Every day, the challenges to achieving conservation grow. Threats to species, habitats, and ecosystems multiply and intensify. The conservation community has invested decades of resources and hard ...work to reduce or eliminate these threats. However, it struggles to demonstrate that its efforts are having an impact. In recent years, conservation project managers, teams, and organizations have found themselves under increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable impacts that can be attributed to their actions. To do so, they need to answer three important questions: (1) Are we achieving our desired impact?; (2) Have we selected the best interventions to achieve our desired impact?; and (3) Are we executing our interventions in the best possible manner?
We describe results chains, an important tool for helping teams clearly specify their theory of change behind the actions they are implementing. Results chains help teams make their assumptions behind an action explicit and positions the team to develop relevant objectives and indicators to monitor and evaluate whether their actions are having the intended impact. We describe this tool and how it is designed to tackle the three main questions above. We also discuss the purposes for which results chains have been used and the implications of their use. By using results chains, the conservation community can learn, adapt, and improve at a faster pace and, consequently, better address the ongoing threats to species, habitats, and ecosystems.
Despite the huge biodiversity of the Cerrado biome, a synthesis on the distribution of genetic diversity across the biome is still wanting. We describe patterns of plant genetic variation across the ...Cerrado biome, highlighting areas of high diversity and priority areas for conservation. We also analyze the relative importance of environmental characteristics and human footprints on patterns of genetic variation. Raw genetic data comes primarily from central and southeastern Brazil, outside conservation units (CUs). Standardized estimated genetic richness (G
est
) decreases in a north–south gradient. Populations with high genetic diversity (
He
) and allelic richness (
AR
) are widespread across the biome, but both increase with distance from the center of Cerrado. Environmental variables related to energy, temperature and precipitation are associated with G
est
and
AR
, but not
He
. G
est
is higher in northern Cerrado, in regions with low human development index (HDI). Conversely, southern Cerrado shows higher HDI and lower genetic richness, most likely due to both high habitat fragmentation and loss. CUs in northern Cerrado tend to have higher G
est
, whereas those in southeast and central Cerrado have higher
He
and
AR
. The high genetic diversity and richness in the few populations studied in northern Cerrado, coupled with the low data availability, reveal the importance of encouraging genetic studies in this region. Moreover, very limited information about population genetic diversity is available from CUs, which may constrain the access of species conservation status and decision-make on management of populations inside CUs.
Biodiversity conservation has been criticized for undermining or ignoring social well‐being. Currently efforts to mutually promote social justice, rural development, and biodiversity conservation, ...which have been contentious and yielded mixed results, continue to spread despite a general dearth of effective management strategies. We contend that social and economic concerns should be integral to conservation planning and propose that the scale of these phenomena is also critical. To evaluate the merit of this proposal, we adopted and expanded a conservation management strategy framework developed by Joel Heinen and examined how population density, economic disparity, and ethnic heterogeneity vary spatially surrounding 2 contrasting protected areas in East Africa: Kibale National Park in Uganda and Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. Analyses of demographic, wealth, and ethnicity data from regional censuses and household surveys conducted in 2009 and 2010 indicated that choice of scale (landscape or community) changed the management strategies recommended by the model. Therefore, “several small” people‒park management strategies varying around a given protected area may be more appropriate than a “single large” people–park strategy applied across an entire protected area. Correspondingly, scale adjusted Heinen recommendations offered new strategies for effective conservation management within these human landscapes not incorporated in current in situ management plans.
