Assessing a nationwide policy reform toward community-based conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem services in the Alpine North

Protected areas for conservation and poverty alleviation: experiences from Madagascar Charlie J. Gardner*, Martin E. Nicoll, Tsibara Mbohoahy, Kirsten L. L. Oleson, Anitry N. Ratsifandrihamanana, Joelisoa Ratsirarson, Lily-Arison Ren e de Roland, Malika Virah-Sawmy, Bienvenue Zafindrasilivonona and Zoe G. Davies WWF Madagascar and Western Indian Ocean Programme Office, BP738, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar; Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NR, UK; D epartement de Biologie, Facult e des Sciences, Universit e de Toliara, Toliara 601, BP 185, Toliara, Madagascar; Blue Ventures Conservation, Level 2 Annex, Omnibus Business Centre, 39-41 North Road, N7 9DP London, UK; ESSA-D epartement Eaux et Forets, Universit e d’Antananarivo, BP 175 Antananarivo, Madagascar; and The Peregrine Fund, BP 4113 Antananarivo, Madagascar

The management of Protected Areas (PAs) in Brazil has been slowly incorporated the concept of participative governance, promoting the involvement and participation of local populations. There is a direct relationship between governance and effective management of PAs in such way that conservation of territories with involvement of local communities brings benefits to the society for a very low cost. The Amazon Protected Areas Program (ARPA) is a program launched by the Brazilian government in 2002 that supports 59,2 million hectares of PAs, making it the most ambitious biodiversity conservation program in the world. The main objectives of the ARPA include to protecting representative samples of biodiversity, ecosystems and associated landscapes, as well as maintaining of the environmental services. Based on decentralized and participative management principles, the Program also supports local communities, developing and implementing strategies of sustainable use of natural resources. Particularly, the subcomponent “integration of communities” supports 23 action plans, based on social and environmental safeguards of World Bank. This study presents the results of 14 action plans, which have been monitored and evaluated over the past two years. Methodology included participative workshops with PAs managers, along with fieldwork research for accomplishing activities with local stakeholders. Moreover, action plans have been evaluated throughout progress reports, meetings acts, and other documents related to the implementation of the plans. Ten out of 14 action plans have presented significant advances in the sustainable management of natural resources, community organization, and income generation. We found that positive results include establishment of partnerships among different organizations (e.g. local organizations, NGOs, universities, and research institutes); empowerment of local communities and more participation of stakeholders in the councils of PAs; improvements of communication and knowledge interchanges between stakeholders, communities, and managers; and strengthening of institutional dialogue. The main challenges concerning the successful implementation of the action plans include lack of human resources, high staff turnover, and bureaucracy related to the financial resources execution. We conclude that local development can significantly contribute to the effective management and conservation of PAs.

The ecosystem approach—as endorsed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB) in 2000—is a strategy for holistic, sustainable, and equitable natural resource management, to be implemented via the 12 Malawi Principles. These principles describe the need to manage nature in terms of dynamic ecosystems, while fully engaging with local peoples. It is an ambitious concept. Today, the term is common throughout the research and policy literature on environmental management. However, multiple meanings have been attached to the term, resulting in confusion. We reviewed references to the ecosystem approach from 1957 to 2012 and identified 3 primary uses: as an alternative to ecosystem management or ecosystem-based management; in reference to an integrated and equitable approach to resource management as per the CBD; and as a term signifying a focus on understanding and valuing ecosystem services. Although uses of this term and its variants may overlap in meaning, typically, they do not entirely reflect the ethos of the ecosystem approach as defined by the CBD. For example, there is presently an increasing emphasis on ecosystem services, but focusing on these alone does not promote decentralization of management or use of all forms of knowledge, both of which are integral to the CBD’s concept. We highlight that the Malawi Principles are at risk of being forgotten. To better understand these principles, more effort to implement them is required. Such efforts should be evaluated, ideally with comparative approaches, before allowing the CBD’s concept of holistic and socially engaged management to be abandoned or superseded. It is possible that attempts to implement all 12 principles together will face many challenges, but they may also offer a unique way to promote holistic and equitable governance of natural resources. Therefore, we believe that the CBD’s concept of the ecosystem approach demands more attention.La Necesidad de Desenredar Conceptos Clave del Argot Ambiente-EstrategiaResumenLa estrategia ambiental – como es promocionada por la Convención Biológica sobre Diversidad en 2000 – es una estrategia para un manejo holístico, sustentable y equitativo de recursos naturales, que habrá de implementarse por vía de los 12 Principios de Malawi. Estos principios describen la necesidad de manejar la naturaleza en términos de ecosistemas dinámicos, mientras se compromete totalmente con las personas locales. Es un concepto ambicioso. Hoy en día, el término es común en la investigación y la literatura de políticas sobre el manejo ambiente. Sin embargo, se han relacionado múltiples significados con el término, lo que resulta en confusión. Revisamos referencias a la estrategia ambiental de 1957 a 2012 e identificamos tres usos principales: como una alternativa para manejo ambiental o basado en ecosistemas; en referencia a una estrategia integrada y equitativa para el manejo de recursos según la CBD; y como un término que indica un enfoque en el entendimiento y la valuación de los servicios ambientales. Aunque los usos de este término y sus variantes pueden traslaparse en su significado, típicamente no reflejan en su totalidad los valores de la estrategia ambiental como fue definida por la CBD. Por ejemplo, actualmente hay un énfasis creciente en los servicios ambientales, pero enfocarse solamente en estos no promueve la descentralización del manejo o el uso de todas las formas de conocimiento, siendo ambas integrales para el concepto de la CBD. Resaltamos que los Principios de Malawi están en riesgo de ser olvidados. Para entender mejor estos principios, se requiere de más esfuerzo para implementarlos. Dichos esfuerzos deben ser evaluados, idóneamente con estrategias comparativas, antes de permitir que el concepto de la CBD de manejo holístico y comprometido socialmente sea abandonado o reemplazado. Es posible que los intentos por implementar los 12 principios juntos enfrentarán muchos obstáculos, pero también pueden ofrecer una forma única de promover el gobierno holístico y equitativo de los recursos naturales. Así, creemos que el concepto de estrategia ambiental de la CBD exige mayor atención.

