Landscape Conservation Research Articles

Tiger Habitat Quality Modelling in Malaysia with Sentinel-2 and InVEST

Deforestation is a threat to habitat quality and biodiversity. In intact forests, even small levels of deforestation can have profound consequences for vertebrate biodiversity. The risk hotspots are Borneo, the Central Amazon, and the Congo Basin. Earth observation (EO) now provides regular, high-resolution satellite images from the Copernicus Sentinel missions and other platforms. To assess the impact of forest conversion and forest loss on biodiversity and habitat quality, forest loss in a tiger conservation landscape in Malaysia is analysed using Sentinel-2 imagery and the InVEST habitat quality model. Forest losses are identified from satellites using the random forest classification and validated with PlanetScope imagery at 3–5 m resolution for a test area. Two scenarios are simulated using InVEST, one with and one without the forest loss maps. The outputs of the InVEST model are maps of tiger habitat quality and habitat degradation in northeast Peninsular Malaysia. In addition to forest loss, OpenStreetMap road vectors and the GLC2000 land-cover map are used to model habitat sensitivity to threats from roads, railways, water bodies, and urban areas. The landscape biodiversity score simulation results fall sharply from ~0.8 to ~0.2 for tree-covered land cover when forest loss is included in the habitat quality model. InVEST makes a reasonable assumption that species richness is higher in pristine tropical forests than in agricultural landscapes. The landscape biodiversity score is used to compare habitat quality between administrative areas. The coupled EO/InVEST modelling framework presented here can support decision makers in reaching the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Forest loss information is essential for the quantification of habitat quality and biodiversity in tropical forests. Next generation ecosystem service models should be co-developed alongside EO products to ensure interoperability.

Uniting hearts and lands: advancing conservation and restoration across the Yellowstone to Yukon region

In view of the escalating anthropogenic impacts of climate change, habitat loss, and fragmentation, a broad consensus within the science community has identified large landscape conservation as critical to the future of nature and humanity. Recent commitments made at a global level offer an unprecedented opportunity for the conservation of biodiversity, particularly inasmuch as Canadian and US policies are aligned, ambitious, and clearly focused on ensuring that conservation work respects and supports the rights of Indigenous Peoples. These commitments align with and support the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) mission of connecting and protecting the 2,100-mile-long Yellowstone to Yukon region for people and nature to thrive, with the predominant approach of working with local communities and Indigenous Peoples to advance enduring conservation. Since the inception of the vision in 1993, significant progress has been made as indicated by the expansion of protected areas by more than 80 percent, the recovery of some species such as grizzly bears and wolves, and the ecological restoration of key lands across the region. While 25 percent of the Yellowstone to Yukon region is already managed or co-managed by Indigenous Peoples, today Indigenous Peoples are increasingly asserting their leadership and driving forward new restoration and conservation. New Indigenous-led conservation brings critical energy and visions that advance the Y2Y mission and arguably is a model for other parts of the world committed to achieving the 2030 UN Global Biodiversity Framework.

Mapping conservation priorities for wild yak (Bos mutus) habitats on the Tibetan Plateau, China

The wild yak (Bos mutus) is a cold-tolerant herbivore native to the Tibetan Plateau and has been categorized as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Low population densities within currently fragmented habitats and unclear landscape conservation priorities warrant attention. Herein, we employed the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model using over 900 wild yak occurrence records to model wild yak habitat suitability. Our analysis revealed unprotected wild yak landscapes covering 30.79 % of the habitat area, indicating a conservation gap between protected areas (PAs) and wild yak habitats. To protect metapopulation dynamics and mitigate high risks of poaching, habitat degradation and fragmentation, resource competition, and degenerated genetic characterization of wild yaks in fragmented and degraded habitat, we identified eight habitat patches as landscape conservation units (LCUs) and 14 linkages among the LCUs, enhancing the connectivity between LCUs to decrease negative effects of genetic threats. A centrality analysis demonstrated that Changtang, Arjinshan, and Hoh Xil national nature reserves and their linkages are all critical for the maintenance of habitat connectivity. Here, we suggest that habitat- and LCU-specific conservation strategies should be highlighted during the establishment of PAs and transboundary cooperation. Ultimately, our results can assist conservationists and land managers in comprehending wild yak distribution, movement, and habitat requirements, as well as for the development of effective protection strategies. Furthermore, the combined modeling method (MaxEnt–Zonation–InVEST) could be utilized as a component for identifying conservation priorities and linkages between core patches for species and assessing the efficiency of PAs, core habitats, and corridors in achieving conservation goals. Our study can provide a framework in identifying priority conservation and connectivity between habitat patches to facilitate effectively conservation and genetic resilience for endangered species in fragmented habitats.

