Multiple-use Zones Research Articles

Implications of community forest management for the conservation of the genetic diversity of big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King, Meliaceae) in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Petén, Guatemala

Community Forest Management in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR; Petén, Guatemala) has been recognized internationally for yielding forest conservation and socioeconomic benefits. However, the effect of current timber harvesting practices on the genetic diversity of timber species populations has not previously been documented. This study assessed the effects of timber harvesting on the genetic diversity and viability of regeneration of the most commercially important timber species in the MBR: big-leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King). Trees and seeds were sampled for two consecutive years in two Forest Management Units of the Multiple Use Zone (MUZ) of the MBR: Cruce a la Colorada and Carmelita. We correlated genetic diversity parameters (as measured using nuclear microsatellites) with seed germination percentages and compared genetic diversity of adults and seeds in stands that had been affected by timber harvesting and those that had not. We found a significant correlation between seed germination percentages (81–83%) and observed heterozygosity (rho=0.27), confirming that genetic diversity is important to regeneration success. No significant differences were found in allelic richness (AR), expected and observed heterozygosity (HE and HO), or inbreeding (FIS), between adults and seeds in harvested vs. undisturbed stands; or before and after timber harvesting. We found low inbreeding levels (FIS=0.040–0.094), low biparental inbreeding (0–0.01), and high outcrossing rates (0.925–0.970) in the populations of S. macrophylla analyzed. Our study therefore provides evidence that genetic diversity in big-leaf mahogany populations was not diminished by one cutting cycle under current practices of community forest management in the MUZ of the MBR.

ESG Poster ESG7: Marine measurement, monitoring and verification for offshore carbon storage projects – learnings from a coastal Gippsland setting

Poster ESG7 Designing cost-effective methods for implementing measurement, monitoring and verification (MM&V) plans for subsea CO2 storage is an active area of research globally. Despite some preliminary research and examples overseas, there remains a lack of established protocols and configurations for offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) monitoring overlying storage sites and an absence of methods to establish environmental impact in the event of leakage. Over the last 4 years, CSIRO in collaboration with ANLEC R&D and CarbonNet have been undertaking research in the Gippsland region to inform the development of assurance monitoring approaches for subsea CCS operations to address three key technical assurance monitoring challenges: The ‘signal-to-noise’ problem: distinguishing CO2 release signatures from similar naturally occurring variability to reduce false alarm rates in future baseline monitoring design; characterising impact: determining the level of CO2 release that would be associated with environmental impact at a range of scales; and attributing impact: distinguishing changes resulting from other drivers and pressures in multiple-use zones (e.g. climate change) from the activities of CCS operations. The research has included a wide variety of approaches and technologies including the development and testing of fixed and mobile autonomous monitoring systems, chemical and acoustic sensing and the collection of biological datasets. These data have been used in the development of biogeochemical models and to define possible integrated MM&V frameworks. This paper will summarise this research and identify how it could be applied for offshore CO2 storage projects around Australia. To access the poster click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Marine measurement, monitoring and verification for offshore carbon storage projects – learnings from a coastal Gippsland setting

Designing cost-effective methods for implementing measurement, monitoring and verification (MM&V) plans for subsea CO2 storage is an active area of research globally. Despite some preliminary research and examples overseas, there remains a lack of established protocols and configurations for offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) monitoring overlying storage sites and an absence of methods to establish environmental impact in the event of leakage. Over the last 4 years, CSIRO in collaboration with ANLEC R&D and CarbonNet have been undertaking research in the Gippsland region to inform the development of assurance monitoring approaches for subsea CCS operations to address three key technical assurance monitoring challenges: The ‘signal-to-noise’ problem: distinguishing CO2 release signatures from similar naturally occurring variability to reduce false alarm rates in future baseline monitoring design; characterising impact: determining the level of CO2 release that would be associated with environmental impact at a range of scales; and attributing impact: distinguishing changes resulting from other drivers and pressures in multiple-use zones (e.g. climate change) from the activities of CCS operations. The research has included a wide variety of approaches and technologies including the development and testing of fixed and mobile autonomous monitoring systems, chemical and acoustic sensing and the collection of biological datasets. These data have been used in the development of biogeochemical models and to define possible integrated MM&V frameworks. This paper will summarise this research and identify how it could be applied for offshore CO2 storage projects around Australia.

