Location Of Protected Areas Research Articles

P.1.c.021 Protective effect of Anacyclus pyrethrum against seizures and seizure-induced cognitive impairment in rats

India's biodiversity encompasses a wide spectrum of habitats that include tropical rainforests, alpine vegetation, temperate forests, and coastal wetlands. Traditional societies have paid a great deal of attention to the study of nature conservation. Although Himalaya accounts for 18% of the total area in India, it covers more than 31.05% of India's forest cover and 40% of the species endemic to the Indian Sub-continent. Many mountain societies hence maintained a holistic view of the socio-ecological system. An expression of this relationship is represented in the form of sacred landscape which is a concept identified by many traditional societies and often protected by cultural and religious values. Many protected areas contain sites of importance to one or more faiths. These include both sacred natural sites and built monuments (such as monasteries, temples, shrines, and pilgrimage trails). Enforcement in these protected areas has created a lot of conflicts between the local people and protected area managers, due to the restrictions enforced by these managers against the traditional usufruct rights of the local people. These conflicts tend to act as major hurdles to achieving biodiversity conservation. Conservation of biological resources through religion and belief has a long history in Garhwal Himalaya. This article aims to document the different ethics enshrined within the Hindu community that have an inherent role in the conservation of biodiversity in Uttarakhand Himalaya.

Conserving biodiversity through traditional beliefs in sacred groves in Uttarakhand Himalaya, India

India's biodiversity encompasses a wide spectrum of habitats that include tropical rainforests, alpine vegetation, temperate forests, and coastal wetlands. Traditional societies have paid a great deal of attention to the study of nature conservation. Although Himalaya accounts for 18% of the total area in India, it covers more than 31.05% of India's forest cover and 40% of the species endemic to the Indian Sub-continent. Many mountain societies hence maintained a holistic view of the socio-ecological system. An expression of this relationship is represented in the form of sacred landscape which is a concept identified by many traditional societies and often protected by cultural and religious values. Many protected areas contain sites of importance to one or more faiths. These include both sacred natural sites and built monuments (such as monasteries, temples, shrines, and pilgrimage trails). Enforcement in these protected areas has created a lot of conflicts between the local people and protected area managers, due to the restrictions enforced by these managers against the traditional usufruct rights of the local people. These conflicts tend to act as major hurdles to achieving biodiversity conservation. Conservation of biological resources through religion and belief has a long history in Garhwal Himalaya. This article aims to document the different ethics enshrined within the Hindu community that have an inherent role in the conservation of biodiversity in Uttarakhand Himalaya.

Warfare in Biodiversity Hotspots

Conservation efforts are only as sustainable as the social and political context within which they take place. The weakening or collapse of sociopolitical frameworks during wartime can lead to habitat destruction and the erosion of conservation policies, but in some cases, may also confer ecological benefits through altered settlement patterns and reduced resource exploitation. Over 90% of the major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred within countries containing biodiversity hotspots, and more than 80% took place directly within hotspot areas. Less than one-third of the 34 recognized hotspots escaped significant conflict during this period, and most suffered repeated episodes of violence. This pattern was remarkably consistent over these 5 decades. Evidence from the war-torn Eastern Afromontane hotspot suggests that biodiversity conservation is improved when international nongovernmental organizations support local protected area staff and remain engaged throughout the conflict. With biodiversity hotspots concentrated in politically volatile regions, the conservation community must maintain continuous involvement during periods of war, and biodiversity conservation should be incorporated into military, reconstruction, and humanitarian programs in the world's conflict zones.

Conservation and ethnobotanical exploration.

In recent years conservationists have realized that the maintenance of protected areas is closely linked to rural development. As part of their efforts to improve local people's standards of living, they have sought the advice of researchers who work in communities, especially those that border on nature reserves. Ethnobotanists, who are turning their attention to the cultural and ecological crises confronting the regions in which they work, are natural allies in this venture. The joint efforts of conservationists and ethnobotanists are being supported by non-profit organizations, intergovernmental agencies and research institutes. The search for new drugs and other natural products from plants is an important element in this collaboration, but it cannot be divorced from the broader objective of promoting the survival of biological and cultural diversity. Conservationists will support biodiversity prospecting and related efforts only if there is a clear benefit for local communities and protected areas. An example of the concrete actions being taken by conservation agencies is the People and Plants Initiative, a joint effort of the World Wide Fund for Nature, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The main objective is to support the work of ethnobotanists in developing countries in studies of sustainable plant use and application of their work to conservation and community development. The initiative provides training workshops and relevant literature; coordinators work in collaboration with local people to create inventories of useful plants and appraise the impact of harvesting specific plant resources in and around protected areas. Phytochemical screening of medicinal plants and preparation of extracts are carried out as part of some projects.

Spatial Components of Bird Diversity in the Andes of Colombia: Implications for Designing a Regional Reserve System

Beta diversity, or the turnover in species composition among sampling sites in a region, is an important criterion for obtaining adequate representation of regional biodiversity in systems of protected areas. Recently, the additive model for partitioning regional (gamma) diversity (in opposition to the multiplicative model) has been proposed because it allows a direct measure of the contribution of beta diversity to gamma diversity. We determined avian beta diversity along latitudinal (among neighboring river drainages) and elevational axes in a 1347-km2 region on the western slope of the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, where a regional system of protected areas is being designed. We then compared avian beta diversity between sites based on rapid versus long-term (>1 year) inventories and between fragmented sites versus continuous forest. Overall, beta diversity represented 63.1% of gamma diversity among 16 sites. Elevational differences in species composition accounted for 43.3% of regional diversity, whereas differences among drainages accounted for 19.8%. A complementary cluster analysis showed that sites grouped by elevational zones. Rapid inventories overestimated beta diversity because of sampling effects, but the effect was biologically small. Estimators of species richness derived from species accumulation curves provided a useful alternative to compensate for undersampling in short-term surveys. Forest fragmentation increased beta diversity because of differential local extinction of populations. Nevertheless, in our region, forest fragments contributed to gamma diversity because they contained complementary sets of species. More importantly, they contained populations of special-interest species. Although the region is relatively small, our analyses indicate that spatial differentiation of the biota is an important factor for deciding number and location of protected areas in the Andean region.

