Complementary Areas for the Conservation of Flora of Special Concern in Semi-Arid Regions of Honduras

Abstract

Semi-arid regions are among the most threatened ecosystem in the world. In Honduras, these areas account for 9.4% of its original cover due to changes in land use by human activities. In an attempt to document the potential flora of concern in these regions of concern and identify additional areas for conservation based on richer sites, in the dry forest ecoregion in Honduras. A bioclimatic modeling program based only on presence, generating by MaxEnt individual models of habitat for 27 species was applied. As a result of the analysis of complementarity, three priority areas for conservation are proposed, following the criteria of preserving the fewest number of areas having the greatest number of species. It is confirmed that the model demonstrated its effectiveness to identify conservation areas, in the areas of: Oropolí, Tegucigalpa and Morocelí. These areas are located in the central and southern region of Honduras.

Ceiba, 2016. Volumen 54(2):147-156