title: Conservation challenges for the Austral and Neotropical America section.
abstract: The Austral and Neotropical America (ANA) section of the Society for Conservation Biology includes a vast territory with some of the largest relatively pristine ecosystems in the world. With more than 573 million people, the economic growth of the region still depends strongly on natural resource exploitation and still has high rates of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. A survey among the ANA section membership, with more than 700 members, including most of the section's prominent ecologists and conservationists, indicates that lack of capacity building for conservation, corruption, and threats such as deforestation and illegal trade of species, are among the most urgent problems that need to be addressed to improve conservation in the region. There are, however, strong universities and ecology groups taking the lead in environmental research and conservation, a most important issue to enhance the ability of the region to solve conservation and development conflicts.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apartado Postal, México. gceballo@ecologia.unam.mx
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ceballos
authors.forename: Mariana M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Vale
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonacic
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Calvo-Alvarado
authors.forename: Rurik
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: List
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bynum
authors.forename: Rodrigo A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Medellín
authors.forename: Javier A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Simonetti
authors.forename: Jon Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D013020:South America; D014329:Tropical Climate