Abstract :
A rapidly developing tourism industry, concentrated in coastal regions, is suspected to seriously
impact upon biodiversity in the global conservation priority of the insular Caribbean. In St Lucia,
construction of tourism infrastructure in the coastal dry forest threatens the Endangered Whitebreasted
Thrasher Ramphocinclus brachyurus. Long-term protection of habitat is vital, but
design of such conservation action is constrained by lack of data on the species’ distribution and
population responses to habitat change and fragmentation. Distance sampling surveys were
conducted in 2006 and 2007 to estimate numbers and map the distribution of the two remaining
sub-populations. White-breasted Thrashers in St Lucia were estimated to number around 1,200
individuals, with roughly 1,050 birds occupying just over 600 ha of dry forest in the Mandele´ area.
We demonstrate that tourist development companies will likely soon own land constituting around
40%of the species’ extent of occurrence on St Lucia, and nearly 35%globally, and that ongoing and
planned tourist developments threaten around one third of the St Lucian White-breasted Thrasher
population. Given the size of these potential impacts, it is vital that patches of dry forest to the west
and north of a development site in the Mandele´ area are safeguarded. These sites support Whitebreasted
Thrashers at high density and are contiguous with an existing forest reserve. Other
important conservation measures include preserving stands of connected mature dry and riparian
forest inside the tourist development sites, alongside invasive predator control.
