Dr Claude Gascon is Senior Vice-President for Regional Programs at Conservation International. He also holds a Visiting Professor position with the Department of Ecology at the Instituto de Pesquisas da Amazônia (National Amazon Research Institute) and is a research associate with the Biodiversity Programs at the National Museum of Natural History. Prior to joining Conservation International, Claude was the project director and scientific coordinator for the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) in Brazil for six years. He also directed a large-scale research and conservation project investigating the distribution and abundance of vertebrate species in the southwestern Amazon region. Claude completed a master's degree in Ecology at Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada and his doctorate in Ecology at Florida State University. His research areas include biodiversity patterns and causes and Amazonian biodiversity, especially amphibians. Claude’s research has resulted in more than 50 publications and two books on conservation and forest fragmentation in the Amazon, amphibians, and wildlife management.

Together with his co-chair, Dr Jim Collins, the Amphibian Specialist Group’s priority for the current quadrennium is to implement the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP) which arose from the September 2005 Amphibian Conservation Summit. The Plan calls for immediate action on:
• Expanded understanding of the causes of amphibian declines and extinctions
• Ongoing documentation of amphibian diversity, and how it is changing
• Development and implementation of long term conservation programmes
• Emergency responses to immediate crises

“The Action Plan is the most ambitious programme ever developed to combat the extinction of species. Such a response is necessary because the amphibian extinction crisis is unlike anything that the modern world has previously experienced, and a large proportion of amphibian diversity remains undocumented,” says Claude.

“The ACAP will require the international community to enter uncharted territory and to take great risks. But the risks of inaction are even greater. There needs to be unprecedented commitment to implementing the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan with accompanying changes in international and local environmental policies that affect this class of vertebrate animals. Otherwise, the ‘canaries in the global coalmine’ will continue to disappear,” he adds.