Implementation Of Conservation Policies Research Articles

Do establishment of protected areas and implementation of regional policies both promote the forest NPP? Evidence from Wuyi Mountain in China based on PSM-DID

Establishing protected areas has been a longstanding strategy to conserve forests. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) offers a reflection of ecosystem quality and vegetation vitality compared to traditional spatial indicators, making it a valuable metric for evaluating conservation outcomes in protected areas. Additionally, there is a lack of knowledge about the concurrent influence of in situ conservation and pertinent policies on forest conservation. Through Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and the Difference-in-Difference (DID) model, we evaluated the conservation outcomes of NPP within protected areas and identified different policies’ impacts. Wuyi Mountain in China, known for its rich forest resources, was selected as the study area. The results revealed: (1) NPP within all protected areas fluctuated within a stable range from 1985 to 2021, with some exhibiting a significant upward trend; (2) A total of 62.5 % of protected areas demonstrated a positive effect on forest NPP. There is a 72 % effective conservation rate for nature reserves, one type of protected area in China, making them the most effectively protected in Wuyi Mountain; (3) In 50 % of the cases, the policies resulted in positive outcomes. The impact of policies on forest NPP varies across different types of protected areas; (4) Only 16.67 % of policy scenarios demonstrated a concurrent positive effect from both protected areas and conservation policies. By analyzing the impact of protected area establishment and conservation policy implementation on NPP, our research can offer valuable insights for policymakers aiming to enhance forest conservation in mountain areas.

Socio-economic contributions and determinants of locals engagement with Boswellia papyrifera in lowland woodlands in Burie Zuria district, Ethiopia

Ethiopia's lowland woodlands are comprised of the major gum and resin-producing genera Acacia, Boswellia, and Commiphora. Boswellia papyrifera is primarily found in the degraded drylands, Burie Zuria district is the existence of the species; however, limited information is available on the woodland socio-economic contribution and determinants of locals' use of woodlands for their livelihoods, particularly Boswellia papyrifera. So to fill this gap, the study was conducted to examine the locals' socio-economic benefits from the woodland and to identify the determinants of locals' engagement in the collection of the benefits for better wise use and conservation policy implementation. The data was collected from household interviews, focus group discussions, and key informants. Species' socio-economic benefits were analyzed through descriptive statistics, whereas determinants of local's willingness to use woodlands were analyzed through an econometric model. The dependent variable used was annual income gained from the woodland and explanatory variables taken were gender, marital status, livestock number, family size, land holding size, age of the respondent, education level, wealth status, perception of local communities towards forest cover change, and distance from woodlands to the household's residence. Based on the results, the total annual income derived from the woodland by the sampled households' was a mean of 1759.45 USD. The result shows the woodland species shares 14.37 % of the total annual income, but because of legal investors Boswellia papyrifera had no contribution to this share. However, the local communities use woodlands for their livelihoods due to explanatory variables, and the usage percentage shows significant differences. The multiple linear regression results showed that the model was significant at a 5 % probability level, and 95.9 % of the variation was due to the explanatory variables. Age of respondent, family size, total land holding size, and education level showed positive and statistically significant relations to annual income derived from the woodland while other remaining variables showed non-significant. The result concludes that the species contributes significantly to local communities' livelihoods and engagement in gathering timber and non-timber products. The study recommended that awareness about the use of non-timber products in addition to forest products be created among the locals, and policies related to woodland sustainability and conservation should also be implemented.

Regional-scale cultural conservation planning and policy in the United States: an appeal for improvement

Pennsylvania’s (PA) processes and policies for landscape-scale cultural and visual resource conservation are lacking. In PA, like much of the United States (US), landscape change policies are prescriptive and concerned mainly with ecology, health, safety, and welfare issues. These factors combined relegate cultural and scenic aspects to ancillary matters, often leading to their degradation. Culturally focused fields, such as landscape architecture, archaeology, and planning call for rescaling cultural conservation planning to regional scale. Rescaling would treat cultural resources like other environmental and ecological resources, giving cultural resources equal weight in conservation evaluations. The United Kingdom (UK) has policies specifically for visual impact assessment required for development projects. This paper discusses scale issues and political processes within regional visual and cultural resource conservation in PA, US, compares nascent regional-scale planning efforts in PA and the UK, and proposes improvements to PA and, by extension, US cultural landscape conservation policy implementation.