Although remote sensing has been used for >40 years to learn about Earth, use of very high-resolution satellite imagery (VHR) (<1-m resolution) has become more widespread over the past decade for ...studying wildlife. As image resolution increases, there is a need to understand the capabilities and limitations of this exciting new path in wildlife research. We reviewed studies that used VHR to examine remote populations of wildlife. We then determined characteristics of the landscape and the life history of species that made the studies amenable to use of satellite imagery and developed a list of criteria necessary for appropriate use of VHR in wildlife research. From 14 representative articles, we determined 3 primary criteria that must be met for a system and species to be appropriately studied with VHR: open landscape, target organism's color contrasts with the landscape, and target organism is of detectable size. Habitat association, temporal exclusivity, coloniality, landscape differentiation, and ground truthing increase the utility of VHR for wildlife research. There is an immediate need for VHR imagery in conservation research, particularly in remote areas of developing countries, where research can be difficult. For wildlife researchers interested in but unfamiliar with remote sensing resources and tools, understanding capabilities and current limitations of VHR imagery is critical to its use as a conservation and wildlife research tool. Aunque la telemetría se ha utilizado por más de 40 años para aprender sobre la Tierra, el uso de imágenes satelitales de muy alta resolución (MAR) (<1-m de resolución) se ha vuelto más extendido en la última década como herramienta de estudio de la vida silvestre. Conforme incrementa la resolución de las imágenes, existe una necesidad de entender las capacidades y limitaciones de este nuevo y emocionante camino en la investigación de la vida silvestre. Revisamos estudios que utilizaron MAR para examinar poblaciones remotas de vida silvestre. Después determinamos las características del paisaje y de la historia de vida de las especies que hicieron a los estudios más dispuestos para el uso de imágenes satelitales y desarrollamos una lista de criterios necesarios para el uso correcto de MAR en la investigación de la vida silvestre. De 14 artículos representativos determinamos tres criterios primarios que deben cumplirse para que un sistema y las especies sean estudiadas correctamente con MAR: paisaje abierto, los contrastes de color del organismo estudiado con el paisaje y si el organismo estudiado es de un tamaño detectable. La asociación de habitat, la exclusividad temporal, la colonización, la diferenciación del paisaje y el incremento en la verificación en el terreno incrementan la utilidad de MAR para la investigación de la vida silvestre. Existe una necesidad inmediata por las imágenes MAR en la investigación de la conservación, particularmente en áreas remotas de los países en desarrollo. Para los investigadores de la vida silvestre que están interesados pero que no están familiarizados con los recursos ni con las herramientas de telemetría, entender las capacidades y las limitaciones actuales de las imágenes MAR es crítico para su uso como una herramienta de conservación e investigación de la vida silvestre.
Biodiversity along temperate forest succession Hilmers, Torben; Friess, Nicolas; Bässler, Claus ...
The Journal of applied ecology,
November 2018, Letnik:
55, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
1. The successional dynamics of forests—from canopy openings to regeneration, maturation, and decay—influence the amount and heterogeneity of resources available for forest-dwelling organisms. ...Conservation has largely focused only on selected stages of forest succession (e.g., late-seral stages). However, to develop comprehensive conservation strategies and to understand the impact of forest management on biodiversity, a quantitative understanding of how different trophic groups vary over the course of succession is needed. 2. We classified mixed mountain forests in Central Europe into nine successional stages using airborne LiDAR. We analysed α- and β-diversity of six trophic groups encompassing approximately 3,000 species from three kingdoms. We quantified the effect of successional stage on the number of species with and without controlling for species abundances and tested whether the data fit the more-individuals hypothesis or the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis. Furthermore, we analysed the similarity of assemblages along successional development. 3. The abundance of producers, first-order consumers, and saprotrophic species showed a U-shaped response to forest succession. The number of species of producer and consumer groups generally followed this U-shaped pattern. In contrast to our expectation, the number of saprotrophic species did not change along succession. When we controlled for the effect of abundance, the number of producer and saproxylic beetle species increased linearly with forest succession, whereas the U-shaped response of the number of consumer species persisted. The analysis of assemblages indicated a large contribution of succession-mediated β-diversity to regional γ-diversity. 4. Synthesis and applications. Depending on the species group, our data supported both the more-individuals hypothesis and the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis. Our results highlight the strong influence of forest succession on biodiversity and underline the importance of controlling for successional dynamics when assessing successional stages with highest diversity (early and late successional stages) are currently strongly underrepresented in the forests of Central Europe. We thus recommend that conservation strategies aim at a more balanced representation of all successional stages.
