Global Conservation Policy Research Articles

Multisite, Interdisciplinary Applications of Science to Marine Policy: The Conservation International Marine Management Area Science Program

This special issue provides insight into global conservation science by analyzing a 5-year, $12.5 million global marine conservation science and policy program that included over 50 studies in four priority regions involving over 100 scientists and numerous partners. In doing so, it provides reflections on critical challenges for any conservation science program that is intended to inform policymaking, including how to (1) ensure that science process and products influence conservation actions, (2) build global learning from a network of site-based projects, (3) strengthen in-region capacity, and (4) manage relationships across scales among scientists, conservationists, headquarters, and field-based staff. Information is presented on the development and progress of the program as a whole in addition to specific articles covering each of four focal geographic areas: Belize, Brazil, the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape, and Fiji.

MMAS in Brazil

This article is part of a special issue that provides insight into global conservation science by analyzing a 5-year, $12.5 million global marine conservation science and policy program. In this article, we summarize the development of the program in Brazil, which concentrated its efforts on the Abrolhos area of the State of Bahia. In Brazil, the federal government took a strong role in the creation and implementation of marine managed areas, stimulated in part by nongovernmental organizations.

Ecological and social outcomes of a new protected area in Tanzania.

Balancing ecological and social outcomes of conservation actions is recognized in global conservation policy but is challenging in practice. Compensation to land owners or users for foregone assets has been proposed by economists as an efficient way to mitigate negative social impacts of human displacement from protected areas. Joint empirical assessments of the conservation and social impacts of protected area establishment involving compensation payments are scarce. We synthesized social and biological studies related to the establishment of the Derema forest corridor in Tanzania's biodiverse East Usambara Mountains. This lengthy conservation process involved the appropriation of approximately 960 ha of native canopy agroforest and steep slopes for the corridor and monetary compensation to more than 1100 claimants in the surrounding villages. The overarching goals from the outset were to conserve ecological processes while doing no harm to the local communities. We evaluated whether these goals were achieved by analyzing 3 indicators of success: enhancement of forest connectivity, improvement of forest condition, and mitigation of negative impacts on local people's livelihoods. Indicators of forest connectivity and conditions were enhanced through reductions of forest loss and exotic species and increases in native species and canopy closure. Despite great efforts by national and international organizations, the intervention failed to mitigate livelihood losses especially among the poorest people. The Derema case illustrates the challenges of designing and implementing compensation schemes for conservation-related displacement of people.

Community-managed forests and wildlife-friendly agriculture play a subsidiary but not substitutive role to protected areas for the endangered Asian elephant

Global conservation policy is increasingly debating the feasibility of reconciling wildlife conservation and human resource requirements in land uses outside protected areas (PAs). However, there are few quantitative assessments of whether or to what extent these ‘wildlife-friendly’ land uses fulfill a fundamental function of PAs—to separate biodiversity from anthropogenic threats. We distinguish the role of wildlife-friendly land uses as being (a) subsidiary, whereby they augment PAs with secondary habitat, or (b) substitutive, wherein they provide comparable habitat to PAs. We tested our hypotheses by investigating the influence of land use and human presence on space-use intensity of the endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a fragmented landscape comprising PAs and wildlife-friendly land uses. We applied multistate occupancy models to spatial data on elephant occurrence to estimate and model the overall probability of elephants using a site, and the conditional probability of high-intensity use given that elephants use a site. The probability of elephants using a site regardless of intensity did not vary between PAs and wildlife-friendly land uses. However, high-intensity use declined with distance to PAs, and this effect was accentuated by an increase in village density. Therefore, while wildlife-friendly land uses did play a subsidiary conservation role, their potential to substitute for PAs was offset by a strong human presence. Our findings demonstrate the need to evaluate the role of wildlife-friendly land uses in landscape-scale conservation; for species that have conflicting resource requirements with people, PAs are likely to provide crucial refuge from growing anthropogenic threats.