Post-apartheid perceptions of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park, South Africa

In the wake of apartheid, South African protected areas have come under increasing pressure to reconcile a wealth of natural resources with the acute social and economic needs of the black rural majority. Demands for land reform, poverty alleviation and job creation have all had profound implications for the conservation and management of the nation's protected areas. An attitudinal study was conducted within three diverse South African communities, and among employees of the Kwa Zulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service (KZN Wildlife) to assess how the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (GSWP) and the authorities charged with its management are perceived in the context of post-apartheid South Africa. Despite significant revisions to South Africa's conservation policies in the post-apartheid era, attitudinal research has continued to focus on rural black communities, leaving white residents, urban black populations and the conservation authorities themselves largely under-represented. As a result, the relationships between local communities, protected areas and conservation authorities remain largely unknown and outdated. Qualitative analysis of 90 semi-structured interviews indicated limited support (5%) for the abolition of the GSWP. The potential loss of the GSWP was associated with negative economic (88%) and environmental (66%) impacts by all respondents, regardless of race, gender, age or residency. Contrary to previous research conducted during the apartheid era, an overwhelming majority of Zulu respondents perceived a positive association between nature conservation, tourism and improved local economic welfare. Thus, local attitudes towards protected areas appeared to be improving. There remained however a discrepancy between support for the GSWP and the management authorities, particularly among respondents with limited contact with conservation staff. This is consistent with previous surveys where residents expressed support for the concept of conservation, but significant hostility towards local conservation authorities. The distinction is critical, as negative attitudes towards conservation authorities are often misinterpreted as a lack of support for conservation in general. Local residents (regardless of race or socioeconomic status) also expressed high expectations of KZN Wildlife to address issues of unemployment, poverty and tourism in the region. If these expectations are not met, support for the GSWP, as well as the conservation authorities, is likely to decline dramatically.

PRODUCTIVITY AND ABUNDANCE OF SCLEROCARYA BIRREA SUBSP. CAFFRA IN AND AROUND RURAL SETTLEMENTS AND PROTECTED AREAS OF THE BUSHBUCKRIDGE LOWVELD, SOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich.) Hochst, subsp. caffra (Sond.) Kokwaro is a common species throughout the semi-arid savannas of southern Africa, and is sought after by rural communities. It is frequently maintained in homesteads and fields in an agroforestry situation. It has also been identified by a number of international and national institutes as a key species for domestication and commercialisation. Yet, the sustainability of the resource and local user knowledge and practices have not been considered. This study reports on the abundance and productivity of S. birrea in four rural villages and neighbouring protected areas in the Bushbuckridge lowveld of the Limpopo Province, South Africa, where its common name is marula. The density of marula stems was measured in homestead plots, arable fields and the surrounding communal rangelands of each village. Fruit production was assessed by regular counting of fruit fall from marked trees of known size. Within the villages, fruit production was monitored via local community groups. Additional monitoring of fruiting was conducted on marked trees within local protected areas. The proportion of households planting or nurturing marula trees was determined through interviews with a stratified random sample of households. The density of marula trees was significantly higher in protected areas than the neighbouring communal lands, fields or homesteads. However, the majority of trees in protected areas were small, while those in homesteads were large and mature. Density of adult fruit-bearing female trees, was similar between the protected areas and homesteads, but less in fields and communal lands. S. birrea trees were maintained in 79 % of homesteads and 58 % of fields. Mean fruit yield per tree was significantly higher from village trees (> 17 000 fruits) than protected area trees (< 3 500 fruits), even after accounting for differences in tree size. The fresh mass of individual fruits was also greater on village trees than on trees in protected areas. Both these characteristics suggest some degree of historical selection of the trees in the homesteads and fields. There was a positive relationship between tree size and number of fruits produced.

Nature Conservation in Rangelands: Lessons From Research on Reserve Selection in New South Wales.

Information on the features to be protected in a system of conservation reserves is an obvious requirement. The quality of the data base will primarily determine the effectiveness of conservation planning in protecting the full range of natural features in a region. However, the way in which data are used to make decisions on the locations of protected areas is also critical. Rigorous procedures for reserve selection can make the difference between achieving reservation goals or not. Research on reserve selection in New South Wales over recent years has concerned both data bases and procedures for guiding decisions. Reserve planning in many regions is based largely on some form of land classification like vegetation types or land systems. There are good reasons for using such land classes to guide the selection of reserves and to judge their representativeness. Nevertheless, they can have considerable limitations as a basis for protecting all the species in a region. These limitations are reviewed with references to more detailed discussions of particular issues. The paper also reviews a variety of procedures for selecting reserves which have been tested and applied in New South Wales. Some of the recent procedures are conceptually simple but very useful in identifying the requirements of reservation goals and demonstrating the options available to planners for representing particular features. Three principles are proposed which should underpin any attempt at systematic conservation planning.