Cultural landscape resilience evaluation of Great Wall Villages: A case study of three villages in Chicheng County.

The Great Wall Villages (GWVs) are linked to the Great Wall in history, culture, and ecology. The cultural landscape resilience of Great Wall Villages (CLRGWVs) is distinctly significant. However, it is influenced by urbanization, pollution, and a lack of awareness of cultural landscape protection. Therefore, conservation and development practices still lack scientific strategies and guidance. This study proposes a new assessment system to quantify CLRGWVs, an analysis of the main influencing factors of resilience, and optimization paths to maintain sustainable development. Based on the socio-ecological system, this research designed the assessment with three criteria, eleven factors, and thirty-three indexes from the perspective of CLRGWVs. Furthermore, a demonstration test was constructed in Ningyuanbao Village, Dushikou Village, and Longmensuo Village in Chicheng County, Hebei Province, China. The results showed that there is some disparity between the three GWVs, with the resilience score of Dushikou Village being the highest in terms of resistance and learning. In contrast, Ningyuanbao Village's resilience score is the lowest since resistance, recovery, and learning capacity are lower than in Dushikou and Longmensuo. Some influencing factors were found to be highly related to adaptive capacity. Lastly, some low-resilience aspects were identified as critical improvement targets for which corresponding optimization strategies should be proposed. This could be applied to streamline resilience optimization paths according to local conditions. This paper provides new ideas and directions for dealing with the sustainable development of villages and the conservation of cultural landscapes. It will also help villages deal with the relationship between socio-economic development and the conservation of cultural landscapes.

The expansion and remaining suitable areas of global oil palm plantations

Abstract Non-technical summary Oil palm has been criticized for being an environmentally unfriendly oil crop. In recent decades, oil palm plantations have extended into conservation landscapes, causing severe environmental damage and harming biodiversity. Nevertheless, oil palm remains a highly productive oil crop from which most of the world's vegetable oil is produced. Therefore, measuring the environmental impact of oil palm plantations and identifying suitable land to support its sustainable development is crucial. Technical summary To meet the rising global palm oil demand sustainably, we tracked annual land cover changes in oil palm plantation and mapped areas worldwide suitable for sustainable oil palm cultivation. From 1982 to 2019, 3.6 Mha of forests were converted to oil palm plantations. Despite a recent decline in overall conversion, the shift from forest to oil palm plantations has become increasingly more common over the last decade, rising from 14.1 to 34.5% between 2009 and 2019. During 1982–2019, 2.23 Mha of peatland and 0.1 Mha of protected areas were converted for oil palm plantations. The potential sustainable land amounts to 103.5–317.9 Mha (Asia: 44.6–105.1 Mha, Africa: 34.7–96.4 Mha, and Latin America: 35.2–116.5 Mha). Future oil palm expansion is anticipated to take place in countries like Brazil, Nigeria, Colombia, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ghana, where more sustainable land is available for cultivation. Malaysia, on the other hand, is about to exceed the area of sustainable cultivation, and further expansion is not recommended. These findings can advance our understanding of the environmentally damaging impacts of oil palm and enhance the feasibility of sustainable oil palm development. Social media summary How should suitable land be chosen for the establishment of oil palm plantations to support the sustainable development of the oil palm plantation industry?