Ecosystem services such as the suppression of pest insects may increase productivity of agroforestry systems and thereby increase well-being of smallholders. Tropical birds and bats are effective predators of arthropods and move within landscapes, representing mobile links that connect habitats in space and time. But information on the effects of birds and bats on multitrophic interactions and agricultural productivity in different types of agroforestry systems is limited. Similarly, the relative importance of local agroforestry management and the tropical landscape matrix for ecosystem services mediated by birds has not been investigated so far. Last but not least, a better understanding of dynamic tropical agroforestry landscapes and the effects of habitat conversion and land use intensification on important functional groups as well as for endangered species is urgently needed. We conducted a predator exclusion experiment in which we manipulated the access of birds and bats on 15 different cacao agroforestry sites to quantify their effects on diurnal and nocturnal insects and spiders, cacao fruit development, leaf herbivory and the final crop yield over a period of 15 months. The selected cacao agroforestry sites were located on the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia) and differed in local management and distance to forest. The absence of birds and bats led to an increased density of insect herbivores and caused a concurrent release of mesopredators such as ants and spiders despite negative effects on the development of cacao fruits and a remarkable decrease of final cacao crop yield of 31 % across local and landscape gradients. In addition to bird and bat field exclusion experiments, we investigated the group of insectivorous birds with two different sampling methods. Using an arthropod predation experiment (standardized exposure of dummy caterpillars), we quantified predation rates in relation to the identity and diversity of insectivorous birds. We discovered that responses of the insectivorous bird community and the predation activity differed with the landscape context and both increased with forest proximity. Our findings show that ecosystem services can be driven by single species rather than by overall communities of certain functional groups. Therefore, the conservation of species diversity and ecosystem services does not necessarily rely on the same management strategies, although nearby forests appeared to be of great importance for both bird diversity and avian ecosystem services. The importance of forest proximity and large trees in agroforestry landscapes was also shown in a species specific study we conducted on a declining local population of the Indonesian endemic Grosbeak Starling in our study area. Although this species is well adapted to anthropogenic landscapes, it is also closely associated with large remnant forest trees that remain along forest margin areas and land use systems as nesting sites. The rapid conversion of the forest margin landscape in Central Sulawesi led to a sharp decline of such nesting sites by 92% within only two years. Hence, the endemic Grosbeak Starling is likely to be currently endangered although it was locally very abundant a few years ago. These results show how fast conversion of natural habitats and resource extraction in increasingly intensified tropical agroforestry landscapes can result in changes of the local species diversity. In conclusion, we demonstrate the importance of the quantification of final ecosystem services such as fruit productivity and crop yield to improve the valuation of ecosystem services provided by tropical birds and bats. Species diversity and species identity are both important measures for functional diversity and ecosystem functioning, although with different importance for conservation and the smallholders’ economics. A single common species (Zosterops chloris) was more important for the service of arthropod suppression than overall bird species diversity. Nevertheless, nearby forest habitats and extensively used agroforests (shaded and without use of pesticides or other chemical compounds) turned out to be important for both biodiversity and ecosystem services. Multitrophic interactions between birds, bats and other natural enemies (ants and spiders) of phytophagous insects are likely to jointly impact the productivity of agroforestry systems in complex ways and therefore need to be considered simultaneously at different temporal and spatial scales.