HLEL: A wetland classification algorithm with self-learning capability, taking the Sanjiang Nature Reserve I as an example

Wetland ecosystems have been severely damaged by atmospheric pollution and other environmental problems for decades. Reasonable protection, restoration, and utilization of wetlands have become priorities for environmental protection. Obtaining high-precision wetland map products is essential for ecological research as well as formulation and implementation of conservation policies. This study proposes a hierarchical labeling ensemble learning (HLEL) algorithm with self-learning capabilities to achieve high-precision wetland land cover and land use (LULC) classification by adapting self-learning hierarchical results. This study evaluated the classification performance of HLEL, random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN), and Gaussian Naive Bayes' (GNB) with GF-6 WFV multispectral images as the database and Sanjiang National Nature Reserve I in China as the study area. The results showed that the HLEL algorithm has an advantage over a single algorithm when using the feature set filtered by ReliefF, even if the complete feature set is used without feature selection. The overall accuracy of the classification results is improved by 0.4%, 5.8%, 1.3%, and 9.0% when compared to the four single algorithms RF, SVM, ANN, and GNB, respectively. In robustness tests, HLEL consistently outperformed the other algorithms for different training sample set sizes, with overall accuracy improvements of 0.4–6.9%, 5.8–11.5%, 1.3–4.4%, and 9.0–14.0% compared with RF, SVM, ANN, and GNB, respectively. The overall accuracy standard deviation of HLEL is 1.22%, proving that HLEL has low sensitivity to the size of the training data. The HLEL algorithm demonstrates exceptional precision when applied to diverse datasets. The overall accuracy of HLEL in Sentinel 2, Landsat 8, and GF-6 WFV increased by 3.1% to 22.7%, 3.1% to 39.0%, and 0.4% to 9.0%, respectively, when compared to the overallaccuracy of the basicclassifiers. The results demonstrate the feasibility of HLEL, an algorithm with high accuracy and data robustness, in applying wetland LULC classification and providing a new solution for wetland cover mapping.

Does Renewable Energy Consumption a Driver for Economic Growth? Panel Data Analysis in Selected OIC Countries

This paper aims to examine the relationship between energy consumption from renewable energy sources, and economic growth expressed in GDP per capita in several OIC countries. The dataset used involves data from OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) countries including Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Egypt, UAE, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for the period 2000 to 2018 obtained from the World Development Index. This study uses a dynamic panel estimation approach such as DOLS and FMOLS to determine the long-term relationship between variables. We also discuss how to use the panel Granger-causality test to estimate causality in the short term. The empirical result shows that in the long-run, renewable energy consumption doesn't have an effect on economic growth. Meanwhile, CO2 emissions were found to have a significant positive relationship with economic growth. Furthermore, the conservation hypothesis theory is accepted between economic growth and consumption of renewable energy. Thus, the implementation of conservation policies can be applied by taking into account economic growth.

Prioritizing the reassessment of data-deficient species on the IUCN Red List.

Despite being central to the implementation of conservation policies, the usefulness of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is hampered by the 14% of species classified as data-deficient (DD) because information to evaluate these species' extinction risk was lacking when they were last assessed or because assessors did not appropriately account for uncertainty. Robust methods are needed to identify which DD species are more likely to be reclassified in one of the data-sufficient IUCN Red List categories. We devised a reproducible method to help red-list assessors prioritize reassessment of DD species and tested it with 6887 DD species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies). For each DD species in these groups, we calculated its probability of being classified in a data-sufficient category if reassessed today from covariates measuring available knowledge (e.g., number of occurrence records or published articles available), knowledge proxies (e.g., remoteness of the range), and species characteristics (e.g., nocturnality); calculated change in such probability since last assessment from the increase in available knowledge (e.g., new occurrence records); and determined whether the species might qualify as threatened based on recent rate of habitat loss determined from global land-cover maps. We identified 1907 species with a probability of being reassessed in a data-sufficient category of >0.5; 624 species for which this probability increased by >0.25 since last assessment; and 77 species that could be reassessed as near threatened or threatened based on habitat loss. Combining these 3 elements, our results provided a list of species likely to be data-sufficient such that the comprehensiveness and representativeness of the IUCN Red List can be improved.

