigenous communities to implement sound natural resource management plans that support biodiversity conservation goals.
CABS is also working on issues related to the effectiveness of forest protection in Africa as well as examining how reforestation can play a role in conservation strategies in the Philippines and other threatened hotspots.