Cocoa, livelihoods, and deforestation within the Tridom landscape in the Congo Basin: A spatial analysis.

In the context of emerging international trade regulations on deforestation-free commodities, the drivers of households' deforestation in conservation landscapes are of interest. The role of households' livelihood strategies including cocoa production, and the effects of human-elephant conflict are investigated. Using a unique dataset from a survey of 1035 households in the Tridom landscape in the Congo basin, the spatial autoregressive model shows that: (1) Households imitate the deforestation decisions of their neighbors; (2) A marginally higher income from cocoa production-based livelihood portfolios is associated with six to seven times higher deforestation compared to other livelihood strategies with a significant spillover effect on neighboring households' deforestation. The increase in income, mainly from cocoa production-based livelihoods in open-access systems can have a negative effect on forests. Households with a higher share of auto-consumption are associated with lower deforestation. If economic development brings better market access and lower auto-consumption shares, this is likely to positively influence deforestation. Without proper land use planning/zoning associated with incentives, promoting sustainable agriculture, such as complex cocoa agroforestry systems, may lead to forest degradation and deforestation.

Study on the historical landscape evolution of the core reserve of Guangfu Ancient City based on computer simulation

Abstract In the conservation of the historical landscape within the Guangfu Ancient City Core Protection Area, traditional descriptions via drawings and textual narratives often exhibit subjective biases. To address this, a theoretical model for the historical architectural landscape has been developed to objectively measure and characterize the spatial patterns and morphologies of the landscape. This study introduces Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) techniques, utilizing spatial weights and spatial correlation measures as primary analytical tools. Additionally, meta-cellular automata are employed to simulate the spatial and temporal evolution of the historical landscape. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) technologies have been leveraged to establish a spatial database and facilitate the visualization of the historical landscape’s evolutionary processes. This integrated model and technological approach enable a detailed analysis of the architectural landscape characteristics and the spatial structure’s evolution within the study area. The findings reveal distinct spatial distribution characteristics, with an undulation index ranging from 5 to 20 and a predominant index over 7, accounting for 15.67% of the land. Based on these insights, the study proposes strategic interventions to safeguard the historical integrity of Guangfu Ancient City’s core conservation area.

The Application of Digital Technology in the Conservation of Traditional Cultural Landscapes

Abstract The traditional digital protection system lacks the extraction and display of the landscape based on spatial information technology, resulting in an incomplete digital archive of the conventional landscape constructed. To optimize the traditional cultural landscape protection strategy, this paper constructs a specific technical route using digital technology. Inclined photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning technology are used to carry out 3D modeling of regional traditional cultural landscapes, and the combination of the results of the two can be used to visualize the spatial layout of the landscape in the protection of traditional cultural landscapes. Based on the 3D model, the landscape space was analyzed using spatial syntax. According to the spatial syntax, the integration degree, clustering coefficient, control degree, and average depth of the sight line of the landscape in City D were analyzed. The comprehensibility value of the landscape space in City D was 0.26, and the landscape identifiability was not high. The development of overall space and local space is inconsistent, and the ratio of global integration degree to local integration degree, R², is 0.45, with a low value and average correlation. By analyzing the specific situation of the landscape and constructing the resistance surface, we examine the various resistance factors faced by the protection of traditional cultural landscapes. The analysis results indicate that rural roads and settlements are more suitable for the construction of cultural landscapes.

Enhanced Species Diversity Unlocked by Habitat Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes: New Perspectives on Ecological Weed Management and Sustainable Intensification<br>—Species Diversity and Habitat Conservation

Enhanced Species Diversity Unlocked by Habitat Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes: New Perspectives on Ecological Weed Management and Sustainable Intensification<br>—Species Diversity and Habitat Conservation

