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with the IUCN Species Strategic Plan – to support
the implementation of the Species Conservation Cycle
(Assess–Plan–Act, Communicate and Network).
The initial membership of the Specialist Group com-
prises Indonesian experts, mostly from western
Indonesia and working on mammals, birds, reptiles, amphi-
bians and plants. During the workshop, we identified key ac-
tivities under the Species Conservation Cycle to be
implemented by :() Assess: to support comprehensive
evaluation of biodiversity status by creating guidelines of
the IUCN Red List assessment process in Bahasa
Indonesia and arranging expert regional training to con-
duct assessments. () Plan: to prioritize and formulate ac-
tion plans for Indonesian native, threatened and endemic
species. () Act: to support and catalyse initiatives to con-
serve priority species by conducting training on species
conservation planning and guiding the implementation of
the plan. () Network: for the Specialist Group to be an ef-
fective and well-coordinated platform to facilitate collabo-
ration among Indonesian experts and establish equitable
partnerships with international experts. () Communicate:
to arrange regular webinars and outreach activities to show-
case the work of the members and to increase awareness
among the public about Indonesian biodiversity. The
Indonesia Species Specialist Group is hosted in the Center
for Transdisciplinary and Sustainability Sciences, IPB
University. We hope the establishment of this new Specialist
Group may inspire similar initiatives across the Global South.
SHEHERAZADE (sheherazade.jayadi@gmail.com),
MIRZA DIKARI KUSRINI ,SUNARTO SUNARTO ,
RAHAYU OKTAVIANI ,YOKYOK HADIPRAKARSA ,CELIA
NOVA FELICITY,DEDE AULIA RAHMAN ,AKBAR A. DIGDO ,
AMIR HAMIDY,ANI MARDIASTUTI ,FREDDY PATTISELLANO,
KUSUMA DEWI S. YULITA ,MOHAMMAD MUKHLIS KAMAL ,
CAHYO RAHMADI and DAMAYANTI BUCHORI
IUCN Species Survival Commission Indonesia Species
Specialist Group, Bogor, Indonesia
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Conservation status and priorities for Sulawesi’s
unique small mammal fauna
The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is a hotspot of small
mammal endemism. It is home to native species of ro-
dents (Muridae and Sciuridae) and shrews (Soricidae),
of which occur nowhere else. The majority of these are
threatened, Data Deficient or newly described and thus little
studied. To address these knowledge gaps, the IUCN Species
Survival Commission (SSC) Small Mammal Specialist
Group hosted a -day Sulawesi Small Mammal Workshop
in West Java in May . It was funded by Re:wild and
an IUCN SSC Internal Grant, and attended by scientists
and conservation practitioners familiar with Sulawesi’s
taxa, regions and communities.
The workshop first focused on updating Red List assess-
ments for submission later this year. It is anticipated that
c. species will undergo a category change, including
that were previously categorized as Data Deficient. Many
of these assessments relied on distribution data available
from recent museum- and university-led surveys of unstud-
ied mountains. Yet, most of Sulawesi’s small mammals re-
main poorly known, with location, population and threat
information largely lacking.
In line with the IUCN SSC’s Assess–Plan–Act framework,
participants also identified conservation and research
needs. An important priority is to improve knowledge of
the distribution and ecology of certain species, such as the
Sulawesi water rat Waiomys mamasae, known to science
from a single specimen (Rowe et al., ,Zootaxa,,
–). Authors FF and MRTJPN are developing a project
for this rodent.
Some species are imperiled by unquantified threats. For
example, the two species of Echiothrix are thought to inhabit
areas where the impacts of forest conversion for agriculture
and expanding mining activities are undocumented and
which are consequently a priority for study. Other key pri-
orities include investigating hunting pressure on rodents,
increasing area protection in collaboration with local com-
munities, and raising awareness of, and nurturing pride in,
the exceptional level of endemism and richness of Sulawesi’s
small mammals.
Overall, considerable gaps remain in small mammal re-
search within globally significant hotspots such as Sulawesi.
The various outputs of this workshop—including efforts to
build capacity and support local researchers and conserva-
tionists—will bring a greater focus to the island’s endemic
shrews and rodents.
The endemic heavenly hill rat Bunomys coelestis, categorized as
Endangered. Photo: Heru Handika.
690 Conservation news
Oryx
, 2023, 57(6), 689–700 ©The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001059
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605323001059 Published online by Cambridge University Press
ANANG S. ACHMADI
1
,FAHRI FAHRI
2
,
ABIGAIL GAZZARD
3,4
(abi.gazzard@durrell.org),
HERU HANDIKA
5
,NURUL INAYAH
1
,ROSALIND
J. KENNERLEY
3,4
,ASNIM ALYOIHANA LANUSI
6
,MEIS NANGOY
7
,
MUHAMMAD RIZALDI TRIAS JAYA PUTRA NURDIN
8
,KEVIN
C. ROWE
9
and SHEHERAZADE
6,10
1
Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Bogor, Indonesia.
