LOST! AMPHIBIANS OF INDIA: New Campaign Launched Through Partnership with University of Delhi

NEW DELHI, November 2, 2010 - The University of Delhi along with Global Wildlife Conservation, the
Natural History Museum (London), the IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, the
Wildlife Conservation Society, and Conservation International announced today
an exciting new partnership to search for long lost amphibian species in
India. The details of the new campaign, called LOST! AMPHIBIANS of INDIA
(LAI), was revealed to the world through the Internet (
www.lostspeciesindia.org) with a series of educational videos, social
media postings, and the release of a declaration of global support to follow
asking individuals to sign on to the mission to find and protect these
threatened and near-extinct species.

"Now is the time to act and show our support for these species of India
before they shift from lost to extinct," said Conservation International's
President, Dr. Russell Mittermeier.

On November 2, 2010, the Minister of Environment, Shri. Jairam Ramesh,
and other top officials from India's environmental agencies will meet with
LAI partners to plan the actions necessary for India's most imperiled
amphibians. This meeting and subsequent actions have already received funding
from Indian government agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, and others. However, greater investment
will be critical to the creation of a network of new protected areas.

India has more lost amphibian species, 48 in total, than any other
country in the world. Most of these species have not been seen by scientists
for decades, with some missing for over 150 years. The majority of these
species are known only by a single preserved specimen in a jar at either the
Natural History Museum in London or the Zoological Survey of India. Worse
yet, at least 17 lost species exist in name only, having been lost over the
past century.

LOST! AMPHIBIANS of INDIA aims to change this by organizing top teams of
researchers from India and around the world to explore India's remaining
wilderness areas, in order to relocate existing populations of these
amphibians and assess their conservation requirements. Many of the sites are
remote and present the hazards of rugged terrain and monsoon rains. However
if the effort to find them is not made now, their habitats may be lost before
appropriate conservation actions can be implemented. Only 1.5% of the
original forests remain in the Western Ghats and several species are already
thought to be extinct; many other parts of the country have even worse
habitat loss.

"Amphibians are popularly known as environmental barometers. They
indicate the state of environmental health. Hence any information about their
conservation is extremely vital not only from an amphibian research point of
view but also from the perspective of overall nature conservation," explains
Delhi University Associate Professor Dr S. D. Biju, who is organizing the LAI
project.

In preparation for finding species in need of swift conservation action,
LOST! AMPHIBIANS of INDIA is simultaneously initiating discussions to develop
the Western Ghats Network of Protected Areas for Threatened Amphibians
(WNPATA; www.wnpata.org). Protecting the amphibian habitats of India
will also benefit communities who depend on forests for the provision of
freshwater, erosion control, and sources of livelihood. The LOST! AMPHIBIANS
of INDIA campaign is therefore not only a last chance to save some of the
planet's most endangered wildlife, but it will also focus attention on
remote, rural communities in India and how they depend on the integrity of
the environment for its provision of natural resources.

Saving lost amphibians will impact more than just the species that are
the targets of exploration, but also entire unique ecosystems and the people
that depend on them. But to save them, first we have to find them. The quest
has begun.

                                    # # #

The University of Delhi is a premier university of India and is known for
its high standards in teaching and research. The Vice President of India is
the University's Chancellor. The Systematics Lab is a unit of the Department
of Environmental Biology and contributes to conservation of amphibians
through discovery and documentation of species.

Global Wildlife Conservation improves life on Earth by advancing both
academic and applied approaches to conservation research, action, and
education. Along with its numerous strategic worldwide partners, GWC is
pursuing a common goal: to save plants and animals from extinction and better
understand and maintain the natural world and its biological diversity.

The mission of the Natural History Museum (London) is to maintain and
develop its collections and use them to promote the discovery, understanding,
responsible use and enjoyment of the natural world.

J. Tayloe Emery, +1-310-844-6802, Tayloe.Emery at gmail.com; NOTE TO EDITORS: For interview requests please contact: S.D. Biju Mobile: (0091) 9871933622, Office: (0091) 11 27662365, Email: wnpata.project at gmail.com or lostamphibians at gmail.com