The remarkable large-mammal fauna of the Indonesian island of Sumatra is one of the most endangered on Earth and is threatened by rampant deforestation. We used remote sensing and biological surveys ...to study the effects of deforestation on populations of endangered large mammals in a Sumatran landscape. We measured forest loss and created a predictive model of deforestation for Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park and an unprotected buffer area based on satellite images between 1985 and 1999. We used automatic cameras to determine the distribution and relative abundance of tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), elephants (Elephas maximus), rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), and tapirs (Tapir indicus). Between 1985 and 1999, forest loss within the park averaged 2% per year. A total of $661\>km^2$ of forest disappeared inside the park, and $318\>km^2$ were lost in a 10-km buffer, eliminating forest outside the park. Lowland forest disappeared faster than hill/montane forest (by a factor of 6) and forests on gentle slopes disappeared faster than forests on steep slopes (by a factor of 16). Most forest conversion resulted from agricultural development, leading to predictions that by 2010 70% of the park will be in agriculture and that by 2036 lowland forest habitat will be eliminated. Camera-trap data indicated avoidance of forest boundaries by tigers, rhinoceroses (up to 2 km), and elephants (up to 3 km). Classification of forest into core and peripheral forest based on mammal distribution suggests that, by 2010, core forest area for tigers and rhinoceros will be fragmented and reduced to 20% of remaining forest. Core forest area for elephants will be reduced to 0.5% of remaining forest. Halting forest loss has proven one of the most difficult and complex problems faced by Indonesia's conservation agencies today and will require a mix of enforcement, wise land-use strategies, increased education, capacity to manage, and new financing mechanisms.
This paper explores whether spatial variation in the biodiversity values of vertebrates and plants (species richness, range-size rarity and number or proportion of IUCN Red Listed threatened species) ...of three African tropical mountain ranges (Eastern Arc, Albertine Rift and Cameroon-Nigeria mountains within the Biafran Forests and Highlands) co-vary with proxy measures of threat (human population density and human infrastructure). We find that species richness, range-size rarity, and threatened species scores are all significantly higher in these three tropical African mountain ranges than across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. When compared with the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, human population density is only significantly higher in the Albertine Rift mountains, whereas human infrastructure is only significantly higher in the Albertine Rift and the Cameroon-Nigeria mountains. Statistically there are strong positive correlations between human density and species richness, endemism and density or proportion of threatened species across the three tropical African mountain ranges, and all of sub-Saharan Africa. Kendall partial rank-order correlation shows that across the African tropical mountains human population density, but not human infrastructure, best correlates with biodiversity values. This is not the case across all of sub-Saharan Africa where human density and human infrastructure both correlate almost equally well with biodiversity values. The primary conservation challenge in the African tropical mountains is a fairly dense and poor rural population that is reliant on farming for their livelihood. Conservation strategies have to address agricultural production and expansion, in some cases across the boundaries and into existing reserves. Strategies also have to maintain, or finalise, an adequate protected area network. Such strategies cannot be implemented in conflict with the local population, but have to find ways to provide benefits to the people living adjacent to the remaining forested areas, in return for their assistance in conserving the forest habitats, their biodiversity, and their ecosystem functions.
Conservation of representative facets of geophysical diversity may help conserve biological diversity as the climate changes. We conducted a global classification of terrestrial geophysical diversity ...and analyzed how land protection varies across geophysical diversity types. Geophysical diversity was classified in terms of soil type, elevation, and biogeographic realm and then compared to the global distribution of protected areas in 2012. We found that 300 (45%) of 672 broad geophysical diversity types currently meet the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 11 of 17% terrestrial areal protection, which suggested that efforts to implement geophysical diversity conservation have a substantive basis on which to build. However, current protected areas were heavily biased toward high elevation and low fertility soils. We assessed 3 scenarios of protected area expansion and found that protection focused on threatened species, if fully implemented, would also protect an additional 29% of geophysical diversity types, ecoregional‐focused protection would protect an additional 24%, and a combined scenario would protect an additional 42%. Future efforts need to specifically target low‐elevation sites with productive soils for protection and manage for connectivity among geophysical diversity types. These efforts may be hampered by the sheer number of geophysical diversity facets that the world contains, which makes clear target setting and prioritization an important next step.
Planning to Save a Species: the Jaguar as a Model Sanderson, Eric W.; Redford, Kent H.; Chetkiewicz, Cheryl-Lesley B. ...
