Abstract
Conservation approaches in tiger landscapes have focused on single species and their habitat. Further, the limited extent of the existing protected area network in India lacks representativeness, habitat connectivity, and integration in the larger landscape. Our objective was to identify sites important for connected tiger habitat and biodiversity potential in the Greater Panna Landscape, central India. Further, we aimed to set targets at the landscape level for conservation and prioritize these sites within each district in the landscape as specific management/conservation zones. We used earth observation data to derive an index of biodiversity potential. Marxan was used to identify sites that met tiger and biodiversity conservation targets with minimum costs. We found that to protect 50% of the tiger habitat with connectivity, 20% of the landscape area must be conserved. To conserve 100% of high biodiversity potential, 50% moderate biodiversity potential, and 25% low biodiversity potential, 55% of the landscape area must be conserved. To represent both tiger habitat and biodiversity, 62% of the total landscape area requires conservation or restoration intervention. The prioritized zones can prove significant for hierarchical decision making, involving multiple stakeholders in the landscape, including other tiger range areas.
Highlights
Protected areas (PAs) are among the important strategies of target-based conservation approaches [1]
A significant contribution to this network is made by the Tiger Reserve Network, which covers ~2% of the geographical area of the country
The extent of the landscape was decided by the extent of contiguous forest patches and protected areas around the Panna Tiger Reserve
Summary
Protected areas (PAs) are among the important strategies of target-based conservation approaches [1]. The PA network in India covers 5.03% of the geographical area and includes national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, community reserves, and conservation reserves [2]. A significant contribution to this network is made by the Tiger Reserve Network (often combines existing PAsânational parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserve forests), which covers ~2% of the geographical area of the country. Its utility as a conservation tool has not been empirically tested in the case of tigers, but the umbrella species approach has been found to be more effective in selecting biologically important areas, as opposed to randomly selecting habitat patches for conservation [15], in addition to its higher efficacy in other cases to determine the size and type of habitats to protect [16]
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