Conservation as if People Also Mattered: Policy and Practice of Community-based Conservation

Community-based conservation is being increasingly recognised as a major global force in the protection and sustainable management of ecosystems and species. Yet documentation of its main achievements and shortcomings, and the key issues it faces, is still at a nascent stage. This paper introduces the concept and experience of two forms of community-based conservation: Collaborative Management of Protected Areas (CMPA), and Indigenous Peoples' and Local Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs). It explores the emergence of these approaches in the context of global international conservation policy. Reviewing four case studies that were presented at a symposium convened at the Bowdoin College (Maine, USA, in November 2008), and drawing from the discussion during that session, it identifies some key lessons and principles that are likely to be applicable to community-based conservation across the world.

Factors influencing perception of protected areas—The case of Natura 2000 in Polish Carpathian communities

Establishing protected areas has emerged as one of the key aims in global and EU conservation policy. In the EU, the particular role of providing biodiversity conservation was bestowed on the European Ecological Network Natura 2000. However, public perception of this initiative has been negative in most countries. In this manuscript, we present a representative description of knowledge and attitudes of inhabitants of Polish Carpathians’ municipalities included into Natura 2000. The research was conducted in six municipalities among 906 respondents. Majority (92%) of respondents believe that it is a good measure to legally protect nature in their area. Additionally, we analysed how selected features of respondents influence their perception of protected areas. Level of education, the fact that respondents moved to their current place of residence in adulthood and that they are self-employed, are the characteristics that most significantly influence their knowledge of Natura 2000. Moreover, ownership of a business, familiarity with Natura 2000 and the respondents’ age affect their level of satisfaction with a Natura 2000 site designated in their region. We focus on differences in awareness and acceptance of the programme among different municipalities’ inhabitants – in the municipality fully covered by a Natura 2000 site, inhabitants are most knowledgeable about nature conservation issues but at the same time they opposed it most strongly. In a typical agricultural municipality, knowledge on nature conservation issues is low while in the touristic-type, the vast majority of residents have no opinion on designation of new protected areas at all. Based on the results of the following study we suggest that development of tools on how to manage the protected areas effectively should rely both on traditional ecological analysis and that of a social type.

Bring the captive closer to the wild: redefining the role of ex situ conservation

AbstractIn situ conservation is central to contemporary global biodiversity protection and is the predominant emphasis of international regulation and funding strategies. Ex situ approaches, in contrast, have been relegated to a subsidiary role and their direct contributions to conservation have been limited. We draw on a variety of sources to make the case for an enhanced role for ex situ conservation. We note the advances occurring within institutions specializing in ex situ conservation and stress that, although much remains to be done, many constraints are being addressed. We argue that the evidence of increasing extinction rates, exacerbated by climate change, challenges the wisdom of a heavy dependence on in situ strategies and necessitates increased development of ex situ approaches. A number of different techniques that enable species and their habitats to survive should now be explored. These could build on the experience of management systems that have already demonstrated the effective integration of in situ and ex situ techniques and hybrid approaches. For organizations specializing in ex situ conservation to become more effective, however, they will require tangible support from the institutions of global biodiversity governance. Resistance is anticipated because in situ conservation is entrenched through powerful groups and organizations that exert influence on global conservation policy and facilitate the flow of funding. The chasm that has traditionally divided in situ and ex situ approaches may diminish as approaches are combined. Moreover, the relentless loss of the ‘wild’ may soon render the in situ / ex situ distinction misleading, or even obsolete.