Conservation biology,
February 2002, Letnik:
16, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
International conservation planning at the end of the twentieth century is dominated by coarse-filter, supra-organismal approaches to conservation that may be insufficient to conserve certain species ...such as the jaguar (Panthera onca). If we are to retain broadly distributed species into the next century, we need to plan explicitly for their survival across their entire geographic range and through political boundaries while recognizing the variety of ecological roles the species plays in different habitats. In March 1999 the Wildlife Conservation Society sponsored a priority-setting and planning exercise for the jaguar across its range, from northern Mexico to northern Argentina. Field scientists from 18 countries reached consensus on four types of information: (1) the spatial extent of their jaguar knowledge, (2) the known, currently occupied range of jaguars, (3) areas with substantial jaguar populations, adequate habitat, and a stable and diverse prey base, and (4) point localities where jaguars have been observed during the last 10 years. During the exercise, these experts also conducted a range-wide assessment of the long-term survival prospects of the jaguar and developed an algorithm for prioritizing jaguar conservation units occurring in major habitat types. From this work, we learned that the known, occupied range of the jaguar has contracted to approximately 46% of estimates of its 1900 range. Jaguar status and distribution is unknown in another 12% of the jaguar's former range, including large areas in Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. But over 70% of the area where jaguars are thought to still occur was rated as having a high probability of supporting their long-term survival. Fifty-one jaguar conservation units representing 30 different jaguar geographic regions were prioritized as the basis for a comprehensive jaguar conservation program.
The Welikeia project and the corresponding free online tool Visionmaker. NYC focus on the historical landscape ecologies of New York City. This article provides a brief introduction to online ...participatory tools, describes the Visionmaker tool in detail, and offers suggested ways to use the tool for Extension professionals based in and outside New York City. This information provides a basis for best practices Extension professionals can apply when using Visionmaker to support ecological thinking and participatory planning to catalyze change among urban residents.
Reintroduction—defined here as the return of a species to a part of its range where it has been extirpated—is a critical pathway to conservation in the 21st century. As late as the 1960s, jaguars ...(Panthera onca) inhabited an expansive region in the central mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, a habitat unique in all of jaguar range. Here, we make the case for reintroduction, building a rhetorical bridge between conservation science and practice. First, we present a rationale rooted in the philosophy of wildlife conservation. Second, we show that the species once occupied this territory and was extirpated by human actions that should no longer pose a threat. Third, we demonstrate that the proposed recovery area provides suitable ecological conditions. Fourth, we discuss how return of the species could be a net benefit to people, explicitly recognizing a diversity of values and concerns. Fifth, we show that reintroduction is practical and feasible over a realistic time horizon. Returning the jaguar to this area will enhance the recovery of an endangered species in the United States, further its range‐wide conservation, and restore an essential part of North America's cultural and natural heritage.
Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities in the early twenty-first century. Planning to respond to disasters is particularly complicated in ...densely inhabited, multi-jurisdictional urban social-ecological systems like the watershed of Jamaica Bay, a large urbanized estuary on the south side of New York City. This area contains parklands managed by New York City, the National Park Service, and other agencies, four sewage treatment plants, three former landfills, and urban and suburban communities, all of which were heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Here successful resilience planning and response requires participation from a wide variety of government and civil society players each with different types of knowledge, value systems, and expectations about what resilience means. To investigate how “visions” of future resilience differed among several communities living in or concerned with Jamaica Bay, New York, we deployed a free, Internet-based modeling framework called Visionmaker that enabled interactive scenario creation and testing. Through a series of standardized workshops, we recruited participants from a variety of different communities of practice (i.e. researchers, land managers, educators, non-governmental organization staff, and community board members) to design “visions of resilience”. Visions spanned terrestrial and marine environments and contained natural and built ecosystems. Most users favored increasing resilience through expanding salt marsh and green infrastructure while, for the most part, keeping the built city landscape of streets and buildings intact. We compare and contrast these visions and discuss the implications for future resilience planning in coastal cities.