Towards large and remote protected areas in the South Atlantic Ocean: St. Peter and St. Paul´s Archipelago and the Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain

Large (>10,000 km2) marine protected areas (LMPAs) have recently been established around the planet in pursuit of international conservation and geopolitical goals. A recent such initiative in the South Atlantic has important social and ecological implications that have not been discussed in existing literature. In light of this knowledge gap, this article aims to discuss the implementation of MPA networks in the St. Peter and St. Paul´s archipelago and the Vitória-Trindade seamount chain (~1000 km from the Brazilian coast). The participatory process conducted by the Brazilian Federal government created LMPAs networks that integrate multiple-use zones centered on certain natural monuments (islands) and spanning a radius of 200 nautical miles around these islands. With these LMPAs (together covering ~920,000 km2), Brazil increases its MPA coverage from 1.5% to ~ 25% of its EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone). However, even with this high percentage of protection, many important coastal ecosystems are not yet protected in Brazilian waters. These LMPAs can be an important step towards the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services of terrestrial insular, shallow, mesophotic, and deep-sea ecosystems. Owing to this importance, it is necessary to ensure adequate surveillance, participative governance, as well as an adequate management plan to deal with the increase in human pressures (fishing, mining, plastics, and climate-change stressors). This paper discusses strategies for the establishment of ocean zoning (including no-take zones) and large-scale marine spatial planning to improve management effectiveness. It also provides insights into the challenges faced in the management of LMPAs in a changing ocean.

Strict versus mixed-use protected areas: Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve

Although protected areas, or “parks”, are among the leading policy tools used to stem tropical deforestation, rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness—that is, evaluations that control for their tendency to be sited in remote areas with relatively little deforestation—have only recently begun to appear. Important open questions concern the link between the stringency of protection and park effectiveness. How do mixed-use parks that allow sustainable extractive activities perform relative to strictly protected parks? And what types of mixed-use management perform best? In addressing these questions, it is particularly important to control for nonrandom siting, since different management regimes tend to be sited in areas with different preexisting characteristics. To date, most rigorous studies of this issue have focused on scores of parks in one or multiple countries, a strategy that in principle could be undermined by unobserved park heterogeneity. This paper uses high-resolution 2001–2006 land cover data derived from satellite images along with statistical techniques that control for nonrandom siting to examine the relative effectiveness of strict and various mixed-use protection strategies in a single large park: the two-million-hectare Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Our results comport with the emerging consensus that on the whole, mixed-use protection in this park has been more effective in stemming deforestation than strict protection because of the performance of forest concessions within the multiple-use zone. However, we also find that mixed-use protection has had smaller, more heterogeneous effects than indicated by simple methods that do not control for nonrandom siting.

The importance of conflict-induced mortality for conservation planning in areas of human–elephant co-occurrence

• We model effects of conflict-induced mortality and core area loss on populations. • We evaluate if human–wildlife conflict devalues co-occurrence areas. • Decreased inviolate core accelerates negative effects of human–wildlife conflict. • Interaction of core area loss and conflict result in extinction thresholds. • Conflict mitigation is essential for conservation in co-occurrence areas. Multiple-use zones around protected areas are designed to balance human resource needs with wildlife conservation, but conflicts between wildlife and people in these areas of co-occurrence (CA) can seriously undermine their conservation potential. We evaluated this issue by assessing the effects of conflict-induced mortality in CAs around an inviolate core, on long-term population viability of the endangered, wide-ranging, and conflict-prone Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ). Using a single-sex, age-structured density-dependent matrix population model to simulate elephant population dynamics over a period of 500 years, we: (1) assessed the existence of extinction thresholds arising from the interaction of mortality due to human–elephant conflict (HEC) and habitat degradation, and (2) evaluated whether and to what extent habitat supplementation by the CA is devalued by detrimental effects of conflict-induced mortality. We parameterized our model using published survival and fecundity rates. We considered different scenarios of core to CA configurations, and simulated the population under HEC-induced mortality rates ( HECm ) ranging from 0 to 0.1. Population persistence was adversely affected by HECm , and its detrimental effects were magnified as the proportion of core habitat declined. Under moderate HECm , small increments in mortality rates necessitated disproportionately large increases in core area availability to avoid quasi-extinction. Furthermore, benefits of CA supplementation were driven more by CA quality than size, and these benefits declined as HECm increased. We emphasize the need to minimize conflict-induced mortality, or to maintain adequate refugia from such anthropogenic threats, to successfully conserve conflict-prone species in human-dominated landscapes.