Why are some biodiversity policies implemented and others ignored? Lessons from the uptake of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation by botanic gardens

International agreements and policies play an increasingly prominent role in strategies to combat biodiversity loss. However, conservation policies can only have a conservation impact if implemented. Identifying factors determining the influence of a policy on institutions could improve the process of policy development and communication. We examine how and why botanic gardens have responded to the first phase of a global conservation policy (the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation GSPC) using quantitative (questionnaires completed by 255 botanic gardens in 67 countries) and qualitative (in-depth interviews with five gardens in five countries) methods. We found that while the majority of gardens were aware of the GSPC, older gardens in the global north, and younger global south gardens are most influenced by the GSPC. Gardens that are members of a global botanic garden network and gardens with larger budgets are implementing more targets. Targets implemented tend to be aligned with existing institutional aims. Gardens highlighted an absence of a mechanism to feedback successes and failures. The GSPC has recently been reviewed and new targets for the period of 2011–2020 developed. To widen the influence of the GSPC, dissemination should include guidelines on how institutions could implement the policy, with particular focus on influencing younger global north gardens and older global south gardens. There are plans to develop a toolkit to help gardens better understand and implement the GSPC. We recommend the toolkit include a system for GSPC implementers to communicate with each other and to feedback to policy formulators.

Acknowledging Conservation Trade-Offs and Embracing Complexity

There is a growing recognition that conservation often entails trade-offs. A focus on trade-offs can open the way to more complete consideration of the variety of positive and negative effects associated with conservation initiatives. In analyzing and working through conservation trade-offs, however, it is important to embrace the complexities inherent in the social context of conservation. In particular, it is important to recognize that the consequences of conservation activities are experienced, perceived, and understood differently from different perspectives, and that these perspectives are embedded in social systems and preexisting power relations. We illustrate the role of trade-offs in conservation and the complexities involved in understanding them with recent debates surrounding REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), a global conservation policy designed to create incentives to reduce tropical deforestation. Often portrayed in terms of the multiple benefits it may provide: poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and climate-change mitigation; REDD may involve substantial trade-offs. The gains of REDD may be associated with a reduction in incentives for industrialized countries to decrease carbon emissions; relocation of deforestation to places unaffected by REDD; increased inequality in places where people who make their livelihood from forests have insecure land tenure; loss of biological and cultural diversity that does not directly align with REDD measurement schemes; and erosion of community-based means of protecting forests. We believe it is important to acknowledge the potential trade-offs involved in conservation initiatives such as REDD and to examine these trade-offs in an open and integrative way that includes a variety of tools, methods, and points of view.

SURVIVAL IN A CHANGING WORLD

![Figure][1] In August 2009, the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) held its 36th Congress in Kyoto in the same convention centre where the historic Kyoto Protocol was drawn up 12 years earlier. The symbolism of this coincidence was not missed by Malcolm Gordon, the Chair of

Woody species as landscape modulators: their effect on the herbaceous plants in a Mediterranean maquis

“Landscape modulators” are ecosystem engineers that have an impact on community structure by creating patches in the landscape mosaic. Our aim was to study the effect of evergreen-trees, as landscape modulators, on herbaceous plants in a Mediterranean maquis system in northern Israel. We examined the effects of canopy removal and cattle grazing on species richness, plant functional types, and rare plant species in two patch-types: (1) woody—under tree canopy (or the location of a removed canopy); (2) herbaceous—in open areas with no tree canopy. Patch-type and tree removal affected species richness and plant functional types. The extreme negative effect of the woody patch-type on species richness disappeared soon after the removal of the landscape modulator canopy. We conclude that the dominant effect of the evergreen woody landscape modulators can be regulated by canopy removal and grazing for maintaining patch-type and landscape diversities, and consequent high species richness in Mediterranean ecosystems, which is a main goal of global nature conservation policy.

Toward a biocultural theory of avoided extinction

AbstractAvoiding extinction is one of the main aims of the global conservation movement and its study has historically been dominated by ecological thinking about the consequences of small population size and the identification of the proximate causes of population decline. Here we argue that any successful theorization on avoiding extinction has to look beyond ecology to incorporate the behavior of conservationists, conservation organizations, and other societal actors. We develop a “biocultural” framework based on a typology of extinction that emphasizes the different meanings and power of the term and discuss how these might inform more effective global conservation policy and practice. Seen through a biocultural perspective, we argue that extinction will only be effectively reduced when scientific evidence, cultural frames, institutional frameworks, and organizational interests align.

