Protected areas (PAs) are the cornerstone of global conservation efforts but their performance in maintaining populations of their key species remains poorly documented. Here, we address this gap ...using a new database of 583 population abundance time series for 69 species of large mammals in 78 African PAs. Population abundance time series were aggregated to form a multi-species index of overall change in population abundance. The index reveals on average a 59% decline in population abundance between 1970 and 2005. Indices for different parts of Africa demonstrate large regional differences, with southern African PAs typically maintaining their populations and western African PAs suffering the most severe declines. These results indicate that African PAs have generally failed to mitigate human-induced threats to African large mammal populations, but they also show some successes. Further development of our index could help to measure future progress towards post-2010 targets for reducing biodiversity loss.
The natural world has multiple, sometimes conflicting, sometimes synergistic, values to society when viewed through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Spatial mapping of nature's ...contributions to the SDGs has the potential to support the implementation of SDG strategies through sustainable land management and conservation of ecosystem services. Such mapping requires a range of spatial data. This paper examines the use of remote sensing and spatial ecosystem service modelling to examine nature's contribution to targets under SDG 6, also highlighting synergies with other key SDGs and trade-offs with agriculture.
We use a wide range of remotely sensed and globally available datasets (for land cover, climate, soil, population, agriculture) alongside the existing and widely used spatial ecosystem services assessment tool, Co$tingNature. With these we identify priority areas for sustainable management to realise targets under SDG 6 (water) at the country scale for Madagascar and at the basin scale for the Volta basin, though the application developed can be applied to any country or major basin in the world. Within this SDG 6 priority areas footprint, we assess the synergies and trade-offs provided by this land for SDG 15 (biodiversity) and SDG 13 (climate action) as well as SDG 2 (zero hunger).
Results highlight the co-benefits of sustainably managing nature's contribution to SDG 6, such as the protection of forest cover (for SDG target 15.2), carbon storage as a contribution to the Paris climate agreement and nationally determined contributions (SDG 13) and biodiversity (for SDG target 15.5) but also trade-offs with the zero hunger goal (for SDG 2). Such analyses allow for better understanding of land management requirements for realising multiple SDGs through protection and restoration of green infrastructure. We provide a freely available tool, within the Co$tingNature platform, based on a variety of remotely sensed products, that can be used by SDG practitioners to carry out similar analyses and inform decision-making at national or sub-national levels globally.
•Existing EO datasets can underpin spatial analyses of nature's contributions to SDGs.•Such analyses indicate within and between country variability in nature's contribution.•A spatial prioritisation suggests the highest priority areas for investment.•Ubiquitous EO data enable globally consistent and geographically comprehensive analyses.•Challenges remain in using EO data for multi-factor models like these.
Land use and related pressures have reduced local terrestrial biodiversity, but it is unclear how the magnitude of change relates to the recently proposed planetary boundary ("safe limit"). We ...estimate that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness–the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems–beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world's land surface, where 71.4% of the human population live. Biodiversity intactness within most biomes (especially grassland biomes), most biodiversity hotspots, and even some wilderness areas is inferred to be beyond the boundary. Such widespread transgression of safe limits suggests that biodiversity loss, if unchecked, will undermine efforts toward long-term sustainable development.
Anthropogenic activities are causing widespread degradation of ecosystems worldwide, threatening the ecosystem services upon which all human life depends. Improved understanding of this degradation ...is urgently needed to improve avoidance and mitigation measures. One tool to assist these efforts is predictive models of ecosystem structure and function that are mechanistic: based on fundamental ecological principles. Here we present the first mechanistic General Ecosystem Model (GEM) of ecosystem structure and function that is both global and applies in all terrestrial and marine environments. Functional forms and parameter values were derived from the theoretical and empirical literature where possible. Simulations of the fate of all organisms with body masses between 10 µg and 150,000 kg (a range of 14 orders of magnitude) across the globe led to emergent properties at individual (e.g., growth rate), community (e.g., biomass turnover rates), ecosystem (e.g., trophic pyramids), and macroecological scales (e.g., global patterns of trophic structure) that are in general agreement with current data and theory. These properties emerged from our encoding of the biology of, and interactions among, individual organisms without any direct constraints on the properties themselves. Our results indicate that ecologists have gathered sufficient information to begin to build realistic, global, and mechanistic models of ecosystems, capable of predicting a diverse range of ecosystem properties and their response to human pressures.
Biodiversity Conservation and the Eradication of Poverty Adams, William M.; Aveling, Ros; Brockington, Dan ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
11/2004, Letnik:
306, Številka:
5699
Journal Article
Recenzirano
It is widely accepted that biodiversity loss and poverty are linked problems and that conservation and poverty reduction should be tackled together. However, success with integrated strategies is ...elusive. There is sharp debate about the social impacts of conservation programs and the success of community-based approaches to conservation. Clear conceptual frameworks are needed if policies in these two areas are to be combined. We review the links between poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation and present a conceptual typology of these relationships.
Biodiversity is continuing to decline. This crisis has been recognised by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), whose members have set ambitious targets to avert ongoing declines in the state ...of biodiversity by 2020. These so called “Aichi Biodiversity Targets” (ABTs) are organized around five strategic goals, with indicators showing the level of progress made towards each target. Currently, measurements of many ABT indicators are not available. The Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) framework, developed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), attempts to form a coherent and harmonised set of observations of biodiversity. In this paper, we explore the potential role of Earth Observation (EO) as a tool to support biodiversity monitoring against the ABT and EBV frameworks. We show that EO‐based measurements are adequate for assessing progress towards 11 out of 20 ABTs. In addition, 14 of the 22 candidate EBVs have a fully or partly remotely‐sensed component and can be considered as Remote Sensing Essential Biodiversity Variables (RS‐EBVs). Those with a partial EO component require further in‐situ data and/or modelling effort to complete the EBV. While the status of biodiversity can be assessed with both fully and partly measured RS‐EBVs, assessing trends is more challenging, particularly for partly measured RS‐EBVs, as coincident time series of EO and supporting data are lacking. A synthetic pathway for developing generic biodiversity indicators using RS‐EBVs is proposed.
