JAMAICA’S biodiversity is at risk from climate change, local scientists have warned.

They say the changing climate, which threatens warmer temperatures, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, will likely put such species as the American crocodile, sea turtles and frogs in jeopardy.

“There are 21 endemic frog species in Jamaica and 81 per cent or 17 of them, based on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List criteria, are considered to be threatened with extinction. And of all of those, the reasons that they are threatened is because the forests they live in are lands undergoing continuing degradation,” noted Dr Byron Wilson, a conservation ecologist.

“The problem with climate change is that you will have the forest getting drier and when you have moisture-dependent things like frogs, that ain’t good.”

Dr Michael Taylor, a physicist who specialises in climate research, agreed.

“The impacts on coastal biodiversity is perhaps the easier one to relate to but we cannot neglect the impacts on terrestrial biodiversity as well. You are talking about species — plant and animal species — and of course many people would include agriculture as a part of the terrestrial biodiversity,” he told Environment Watch.

Given the reality of the threat, Taylor said it was essential that all necessary steps be taken to limit the effects on all living organisms. The first step, he said, is education, while citing the technical report of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute entitled The impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Caribbean Islands: What we know, what we need to know and building capacity for effective adaptation.

“Education awareness, which spans all the climate change issues (is critical). Of course, climate change is getting more attention (these days), but these specific areas that will be affected need a little bit more attention. The biodiversity area would benefit more from a great deal of attention being paid to it,” Taylor said.