Catching fairies and the public representation of biogeography

AbstractBiogeography is a vibrant academic discipline that plays an important role in framing and directing debates on some of the most important environmental issues of our time, such as the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, biotic homogenization and the effectiveness of global conservation policy. Despite this, biogeography suffers from a low public profile and may consequently be poorly understood by the public. Here I review the representation of the term biogeography, and a selection of biogeographers in the public sphere (newspapers, websites, blogs) and the academic sphere (journals and reports) to understand more fully the public perception of the discipline. As anticipated, the survey suggests that the term ‘biogeography’ has little public currency, and that the public still largely associate the subject area with either eminent Victorians such as A.R. Wallace or modern greats such as E.O. Wilson. I conclude by discussing the potential consequences of the virtual absence of biogeography from public discourse for education and professional biogeographers.

New Amphibians and Global Conservation: A Boost in Species Discoveries in a Highly Endangered Vertebrate Group

Amphibians are characterized both by a strongly increasing number of newly discovered species and by a high degree of decline. The observed increase in species numbers, over 25 percent in 11 years, is largely due to the intensified exploration of tropical areas and the application of more efficient techniques such as bioacoustics and molecular genetics, rather than to the elevation of subspecies to species rank or the distinction of species that were formerly considered synonymous. In the mantellid frogs of Madagascar, the many species newly described between 1992 and 2004 were as genetically divergent as those described in previous research periods, and most had not been collected previously, corroborating the lack of “taxonomic inflation” in this vertebrate class. Taxonomic exploration is still desperately needed to avoid misinterpretations in global conservation policy.

Global marine conservation policy versus site-level implementation: the mismatch of scale and its implications

Global marine conservation policy versus site-level implementation: the mismatch of scale and its implications

The future of seagrass meadows

Seagrasses cover about 0.1–0.2% of the global ocean, and develop highly productive ecosystems which fulfil a key role in the coastal ecosystem. Widespread seagrass loss results from direct human impacts, including mechanical damage (by dredging, fishing, and anchoring), eutrophication, aquaculture, siltation, effects of coastal constructions, and food web alterations; and indirect human impacts, including negative effects of climate change (erosion by rising sea level, increased storms, increased ultraviolet irradiance), as well as from natural causes, such as cyclones and floods. The present review summarizes such threats and trends and considers likely changes to the 2025 time horizon. Present losses are expected to accelerate, particularly in South-east Asia and the Caribbean, as human pressure on the coastal zone grows. Positive human effects include increased legislation to protect seagrass, increased protection of coastal ecosystems, and enhanced efforts to monitor and restore the marine ecosystem. However, these positive effects are unlikely to balance the negative impacts, which are expected to be particularly prominent in developing tropical regions, where the capacity to implement conservation policies is limited. Uncertainties as to the present loss rate, derived from the paucity of coherent monitoring programmes, and the present inability to formulate reliable predictions as to the future rate of loss, represent a major barrier to the formulation of global conservation policies. Three key actions are needed to ensure the effective conservation of seagrass ecosystems: (1) the development of a coherent worldwide monitoring network, (2) the development of quantitative models predicting the responses of seagrasses to disturbance, and (3) the education of the public on the functions of seagrass meadows and the impacts of human activity.

Does size matter? The relationship between pond area and biodiversity

Larger areas support more species. To test the application of this biogeographic principle to ponds, we consider the relationship between size and diversity for 80 ponds in Switzerland, using richness (number of species) and conservation value (score for all species present, according to their degree of rarity) of aquatic plants, molluscs (Gastropoda, Sphaeriidae), Coleoptera, Odonata (adults) and Amphibia. Pond size was found to be important only for Odonata and explained 31% of the variability of their species richness. Pond size showed only a feeble relationship with the species richness of all other groups, particularly the Coleoptera and Amphibia. The weakness of this relationship was also indicated by the low z-values obtained (< 0.13). The SLOSS analyses showed that a set of ponds of small size has more species and has a higher conservation value than a single large pond of the same total area. But we also show that large ponds harbour species missing in the smaller ponds. Finally, we conclude that in a global conservation policy (protection, restoration, management), all size ranges of ponds should be promoted.