Sustainable Spatial Planning Study of Lubok Sukon Village, Aceh

The formation of traditional residential spatial layouts is the result of a complex historical process, and Lubok Sukon Village is still able to maintain the authenticity of its residential spatial layout to this day. This is a potential cultural landscape that needs to be studied and identified for conservation purposes. Furthermore, this important historical landscape can also be developed as an incentive for village economic development, for example for tourism-based sustainable development. This research aims to examine the conservation of cultural heritage landscapes in sustainable spatial planning for Lubok Sukon village, Aceh. This research uses qualitative methods with field measurements through interviews, observation and documentation. The analysis uses four cultural landscape variables from Pajouh. The research findings conclude that the combination of architectural heritage, residents’ routines, and the natural setting of Lubok Sukon Village, provides a unique spatial arrangement where all aspects fulfill the characteristics of a cultural heritage landscape in a sustainable manner. This could be developed into an incentive to attract cultural tourists.

Representation and heritage conservation of climate change landscapes in Tunisia

L’objectif de l’étude est de montrer la double utilité des photographies du changement climatique: archiver des paysages en perpétuelle mutation, sensibiliser aux impacts anthropiques sur les paysages, étudier les représentations du changement climatique. La photographie de paysage apparaît comme un moyen intéressant de sensibiliser le public à la problématique du changement climatique et à la préservation des ces paysages. Elle sert à fixer des situations qui disparaîtront par la suite, ce qui en fait une archive intéressante, une source d’information sur les paysages en cours de transformation et c’est pourquoi l’utilisation de la photographie dans le domaine de la communication, de la médiation scientifique et de l’éducation autour du changement climatique s’accélère. Nous développerons dans cet article une recherche basée sur immersion et l’observation participante au sein d’une association tunisienne de développement durable, Réseau Enfants de la Terre. Comment représenter ces paysages d’une part, et d’autre part dans quelle mesure l’impact de ces photographies se manifeste-t-il dans la reconnaissance de la valeur des paysages et la sensibilisation à l’urgence climatique?

Paysages culturels chinois: de l’idéal de l’équilibre entre l’homme et la nature aux formes écologiques de la vie

Abstract: Thus far, human development has been achieved at the cost of the destruction of cultural landscapes. With advent of industrial civilization, people have gained happiness and conveniences, but also confronted various cultural landscape predicaments. Environmental philosophy, a contemporary philosophy that regards the relationship between humans and nature as a fundamental issue, has focused on the protection of cultural landscapes. An analysis of ancient Chinese environmental philosophy demonstrates that ancient thinkers cared about everything in heaven and earth, and explored issues, such as a harmonious development between humans and nature, offering a novel approach to the preservation of Chinese cultural landscapes. Using Taoist environmental philosophy as an exemplar, this article provides a preliminary analysis of the definition of cultural landscapes, development of environmental philosophy and Taoist environmental philosophy. Building upon this foundation, it explores the role of environmental philosophies, such as “unity of heaven and man” in construction of ecological civilization, providing fresh perspectives for cultural landscape conservation.

Conservation of unmanaged pan-European forest landscapes as a priority natural heritage for epiphytic lichens at different ecological and biogeographical scales - A review

The European forestry landscape represents an important priority for biodiversity and needs adequate management strategies. The main focus of this review is the importance of European forest areas for epiphytic lichen richness under the impact of different management practices assessed in the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. In total, 88 scientific articles were reviewed (based on the first author’s archive and by query in Web of Science), which examined epiphytic lichen richness within managed and unmanaged European forests. Biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe were not taken into account in the reviewed articles, but we used them for statistical analyses in the present work according to the geographical position of the investigated sites published in the reviewed articles. We also analysed the dissimilarities in epiphytic lichen richness among European biogeographical and ecological regions. Additionally, we analysed the impact of different silvicultural management practices (within assessed forests) on epiphytic lichen richness across the different biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. The main results indicate that epiphytic lichen richness is significantly different across the biogeographical and ecological regions of Europe. Epiphytic lichen richness is significantly greater in Western European broadleaf forests in the Carpathian and Caledonian mountain areas and significantly lower in the Central European mixed forests and East European forest steppe. Management practices applied within studied forests had a negative impact on epiphytic lichen richness, while epiphytic lichen richness was higher within unmanaged forests. The main conclusion is that forests within highland areas of Europe that are not subjected to anthropogenic activities or management practices harbour greater epiphytic lichen richness and therefore should be conserved and protected due to their biological and ecological importance.