Many wide-ranging mammal species have experienced significant declines over the last 200 years; restoring these species will require long-term, large-scale recovery efforts. We highlight 5 attributes ...of a recent range-wide vision-setting exercise for ecological recovery of the North American bison (Bison bison) that are broadly applicable to other species and restoration targets. The result of the exercise, the "Vermejo Statement" on bison restoration, is explicitly (1) large scale, (2) long term, (3) inclusive, (4) fulfilling of different values, and (5) ambitious. It reads, in part, "Over the next century, the ecological recovery of the North American bison will occur when multiple large herds move freely across extensive landscapes within all major habitats of their historic range, interacting in ecologically significant ways with the fullest possible set of other native species, and inspiring, sustaining and connecting human cultures." We refined the vision into a scorecard that illustrates how individual bison herds can contribute to the vision. We also developed a set of maps and analyzed the current and potential future distributions of bison on the basis of expert assessment. Although more than 500,000 bison exist in North America today, we estimated they occupy <1% of their historical range and in no place express the full range of ecological and social values of previous times. By formulating an inclusive, affirmative, and specific vision through consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, we hope to provide a foundation for conservation of bison, and other wide-ranging species, over the next 100 years. /// Muchas especies de mamíferos de distribución amplia han experimentado declinaciones significativas durante los últimos 200 años; la restauración de estas especies requerirá esfuerzos de recuperación a largo plazo y a gran escala. Resaltamos 5 atributos de un reciente ejercicio de gran visión para la recuperación ecológica del bisonte de Norte América (Bison bison) que son aplicables en lo general a otras especies y objetivos de restauración. El resultado del ejercicio, la "Declaración de Vermejo", explícitamente es (1) de gran escala, (2) de largo plazo, (3) incluyente, (4) satisfactor de valores diferentes y (5) ambicioso. En parte, establece que "En el próximo siglo, la recuperación ecológica del Bisonte de Norte América ocurrirá cuando múltiples manadas se desplacen libremente en los extensos paisajes de todos los hábitats importantes en su rango de distribución histórica, interactúen de manera significativa ecológicamente con el conjunto más completo de otras especies nativas e inspiren, sostengan y conecten culturas humanas." Refinamos esta visión en una tarjeta de puntuación que ilustra cómo las manadas de bisonte individuales pueden contribuir a la visión. También desarrollamos un conjunto de mapas y analizamos las distribuciones actuales y potencialmente futuras del bisonte con base en la evaluación de expertos. Aunque actualmente existen más de 500,000 bisontes en Norte América, estimamos que ocupan <1% de su distribución histórica y no expresan el rango completo de valores ecológicos y culturales de otros tiempos. Mediante la formulación de una visión incluyente, afirmativa y específica basada en la consulta a una amplia gama de interesados, esperamos proporcionar un fundamento para la conservación del bisonte, y otras especies de distribución amplia, para los próximos 100 años.
Mapping the Conservation Landscape Redford, Kent H.; Coppolillo, Peter; Sanderson, Eric W. ...
Conservation biology,
February 2003, Letnik:
17, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Before widespread, informed collaboration can take place in conservation there must be a process of understanding the different approaches employed by different conservation organizations to conserve ...biodiversity. To begin this process and to help build understanding and collaboration, we provide a conceptual map of 21 approaches currently being implemented by 13 conservation organizations. We examined each of these approaches according to (1) the nature of the conservation target-the object(s) of the conservation action; (2) whether the question addressed is where conservation should be done or how conservation should be done; (3) the scale (both grain and extent) of the approach; and (4) the principles that underlie the approach. These questions provide a good way of distinguishing between most of the approaches and reveal that there is less competition between them than is assumed. We conclude that only with explicit understanding can the conservation community and its supporters critically compare approaches and come to a consensus about a set of metrics for measuring and achieving global conservation.
Effective conservation planning requires, considering all the complicated biological, social and economic factors which impinge on the ecological integrity of a site, and then focusing inevitably ...limited conservation resources on those times, places and activities that most impact ecological structure and function. The landscape species concept provides a useful lens for defining conservation landscapes and highlighting potential threats from human activity. This paper outlines a conceptual methodology for landscape conservation being tested by the Wildlife Conservation Society at three sites in Latin America and Africa. Based on the biological requirements of an ecologically functioning population of a landscape species, the “biological” landscape is defined. This landscape is compared to the landscape of human activities through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Focal landscapes sufficient to meet species requirements are defined and threats from human activity evaluated with respect to biological requirements. A suite of landscape species may be selected depending on resources, leading to multiple, often overlapping, focal landscapes. A hypothetical example is presented.
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