A framework for assessing the environmental effectiveness of management at the scale of a Natura 2000 site

Introducción y objetivos: Conocer el estado de conservación de las especies es fundamental para dar prioridad de intervención y manejo a las poblaciones de las especies más amenazadas. Muchas veces la información disponible no alcanza para una evaluación definitiva por lo que es importante desarrollar métodos de evaluación rápida. En este trabajo realizamos la evaluación preliminar del estado de conservación mediante información obtenida de ejemplares de herbario del género de orquídeas patagónicas Gavilea (Orchidaceae, Chloraeinae), y comparamos nuestros resultados con el estado de conservación de evaluaciones exhaustivas realizadas por expertos. M&M: Compilamos una base de datos con registros de localidad y fecha de colección de ejemplares de herbario de las 17 especies de Gavilea. Aplicamos una adaptación de los criterios propuestos por Krupnik y colaboradores (2009) relacionados con la distribución geográfica y temporal de las colecciones. Comparamos la clasificación obtenida con las publicadas por expertos. Resultados: Categorizamos las 17 especies, con 1 Potencialmente Extinta, 6 especies Potencialmente Amenazadas y las restantes 10 especies Potencialmente No Amenazadas. Encontramos que 15 de las 17 especies coinciden en su clasificación con la evaluación de expertos; sólo para G. platyantha, nuestra categorización fue más optimista que la de expertos. Conclusiones: El método permitió categorizar a todas las especies y determinar las prioridades para futuros estudios o intervenciones. En la mayoría de los casos, la categorización coincidió con la realizada por expertos. En general, consideramos que el método es una buena herramienta para generar una valoración del estado preliminar de conservación de las especies vegetales.

Establishing the necessary measures for the conservation of habitats and species of the Marine Zone of the Danube Delta (ROSCI 0066) is based on the assessment of their current conservation status. Conservation measures instituted aimed at maintaining or restoring the species and habitats for which the site was designated, at an appropriate stage of conservation. The marine protected area ROSCI 0066 (overlapping the Danube Delta – marine zone) is a national protected area within the Natura 2000 European ecological network (Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC, Romanian Government Emergency Ordinance 57/2007, Minister’s of Environment, Water and Forests Order no. 46/2016), and also has the status of Ramsar and UNESCO site. The overall assessment of the conservation status of marine species and habitats derived from Annex E (V) matrix of the EC official reporting format. It was performed for marine fish species of Community interest, whose presence is certain and confirmed by research in the marine protected area’s perimeter. According to the results, Alosa immaculata Bennet, 1835 (Pontic shad) and Alosa tanaica Grimm, 1901 (Black Sea shad) have a favorable conservation status; Huso huso Linnaeus, 1758 (Beluga) and Acipenser stellatus Pallas, 1771 (Starry sturgeon) have an unfavorable conservation status – inadequate U1, while Acipenser gueldenstaedtii Brandt and Ratzeburg 1833 (Danube sturgeon) – unfavorable conservation status – bad U2. Assessing the conservation status of marine fish species contributes to the development of good management measures for biodiversity conservation in the marine protected area (MPA).

Bridging the gap between the Natura 2000 regional conservation status and local conservation objectives

Abstract. Nuryanto A, Bhagawati D, Kusbiyanto. 2020. Evaluation of conservation and trade status of marine ornamental fish harvested from Pangandaran Coastal Waters, West Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 512-520. Pangandaran coastal waters are among the main supply areas of marine ornamental fish in Indonesia. However, no scientific data are available on the conservation and trade status of marine ornamental fish harvested in this region. This study aimed to evaluate the diversity, conservation, and trade status of marine ornamental fish species harvested from Pangandaran coastal waters. Fish were collected during surveys conducted in March, April, July, and September 2019. Species were identified by referring to the available guidance books. The conservation status was analyzed according to the IUCN database, whereas the trade status was evaluated based on the CITES database. A total of 107 marine ornamental fish species from 32 families and eight orders was obtained. The two out of these 107 species had an unresolved conservation status, whereas 24 species were listed as Not Evaluated, 80 species were listed as Least Concern, and one species was listed as Vulnerable by IUCN. Two species had an unknown trade status, whereas 104 species were listed as Not Evaluated and one species was listed in Appendix II of CITES. Our data prove that Pangandaran coastal waters have a high potential for supplying marine ornamental fish, with most of the species listed as having a Not Evaluated or Least Concern status. Most of the species identified were also categorized as having a Not Evaluated trade status.