Implementation gaps affecting the quality of biodiversity conservation management: An ethnographic study of protected areas in Fujian Province, China

Policies play a vital role in setting goals for biodiversity conservation management. China has set an ambitious biodiversity conservation target since acceding to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD); however, there remains an obvious gap between China's conservation targets and the results of policy implementation. To understand the barriers to policy implementation, this study examined local actors' perceptions of biodiversity conservation policy implementation based on an adaptive management logic. We systematically investigated the status of policy implementation in protected areas in Fujian Province, China, through face-to-face interviews. We identified a series of barriers that affect the implementation of biological conservation policies, including conflicting priorities in functions, objectives and operations between local governments and local forestry bureau, controversy over forest tenure, inadequate funding and hierarchy-induced funding misallocation, insufficient professional expertise, and a lack of scientific support for the establishment, enlargement and routine management of protected areas. By incorporating the decomposition of interest, beliefs and power structure of multiple actors, we were able to establish links between management inadequacies and the broader political and institutional context. The intertwined interactions between multiple actors create the action arena through which bureaucratic structures and institutional deficiencies combine to distort the implementation of conservation policies. Our research has important implications for developing countries that are undergoing changes in their conservation systems.

Impact of Ecological Conservation Policy of Landscape Resources on the Behavior Intention of Stakeholders in Shennongjia National Park

Scenic resources are the essence of natural and human resources in national parks, and the effectiveness of conservation policy implementation is the key to achieving the ecological integrity, authenticity and typicality of national parks. Based on the research hypothesis of the relationship between "conservation behavior intention" and "conservation policy" of national park landscape resources proposed by Shennongjia National Park, this study establishes a second-order SEM, reveals the internal relationship between the conservation behavior intention and conservation policy of national park landscape resources, and puts forward the optimization path of the management and control path of national park landscape resources conservation through difference analysis. The research results show that national park landscape resource conservation policy has a significant positive impact on social norms, and directly affects conservation behavior intentions through social norms; Community residents are more concerned about the impact of conservation policies on their production and lifestyle, while tourists pay more attention to the ecological environment quality of landscape resources and the implementation of relevant policies such as recreational facilities. The management of legislation policy directly affects the existing way of scenic resources in Shennongjia National Park, and affects the establishment of community management and control mechanism and the behavior of community residents through social norms. This study puts forward the strategy of optimizing the national park landscape resource conservation policy in four aspects, namely, ecological environment sustainability, ecological conservation policy system, coordinated and orderly management and control mechanism, and joint construction of harmonious social relations.

National wetland mapping using remote-sensing-derived environmental variables, archive field data, and artificial intelligence

While wetland ecosystem services are widely recognized, the lack of fine-scale national inventories prevents successful implementation of conservation policies. Wetlands are difficult to map due to their complex fine-grained spatial pattern and fuzzy boundaries. However, the increasing amount of open high-spatial-resolution remote sensing data and accurately georeferenced field data archives, as well as progress in artificial intelligence (AI), provide opportunities for fine-scale national wetland mapping. The objective of this study was to map wetlands over mainland France (ca. 550,000 km2) by applying AI to environmental variables derived from remote sensing and archive field data. A random forest model was calibrated using spatial cross-validation according to the precision-recall area under the curve (PR-AUC) index using ca. 135,000 soil or flora plots from archive databases, as well as 5 m topographical variables derived from an airborne DTM and a geological map. The model was validated using an experimentally designed sampling strategy with ca. 3000 plots collected during a ground survey in 2021 along non-wetland/wetland transects. Map accuracy was then compared to those of nine existing wetland maps with global, European, or national coverage. The model-derived suitability map (PR-AUC 0.76) highlights the gradual boundaries and fine-grained pattern of wetlands. The binary map is significantly more accurate (F1-score 0.75, overall accuracy 0.67) than existing wetland maps. The approach and end-results are of important value for spatial planning and environmental management since the high-resolution suitability and binary maps enable more targeted conservation measures to support biodiversity conservation, water resources maintenance, and carbon storage.