2
Tadulako University, Palu, Indonesia.
3
IUCN Species
Survival Commission Small Mammal Specialist Group,
Gland, Switzerland.
4
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust,
Jersey, UK.
5
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, USA.
6
Progres, Luwuk, Indonesia.
7
Sam
Ratulangi University, Manado, Indonesia.
8
University of
West Sulawesi, Majene, Indonesia.
9
Museums Victoria
Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
10
University of
California, Berkeley, California, USA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
New IUCN Species Survival Commission Colombia
Fungal Specialist Group
The IUCN Species Survival Commission Colombia Fungal
Specialist Group was launched on April .Thisna-
tional group aims to secure the conservation, manage-
ment and, where necessary, the recovery of Colombian
funga by mobilizing technical and scientific expertise,
building networks and partnerships, and raising aware-
ness of the importance of fungi, their applications, and
the benefits they bring to humanity, as well as the threats
they currently face. This new Specialist Group comprises
a diverse group of specialists who will act collectively for
the conservation of fungi in Colombia, and facilitate
evidence-based decision-making for preventing the
extinction of species.
Colombia is home to , known species across
the various Kingdoms and has two global biodiversity
hotspots. With high rates of endemism, the country is a
priority region for global biodiversity conservation, and it
faces diverse anthropogenic transformations, including
habitat fragmentation, loss and degradation, overexploita-
tion, invasive species, pollution and climate change.
Although there has been an increase in the efforts of the
Colombian mycological community to highlight the import-
ance of fungal conservation, there is still a long way to go to
ensure that fungi are included in conservation plans and
actions. So far, , species of fungi have been reported for
the country, but only species have been assessed for the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There is still no official
national Red List assessment for fungi in Colombia, and there
are no records of threatened species in the Colombian
government’s Conservation Action Plan.
The Colombia Fungal Specialist Group seeks to promote
actions such as holding IUCN workshops to assess the
extinction risk of species, training specialists in the app-
lication of the criteria and categories, and disseminating
the importance of fungal conservation in Colombia. We in-
vite researchers, students, communities, stakeholders and
practitioners to contact us with questions, requests for
support or ideas for new collaborations.
VIVIANA MOTATO-VÁSQUEZ
1,2,3
(viviana.motato@
correounivalle.edu.co), AIDA MARCELA VASCO-PALACIOS
2,3,4
,
CATIA CANTEIRO
2,5
and GREGORY M. MUELLER
2,6
1
Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle, Cali,
Colombia.
2
IUCN Species Survival Commission Fungal
Conservation Committee.
3
IUCN Species Survival
Commission Colombian Fungal Specialist Group.
4
Grupo de
Microbiología Ambiental and grupo BIOMICRO, Escuela de
Microbiología, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín,
Colombia.
5
Global Center for Species Survival, Indianapolis
Zoo, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
6
Chicago Botanic Garden,
Glencoe, Illinois, USA
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.
Rediscovery of a tiny plant species reinforces the
need to protect Serra do Padre Ângelo in south-east
Brazil
Serra do Padre Ângelo, a quartzitic mountain complex
in the Doce River valley, eastern Minas Gerais state in
south-east Brazil, has recently attracted the attention of biol-
ogists as a result of the discovery of several new plant and
animal species, many of them endemic to these mountains.
These discoveries have mainly followed the description of
the sundew Drosera magnifica (Droseraceae)—discovered
through photographs posted on the social network
Facebook—from these mountains. It is the largest sundew
in the Americas, endemic to Serra do Padre Ângelo and
categorized nationally as Critically Endangered (Gonella
et al., ,Phytotaxa,,–). These mountains
nevertheless remain unprotected and are susceptible to
wildfires and deforestation.
In the last years, data have been collected to support
the formal protection of Serra do Padre Ângelo, with
., plant specimens collected. Among these was a
tiny plant of the family Eriocaulaceae, collected for the
first time in June .InMay we identified it as
Paepalanthus minimus after comparison with the type
specimen in the herbarium of the National Museum, Rio
de Janeiro. The species had previously been collected
only once, over years ago and nearly km from
the new record.
We assess the species as Critically Endangered, as it is
likely to be locally extinct in the site where the type specimen
was collected and, at the rediscovery site, the population is
small, unprotected, and threatened by invasive grasses and
Conservation news 691
Oryx
, 2023, 57(6), 689–700 ©The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001138
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605323001059 Published online by Cambridge University Press