Goal 2 · To increase conservation actions for amphibians based on the ACAP and CMP Conservation Actions Classification v2.0
Objective 1: Support partners to identify realistic local and regional conservation action for amphibian conservation aligned with ACAP
3 activities · average progress 83.3%
ASA continued moving this objective from identifying conservation priorities toward supporting partners in translating those priorities into coordinated and implementable conservation action. During the reporting period, this work combined national conservation planning, species-focused action, regional implementation through the Tropical Amphibian Resilience Initiative (TARI), and continued development of digital infrastructure to map conservation activity and identify remaining gaps.
A major vehicle for this work is TARI, a five-year regional initiative designed to prevent amphibian extinctions through an integrated approach combining threatened-species management, reintroductions, disease mitigation, genetic resource preservation, conservation planning, capacity building, and engagement with governments and communities. The initiative operates across Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela, with ASA providing regional coordination and helping participating institutions exchange methodologies, identify emerging needs, and connect complementary conservation approaches. During Year 2, ASA coordinated three structured implementation-team meetings that allowed participating institutions to compare progress and obstacles across countries and identify solutions and opportunities to strengthen implementation.
After two years, this coordinated approach is producing substantial conservation results. TARI partners have conducted 24 release events involving eight species, exceeding the initiative's five-year target of five species; assurance colonies have grown to 6,430 animals, representing 180.9% growth from the initiative's baseline; five disease-mitigation techniques have been tested and two climatic disease-refuge techniques developed; and 20 species are represented in biobanks. These results demonstrate how conservation priorities can be translated into complementary in situ, ex situ, research, and threat-mitigation interventions rather than addressed through isolated actions.
Importantly, TARI is beginning to generate evidence not simply of implementation, but of the outcomes of those interventions. In Panama, wild-born juveniles of Pratt's rocket frog were documented more than a year after translocation (Figure 13, page 12 of the full report (PDF)), providing the program's first evidence of establishment, while released lemur leaf frogs have survived to adulthood. In Venezuela, released Atelopus cruciger showed adult survival comparable with demographically stable wild populations and indirect evidence of oviposition in the wild (Figure 14, page 13 of the full report (PDF)). In Ecuador, Atelopus sp. released during 2025 continued to be recorded one year later. These early results are shifting the initiative's emphasis from initiating releases toward determining whether interventions result in recruitment and establishment of populations.
TARI is also helping translate global conservation priorities into nationally relevant conservation frameworks. In Panama, ASA worked with the Ministry of Environment and national experts to advance the Panama Amphibian Conservation Action Plan 2026– 2036, bringing together 12 national experts through a five-day planning workshop and subsequent technical work (Figure 12, page 10 of the full report (PDF)). The emerging plan addresses five interconnected components: research, conservation actions, education, illegal trafficking, and funding, providing a ten-year framework for coordinated national action. In Ecuador, ASA contracted and supported a national consultant to coordinate the participatory update of the country's Amphibian Action Plan, working with Centro Jambatu, government institutions, the Ecuadorian Herpetological Network and national experts. Together, these processes are advancing two of TARI's four targeted national Amphibian Action Plans.
A complementary mechanism for translating identified conservation needs into locally led action is ASA's Targeted Amphibian Research and Action Program (TARAP). The first-round grants was awarded prior to this reporting period with support from Synchronicity Earth's Amphibian Endowment Fund. During 2025–2026, these projects began producing results demonstrating how targeted research can inform practical conservation responses at the local level.
In Benin, Aimé Gansa and ONG AQUAGENIUS assessed harvest pressure on the edible frog Hoplobatrachus occipitalisin Bonou and Dangbo and found current harvest levels to be within sustainable limits. The project subsequently engaged 85 community members, established three local preservation committees, and translated its findings into a policy brief for Benin's Directorate of Water, Forests and Hunting. In Ecuador, Juan Pablo Reyes Puig and Fundación EcoMinga recorded 77 Coloma's harlequin toads (Atelopus colomai), identified new populations of two species, including a population provisionally identified as the Critically Endangered Atelopus palmatus, and screened 103 amphibians for chytrid fungus. These findings are now informing engagement with landowners to protect newly identified sites. In Nepal, Bivek Gautam and the Biodiversity Research and Conservation Society combined research on wildfire impacts with community-based habitat management for the Vulnerable Himalayan salamander, including restoration of a former breeding wetland, measures to reduce deliberately set fires, provision of fodder and grass seedlings to 100 families, and distribution of 1,000 Nepali-language awareness materials (Figure 15, page 13 of the full report (PDF)).
The TARAP program illustrates the value of small, targeted grants that connect locally identified research questions with conservation action. Their results have contributed to community-based management, policy engagement, identification and protection of important populations and habitats, disease surveillance, and habitat restoration across three countries. The program therefore complements larger regional initiatives such as TARI by enabling conservation practitioners to address specific evidence and implementation gaps within their own ecological and institutional contexts.
At the species level, ASA continued supporting implementation of the Harlequin Toad Conservation Action Plan (HarleCAP) through its participation in the Atelopus Survival Initiative and the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group's Atelopus Task Force, including co-leadership of an ASI working group. This complements the country-level planning processes by linking regional and national implementation with conservation priorities for one of the world's most threatened amphibian genera.
ASA is simultaneously developing the infrastructure needed to make this process increasingly systematic across the entire Alliance. CARTA, ASA's new internal conservation coordination platform, has reached final pilot testing after approximately one year of development (Figure 16, page 14 of the full report (PDF)). Its ACAP Tracker currently maps approximately 350 conservation actions and is designed to visualize conservation coverage and gaps, while its Projects module connects partner activities to specific ACAP actions. Once operationalized, these tools will allow ASA and its partners to move beyond periodic assessments toward a more dynamic understanding of which ACAP priorities are being addressed, where conservation activity is concentrated, and where additional action is needed. Across the wider Partnership, current data indicate that ASA partners collectively work with at least 217 amphibian species across 122 genera, including 168 globally threatened species (67 Critically Endangered, 59 Endangered and 42 Vulnerable). These figures represent the collective conservation footprint of the Partnership, rather than outcomes attributable to ASA alone, but demonstrate the considerable species-level reach through which ACAP-aligned action can be supported and connected.
