Abstract
The archipelago of Comoro is characterized by a rich and original biodiversity, with an endemic level capable of exceeding 70% in certain groups. These islands are subject to an intense degradation of natural habitats, undisturbed forests representing only a few isolated fragments, mostly in altitude. To face these degradations a network of protected areas has been set up in Mayotte and is at planning stage on three other islands. Still, neither the impact of degradations on species with natural heritage value for the Comoro, nor the relevance of the network of protected areas have been evaluated other than on other groups of superior vertebrates, even though these only represent a small part of the biodiversity. Relying on less known groups (flowering plants, terrestrial molluscs, arachnids, hemiptera and orthoptera), nonetheless representative of the richness and originality of the archipelago, this project aims to answer three questions crucial for the development of an efficient preservation politics in the archipelago: - What is really left of the indigenous biodiversity of the Comoro Islands? - What is the relevance of existing or planned protected areas? - Where should the focus for preservation actions be set and what are the priorities for species preservation in order to reach maximum efficiency within a context of limited human and financial resources? The evaluation of the distribution and the status of species preservation will be based on data collected during field missions, lead by the project investigators and the students and technicians of the Comoro Islands trained for this task. But the work presented exceeds the simple inventory of the actual situation of biodiversity in the Comoro Islands, since it also presents a diachronic aspect, thus giving a distance of more than a century for estimating the evolution of flora and fauna. It presents several innovative aspects, in the assessment of data as well as their subsequent processing: (i) Techniques of bioacoustics for the inventory of insects (ii) The use of the recognizable taxonomic Units for the exploitation of data on the communities’ richness (iii) Analysis of results through modelling of ecologic nests in order to estimate the relevance of the network of protected areas The knowledge developed will make it possible to refine national and protective approaches and direct the strategy and preservation plans, for plants in particular. This project equally takes into account the socio-cultural dimension of preservation in the Comorian context, since it anticipates to heighten the awareness of environment managers, but also to create a sociological approach towards the problematics of biodiversity preservation. The transfer of knowledge is an important aspect of this project, since managers, teachers and Comorian students will be integrated in the work in the field as well as in the laboratory. Besides scientific publications the results will be displayed on the website of the Centre for Exchange on Biodiversity of the Comoro Islands and of the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information System), and a part of the assessed data will be sent to local institutions. The GIS set up during this project will be handed over to a Comorian organization.
France