Is conservation basic income a good idea? A scoping study of the views of conservation professionals on cash giving programmes

Amongst mounting criticisms surrounding market-based instruments for conservation, there have been calls to develop new tools to incentivise conservation action. Conservation basic income (CBI) has recently been proposed as a means of combining the environmental aims of market-based instruments with the positive social impacts of cash transfer programmes. So far, CBI has only been discussed conceptually, with little attention given to the practicalities of implementing it, especially through empirical work. This scoping mixed-methods study is the first to explore the views of conservation professionals on CBI and applying cash giving for conservation. In our study, we use a questionnaire conducted with 45 conservationists experienced in working in low-income countries (though mostly originally from high income countries) and six in-depth interviews with an environmental NGO implementing cash transfers. The opinions of these professionals, who implement conservation policies and shape their uptake, provide insight into the real-world applicability of cash giving for conservation, and whether CBI might realistically be used. The study found that cash giving has support amongst our sample for use in conservation, and that CBI might be a popular proposal. However, due to the heterogeneity of rural communities and their development needs, CBI may not be applicable everywhere in its suggested form. Instead, CBI could potentially be refocused to 1) act as a framework for bespoke cash transfer programmes, and 2) be intended for use alongside parallel development programmes to enable greater conservation and development outcomes.

Species delimitation using genomic data to resolve taxonomic uncertainties in a speciation continuum of pelagic seabirds

Speciation is a continuous and complex process shaped by the interaction of numerous evolutionary forces. Despite the continuous nature of the speciation process, the implementation of conservation policies relies on the delimitation of species and evolutionary significant units (ESUs). Puffinus shearwaters are globally distributed and threatened pelagic seabirds. Due to remarkable morphological status the group has been under intense taxonomic debate for the past three decades. Here, we use double digest Restriction-Site Associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-Seq) to genotype species and subspecies of North Atlantic and Mediterranean Puffinus shearwaters across their entire geographical range. We assess the phylogenetic relationships and population structure among and within the group, evaluate species boundaries, and characterise the genomic landscape of divergence. We find that current taxonomies are not supported by genomic data and propose a more accurate taxonomy by integrating genomic information with other sources of evidence. Our results show that several taxon pairs are at different stages of a speciation continuum. Our study emphasises the potential of genomic data to resolve taxonomic uncertainties, which can help to focus management actions on relevant taxa, even if they do not necessarily coincide with the taxonomic rank of species.

Review of Implementation Tools Used in Protected Areas: Applicability of Conservation Easement Tool in Turkey

Küreselleşmenin etkileriyle birlikte artan çevre sorunlarının ve iklim değişikliğinin bertarafı noktasında önem atfedilen sürdürülebilirlik kavramı çerçevesinde oluşturulan “koruma” yaklaşımı, tüm ülkelerin ortak politikasını oluşturmaktadır. Nitekim Türkiye’de de koruma olgusu çerçevesinde son yıllarda birçok adım atıldığı görülmektedir. Ancak; koruma politikalarının uygulamaya geçtiği noktada mülkiyet kısıtlamalarından kaynaklı koruma olgusu ile özel mülkiyet arasında önemli ölçüde çatışmaların ortaya çıktığı, söz konusu çatışmaların yargıya konu edildiği görülmektedir. Bu çatışmaların mevcut yasal düzenlemeler ve uygulamalar ile çözülememesi, alternatif uygulama araçlarının geliştirilmesi hususunu zorunlu kılmaktadır. Çalışma kapsamında, Türkiye’de koruma alanlarında kullanımına başvurulan uygulama araçlarına ilişkin genel değerlendirme yapılmış olup, karşılaştırmalı analiz yapılarak her bir aracın sorun alanları tespit edilmiştir. Koruma alanlarının yönetiminde, koruma politikalarının uygulanmasında ve plan uygulamalarında geleneksel uygulama araçlarının finansal ve ekonomik uygulama araçları ile birlikte değerlendirilmesi gerekliliği vurgulanmaktadır. Bu değerlendirmeden yola çıkarak, İngiliz ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Planlama Kanunu çerçevesinde ele alınan “koruma irtifakı” aracının bu noktada Türk Hukuk Sistemi’ne entegre edilebileceği değerlendirilmektedir.

