About the GAA
Project Overview
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Methods
   Data Collection
   Data Review
   Data Consolidation
   Data Analysis
Future Steps
Use and Citation

Methods

The Global Amphibian Assessment has been implemented in four main stages:

1. Data Collection
2. Data Review
3. Data Consolidation
4. Data Analysis

For every amphibian species currently known, the following data were collected (see Description of Data for further information).

• Species classification
• Geographic range (including a distribution map)
• Red List Category and Criteria
• Population information
• Habitat preferences
• Major threats
• Conservation measures
• Species utilization
• Other general information
• Key literature references

The task of collecting the initial data was divided into 33 geographic regions that were defined to cover the global distribution of all amphibians. Regional coordinators were then appointed with responsibility for collecting data on all the amphibians in their region.

Table 1. The regional coordinators for the initial data collection.

Definitions for the more complex regions listed above are as follows:

• Africa includes all countries in Africa except Madagascar and the Seychelles.
• Atlantic Forest-Cerrado-Caatinga includes all of Brazil, except the Amazon Basin.
• Borneo includes Brunei, Kalimantan ( Indonesia) and Sabah and Sarawak ( Malaysia).
• Caribbean includes Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos Islands, British and U.S. Virgin Islands.
• China and the Koreas includes China, North Korea and South Korea.
• Europe includes Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• Northern Eurasia includes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Mongolia.
• South Asia includes India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
• Mainland Southeast Asia includes Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.
• North America includes the United States of America and Canada.
• Papuan Region includes the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia (only Papua and the Maluku Islands ( including Halmahera, Ceram, Obi, Misool, Aru, Ambon, Buru and Kai)), Fiji and Palau.
• Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi includes Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, the Sula Islands, and the Lesser Sunda Islands (east to Tanimbar, and including East Timor)
• West Asia includes Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

The data that was collected was entered into the GAA database by each coordinator and sent to the central coordinating unit for review.

All of the data collected in the initial stage of the assessment were subject to peer review. For most regions this was done through expert workshops, while i n a small number of regions it was completed through individual reviews of the data by leading herpetologists in the region.

Fifteen workshops were held in various countries to review the data. At each workshop amphibian experts for the region were invited to participate and contribute their knowledge as well as to comment on the data already compiled by the regional coordinators.

Each workshop is listed below, including a photograph of the participants where available.

Australia: Hobart, Tasmania, 6-8 February 2001
Host: World Wide Fund for Nature – Australia

China and the Koreas: Chengdu, China, 18-21 March 2002
Host: Chengdu Institute of Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Africa: Watamu, Kenya, 16-18 April 2002

South Asia: Coimbatore, India, 1-5 July 2002
Hosts: the Zoo Outreach Organisation and the Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society (A joint workshop with the CBSG CAMP process)

Southeast Asia (merging the Mainland Southeast Asia, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and Philippines regions):
Bangkok, Thailand, 30 September - 4 October 2002
Host: IUCN Regional Office for Asia

Mesoamerica (merging the Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama regions):
La Selva, Costa Rica, 11-15 November 2002
Host: IUCN Regional Office for Mesoamerica

Papuan Region: Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, 24-27 February 2003
Host: the Bishop Museum

Tropical South America East of the Andes (merging the Amazonian Brazil, Atlantic Forest-Cerrado-Caatinga, Paraguay, and Guianas regions, and parts of the Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela regions):
Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 31 March – 4 April 2003
Host: Conservation International’s Brazilian Center for Biodiversity Conservation

Tropical Andes (merging the remaining parts of the Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia regions):
Tandayapa, Ecuador, 18-22 August 2003
Host: Conservation International’s Andean Center for Biodiversity Conservation

Madagascar: Gland, Switzerland, 22-25 September 2003
Host: IUCN

Chile: Concepción, Chile, from the 3-4 October 2003
Host: Universidad de Concepción

Argentina and Uruguay: Puerto Madryn, Argentina, 12-14 October 2003
Host: La Asociación Herpetológica Argentina

Caecilians: London, United Kingdom, 23-25 February 2004
Host: the Natural History Museum

Caribbean: Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic , 19-21 March 2004
Host: the United Nations office in the Dominican Republic

Mediterranean region: Malaga , Spain, 13-17 December 2004
Host: IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation

There were some regions that for various reasons were reviewed by correspondence rather than a workshop. These regions are listed below (in Australia, the process involved both a workshop and a review by correspondence).

• Northern Eurasia
• Seychelles
• Japan
• New Zealand
• West Asia
• Europe
• North America

In Australia, the process involved both a workshop and a review by correspondence. For the 2004 release of the data, Mediterranean species were only reviewed by correspondence and then in December 2004 a workshop was held to further review these species.

The data from North America was not reviewed in the same depth as that from the rest of the world, mainly because time does not permit consultations involving many of the very large number of experts who could potentially be involved. However, the data from these regions is already very good state, since so much prior work has been focused on amphibians in these regions, and is readily available in the published literature.

As the review of data was completed, region by region, the information was consolidated by the central coordinating team. Specific tasks that needed to be addressed included:

• Ensuring consistency in the application of the Red List Categories and Criteria between regions and taxonomic groups.
• Proofreading and correcting the text accounts for all species.
• Final editing of maps to ensure that small islands near the coast are not incorrectly included in species distributions.
• Final resolution of remaining outstanding issues, mainly relating to taxonomic problems.
• Inclusion of newly described species, and other taxonomic changes.

Once the initial data collection for the assessment was completed, the coordinating team at the Biodiversity Assessment Unit and NatureServe begun a major analysis of the data. Some of the key findings, which now include the updates for 2006, are presented here on the website along with the 2006 updated searchable database providing detailed species-by-species information. A journal article detailing some of the key findings of the GAA was also published in December 2004 (Stuart, S.N., Chanson, J.S., Cox, N.A., Young, B.E., Rodrigues, A.S.L., Fischman, D.L. and Waller, R.W. 2004. Status and Trends of Amphibian Declines and Extinctions Worldwide. Science. 306. 1783-1786). In addition, a book containing the updated data on CD as well as an in-depth analysis of the data will be available at a later date. This will include a comprehensive assessment of amphibians, including information on geographic patterns of diversity, levels and types of threat, overall trends, habitat requirements, and conservation priorities. The results for the amphibians will be compared with similar information on mammals and birds to determine the extent to which conservation assessments for any one of the groups can be useful in identifying conservation priorities for the other ones.

Further analyses of the data will be submitted to journals for publication, while the publication Disappearing Jewels provides an overview of the status of New World amphibians.