Strict versus Mixed Use Protected Areas: Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve

Although protected areas, or “parks”, are among the leading policy tools used to stem tropical deforestation, rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness—that is, evaluations that control for their tendency to be sited in remote areas with relatively little deforestation—have only recently begun to appear. Important open questions concern the link between the stringency of protection and park effectiveness. How do mixed-use parks that allow sustainable extractive activities perform relative to strictly protected parks? And what types of mixed-use management perform best? In addressing these questions, it is particularly important to control for nonrandom siting, since different management regimes tend to be sited in areas with different preexisting characteristics. To date, most rigorous studies of this issue have focused on scores of parks in one or multiple countries, a strategy that in principle could be undermined by unobserved park heterogeneity. This paper uses high-resolution 2001–2006 land cover data derived from satellite images along with statistical techniques that control for nonrandom siting to examine the relative effectiveness of strict and various mixed-use protection strategies in a single large park: the two-million-hectare Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Our results comport with the emerging consensus that on the whole, mixed-use protection in this park has been more effective in stemming deforestation than strict protection because of the performance of forest concessions within the multiple-use zone. However, we also find that mixed-use protection has had smaller, more heterogeneous effects than indicated by simple methods that do not control for nonrandom siting.

Chapter Two - The South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands MPA: Protecting A Biodiverse Oceanic Island Chain Situated in the Flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) are surrounded by oceans that are species-rich, have high levels of biodiversity, important endemism and which also support large aggregations of charismatic upper trophic level species. Spatial management around these islands is complex, particularly in the context of commercial fisheries that exploit some of these living resources. Furthermore, management is especially complicated as local productivity relies fundamentally upon biological production transported from outside the area. The MPA uses practical management boundaries, allowing access for the current legal fisheries for Patagonian toothfish, mackerel icefish and Antarctic krill. Management measures developed as part of the planning process designated the whole SGSSI Maritime Zone as an IUCN Category VI reserve, within which a number of IUCN Category I reserves were identified. Multiple-use zones and temporal closures were also designated. A key multiple-use principle was to identify whether the ecological impacts of a particular fishery threatened either the pelagic or benthic domain.

Fishers' perception of a multiple-use marine protected area: Why communities and gear users differ at Mafia Island, Tanzania

This study examined the perceptions of fishers from two fishing communities with differing use histories and involvement in the long-standing (16yr) multiple use Mafia Island marine protected area (MIMP), Tanzania. A randomly distributed questionnaire indicated that 94% of fishers believed that without the MIMP, there would be overfishing, dynamite use, destroyed habitats, and few fish. Fishers were more positive about core zones (no-take fishery closures) than general use zones (areas allowing selective fishing) as a consequence of increases in fishing pressure. Those that reported increased catches and sizes of fish since the creation of the MIMP were more likely to agree with present zone locations and more positive in general about fisheries and conservation planning. Most thought that fish size and gear restrictions were preferable to permanent closures. Perceptions differed among communities and gear users. Community and gear type explained 46% of the variance in responses about the perception that fisheries and conservation are compatible goals. Somewhat surprisingly, these effects were more important than catch increases or involvement in MIMP-related activities. The differences in perception between communities may be partly attributed to different fishing histories. Multiple-use zoning provides a means to identify and resolve conflicts and achieve what are likely universal objectives for fisheries sustainability and conservation.

Forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala: A decade later

In the Multiple-Use Zone of Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, the usufruct rights to timber and non-timber forest resources were granted through concession agreements to 12 community organizations and two private timber companies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After more than a decade, some concessions are successfully managing forests for multiple uses while others have had limited success or failed completely. This paper provides a management unit-based analysis and evaluation of the evolution of these forest concessions. First, we present a critical assessment of the current state of ecological integrity, socio-economic development, governance, and financing within each of the 14 forest concessions, using a series of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Next, we categorize the different trajectories that the concessions have experienced, and describe the key biophysical, socio-economic, and market events and drivers that may have influenced their outcomes. Lastly, we provide suggestions for the continued consolidation of multiple-use forest management practices in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and draw out lessons for multiple-use forest management elsewhere in the tropics.

Biodiversity study of a smallholder-protected forest ecosystem in Leyte, Philippines

A study was conducted to assess the floral and faunal diversity within a smallholder-protected forest ecosystem in mid-western Leyte Province, Philippines. A total of 1903 plants belonging to 325 species and 93 animal species were recorded in the survey and ethno-faunal assessment. There were 648, 676 and 579 plants recorded for the protected zone, buffer zone, and multiple-use zone, respectively. Recorded fauna included 11 species of mammals belonging to nine families, 39 species of birds belonging to 20 families, 16 species of reptiles belonging to nine families, and 27 species of amphibians belonging to five families. Eight globally threatened faunal species are still found in the area but are expected to vanish if wildlife hunting continues. Information and education campaigns on biodiversity conservation as well as alternative livelihood opportunities for smallholders are recommended to conserve the biodiversity and ecosystem services of the area.

Basin resource management frameworks: 4D geoscience information, modelling and knowledge systems to allow the informed assessment and management of earth resources

Abstract In the 21st century, sedimentary basins are moving rapidly from single-use zones–such as petroleum–to highly complex, vertically and laterally stratified, multiple-use zones. Several independent industry and community sectors, such as petroleum, water, geological carbon storage, coal seam methane and geothermal, will be competing for access to, and the use of, limited pore space and the resources within it. These sectors are often in direct conflict, for example geothermal energy production and geological carbon storage (GCS) are almost mutually exclusive. Geothermal is also in competition with the water sector (agriculture, communities etc) for the right-to-produce fluids. This new environment requires an innovative and proactive response from government, one in which the relative value and benefit of a wide variety of known and potential resources can be quantitatively assessed, and thereby managed, for the benefit of the State. This requires the building of robust and high-resolution geoscience information and knowledge systems which support the informed management of basins as multiple use zones, thus enabling the GCS, geothermal, petroleum and water sectors to co-exist and prosper. These basin resource management frameworks must be constructed at a regional-scale to allow assessments to be made of potential impacts and relative values of all relevant earth resources. As part of the Victorian Government’s geological carbon storage assessment, GeoScience Victoria’s VicGCS initiative has been collating, interpreting and integrating a wide-range of disparate geoscientific data from the onshore and offshore Gippsland Basin, the premier geological carbon storage location in Australia. The data include the distribution and properties of sedimentary horizons and faults (including the construction of basin-scale 3D models), rock property data, fluid compositions (water, hydrocarbons etc) and fluid flow properties, pressure data, reservoir data and extensive investigations of containment, to build highly complex and predictive geoscience models. In addition to providing a quantitative and agreed means of assessing and managing earth resources, the models provide data and ideas which dramatically improve the understanding of the current and undiscovered resource inventory. The basin resource management framework for the Gippsland Basin provides government with the management tool-kit and knowledge necessary to develop an informed strategy to manage the basin’s pore space and other resources, in order to maximize the benefit from each resource and to minimize potential conflicts between competing resource sectors. This knowledge will also facilitate the gazettal of GCS acreage, GCS roll-out, and provide the basis for monitoring the basin through the GCS life-cycle. For example, through sufficient understanding of fluid migration in the basin, it is possible to monitor plumes of injected CO2, as well as the far-field effects of the injected plumes (e.g. formation pressure and the water table) across the entire basin. The regional or basin-scale knowledge required by government complements the focused and much more site-specific studies undertaken by industry.