As drivers of terrestrial ecosystems, humans have replaced large carnivores in most areas, and human influence not only exerts striking ecological pressures on biodiversity at local scales but also ...has indirect effects in distant corners of the world. We suggest that the multibillion dollar cashmere industry creates economic motivations that link western fashion preferences for cashmere to land use in Central Asia. This penchant for stylish clothing, in turn, encourages herders to increase livestock production which affects persistence of over 6 endangered large mammals in these remote, arid ecosystems. We hypothesized that global trade in cashmere has strong negative effects on native large mammals of deserts and grassland where cashmere-producing goats are raised. We used time series data, ecological snapshots of the biomass of native and domestic ungulates, and ecologically and behaviorally based fieldwork to test our hypothesis. In Mongolia increases in domestic goat production were associated with a 3-fold increase in local profits for herders coexisting with endangered saiga (Saiga tatarica). That increasing domestic grazing pressure carries fitness consequences was inferred on the basis of an approximately 4-fold difference in juvenile recruitment among blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur) in trans-Himalayan India. Across 7 study areas in Mongolia, India, and China's Tibetan Plateau, native ungulate biomass is now <5% that of domestic species. Such trends suggest ecosystem degradation and decreased capacity for the persistence of native species, including at least 8 Asian endemic species: saiga, chiru (Pantholops hodgsoni), Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), khulan (Equus hemionus), kiang (E. kiang), takhi (E. przewalski), and wild yak (Bos mutus). Our results suggest striking yet indirect and unintended actions that link trophic-level effects to markets induced by the trade for cashmere. Como conductores de ecosistemas terrestres, los humanos han reemplazado a los carnívoros mayores en la mayoría de las regiones, y la influencia humana no solo ejerce presiones ecológicas severas sobre la biodiversidad en escalas locales sino también tiene efectos indirectos en rincones distantes del mundo. Sugerimos que la multibillonaria industria de la cachemira crea motivaciones económicas que ligan las preferencias de la moda occidental por la cachemira con el uso de suelo en Asia Central. Este gusto por la ropa elegante, a su vez, motiva a los pastores a incrementar la producción de ganado lo cual afecta la persistencia de más de 6 especies de mamíferos mayores en peligro en estos ecosistemas áridos y remotos. Planteamos la hipótesis de que el comercio global de cachemira tiene fuertes efectos negativos sobre mamíferos mayores nativos de desiertos y pastizales donde son criadas las cabras productoras de cachemira. Utilizamos datos de series de tiempo, instantáneas ecológicas de la biomasa de ungulados nativos y domésticos, y trabajo de campo ecológico y conductual para probar nuestra hipótesis. En Mongolia, los incrementos en la producción de cabras domésticas se asociaron con el incremento al triple de las ganancias locales para pastores que coexisten con la saiga (Saiga tatarica) en peligro. Con base en una diferencia de aproximadamente 4 veces en el reclutamiento juvenil de la oveja azul (Pseudois nayaur) en el Himalaya de India, se infirió que el incremento de la presión de pastoreo doméstico tiene consecuencias en la adecuación. En 7 áreas de estudio en Mongolia, India y la Planicie Tibetana en China, la biomasa actual de ungulados es <5% de las especies domésticas. Tales tendencias sugieren la degradación del ecosistema y la disminución en la capacidad de persistencia de especies nativas, incluyendo por lo menos 8 especies endémicas de Asia: Saiga tartarica, Pantholops hodgsoni, Camelus bactrianus, Panthera uncial, Equus hemionus, E. kiang, E. przewalski y Bos mutus. Nuestros resultados sugieren acciones relevantes, aunque indirectas y no intencionales, que relacionan efectos a nivel trófico con los mercados inducidos por el comercio de cachemira.