Benefits of Blue Carbon Stocks in a Coastal Jazan Ecosystem Undergoing Land Use Change

Coastal ecosystems are characterized by high content of soil carbon storage; however, they experience severe land conversions in the past decades. The current study aims to examine how different land use/land cover (LU/LC) impact carbon stock in coastal ecosystem along Jazan coast, Saudi Arabia. In this study, impacts of LU/LC on carbon stocks in the coastal zone of Jazan, Saudi Arabia in 2009, 2013, and 2021 were assessed. Also, the LU/LC dynamics were evaluated using data provided by the land use dynamic model. The carbon stocks were modelled based on LU/LC using the InVEST program. Our study results showed that the decrease in mangroves from 2013 to 2021 reflects the high atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). Also, the increase in built-up areas might negatively impact total carbon stock. The estimated carbon stocks for the coastal zone of Jazan biome were 7279027.42 Mg C in 2009 (1Mg = 106 g). It decreased to 2827817.84 Mg C in 2013, with a total loss of − 4450675.40 Mg C, and an average of annual loss of − 1,112,669 Mg C in the study period with net value of − 461240790.53 US$. On the other hand, the total estimated carbon stock was increased from 2013 to 2021 with a 3772968.31 Mg C in 2021 (a total gain 944840.87 Mg C). Based on the current findings, we recommend that land-use-policy makers and environmental government agencies should implement conservation policies to reduce land use change at Jazan coastal ecosystems.

Anthropogenic Pressure and Climate Change Could Severely Hamper the Avian Metacommunity of the Sicilian Wetlands

Our study shows that the current levels of anthropogenic exploitation of the Sicilian wetlands (Italy), combined with the likely exacerbation of climate-driven variables, are unsustainable and could soon exclude many bird species from this metacommunity. Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and its wetlands represent a network of unreplaceable stopover sites that allow waterbirds to rest and refuel during migratory journeys along the central-eastern Mediterranean bird flyway. During the summer period, these species experience higher levels of environmental stress as water scarcity and anthropogenic pressure are at their peak. Through field surveys, geoprocessing and statistical analyses, we investigated: (a) the structure of the avian metacommunity of the largest Sicilian wetlands during July–September and (b) the effects of 10 (geographic, hydrological and anthropogenic) wetland attributes on avian diversity. We sampled 73 bird species, of which 30 are listed in annex I of the Birds Directive. The avian metacommunity was significantly nested and non-modular; in addition, it presented elevated beta diversity and random species assemblage. Environmental filtering superseded biotic interactions in determining species composition. Avian diversity was significantly favored by higher water levels, water-level fluctuations and water discharges, and disfavored by water diversion, salinity and tourism pressure. The knowledge concerning the particular structure of the avian metacommunity of the Sicilian wetlands can facilitate the implementation of conservation policies that could mitigate and compensate the effects of short- and mid-term risks.

Spatiotemporal Variations of Human Pressure on Key Biodiversity Areas in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: A Comparative Analysis

A key biodiversity area (KBA) is one of the important emerging area-based conservation measures that is being implemented recently in China; however, the human pressure faced by a KBA is still unclear. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal variation of human pressure on KBAs from 1990 to 2017 and compared it with the human pressure on national natural reserves (NNRs) through a case study of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. In addition, changes in the trend of human pressure before and after 2010 were analyzed to examine the influence of conservation policies on human pressure. Results showed that human pressure on KBAs and NNRs gradually increased from 1990 to 2017. Furthermore, the growth rates and mean values of human pressure in KBAs were higher than those in NNRs. After the implementation of conservation policies in 2010, the growth rates of human pressure on both KBAs and NNRs have significantly slowed, and the areas with negative growth in both KBAs and NNRs have gradually expanded. In addition to providing an understanding of the changing spatiotemporal trends of human pressure on KBAs, this study can serve as a reference to formulate policies for the improvement of the effectiveness of conservation.

The Implementation of Conservation Policy and the Application of Solar Energy Technology in Small House Areas: Stockholm, Sweden

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the dynamic between protection of the historic environment and the application of solar energy technology on 1- or 2-family houses in Sweden. More specifically, the building code relating to the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels on house roofs and how existing policies are implemented in Stockholm City is investigated in order to better understand the challenges in reconciling renewables and the conservation of built heritage. Especially when applied in urban areas PV panels may have a large impact on socio-cultural values, making them difficult to insta where the historic environment is to be protected from large changes. By using a mix of methods (policy analysis, case studies, and interviews) we come to the conclusion that municipalities should develop routines and guidelines that offer homeowners precise information on the potential of solar energy and requirements motivated by concern for the historic environment. Guidelines that are well-known, clear and also require homeowners to dismount exhausted panels could work both to protect built heritage and to promote more use of solar energy in some small house areas.

