Selection of areas for restoration should be based on cost‐effectiveness analysis to attain the maximum benefit with a limited budget and overcome the traditional ad hoc allocation of funds for ...restoration projects. Restoration projects need to be planned on the basis of ecological knowledge and economic and social constraints. We devised a novel approach for selecting cost‐effective areas for restoration on the basis of biodiversity and potential provision of 3 ecosystem services: carbon storage, water depuration, and coastal protection. We used Marxan, a spatial prioritization tool, to balance the provision of ecosystem services against the cost of restoration. We tested this approach in a mangrove ecosystem in the Caribbean. Our approach efficiently selected restoration areas that at low cost were compatible with biodiversity targets and that maximized the provision of one or more ecosystem services. Choosing areas for restoration of mangroves on the basis carbon storage potential, largely guaranteed the restoration of biodiversity and other ecosystem services.
Leaving small patches of forest intact at harvesting is now a standard procedure to mitigate negative effects on biodiversity. One purpose of the patches is to “life-boat” species over the forest ...regeneration phase, although the capacity of small forest fragments to do so is very uncertain. We investigated the survival of red-listed and indicator species of bryophytes and lichens in 74 retention patches in boreal Sweden. The patches were between 0.01 and 0.5
ha in size and of six different types with respect to tree species composition and location on the harvested area. Species presence and abundance were recorded shortly after harvest in transects covering the whole patches, and an identical inventory was carried out 6 years after the first. During this time, bryophytes generally decreased, most pronounced for liverworts. The largest decreases were found in buffer zones to streams and lakes and the smallest in tree groups dominated by deciduous trees. By contrast, among the lichens some species decreased while others increased, and there was no difference between retention patch types. Among the species abundant enough to be analyzed individually, the lichens
Calicium parvum and
Micarea globulosella decreased less in larger patches and the bryophyte
Hylocomiastrum umbratum decreased more in patches of irregular shape. The results imply that retention patches of this size might be too small to function as refugia for sensitive bryophytes and lichens until the surrounding forest regenerates, but that some lichens appear to persist or even increase. Retention harvesting is still a young management practice and further studies on its long-term conservation benefits will be valuable.
Setting aside forest land is practiced globally and is of vital importance to the preservation of forest biodiversity. As detailed species inventories rarely precede the establishment of set-asides, ...empirical studies on the species content of different set-aside types are needed, in order to evaluate their conservation relevance and to design efficient conservation strategies. Here, we compared the biodiversity value per unit area of three types of set-asides, common in boreal Europe: nature reserves, key habitats and retention groups on clear-cuts, and we also included old managed forests as reference sites. We surveyed bryophytes on all substrates and lichens growing on spruce in spruce-dominated forests in middle boreal Sweden and in total 252 bryophytes and 176 lichens were found. For bryophytes the number of species, as well as the number of red-listed species, per unit area was higher in key habitats than in retention groups and old managed forests, while intermediate in nature reserves. As the complementarity between areas was greatest in key habitats, the total number of bryophyte species found was by far the highest in this set-aside type. For lichens the patterns were similar but the differences much less pronounced. Site selection methods based on linear programming demonstrated that key habitats also played the most important role in representing the surveyed taxa effectively but that the value of nature reserves increased when multiple representations of each species were required. The study shows that the richness and composition of bryophytes and lichens differ between the three set-aside types and consequently, the outcome of large-scale conservation strategies based on anyone type would be different. At present, key habitats stand out as core areas of high diversity in the forest landscape but it is important also to acknowledge the temporal dynamics of the forest landscape and how the capacity of each set-aside type to host species can be expected to change over time.
To protect land from commercial exploitation is a common conservation practice. However, this requires large financial resources and it is therefore important to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of ...different strategies used in the selection of these conservation areas. In this study we compare four strategies and relate the differences in cost-effectiveness to differences in the selection process. We measure conservation benefits both as the amount of three tree structures and as the number of species in three species groups. We also estimate both the information cost associated with selecting conservation areas and the opportunity cost. We found the key habitat strategy to be the over-all most cost-effective. In this strategy, the areas have a flexible size and are selected by the authorities in a national field survey. The least cost-effective strategy was one where the selection was based only on forest classes in a satellite map. Intermediate were the retention group strategy, where small areas are left by the forest owner at harvesting, and the nature reserve strategy, where large areas are selected by the authorities. We emphasize that the differences we found are associated with the selection process and that other aspects, such as long-term survival of species, may rank the strategies differently. We conclude that the cost-effectiveness of a selection strategy depends on the size of the planning area for selection of conservation areas, the size of the conservation areas, the objective of the agent making the selection, and the amount and type of information on which the selection is based.
While many scientific assessments have been recommending general strategies for biodiversity conservation under climate change, translation of these recommendations into specific actions and practice ...has been limited. Focusing on two biomes, rainforest and wetlands in biodiverse South East Queensland, Australia, we demonstrate how general principles can be translated into specific actions for stakeholders and responsible agencies. We synthesize research that is contextualizing protection of refugia and habitat connectivity, establishing baseline data sets to detect change and developing strategic conservation planning scenarios to adjust reserve boundaries or situate new reserves. This has been achieved by coupling spatial information on biological assets (i.e. ecosystems and species) with future climate scenarios and process models to anticipate movement of critical habitats. Conservation planning software is also being used to prioritize investment to meet specific objectives. This approach is enabling us to identify at-risk biological assets, opportunities to ameliorate threats and obstacles to delivering regional adaptation actions. A larger total reserved area is needed, with proactive planning to capture areas further inland and along watercourses. Major obstacles include conflict between urbanization and priorities for habitat conservation and the need for greater levels of investment for monitoring programmes and to protect landward shifted wetlands on private land.
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