Conservation of Latin America freshwater biodiversity: beyond political borders

Abstract

Latin America’s tremendous socio-cultural and biological diversity has evolved along tightly intertwined, far-reaching river networks. Decisions taken by any one country, may have strong impacts on the regional and even global biodiversity conservation agenda, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. Here we comment on four perspectives complementing actions suggested by Azevedo-Santos et al. (2021) in their Commentary “Conservation of Brazilian freshwater biodiversity: Thinking about the next 10 years and beyond”. This contribution aims at attaining an effective conservation of freshwater biodiversity in Latin America, particularly in the context of the ongoing negotiations on the Global Biodiversity Framework. Our suggestions put forward cross-border perspectives, urging governments to engage in actions that consider the reality of and threats to transnational ecosystems such as many river basins of Latin America and elsewhere.