Autonomous re-naturalization of cities in a context of degrowth

Planetary urbanization is considered to be one of the leading causes of the current global process of the degradation of nature, and a reduction in urban consumption becomes, therefore, a crucial goal for degrowth. Three fundamental premises underly an investigation of these issues. Firstly, territorial management underpins global environmental justice through the implementation of conservation policies; Secondly, degrowth narratives must operate in the urban context; and thirdly, there is a need for a paradigm shift at an economic, social and nature-relational level. This article presents two research approaches. Firstly, it sets out a theoretical framework in the field of 'urban degrowth', collecting arguments from political ecology, urban planning, deep ecology and degrowth thinking; and secondly, it proposes a preliminary line of investigation towards the process of urban de-occupation and re-naturalization through a bibliographic analysis of urban-ecological variables fostering natural recovery. The aim of the study is to stir up discussion about urban degrowth, as an essential mechanism to counter increasing land consumption, and global habitat and biodiversity loss. Anthropized landscapes require care for nature, conservation, collective action and initiatives at the practical and experimental level, and further research.

Evidence of Causality between Economic Growth and Electricity Consumption Expenditure in Uganda

The aim of this study is to investigate the evidence of causality between economic growth and electricity consumption expenditure in Uganda for the period 1986 to 2017, aimed at contributing to literature on this topic and inform energy policy design in the country. Unlike previous studies on the causal link between energy consumption and economic growth, this paper introduces in capital stock as an intermittent variable in the causality framework. In this paper, we employed Johansen (1988, 1995) multivariate Cointegration and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) based on Granger causality tests. Findings revealed a bi-directional causality between electricity consumption and economic growth in the long-term and distinct causal flow from economic growth to electricity consumption in the short-term and long-term Granger causality from capital stock to economic growth, with short-run feedback in the opposite direction. Therefore, the Government of Uganda should implement conservation policies only through reducing energy intensity and promoting efficient energy use to avoid decline in output but also strengthen its efforts towards capital accumulation in order to realize sustainable economic growth and meet the desired goal of sustainable energy for all.

Measuring the conservation attitudes of local communities towards the African elephant Loxodonta africana, a flagship species in the Mara ecosystem.

Gaining insights into local people's views, values and preferences for different conservation management options are increasingly gaining importance among conservationists and decision-makers. This can be achieved through the assessment and understanding of conservation attitudes and perceptions of rural communities including demographic characteristics predicting the attitudes to design and implement conservation policies in a more socially acceptable manner. In this study, we developed and validated user-friendly indices to measure attitudes towards the African elephant, a flagship species and its conservation in Trans Mara District. An iterative item reliability analysis was executed on household data from a random sample of 367 respondents using Cronbach's Alpha in SPSS. Results yielded two indices; (i) Elephant Attitude Index (EAI); and (ii) Maasai Mara National Reserve Attitude Index (MAI). The EAI had a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.73 while the MAI had a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.77. Data analysis revealed that (i) location of residence; (ii) age of respondent; (iii) number of income sources; (iv) gender of the respondent; and (v) benefit reception were the main determinants of EAI and MAI in TM. Our attitude indices can assist conservation practitioners and decision-makers to prioritise resources, on the assumption that high-scoring individuals are more likely to participate in conservation initiatives. We encourage making available different sources of income for residents and working towards improving the involvement of younger people and women in conservation activities in TM.

How far are mangrove ecosystems in Benin (West Africa) conserved by the Ramsar Convention?

Mangroves around the world provide humanity with a variety of ecosystem services. However, rising populations coupled with human activities jeopardize the sustainable management of these ecosystems. Climate change is also expected to have a severe impact on mangrove ecosystems, especially in Benin, West Africa. Since 2000, several initiatives for the conservation of mangroves have been established under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Land use/land cover (LULC) changes were used at Ramsar Site 1017 in Benin for periods in 1995, 2005 and 2015 to assess the impact of the Ramsar Convention on mangrove ecosystem conservation. The observed changes during 1995–2005 and 2005–2015 were considered to predict LULC change towards 2070 using the Markov chain model. During 1995–2005, a total area of 3.43 ha of mangroves was degraded, while during the 2005–2015 period 2.65 ha were restored. Future scenarios predicted that the area of mangroves was expected to decrease by more than half between 1995 and 2070, assuming the dynamic of 1995–2005, and increase by 1.1% of the 2005 area by 2070 with the dynamic of 2005–2015. Implementation of conservation policies, projects and awareness-raising activities could contribute to the effective restoration of the mangrove ecosystems.