Weak agreement between the species conservation status assessments of the European Habitats Directive and Red Lists

Natura 2000 is a European network of protected natural areas including a significant number of natural habitats and wild species for the interest of comunnity. Natura 2000 ROSCI 0233 "Someşul Rece" Site is situated in the south-western county of Cluj, on the administrative territory of Măguri-Răcătău and Ierii Valley. It has an area of 8529 ha and is a framed area of the Apuseni Mountains Alpine bioregions. The site preserves the following natural habitats: Rough mountain beech forests Asperulo-Fagetum, beech forests of Luzulo-Fagetum, forests acidophilous Picea Abies mountain region and protect important species and active fish fauna, flora and fauna of the Apuseni Mountains. It is also home for several species (mammals, amphibians, fish and beetles) like: lynx, wolf or otter. The conservation measures of Natura 2000 Somesul Rece Site, elaborated in order to protect the habitats and the species are part of the management plan. These measures were developed in close connection with the conservation status of habitats and species, but also taking into account the needs of local communities. These measures include: maintaining habitats in favorable conservation status; maintain the current habitat areas; preventing and combating poaching and overfishing;ensuring peace in areas of rock (for large mammals).

Preliminary assessment of the conservation status of timber species in the threatened piedmont dry forest of northwestern Argentina

Societal Impact StatementHerbaria can be considered plant libraries, each holding collections of dried specimens documenting plant diversity in space and time. For many plant species, these are our only evidence of their existence and the only means of assessing their conservation status. Specimens in all herbaria, especially those in small and often under‐resourced herbaria in megadiverse countries, are key to achieving accurate estimates of the conservation status of the world's plant species. They are also part of a country's shared heritage and critical contributions to knowledge of the world's diversity.Summary Internationally agreed targets to assess the conservation status of all plant species rely largely on digitised distribution data from specimens held in herbaria. Using taxonomically curated databases of herbarium specimen data for the mega‐diverse genera Begonia (Begoniaceae) and Solanum (Solanaceae) occurring in Peru, we test the value added from including data from local herbaria and herbaria of different sizes on estimations of threat status using International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria. We find that the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has little data from Peruvian herbaria and adding these data influences the estimated threat status of these species, reducing the numbers of Critically Endangered and Vulnerable species in both genera. Similarly, adding data from small‐ and medium‐sized herbaria, whether in‐country or not, also improves the accuracy of threat assessments. [Correction added on 08 September 2023, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, “litter” has been corrected to “little” in this version.] A renewed focus on resourcing and recognising the contribution of small and in‐country herbaria is required if we are to meet internationally agreed targets for plant conservation. We discuss our case study in the broader context of democratising and increasing participation in global botanical science.

Understanding threats acting on marine organisms and their conservation status is vital but challenging given a paucity of data. We studied the cumulative human impact (CHI) on and conservation status of seahorses (Hippocampus spp.)-a genus of rare and data-poor marine fishes. With expert knowledge and relevant spatial data sets, we built linear-additive models to assess and map the CHI of 12 anthropogenic stressors on 42 seahorse species. We examined the utility of indices of estimated impact (impact of each stressor and CHI) in predicting conservation status for species with random forest (RF) models. The CHI values for threatened species were significantly higher than those for nonthreatened species (category based on International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List). We derived high-accuracy RF models (87% and 96%) that predicted that 5 of the 17 data-deficient species were threatened. Demersal fishing practices with high bycatch and pollution were the best predictors of threat category. Major threat epicenters were in China, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Our results and maps of CHI may help guide global seahorse conservation and indicate that modeling and mapping human impacts can reveal threat patterns and conservation status for data-poor species. We found that for exploring threat patterns of focal species, species-level CHI models are better than existing ecosystem-level CHI models.

