Conservation of endemic species in the national system of protected areas from Nicaragua

Nicaragua, in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), agreed to establish a “Representative system of protected areas that adequately conserve biodiversity and terrestrial, marine and inland water ecosystems”. Pursuant to the above, we conducted a Gap Analysis of Biodiversity Conservation for the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) of Nicaragua, focused on terrestrial and inland water ecosystems as well as on terrestrial species. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the conservation status of the endemic species in the national system of protected areas of Nicaragua. The groups considered for analysis were plants, mollusks, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Data presented came from reviewing books, scientific papers, management plans of protected areas and unpublished reports by the authors, and nearly 140 websites. Of the 75 plant species and 31 animal species considered in the analysis, 25 species have some distribution points within the SINAP (ten of them have only one point). There are 81 species apparently absent from the SINAP. Nicaraguan endemic species are severely unprotected.

Nicaragua, in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (CBD, 2004), agreed to establish a "Representative system of protected areas that adequately conserve biodiversity and terrestrial, marine and inland water ecosystems", therefore must be implemented steps for the conservation of highly threatened ecosystems (MARENA, 2011;Pérez, Siria & Sotelo, 2005).Pursuant to the above, we conducted a Gap Analysis of Biodiversity Conservation for the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) of Nicaragua, focused on terrestrial, inland water ecosystems as well as terrestrial species, to help preserve them properly (MARENA, 2011).
Nicaragua is one of the countries with the highest biodiversity in the region, despite the lack of studies on this topic, as well as of programs of long-term biodiversity monitoring (Perez, 2004;Pérez, 2008).According to recent data it has about 12 493 species of animals (10 625 species of invertebrates and 1 868 of vertebrates) and 5 796 species of higher plants (Pérez, 2011).Of this total there are 200 endemic species of which 104 are plants and the other animals (MARENA, 2011).Endemism is understood in the sense of Brown and Lomolino (1998), who argue that endemic species are those strictly located in an area that can be highly variable of extension, usually specific locations or geographical areas (Mayr & Ashlock, 1993).
According to the map of ecosystems prepared by the CCAD according to UNESCO (1973), in Central America there are 114 types of ecosystems, including 65 forests, 19 types of grasslands, 9 shrub-lands, 7 types of savannas, and 14 aquatic ecosystems, including freshwater and marine.Of this total there are 68 types represented in Nicaragua (MARENA, 2001) for a 60% of the total present in the region.
This paper presents the results on the analysis about the conservation status of endemic species in the National System of Protected Areas of Nicaragua.The groups considered for analysis were plants, mollusks, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.All protected areas belonging to the SINAP were considered.
The data presented came from reviewing books, scientific papers, management plans of protected areas, unpublished reports by the authors, and some 140 websites checked.Of the total of 104 plant species endemic to the country cited only 77 could be taken into account in the analysis because the rest lacked any coordinates.The endemic taxa of Nicaragua in contrast to the total number of species per group are presented in Table 1.In the case of birds there are no endemic species cited for Nicaragua (Martínez-Sánchez, 2007).
The distribution of all endemic species is presented in Figure 1.As can be seen, although there is data presence throughout the country, the area with most points is the North-Central region.Unexpectedly, in the Department of Chontales and specifically in Amerrisque protected area, with a low level of ecological integrity (MARENA, 2011) a large number of endemic species are present.The existence of gaps in the Atlantic area is probably due more to lack of information than to lack of endemism.In the case of fauna groups, spatial coverage in the country is much wider than in flora.

Flora
One thing to note is that the distribution has a zoned influence: northern species have greater influence in the North-central zone of Nicaragua with vegetation of cloud forests and pine-oak; the Pacific Zone has almost exclusive elements of the vegetation from Tehuantepec, and the Atlantic region, where species have spread from the jungles of Yucatan, added to the dry zone species just entering.Mesoamerican endemics occur most abundantly in the Atlantic and North-central regions, and its presence is lower in the Pacific region, many species endemic to the Atlantic area are in the Southeast Reserve and are shared with Costa Rica and Panama.

Mollusk fauna
According to Perez (2002) and Perez and Lopez (2002) on continental mollusks of Nicaragua endemism is associated with: 1.In the Pacific: the volcanic lakes of the region.
2. In the North Central region: the tops of many hills.
3. A particular case in the Pacific: an endemic to the islets of Granada.
The case of point 3 is Pseudopeas sp., a species new to science, which is distributed in a single point, one of the islets of Granada.This type of endemism, so closely located, indicates that if this species is removed product to disappearance or alteration of its habitat will be lost from the face of the earth without having had the opportunity to be known and studied its possible importance.This example illustrates in a clear way, the importance of conservation to the maintenance of biodiversity.

Herpetofauna
The endemism on reptiles and amphibians is mostly associated with elevations of the northern zone (Nototriton Saslaya, Rhadinaea rogerromani, Geophis dunni, Norops wermuthi) (Köhler, 2002;2003) and the Mombacho Volcano in the Pacific slope (Bolitoglossa mombachonesis).Endemism also has elements associated with islands, as Bolitoglossa insularis, of Ometepe Island, Anolis villai, cited only from Corn Island, and Lithobates miadis, from Little Corn Island.There are also two endemic species on this group described from the Atlantic region: Craugastor chingopetaca and Bolitoglossa indio, and, taking into account the biology of this group, predictions suggest that future studies in this area of the country will lead to the discovery of new species of reptiles and amphibians to science (Köhler, 2003).

Birds
Although there are no endemic species in this group, Nicaragua has 14 species of restricted distribution according to the criteria of Birdlife International (2000)  nicaraguensis, Thryothorus atrogularis, Troglodytes rufociliatus, and Trogon clathratus, all with a range of distribution of less than 50 000 km 2 .

Mastozoofauna
Mammals are the group of wildlife that has less endemism after birds, where no endemic species are present in Nicaragua.It probably happens because after birds, mammals are the second most vagile group of animals and with larger species.Endemic species are usually small in size and are mostly associated with the highlands of the North Central region of the country.The distribution of all endemism of fauna groups can be seen in Figure 2.

Protected areas and endemic species
An important aspect to mention is the geographical asymmetry existing in the location of sites with records of endemic species in the country.There is a higher number of distribution points in the Pacific and the North-Central region than in the Atlantic region.
Of the 75 plant species and 31 animal species considered in the analysis for a total of 106 species analyzed, 25 species have some distribution points within the SINAP, for a 23,58%, of those 25 species, 10 species (40%) have only one point within the SINAP.Moreover, we have 81 species (76,41%), which has no distribution points within the SINAP (Table 2, Fig. 1).Thus, we can conclude that our endemic species are severely unprotected.
As pointed out by Dudley and Parrish (2005) and Grooves et al. (2000), in the case of wildlife, conservation targets of "fine filter", it is difficult to try to preserve 10% of its current extent, since in many cases only scarce and / or fragmented data on the distribution of species is available for most countries of the region.
Given the difficulties of proposing some figure of territorial conservation for endemic species, urges more complete studies within and outside protected areas that allow us to know their distribution as completely as possible in order to develop their plans for long-term preservation, the latter could consider the promulgation of Private Reserves (RSP), Municipal Ecological Parks (PEM) or other figures at the municipal level.

TABLE 1
Species endemic to Nicaragua in the groups studied.