THEORIZING ENVIRONMENTAL MEDIATION THROUGH IRELAND'S PEATLANDS

In colonial and postcolonial Ireland, boglands were seen as "wastelands" to be "improved" by large-scale enterprise. Today, they are strategic landscapes for carbon sequestration and climate solutions, both for the state and multinationals located in Ireland. Various contemporary projects, co-funded by industry and state partners, have facilitated the expansion and proliferation of sensing, monitoring, and mapping technologies across Ireland's bogs to measure and maximize their value in these economies. However, by doing so, they are laying the foundations for a "green grab" of Ireland's land resources by tech companies. This paper situates the historical resource and conservation landscape of Ireland’s peat boglands within their emerging role in datafied “green” revolutions. Emphasizing the stakes of land, resources, technologies, and research institutions within green transitions, the paper theorizes peat bogs an emerging site of digital climate solutionism. In doing so, I offer a framework for understanding resource landscapes in so-called “post-extractive” contexts where networked forms of extraction are innovated through public/private technoscientific research at the intersections of digital technology and ecosystemic interactions between geologies, atmospheres, and cultures. Bringing together literature from environmental media studies, STS, and geography, and performing participant observation and discourse analysis on emerging projects of peatland science in academic and industry settings, I theorize how “environmental mediation” offers an aperture for understanding how digital technologies network landscapes towards “ecosystem services” and other capital-driven climate projects.

Anthropogenic Hazards and Their Impact Upon the Historical Cultural Landscape in Roșia Montană Area

Anthropogenic Hazards and Their Impact upon the Historical Cultural Landscape in Roșia Montană Area. The cultural landscape is a result of the continuous human actions of satisfying the communities’ various needs and the response of the natural system, in its attempt to balance its components in relation to the modelling factor - the human society. Thus, the cultural landscape displays the imprint of the infinite possibilities of the human and natural joint manifestation, sometimes hazards bringing their own contribution to the shaping of the cultural landscape. Hazards, whether natural or anthropogenic, are unforeseen phenomena in terms of space or time of their manifestation, and most often have considerable negative consequences. In particular, anthropogenic hazards, which are directly or indirectly related to human activities, appear mainly as a manifestation of the resilience of natural elements in the cultural landscape, as a complex system. Thus, major interventions, such as mining in Roșia Montană area (an activity that had been lasting for over 2000 years) in relation to the unpredictable evolution of the social, economic, technological and political context (on local, national and global level) have favoured the manifestation of some unforeseen events with a negative connotation such as: complex pollution, depreciation of the living standards (in Roșia Montană area mostly due to the cessation of mining activities), demographic aging, etc. The complex analysis of these implications in the above-mentioned area allows us to outline an eloquent assessment of the present state of the local cultural landscape and to identify the opportunities of systemic resilience. These include: the awareness of the planning, protection and conservation of the local historical cultural landscape as a primary need, restoration of the cultural landscape (through the aesthetic rehabilitation of degraded cultural elements), the implementation of projects that target the sustainable development of Roșia Montană, as a source of identity and sustainable development, the tourism conversion of activities, etc. Keywords: Roșia Montană, cultural landscape, historical cultural landscape, anthropogenic hazards, mining, gold deposits.

Life and death of Poland’s landscape – are we living in landscape “hell”?