Pedersen, S. A., Fock, H., Krause, J., Pusch, C., Sell, A. L., Böttcher, U., Rogers, S. I., Sköld, M., Skov, H., Podolska, M., Piet, G. J., and Rice, J. C. 2009. Natura 2000 sites and fisheries in German offshore waters.–ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 155–169. The principal objective of sites selected as part of Natura 2000 is to achieve or maintain a favourable conservation status of habitats and species named in the EU Birds and Habitats directives. In the German exclusive economic zone, the habitat types protected by this legislation are sandbanks and reefs; protected species include marine mammals, seabirds, and specific migratory fish species. The ICES project Environmentally Sound Fishery Management in Protected Areas (EMPAS) aims to answer two questions: (i) To what extent do specific fishing activities significantly threaten attainment of the conservation objectives of the Natura 2000 sites? (ii) What management measures would reduce these conflicts and how effective would they be at helping to ensure the favourable condition of these sites? Assessments of fishing impacts on Natura 2000 sites require basic data on the conservation status of individual habitats and species, as well as data for fine-scale distributions of ongoing fishing activities. This paper describes and discusses the process used by the EMPAS project in developing fishery-management plans for each Natura 2000 site in German offshore waters.

Genetic data from populations are currently being used in order to assess the conservation status of various species. In this study, the conservation implications of the genetic structure of 3 cave-dwelling bat species in southeastern Europe and Anatolia are discussed. These species are the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), the bent-winged bat (Miniopterus schreibersii), and the long-fingered bat (Myotis capaccinii). The conservation status of the species is evaluated using 3 conservation unit approaches, specifically evolutionarily significant unit and management unit definitions and population aggregation analysis. These approaches are implemented simultaneously for the first time for any species in Turkey, through an evaluation of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data previously generated for these species. Based on these data, both regional and cave-specific conservation recommendations are made. The results suggest that for M. capaccinii, the area to be protected in order to maximize the conservation of genetic diversity is around the border of Turkey with Bulgaria and Greece. For the other 2 species, these areas are within Anatolia.

Previous studies show that conservation actions have prevented extinctions, recovered populations, and reduced declining trends in global biodiversity. However, all studies to date have substantially underestimated the difference conservation action makes because they failed to account fully for what would have happened in the absence thereof. We undertook a scenario-based thought experiment to better quantify the effect conservation actions have had on the extinction risk of the world's 235 recognized ungulate species. We did so by comparing species' observed conservation status in 2008 with their estimated status under counterfactual scenarios in which conservation efforts ceased in 1996. We estimated that without conservation at least 148 species would have deteriorated by one International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List category, including 6 species that now would be listed as extinct or extinct in the wild. The overall decline in the conservation status of ungulates would have been nearly 8 times worse than observed. This trend would have been greater still if not for conservation on private lands. While some species have benefited from highly targeted interventions, such as reintroduction, most benefited collaterally from conservation such as habitat protection. We found that the difference conservation action makes to the conservation status of the world's ungulate species is likely to be higher than previously estimated. Increased, and sustained, investment could help achieve further improvements.