PDF HTML阅读 XML下载 导出引用 引用提醒 密云水库上游流域生态系统服务功能空间特征及其与居民福祉的关系 DOI: 10.5846/stxb201303120397 作者: 作者单位: 中国科学院生态环境研究中心 城市与区域生态国家重点实验室,中国科学院生态环境研究中心 城市与区域生态国家重点实验室,中国科学院生态环境研究中心 城市与区域生态国家重点实验室,中国科学院生态环境研究中心 城市与区域生态国家重点实验室 作者简介: 通讯作者: 中图分类号: 基金项目: 国家自然科学基金资助项目(41371538);城市与区域生态国家重点实验室科研专项资助项目(SKLURE2008-1-02);国家基础研究重大专项资助项目(2009CB421105) Ecosystem services' spatial characteristics and their relationships with residents' well-being in Miyun Reservoir watershed Author: Affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences,,State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fund Project: 摘要 | 图/表 | 访问统计 | 参考文献 | 相似文献 | 引证文献 | 资源附件 | 文章评论 摘要:生态系统管理的一个重要挑战是在区域尺度上管理生态系统服务并提高当地居民福祉。以2009年土地利用数据和社会经济数据为基础,利用InVEST模型和空间制图在乡镇尺度上对密云水库上游流域水资源供给服务、土壤保持服务、水质净化服务、产品供给服务以及居民福祉进行了定量评估和空间特征刻画,并探讨了生态系统服务与居民福祉的不同关系模式。结果表明,流域内各乡镇土壤保持服务从上游到下游呈逐渐递增的趋势,水质净化服务从上游到下游整体上也呈逐渐递增的趋势,流域内水质净化服务功能与水资源供给服务、粮食供给服务、蔬菜供给服务以及畜牧产品供给服务在空间上呈显著负相关;基于生态系统服务与居民福祉在空间上的聚集特征,可将56个乡镇划分为低服务低福祉模式、供给服务依赖模式和高服务高福祉模式,针对这3种关系模式特点,可分别提出改善生态系统服务功能和居民福祉的管理措施。案例研究可为其他区域实施分区管理、协调生态系统服务功能保护与居民福祉的关系提供借鉴。 Abstract:Understanding the characteristics of spatial coupling of ecosystem services and human well-being is the premise to strengthen ecological system management and then conserve ecosystem services and improve human well-being. The research community, however, mainly focused on the conceptual framework and the large-scale description since United Nations released Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005. This study use the ecosystem services assessment model InVEST(Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs)to evaluate the special characteristics of water supply service, soil conservation service, water purification service, and provisioning ecosystem services. Specifically, we chose Miyun Reservoir watershed as a typical example, which is of vital importance to regulation of ecosystem services, to evaluate these characteristics such as such as food supply, the supply of livestock products, and the supply of vegetables at township scales in Miyun Reservoir watershed. Then we reveal the spatial characteristics of human wellbeing which utilize the per capita net income of farmers as proxy a indicator, and investigate different patterns of relationships between ecosystem service and human well-being. The results show that:(1) Ecosystem services appear to be a significant spatial heterogeneity in space in Miyun Reservoir watershed: water supply service turns out to first increase and then decrease from upstream to downstream; Both soil conservation service and water purification service show a consistent increasing tendency from upstream to downstream; and provisioning ecosystem services are higher at Chao and Bai river watershed and lower at the intermediate region.(2) The relationship between water purification service and water supply service, provisioning ecosystem services, and agricultural services turns out to be a significant negative correlation (P < 0.05). Agricultural development is a important factor to affect the ecosystem water purification services.(3) The residents' well-being shows a significant spatial heterogeneity in space: The rural per capita net income of farmers in Beijing is 4.46 times that in Heibei Province at province scale. And the residents' well-being doesn't show an apparent agglomeration at township scale.(4) Based on the special agglomeration characteristics of ecosystem services and residents' well-being at township scale, the 56 towns appear to contain three spatial coupling patterns: high well-being with high ecosystem services, human wellbeing depending on provisioning ecosystem services (a dependent pattern), and low well-being with low ecosystem services.(5) In order to achieve the win-win objective which can bring about both protect ecosystem services and improve residents' well-being, we propose management recommendations as follows: Emphasize to keep regulating services in high well-being with high ecosystem services pattern; Emphasize to keep provisioning ecosystem services in dependent pattern; Emphasize the implementation of ecological compensation policies in low well-being with low ecosystem services pattern. This study provides an insights to relationships between the spatial pattern of ecosystem services and residents' well-being, and reveals both the spatial coupled pattern and its characteristics. These findings provide scientific support for district and classification management, while the research methods and train of thought can provide a reference for protecting ecosystem services and simultaneously enhancing the well-being of residents for other basin management. 参考文献 相似文献 引证文献

