Welcome to the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS)
Linking Science and Action to Guide the Conservation of Nature Worldwide
The Center for Applied Biodiversity Science (CABS) is Conservation International's hub of scientific research. Our world-renowned scientists develop the tools required to protect Earth’s biodiversity and ensure that conservation action is based on sound, reliable, and verifiable science.
The ongoing changes that threaten the Amazon Wilderness—agriculture, logging, climate change—will likely be intensified under a South American initiative to build roads and other infrastructure across the continent. The Perfect Storm: Development and Conservation in the Context of the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA) is a new publication by CABS scientist Tim Killeen, who reviews the impact of this initiative on the biodiversity and communities of the region and proposes strategies for how IIRSA, as a visionary and much-needed plan for economic development, could be even more effective for the long-term conservation and wealth of the region.
RAP 47: A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Ghana
The Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) has published findings from its survey of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve in Ghana. Survey findings show Atewa to hold intact Upland Evergreen forest providing habitat to a wealth of forest species including the Critically Endangered frog Conraua derooi, 17 rare butterfly species, the first Ghanaian record of Nimba flycatcher (Melaenornis annamarulae), and nine species new to science: a spider tick whose lineage is as old as the dinosaurs and eight species of katydids.
Identification and Gap Analysis of Key Biodiversity Areas
KBAs provide a scientific basis to indicate where our world’s most threatened species and areas are located so that we can prioritize our conservation activities. CABS scientists co-authored a guideline detailing the principles of KBA identification as part of the Best Practice Protected Areas Guidelines Series produced.
Nature's Care: Diarrhea, Watershed Protection, and Biodiversity Conservation in Flores, Indonesia
As part of its research on ecosystem services, CABS has published an article that proves the value of protected areas in reducing water-borne disease, documenting a direct correlation between water supply from protected forests and diarrheal disease. The paper, by Subhrendu Pattanayak and Kelly Wendland, appears in the journal Biodiversity Conservation.
