Bolivia has the opportunity to create the planet's richest park for terrestrial biota

Abstract

Establishing a reserve of approximately 10,000 km at a strategic location in depto. La Paz, northern Bolivia, would create the planet's richest park for birds and presumably all other forest-dwelling biota that reach peak diversity at tropical latitudes. By connecting puna and montane forest habitats of the Andes with lowland tropical forest and savannas of the Amazon basin, we predict that the proposed reserve would contain at least 1,088 bird species, or roughly 11% of all bird species on the planet. Among these are many threatened species and species with relatively small geographical ranges. The proposed reserve would also include threatened habitats, such as lower montane forest, dry forest, and grassland. © 1995, Birdlife International. All rights reserved.