RESUMO
Abstract The Río San Pedro and Río La Pasión lie within the Usumacinta River Basin, a globally significant center of freshwater fish diversity. Both rivers are listed among Central America's top 50 regions for conserving freshwater biodiversity. This study presents an updated checklist of 70 fish species, of which six are non-native to the Usumacinta River Basin. From these species, 69 are reported from the Río La Pasión and 56 reported from the Río San Pedro, representing higher species richness than previously reported. The checklist derives from a systematic survey of fishes conducted in 2019 and records available in public databases and published literature. Seventy-eight percent of the species were reported in both rivers, and Cichlidae and Poeciliidae had the most species. Secondary species represent 59% of the species reported, followed by peripheral species with 22% of the species. The species with highest fidelity in Río La Pasión were the armored catfish Pterygopichthys spp. and the livebearer Gambusia sexradiata; and the cichlids Thorichthys meeki and Oscura heterospila had highest fidelity in the Río San Pedro. Thorichthys helleri was widely distributed in both rivers. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, there are four species classified as Vulnerable in Río La Pasión. However, 62% of the species are of Least Concern, 25% of the species are Data Deficient, and 6% are listed as Not Evaluated. More research is needed to document the status of the fish fauna, and improved habitat protection is required to conserve stocks.
Resumen El río San Pedro y el río La Pasión se encuentran dentro de la cuenca del río Usumacinta, un centro de diversidad de peces de agua dulce de importancia mundial. Ambos ríos figuran entre las 50 regiones principales de América Central para conservar la biodiversidad de agua dulce. Este estudio presenta un listado actualizado de 70 especies de peces, de las cuales 6 son especies no nativas para la cuenca del Río Usumacinta. De estas especies, 69 se reportan para el Río La Pasión y 56 para el río San Pedro, lo que representa una riqueza de especies más alta que la reportada previamente. La lista de verificación se deriva de un muestreo sistemático de peces realizado en 2019 y registros disponibles en bases de datos públicas y literatura publicada. El 78% de las especies se reportan en ambos ríos, siendo Cichlidae y Poeciliidae las familias con mayor riqueza. Las especies con mayor fidelidad en Río La Pasión fueron el bagre acorazado Pterygopichthys spp. y el pez vivíparo Gambusia sexradiata; y los cíclidos Thorichthys meeki y Oscura heterospila tuvieron mayor fidelidad en el Río San Pedro. Thorichthys helleri se distribuyó ampliamente en ambos ríos. Según la Lista Roja de Especies Amenazadas de la UICN, existen cuatro especies clasificadas como Vulnerable en el Río La Pasión. Sin embargo, el 62 % de las especies son de Preocupación Menor, el 25 % de las especies tienen Datos Insuficientes y el 6 % se enumeran como No Evaluadas. Se necesita más investigación para documentar el estado de la fauna de peces, y se requiere una mejor protección del hábitat para conservar las poblaciones.
RESUMO
Knowledge co-production and boundary work offer planners a new frame for critically designing a social process that fosters collaborative implementation of resulting plans. Knowledge co-production involves stakeholders from diverse knowledge systems working iteratively toward common vision and action. Boundary work is a means of creating permeable knowledge boundaries that satisfy the needs of multiple social groups while guarding the functional integrity of contributing knowledge systems. Resulting products are boundary objects of mutual interest that maintain coherence across all knowledge boundaries. We examined how knowledge co-production and boundary work can bridge the gap between planning and implementation and promote cross-sectoral cooperation. We applied these concepts to well-established stages in regional conservation planning within a national scale conservation planning project aimed at identifying areas for conserving rivers and wetlands of South Africa and developing an institutional environment for promoting their conservation. Knowledge co-production occurred iteratively over 4 years in interactive stake-holder workshops that included co-development of national freshwater conservation goals and spatial data on freshwater biodiversity and local conservation feasibility; translation of goals into quantitative inputs that were used in Marxan to select draft priority conservation areas; review of draft priority areas; and packaging of resulting map products into an atlas and implementation manual to promote application of the priority area maps in 37 different decision-making contexts. Knowledge co-production stimulated dialogue and negotiation and built capacity for multi-scale implementation beyond the project. The resulting maps and information integrated diverse knowledge types of over 450 stakeholders and represented >1000 years of collective experience. The maps provided a consistent national source of information on priority conservation areas for rivers and wetlands and have been applied in 25 of the 37 use contexts since their launch just over 3 years ago. When framed as a knowledge co-production process supported by boundary work, regional conservation plans can be developed into valuable boundary objects that offer a tangible tool for multi-agency cooperation around conservation. Our work provides practical guidance for promoting uptake of conservation science and contributes to an evidence base on how conservation efforts can be improved.