The Convention on Biological Diversity as a legal framework for safeguarding ecosystem services

Integrating decision-making preferences into ecosystem service conservation area identification: A case study of water-related ecosystem services in the Dawen River watershed, China

The expanding economical activities have accelerated losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services, which are especially pronounced in Asia. To find solutions to stop these losses, a group of scientists studying both ecological and social sciences has launched an interdisciplinary research network, entitled TSUNAGARI (Trans‐System, UNified Approach for Global and Regional Integration of social‐ecological study toward sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services). The project is based on two main perspectives: (1) integrating different disciplines of environmental research across multiple spatial scales, and (2) evaluating the importance of ecosystem connectivity between land and ocean for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The integrative studies have been started as follows: (1) integrating global‐scale analyses of biodiversity and economy by developing GIS‐based footprint analysis, (2) establishing the link between the studies of local good practices of ecosystem management and life cycle assessment on ecosystem good and services, (3) linking local‐scale ecosystem studies to decision making processes for sustainable society by multiple stakeholders, and (4) upscaling local analyses of ecosystem processes to broad‐scale analyses of ecosystem patterns. The proposed approaches are considered effective to solve problems that impede conservation of biodiversity and sustainable use of multiple ecosystem services in various situations although we also find some gaps such as regional biases in biodiversity data and involvement of different types of stakeholders. By overcoming the major bottlenecks, we believe the new integrated approaches will promote conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystem services research, and contribute to advance decision‐making processes from local communities to international levels.

In the study of protected areas, the "Fences & fines" approach is increasingly becoming acknowledged as obsolete and ineffectual, and there is mounting evidence suggesting that the "Community-based conservation" approach is acquiring consideration. It is significant to identify which protection model or factors perform a definitive part in China. Taking the East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve in China as a survey site, this paper utilizes semi-structured interviews and random questionnaires surveyed 431 households to investigate the relationship between "community-based conservation" approaches such aslegal system, ecological compensation, environmental education, community participation, concessions, livelihoods, job provision, intrinsic motivation and pro-environmental behavior. The regression results declare that intrinsic motivation (β = 0.390) and legal system (β = 0.212) are the most effective factors impacting on pro-environmental behavior; concessions has a negative conflict on preservation;but other "community-based conservation" approaches had insignificant positive impacts on pro-environmental behavior. Further mediating effects analysis indicated that intrinsic motivation (B = 0.3899, t = 11.9694, p < 0.01) mediates between legal system and pro-environmental behavior of community residents, legal system promotes pro-environmental behavior by promoting intrinsic motivation, which is more effective than legal system promoting pro-environmental behavior directly. This demonstrates that “Fence and fine approach" still is an effective management tool which can shape community residents' positive attitude towards conservation and pro-environmental behavior especially protected areas with large communities. And appropriate "community-based conservation" approaches can mitigate conflicts between special groups with the combination of these two approaches, the management of protected areas can be successful. This supplies a valuable real-world case for the current debate on conservation and improved human livelihoods.