Introduction: Biodiversity is being lost at an accelerating rate because of global change. Tools such as species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely used to improve knowledge about species’ conservation status and help develop management strategies to mitigate biodiversity loss. SDMs are especially important for species with restricted distributions, such as endemic species. Objective: To determine how potential distribution predicted by SDMs for eight threatened bat species differed from the distribution maps reported by the IUCN. Also, to infer the area of distribution and state of endemism of each specie, and to evaluate the importance of the Tumbesian region for their conservation. Methods: Based on presence records across the species' entire ranges, we used SDMs to assess the conservation status of these eight species in the Tumbesian region of Ecuador and Peru. Results: The areas estimated by SDMs were 35-78 % smaller for four species (Eptesicus innoxius, Lophostoma occidentale, Platalina genovensium and Lonchophylla hesperia) and 26-1 600 % larger for three species (Amorphochilus schnablii, Promops davisoni and Rhogeessa velilla) than those reported by the IUCN. For Tomopeas ravus, the area estimated by the SDM and IUCN was similar but differed in spatial distribution. SDMs coincided with areas of endemism reported by previous authors for E. innoxius, R. velilla, and T. ravus, but were different for A. schnablii, P. genovensium, P. davisoni, and L. hesperia, due in part to projected distributions for these latter species in dry inter-Andean valleys according to the SDMs. Conclusions: The region represents a significant portion (40-96 %) of the predicted distribution of seven of the eight species studied, underscoring the importance of this region for bat conservation. Our results show likely distributions for these species and provide an important basis for identifying research gaps and developing conservation measures for threatened bats in the Tumbes biodiversity hotspot.

We undertook a comprehensive, critical review of literature concerning the distribution, conservation status, and taxonomy of species of mammals endemic to the Cerrado and the Caatinga, the two largest biomes of the South American Dry-Diagonal. We present species accounts and lists of species, which we built with criteria that, in our opinion, yielded results with increased scientific rigor relative to previously published lists – e.g., excluding nominal taxa whose statuses as species have been claimed only on the basis of unpublished data, incomplete taxonomic work, or weak evidence. For various taxa, we provided arguments regarding species distributions, conservation and taxonomic statuses previously lacking in the literature. Two major findings are worth highlighting. First, we unveil the existence of a group of species endemic to both the Cerrado and the Caatinga (i.e., present in both biomes and absent in all other biomes). From the biogeographic point of view, this group, herein referred to as Caatinga-Cerrado endemics, deserves attention as a unit – just as in case of the Caatinga-only and the Cerrado-only endemics. We present preliminary hypotheses on the origin of these three endemic faunas (Cerrado-only, Caatinga-only, and Caatinga-Cerrado endemics). Secondly, we discovered that a substantial portion of the endemic mammalian faunas of the Caatinga and the Cerrado faces risks of extinction that are unrecognized in the highly influential Red List of Threatened Species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “Data deficient” is a category that misrepresents the real risks of extinction of these species considering that (a) some of these species are known only from a handful of specimens collected in a single or a few localities long ago; (b) the Cerrado and the Caatinga have been sufficiently sampled to guarantee collection of additional specimens of these species if they were abundant; (c) natural habitats of the Cerrado and the Caatinga have been substantially altered or lost in recent decades. Failures either in the design of the IUCN criteria or in their application to assign categories of extinction risks represent an additional important threat to these endemic faunas because their real risks of extinctions become hidden. It is imperative to correct this situation, particularly considering that these species are associated to habitats that are experiencing fast transformation into areas for agriculture, at an unbearable cost for biodiversity.

The article 17 of the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive imposes to the Members States to produce periodic reports (every 6 years) on the conservation status of habitats and species at national level. In this context, in view of preparing the 4th National Report, the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) drafted the national guidelines for habitats monitoring, focusing on data collection at site level. The intention of this paper is to provide an overview about the development, in Italy, on Habitat types monitoring methodologies, in particular detailing the current state-of-the-art for the parameter structure and functions, which is the most controversial among those required by the Habitats Directive for the assessment of conservation status. The paper concludes that, although habitat types monitoring programs could be carried out using individual species of fauna and/or flora, vegetation surveys represent the best choice as it allows to collect standardised and objective data, useful for the definition of more specific indicators, first of all the presence and abundance of typical species.