Conservation Group Aims to Save Hundreds of Rare Species

Conservation organizations from around the world have joined together to create the Alliance for Zero Extinction, an initiative that focuses on preventing extinctions by identifying and protecting key sites that are the last remaining habitat for one or more endangered species. The Alliance for Zero Extinction is currently focusing on the species and sites in most urgent need of protection.

The Alliance for Zero Extinction used three basic criteria to identify critical sites in need of immediate protection, endangerement, irreplaceability, and discreteness. They defined these criteria as follows:

• endangerment: Site contains at least one endangered or critically endangered species (as designated by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
• irreplaceability: Site is the sole area where an endangered or critically endangered species occurs and a significant portion of the population resides there or relies on the site for breeding or wintering.
• discreteness: Site has a definable boundary within which its habitats, biological communities, or management issues are discrete or distinguishable from the surrounding areas.

There are 794 endangered species that live within the sites identified by the AZE's study. The following are some of the species that live within the key sites:

• Maui parrotbill (Pseudonestor xanthophrys)
• Whooping crane (Grus americana)
• Golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli)
• Rodrigues flying fox (Pteropus rodricensis)
• Worthen's sparrow (Spizella wortheni)
• Fuertes’s parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi)

You can find a complete database of the species that live within the AZE designated sites at the AZE's database Web page.

The AZE is made up of conservation organizations from around the world and includes some of the most active participants in species protection today:

• American Bird Conservancy
• BirdLife International
• Conservation International
• Island Conservation and Ecology Group
• National Audubon Society
• Wildlife Conservation Society

The AZE recommends to those wishing to contribute to their efforts to save the habitats and species, that they should contribute to one of their member organizations. For a full list of AZE members, refer to the AZE Membership List.

View photos of sites and species →

Find out more:

• AZE Map of Key Sites (Alliance for Zero Extinction)
• Pinpointing and Preventing Imminent Extinctions (Alliance for Zero Extinction)

Photo © Fundación ProAves