The importance of protecting ecosystem services has been increasingly recognized due to their substantial benefits for human beings. Traditional conservation planning methods for locating and designing prioritized areas focus on high-value areas. However, ecosystem services have an intrinsic correlation of trade-offs and synergies among them; thus, solely selecting high-value areas cannot ensure efficiency in the conservation of multiple ecosystem services. Pursuing the protection of one ecosystem service may compromise the effectiveness of conserving others. Therefore, this study aims to develop a method for identifying the optimal ecosystem service protected areas in more efficient ways by quantifying the spatial relationships of ecosystem services on a local scale. We examined the correlations between all possible paired combinations of four ecosystem services using the Local Moran’s I and classified them into five cluster types in the Yangtze River Basin. To address conflicting solutions for multiple ecosystem service goals, we employed systematic conservation planning to identify priority areas for ecosystem service protection, following the principles of representativeness, complementarity, and persistence. By establishing scenarios that optimize each and all ecosystem services at target levels of 20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%, we observed that any two of the four services were positively correlated, occupying vast areas in the Yangtze River Basin. However, the high-value areas of each ecosystem service did not coincide in their spatial distributions. Under the same target, more high-value areas could be selected as the best solutions by only optimizing a single ecosystem service. The degree of overlap between priority areas varied considerably across optimizations for individual ecosystem services, particularly when setting lower targets. Our findings suggest that integrated conservation planning for all ecosystem services is more efficient than layering multiple single plans. Understanding the correlations between ecosystem services can lead to more effective management and sustainable decision making.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is involved in the implementation of an international Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) (UNEP: Developing international payments for environmental services: a technical discussion (Background Paper), 2006) mechanism, namely “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in the developing countries and the conservation, sustainable forest management and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in the developing countries” (REDD+). However, the laws of the DRC are insufficient to achieve a sustainable PES and REDD+ implementation. Based on indicators on land tenure security, classical conditions of contracts, 3E+ REDD+ criteria and measures on conservation and restoration, this chapter analyses the laws related to PES in force in the DRC in order to obtain a more sustainable preservation of ecosystem services. The chapter focuses on four ecosystem services: carbon sequestration and storage, biodiversity protection, watershed protection and landscape beauty. Several criteria have been applied to assess the potential of the DRC PES laws to promote a sustainable preservation of ecosystems and ecosystem services. A first set of well-known criteria are the 3 E+ REDD+ criteria, which entails that to achieve a successful REDD+ implementation, the REDD+ project should be effective, costly efficient, equitable and bring co-benefits. Effectiveness refers to the achievement of environmental goals. Cost efficiency means that the project should attempt to reach the environmental goals through reasonable financial means. Equity fits with the inclusive capacity of the project. Four co-benefits are distinguished, namely biodiversity conservation, governance, adaptation of climate change and improvement of social conditions. Secondly, this chapter refers to classical contract conditions from French and Belgian Civil Law inherited by Congolese Civil Law. These conditions are the consent of the parties, the capacity of parties, the existence of an object and the legal purpose. Thirdly, the chapter refers to the indicators on conservation and restoration measures and on land tenure security (property right titles and clear borders). The chapter demonstrates that there is a need to update or enforce the existing laws related to PES applied in the DRC in order to increase the preservation of ecosystem services. The chapter argues that the transformation of the existing laws would positively influence the implementation of SDG 13 and 15.

Engaging relevant stakeholders to identify ecosystem services is an important step in ensuring better management actions and nature protection. In this study, we involved three stakeholder groups that gave their opinions on different aspects regarding the usage, threats and protection of ecosystem services in the Nemunas Delta region (south-eastern Baltic Sea). Opinions from 178 respondents, representing local farmers, birdwatchers and scientists were collected in order to evaluate the importance of ecosystem services and to distinguish the most effective actions to sustain them. Despite many differences, there was a clear consensus among all three respondent groups about the importance of some ecosystem services such as water quality, water cycle, habitats for migratory animals, existence value, nature watching, subject for education and research and recreation. Birdwatchers appeared to be helpful in ecosystem services evaluation for their experience-based knowledge in this study region, but the differing perceptions of different groups on the majority of ecosystem services showed how important it is to include more than one stakeholder group in the assessment. The respondents did not agree about the actions needed to sustain ecosystem services––this highlights a need for compromises between anthropogenic activities and environmental protection, while an agreement on the necessity (willingness) to preserve natural values points to future development directions for the Nemunas Delta Region.

Cross-cultural values and management preferences in protected areas of Norway and Poland

Carbon sequestration and riparian zones: Assessing the impacts of changing regulatory practices in Southern Brazil

Soil salinization, exacerbated by climate change, poses significant threats to agricultural productivity, land restoration, and ecosystem resilience. This study reviews current knowledge on plant-soil interactions as a strategy to mitigate soil salinization induced by climate change, focusing on their role in soil salinity dynamics and tolerance mechanisms. The review examines how alterations in hydrological and temperature regimes impact soil salinity and how plant-soil mechanisms-such as salt exclusion, compartmentalization, and plant-microbe interactions-contribute to salinity mitigation. This, in turn, enhances soil quality, fertility, microbial diversity, and ecosystem services. The analysis identifies a growing body of research and highlights key themes and emerging trends, including drought, microbial communities, and salt tolerance strategies. This study underscores the critical role of plant-soil interactions in sustainable salinity management and identifies knowledge gaps and future research priorities, advocating for plant-soil interactions as a crucial pathway for improving ecosystem resilience to salinity stress amid climate change.