Fishers' Needs in Marine Protected Area Zoning: A Case Study from Thailand

Conserving marine ecosystems, while ensuring the livelihood needs of communities, is a challenge for protected area managers worldwide. Multiple-use zoning can help to balance human uses with conservation goals. Developing effective zoning plans requires information on the condition and uses of marine resources and the conflicts among them. Through interviews and participant observation, we investigated residents' reliance on nearshore fisheries in Ko Chang Marine National Park, a designated “no-take” area in eastern Thailand. Approximately 25% of households depended on fishing as their main source of income, with boat owners earning average net wages of 7–68 US$/day in small-scale fisheries. Apparently unaware of restrictions on resource use, small-scale fishers reported working in 95% of the park's marine waters. Understanding the needs and usage patterns of small-scale fishers will help to inform management and zoning plans for Ko Chang and provide a valuable example for other parks in the region.

Plant harvest impacts and sustainability in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, S.W. Uganda

AbstractSustainable utilization of forest resources has been widely adopted as a conservation strategy, but that sustainability has rarely been empirically tested. Plant resource extraction from Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) by local communities has been legalized and controlled in areas called multiple use zones (MUZs). Through a series of systematic transects and plots, we determined harvest impacts of two mostly harvested medicinal plants of Rytigynia kigeziensis VERDC.l and Ocotea usambarensis Engl in BINP. The plots were placed in MUZs and non‐MUZs. Data on biomass production and population dynamics were collected from the plots. We also analysed forest society records for the past 3 years to determine annual plant resource offtakes from BINP. Bark production of the two plants in MUZs and non‐MUZs are not significantly different, suggesting an insignificant change in bark production because of bark harvest. Annual bark harvests of the two plants are between 0.26–1.64% of available bark stock. These are too low to cause any noticeable negative impacts and are sustainable. Annual bark harvest of R. kigeziensis and O. usambarensis should be increased from the original 1% to about 3% of available bark stock to allow more involvement of the marginalized poor people like Batwa in BINP.

Zoning—lessons from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) is bigger than the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland combined. Over the last 25 years a range of management ‘tools’, including zoning plans, permits, education, and more recently management plans, have been applied to regulate access and to control and mitigate impacts associated with human use of the GBRMP. A multiple-use zoning approach provides high levels of protection for specific areas whilst allowing reasonable uses, including certain fishing activities, to continue in other zones. Zoning has long been regarded as a cornerstone of Marine Park management, separating conflicting uses through application of the various zones and determining the appropriateness of various activities. Zoning in the GBRMP has evolved and changed considerably since the first zoning plan in 1981, along with other management approaches. This paper outlines what aspects of zoning have worked well, what has necessarily changed, and the zoning lessons learned from over two decades of ‘adaptive management’.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda: gorilla census 1997

AbstractBwindi Impenetrable National Park in south-west Uganda supports a population of gorillas that has become the primary gorilla population for tourism following the genocide in Rwanda. Previous estimates made in the early 1990s indicated that the population numbered around 300 individuals. The census reported here was the first in Bwindi to use the method successfully developed in the Virungas, which utilizes a complete sweep across the park within a short period of time by a large number of teams working simultaneously. We estimated the population to be 292 individuals; to the best of our understanding – based on previous estimates – the population, therefore, appears to be stable. Most gorillas were found within the centre of the southern section of the park. It appears that there are some areas of unused habitat and, therefore, room for the population to grow. We found no clear relationship between gorilla distribution and human presence, but some forms of disturbance were more frequent and close to the edge of the park and may contribute to the gorillas' avoidance of these areas. The effects of human disturbance, including tourism, on the gorillas and other wildlife should be investigated in more detail and monitored over time. This is particularly important in multiple-use zones which have been established around the edges of the park for bee-keeping, collection of nontimber forest products, and tourism.

Insights on the Effect of Land Use Choice: The Perpetual Option on the Best of Two Underlying Assets

We consider the effect of land use choice on speculative land value and on development timing as reflected in the optimal “hurdle ratio” which triggers immediate development. We find that land use choice (i.e., multiple-use zoning) may add over 40% to land value under typical economic circumstances. The conditions for optimal development of the land become markedly more difficult to achieve (higher hurdle ratio required) when the two land uses have similar values. Indeed, a “rational indecision” result obtains in theory; development will never occur when the two land use choices have equal value.