The author’s thesis assumes that the degree of landscape degradation in many parts of Poland is so high that the use of the term “landscape hell” is justified. This denotes such a state of visual and aesthetic, structural and functional landscape degradation that leads or has already led to the landscape’s death. This condition existed in many areas during the communist period, but now, 34 years after the political transformation and eight years of the development of the “mafia” state, it is also occurring with increasing frequency. Its origin lies in the attitude of some politicians and the public towards space and nature as resources that can be exploited to an extreme extent and that must be subordinated to people. This is due, among others, to the Poles’ civilizational lag in relation to many other nations, Polish society’s developmental history, and the recurring compensation for economic shortcomings. In the first quarter-century of transformation, the development of consumption, the dominance of economic development criteria, and the politicians’ ignorance and bias have introduced phenomena such as strip farm urbanisation, “concreteosis”, architectural “gigantomania”, “urban blight”, “railingeosis”, and “advertosis” into the landscape. After 2015, the above have been overlaid by the landscape-eroding activities of the representatives of the “mafia” state, resulting from, among others, excessive deforestation and tree clearing in open and urban areas, continued operation of the coal-based energy sector, including open-cast mines, river diversions, construction of hydro-technical facilities, mass legalisation of arbitrary construction, and transport infrastructure planning. The various recommendations on landscape conservation, formulated for many years, have, for the most part, not been implemented, despite Poland’s ratification of the European Landscape Convention. We can thus gradually kill off more landscape, which will continue to linger in our memories and documents for some time, until eventually, virtual reality becomes the main way of admiring it.

Beyond Protection, toward Respect: Struggle for Environmental Justice in the Kendeng Mountains

The cement industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than international air traffic, it takes up massive amounts of water and energy in the production process and creates highly destructive stone pit mines. The case we are presenting here stands for a complex transnational struggle for environmental justice involving the indigenous Sedelur Sikep community and a subsidiary of the German HeidelbergCement AG linking the Javanese lime stone landscapes of the Kendeng mountains with nodes of decision-making in Jakarta and Germany. The Kendeng mountains on the island of Java are important sites of social and cultural reproduction for the Sedelur Sikep, providing important ecosystem services. The community rejects the market economy and in particular the trading of products they have not produced themselves. Their practices have contributed to the conservation of this biodiversity rich landscapes for centuries. The plans of the HeidelbergCement AG to construct a cement factory raises concerns among the Sedelur Sikep. The group worries that the factory and the stone pit mine alter the hydrological cycle affecting their wet-rice fields and ultimately their lifestyles. Despite protests by Sedelur Sikep and allied conservation and human-rights organizations, the subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement AG hold son to its plans, referring to a completed environmental impact assessment and related permits.Building on the concepts of environmental justice and epistemic justice, we investigate how the Sedelur Sikep, together with conservation and human-rights organizations have (so far) successfully prevented the construction of the cement factory by challenging the procedural aspects of the permit process, stressing their role as indigenous communities and by challenging dominant forms of knowledge production used in environmental impact assessments. We show how successful resistance is organized employing the mainstream nature conservation narrative. We also show that the employment of different knowledge system is part of a strategy, while the groups own understanding of respecting and living with the mountain goes beyond this mainstream narrative.

Range-wide trends in tiger conservation landscapes, 2001 - 2020

Of all the ways human beings have modified the planet over the last 10,000 years, habitat loss is the most important for other species. To address this most critical threat to biodiversity, governments, non-governmental actors, and the public need to know, in near real-time, where and when habitat loss is occurring. Here we present an integrated habitat modelling system at the range-wide scale for the tiger (Panthera tigris) to measure and monitor changes in tiger habitat at range-wide, national, biome, and landscape scales, as often as the underlying inputs change. We find that after nearly 150 years of decline, effective potential habitat for the tiger seems to have stabilized at around 16% of its indigenous extent (1.817 million km2). As of the 1st of January 2020, there were 63 Tiger Conservation Landscapes in the world, covering 911,920 km2 shared across ten of the 30 modern countries which once harbored tiger populations. Over the last 20 years, the total area of Tiger Conservation Landscapes (TCLs) declined from 1.025 million km2 in 2001, a range-wide loss of 11%, with the greatest losses in Southeast Asia and southern China. Meanwhile, we documented expansions of modelled TCL area in India, Nepal, Bhutan, northern China, and southeastern Russia. We find significant potential for restoring tigers to existing habitats, identified here in 226 Restoration Landscapes. If these habitats had sufficient prey and were tigers able to find them, the occupied land base for tigers might increase by 50%. Our analytical system, incorporating Earth observations, in situ biological data, and a conservation-oriented modelling framework, provides the information the countries need to protect tigers and enhance habitat, including dynamic, spatially explicit maps and results, updated as often as the underlying data change. Our work builds on nearly 30 years of tiger conservation research and provides an accessible way for countries to measure progress and report outcomes. This work serves as a model for objective, range-wide, habitat monitoring as countries work to achieve the goals laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals, the 30×30 Agenda, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The politics of mourning in conservation conflicts: The (un)grievability of life and less-than-human geographies