In 2010 the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) formulated the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020” and set the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets to achieve its aims. Parties to the CBD endorsed a suite of 98 indicators as the basis for reporting on progress of the plan target by target. A set of candidate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) has been proposed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) to harmonise biodiversity measuring and monitoring methodologies. So far there has not been a concerted effort to find common ground between the EBVs, indicators and the Aichi Targets. Here expert opinion has been solicited to quantify the extent to which Earth Observation can support both the Aichi Targets, their underlying indicators and the emerging EBVs as well as to identify what obstacles prevent EO from fulfilling its potential.
Breaking the deadlock on ivory Biggs, Duan; Holden, Matthew H.; Braczkowski, Alex ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
12/2017, Letnik:
358, Številka:
6369
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
An iterative process that recognizes different value systems may help to protect elephants
Poaching for ivory has caused a steep decline in African elephant (
Loxodonta africana
, see the photo) ...populations over the past decade (
1
). This crisis has fueled a contentious global debate over which ivory policy would best protect elephants: banning all ivory trade or enabling regulated trade to incentivize and fund elephant conservation (
2
). The deep-seated deadlock on ivory policy consumes valuable resources and creates an antagonistic environment among elephant conservationists. Successful solutions must begin by recognizing the different values that influence stakeholder cognitive frameworks of how actions lead to outcomes (“mental models”) (
3
), and therefore their diverging positions on ivory trade (
4
). Based on successful conflict resolution in other areas, we propose an iterative process through which countries with wild elephant populations may be able to understand their differences and develop workable solutions in a less confrontational manner.
Discussions of sustainable use have become polarized. Welfarists oppose all use that involves killing animals. Among conservationists polarization arises in part from failure to distinguish between ...different ideas nestled under the umbrella term of ‘sustainable use’. These include direct use as an imperative or choice, the ideal of keeping any use within biologically sustainable limits, and use as a possible conservation strategy that can create positive incentives, which are key where land could otherwise be converted to biodiversity-unfriendly practices. People will continue to use wild living resources, which increasing human populations could further deplete. In response the conservation community can follow one of two approaches. On the one hand, it can try to stop use through the establishment of strictly protected areas and by enforcing legislation, although many would question the ethical position of imposing such an approach. On the other hand, it can work to introduce the wider management systems needed to deliver sustainable use and, if possible, incentive-driven conservation. Because most rural populations will continue using wild living resources in human-dominated landscapes, sustainable use and incentive-driven conservation should both be at the centre of the conservation agenda this century. Both species- and ecosystem-based management are likely to have a role in sustainable use. However, current enthusiasm for the ecosystem approach may throw up unexpected consequences, making the search for sustainability even more polarized. Nevertheless, direct use of species cannot provide sufficient incentives to ensure the continued delivery of ecosystem services, which need to be fully incorporated in the global accounting system.
The dominant approach to conservation in the 20th century was the establishment of protected areas from which people were excluded. However, in the 1980s, decentralised, community-based approaches to ...biodiversity conservation and natural resource management began to spread rapidly, especially in southern Africa. From the early 1990s, there has been a growing divide between proponents of community-based approaches to conservation (particularly community-based natural resource management, CBNRM) and those advocating a return to more traditional preservationist approaches to biodiversity conservation. Here we examine the growth of the community narrative and the subsequent revival of what we call the 'back to the barriers' movement. We discuss the importance of various actors and sets of policy ideas to this revival in Africa. Changes in narratives have had profound impacts upon conservation and natural resource management, livelihood strategies and political processes. We suggest that policy debate needs to become less formulaic if outcomes are to be positive.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came into effect in 1975 to protect certain species of wild fauna and flora against over-exploitation ...through international trade. Determining which trade is detrimental to the survival of species in the wild can be a major difficulty in the implementation of CITES by national authorities, partly due to limited knowledge and understanding of the species’ biology, management, and the impacts of harvesting. Some of this knowledge could be acquired through targeted scientific research. However, to date there exists no general overview of the current use of biological information in determining detriment in CITES to help scientists identify research priorities. For an international meeting in 2008, over 100 scientists and regulators compiled 60 case studies covering a wide range of CITES-listed taxa, outlining how information on the biology, harvesting and management might be used to determine whether international trade is detrimental. We used these case studies, workshop conclusions, and other published literature, to identify 10 potential research directions for the scientific community which, if addressed, could greatly assist in the making of Non-Detriment Findings. We hope that this will encourage more scientists to study CITES-listed species, and foster more collaboration between research scientists, CITES national authorities, CITES technical committees and local communities. The case studies highlight a general need for advice on how to identify and manage levels of risk involved when assessing possible detriment, and for advice on assessing detriment under complex harvesting scenarios such as when multiple species, or parts of individuals, are harvested. Broadly, they highlight an opportunity for scientists to further develop a body of scientific studies that propose, refine and adapt methods for assessing detrimental trade in CITES-listed taxa. Comparisons within life-form groups indicated the potential for the identification of practical advice that could apply to groups of taxa. The case studies highlighted a widespread need for more information gathering studies of CITES-listed taxa such as the broader impacts of harvesting on populations and ecosystems, and the potential long-term evolutionary impacts. The case studies also highlighted the need for practical advice on how to implement adaptive management programmes and for research into enterprises based on the harvesting of CITES-listed species from the wild.
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