Local communities’ perceptions of protected areas are important determinants of the success of conservation efforts in Southern Africa, as these perceptions affect people’s attitudes and behaviour ...with respect to conservation. As a result, the involvement of local communities in transboundary wildlife conservation is now viewed as an integral part of regional development initiatives. Building on unique survey data and applying regression analysis, this paper investigates the determinants of the perceptions of local communities around the Great Limpopo Trans-frontier Conservation Area in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Our results illustrate that people perceiving the park as well-managed tend to have more positive perceptions regarding the benefits from the park, rules governing the park, and wildlife conservation in general. Household expertise on resource extraction, in turn, tends to make people more likely to perceive environmental crime as morally acceptable. Furthermore, the results indicate that if people perceive the rules of the park in a negative way, then they are less likely to conserve wildlife. Receiving benefits from the park has a positive impact on people’s perceptions of the rules governing the park, as well as on their perception of wildlife conservation in general, but not on perceptions about environmental crime. Surprisingly, perceived high levels of corruption is positively associated with people’s perception of wildlife benefits and with perceptions of that environmental crime is morally justified. There is also evidence of the role of socioeconomic variables on people’s perceptions towards wildlife. However, unobservable contextual factors could be responsible for explaining part of the variation in people’s perceptions. Our results speak to the literature on large-scale collective action since perceptions of wildlife benefits, corruption, environmental crime, park management and rules governing the parks, all affect local communities’ ability and willingness to self organize. These variables are interesting because they can be influenced by policy through training and awareness campaigns.
Can We Name Earth's Species Before They Go Extinct? Costello, Mark J.; May, Robert M.; Stork, Nigel E.
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
01/2013, Letnik:
339, Številka:
6118
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Some people despair that most species will go extinct before they are discovered. However, such worries result from overestimates of how many species may exist, beliefs that the expertise to describe ...species is decreasing, and alarmist estimates of extinction rates. We argue that the number of species on Earth today is 5 ± 3 million, of which 1.5 million are named. New databases show that there are more taxonomists describing species than ever before, and their number is increasing faster than the rate of species description. Conservation efforts and species survival in secondary habitats are at least delaying extinctions. Extinction rates are, however, poorly quantified, ranging from 0.01 to 1% (at most 5%) per decade. We propose practical actions to improve taxonomic productivity and associated understanding and conservation of biodiversity.
Baker & Winkler make a welcome contribution to elephant conservation in Thailand in advocating a role for joint human/elephant labor and local expertise in rewilding. Their argument would benefit, ...however, if it drew more upon the local ethnographic evidence. Ethnocentric notions such as "welfare" and "wellbeing" may not fit into the local perception of pachyderms.
Community-based natural resource conservation programs in developing nations face many implementation challenges underpinned by social-psychological mechanisms. One challenge is garnering local ...support in an economically and socially sustainable fashion despite economic hardship and historical alienation from local resources. Unfortunately, conservationists' limited understanding of the social-psychological mechanisms underlying participatory conservation impedes the search for appropriate solutions. We address this issue by revealing key underlying social-psychological mechanisms of participatory conservation. Different administrative designs create social atmospheres that differentially affect endorsement of conservation goals. Certain forms of endorsement may be less effective motivators and less economically and socially sustainable than others. From a literature review we found that conservation initiatives endorsed primarily for nonautonomous instrumental reasons, such as to avoid economic fines or to secure economic rewards, are less motivating than those endorsed for autonomous reasons, such as for the opportunity for personal expression and growth. We suggest that successful participatory programs promote autonomous endorsement of conservation through an administrative framework of autonomy support--free and open democratic participation in management, substantive recognition and inclusion of local stakeholder identity, and respectful, noncoercive social interaction. This framework of the autonomy-supportive environment (self-determination theory) has important implications for future research into program design and incentive-based conservation and identifies a testable social-psychological theory of conservancy motivation.
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