Plants in the forest canopy: some reflections on current research and future direction

Plants are one of the sessile components of the forest canopy, and consequently quantitative studies of plant components are more widely available than for some of their mobile counterparts. From a global perspective, several exciting and innovative canopy access tools have been designed over the past few decades that have facilitated the expansion our understanding of canopy plants. These include a network of canopy cranes, the development of the French luge (or sled), and the construction of walkways and platforms for access into different levels of the canopy on a permanent basis. At the recent international forest canopy conference in Sarasota, Florida (Forest Canopies 1998: Global Perspectives, November 4–8, 1998), many canopy plant studies were presented that illustrated the achievements in this field. As co-chair at this event, I present here some reflections based on my observations of the development of canopy research between the first and second international conferences. A selection of case studies from the conference presentations are cited in this review, including: tree crown respiration studies from the crane in Panama; epiphyte ecology from walkways in Peru; insect-plant relationships in tree crowns of the USA using platforms; experimental studies of epiphytes in cloud forests using single rope techniques; and epiphyte diversity surveys in Africa. Ideas for the future are also mentioned such as the novel concept of canopy farming of orchids in Costa Rica, the linking of canopy processes to forest floor activities, and the construction of canopy walkways to provide a sustainable forest economy instead of the conventional practice of logging. The integration of research with sustainable use of forests provides a conservation theme for future canopy studies. Such new approaches to studies of canopy plants are important, as scientists increasingly play a role in global conservation policies.

Carbon dioxide emission scenarios and nuclear energy

This study has two main sections. First, we will review future global emission scenarios. This shows that the carbon intensity of fuels is a very important factor in determining CO 2 emission rates. Second, we will show the relationship between the introduction of nuclear energy and other energy types to supply future energy demands. This will be discussed by referring to the analysis of global warming abatement policies and energy conservation policies conducted using the computer simulation model that we developed.

Headache

<h3>Abstract</h3> Genetic diversity within species represents a fundamental yet underappreciated level of biodiversity. Because genetic diversity can indicate species and population resilience to changing climate, its measurement is relevant to many national and global conservation policy targets. Many studies of evolutionary biology, molecular ecology and conservation genetics produce large amounts of genome-scale genetic diversity data for wild populations. While open data policies have ensured an abundance of freely available genomic data stored in the databases of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC), only about 13% of current accessions have the associated spatial and temporal metadata in INSDC necessary to be reused in monitoring programs, macrogenetic studies, or for acknowledging the sovereignty of nations or Indigenous Peoples. We undertook a “distributed datathon” to quantify the availability of these missing metadata in sources external to the INSDC and to test the hypothesis that these metadata decay with time. We also worked to remediate these missing metadata by extracting them, when present, from associated published papers, online repositories, and/or from direct communication with authors. Starting with 848 programmatically identified candidate datasets (INSDC BioProjects), we manually determined that 492 contained samples from wild populations. We successfully restored spatiotemporal metadata (locality name and/or geospatial coordinates and collection year) for 82% of these 492 datasets (N = 401 BioProjects comprising 42,104 individuals or BioSamples). We also quantified the availability of 33 additional categories of metadata in sources external to the INSDC. Information about associated publications and the type of habitat from which the samples were taken was the most easily found; information about sampling permits was the most challenging to locate. Looking at papers and online repositories was much more fruitful than contacting authors, who only replied to our email requests 45% of the time. Overall, 23% of our email queries to authors discovered useful metadata. Importantly, we found that the probability of retrieving spatiotemporal metadata declines significantly with the age of the dataset, with a 13.5% yearly decrease for metadata located in published papers or online repositories and up to a 22% yearly decrease for metadata that were only available from authors. This observable metadata decay, mirrored in studies of other types of biological data, should motivate swift updates to data sharing policies and researcher practices to ensure that the valuable context provided by metadata is not lost forever.