Accounts of conservation conflicts often reveal that people living around protected areas feel like their lives are less valued than animals' lives —they are confined to ‘less-than-human geographies’. Recent literature on necropolitical ecology illustrates how such geographies were created and maintained by the state, which holds the power to decide over life and death in and around conservation areas. This paper integrates Judith Butler's politics of mourning into necropolitical ecology to interrogate which lives are considered grievable and which ones are not in conservation landscapes. It focuses on two vignettes of violent human-carnivore interactions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, western Uganda: the poisoning of allegedly 11 (but actually three) lions and the killing of a baby girl by a leopard. Both incidents happened in the park's condoned fishing villages, where historically marginalised Basongora pastoralists have been confined to live since the park's creation. We examine how the lost lives —of humans and animals— are publicly mourned and which lives are actually considered lost. We show how the politics of mourning in violent human-wildlife encounters goes beyond the (colonial-)state; rather, the unequal distribution of precarity is entrenched by a range of public authorities (e.g., (social) media, (I)NGOs, and politicians). This is, in part, because sovereignty in conservation territories has become transnationalised as post-colonial states allow international NGOs to carve out their own zones of influence. This coloniality of power influences human-carnivore relations and reifies racialised conservation spaces as less-than-human geographies.

Environmental protection standards of the EU - national and regional realities

The purpose of the work are assess of the current state of protected areas of the Ternopil region territorial communities and comparison of these parameters with the environmental standards of the European Union. Methods. Generalisation and systematisation of information, evaluation, comparison, method of analogies and typologies, statistical, mathematical, cartographic and geoinformation. Scientific novelty. The main geoecological, economic and legal problems related to the prospects for the development of nature conservation at the national and regional levels are identified. These include the lack of motivation in management structures, low environmental culture of the population, insufficient funding for environmental protection, and the existence of different forms of land ownership. The level of conservation of territorial communities and new administrative districts of the Ternopil region is determined. Results. Analysed by national and international environmental legislation and identifies the main causes of Ukraine's environmental problems, including military operations. Based on the comparative analysis, the authors compares the basic environmental parameters of Ukraine and the European Union, which demonstrate their significant differences. The level of conservation and the number of protected areas of the Ternopil region territorial communities are determined. The data obtained showed that 36.5% of the region's territorial communities have a conservation level of less than 1%. The situation with the low level of conservation is unsatisfactory in sixteen communities in the Ternopil district and four communities in the Kremenets and Chortkiv districts. Typological groups have been created and a corresponding map of the reserve status of the Ternopil region territorial communities has been constructed. It is proposed to create fifty-three new protected areas in twenty-five communities of the Ternopil region with a total area of 39358 hectares. The expediency of creating thirteen regional landscape parks, twenty-three hydrological natural monuments of local significance, six parks of landscape art monuments, four landscape reserves, four botanical natural monuments of local significance and three protected tracts is substantiated. Conclusions. It has been established that the level of conservation of the Ternopil region territorial communities does not meet the current requirements of the European Strategy for the Conservation of Landscape and Biotic Diversity. In order to achieve international standards of protected areas and waters, the region needs to create both large protected areas – regional landscape and national nature parks – and local protection zones for hydrological objects, individual trees or landscapes. For this purpose, it is necessary to intensify scientific research of local and regional natural complexes. And the administrative staff of territorial communities should include a position responsible for landscaping, sustainable development and nature protection.