Natural Heritage Management Research Articles

Remote Sensing Data to Support Integrated Decision Making in Cultural and Natural Heritage Management. Impasses and opportunities for collaboration in agricultural areas

Remote and near surface sensing data are widely used in archaeology and heritage management for feature discovery, change detection and monitoring, as an input to predictive modelling, and in the planning process. While global and regional datasets are widely used for some purposes, data are regularly acquired specifically for archaeological projects because of the very high spatial resolution required for feature detection and assessments of archaeological significance and the need for data on subsurface features. The sensing data collected for archaeology cover limited areas and only a few types of sensors, known to produce data efficiently, are regularly employed. Precision agriculture is beginning to produce large quantities of varied sensing data across extensive landscape areas. This situation creates an opportunity to adapt and reuse precision agricultural data for archaeology and heritage work, extending covering and enhancing our understanding of archaeology in contemporary agricultural landscapes. Equally, there is potential for coordinated data collection, collecting data once for multiple applications, and to add value through analyses which bring together perspectives from multiple related domains to model long-term processes in anthropogenic soil systems. This article provides a high-level overview of policy and technological developments which create the potential for sensing data reuse, coordinated data collection, and collaborative analyses across archaeological, agricultural, and agri-environmental applications while underscoring the structural barriers which, at present, constrain this potential. It highlights examples where the development of interoperable data and workflows can promote tighter integration of archaeology and cultural heritage management with sustainable agricultural land management and support integrated decision making.

Thorny Past

Conflicts have legacies beyond peace treaties and armistices. This article focuses on one example of such an enduring heritage, namely barbed wire left after the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II. This barbed wire has persisted up to the present day and thus presents a case that can illuminate nuances of a material legacy that is harmful but also an important source of insight and experience of heritage. This involves the incomplete clean up in the postwar years and how the barbed wire continues to pose challenges for present-day and future cultural and natural heritage management. Contemporary archaeology offers insights into the afterlife of war and works as a counterweight to grand historical narratives that mainly focus on the height of armed conflicts.

The Case of the Killer She-Wolf

In July 1974, a she-wolf allegedly killed two children in Ourense (Spain). A press outburst followed, with a heated debate about the extermination or conservation of wolf populations. This article examines that media coverage as a highly illustrative example of a multilayered process of natural history knowledge construction. The initial focus on the legal standing of wolves soon turned to an argument about Spain’s modernization, a central contention during Franco’s dictatorship, particularly in the last two decades. In a context of the rise of the natural sciences as a noteworthy field of sociopolitical negotiation worldwide, the scientific definition and management of natural heritage, intertwined with nationalist and internationalist rationales that were integral to the regime’s enduring legitimation strategies, quickly became central issues. In addition, Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente (1928–1980), a highly influential naturalist, media icon, and celebrity champion of wolves, whose stance of a scientifically based activism elicited mixed feelings in late Franco’s Spain, was quickly drawn into the quarrel with shepherds, hunters, scholars, policymakers, and journalists. His involvement, against a backdrop of locally situated and environmentally related conflicts, allows us to analyze the ambivalent role of science, media, and celebrity in the establishment of the epistemological status of local/rural and outsider/urban knowledge in the construction of narratives about nature. In all, this case brings together official mechanisms of production of scientific knowledge, various forms of public and institutional engagement, a wide range of people’s everyday-life experiences, and the crucial involvement of the media.

Willingness to Pay for Urban and Suburban Green

Peri-urban and urban green are considered among the basic priorities of the local government’s regional policy agenda, in line with the principles of spatial planning. This agenda is promoted at both the national and European levels through a variety of technical and institutional measures. Green spaces in urban and suburban areas are directly linked to the quality of life of urban residents and their environment. In this context, the purpose of this study is to investigate and identify the characteristics and factors that influence the residents of a small Greek city in terms of the value they attach to urban and suburban green spaces. These factors are identified through the residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) using the contingent valuation method (CVM). In general, the analysis aims to document the value of environmental economic methods as a tool in the management of natural heritage. According to the research, income and knowledge of environmental issues (global and local) as well as the benefits of green spaces (urban and suburban) are the key factors that drive residents to place a higher value on them. Future work may explore whether or how the COVID-19 pandemic affected city residents’ willingness to pay for green spaces.

Machine Learning Classification of Mediterranean Forest Habitats in Google Earth Engine Based on Seasonal Sentinel-2 Time-Series and Input Image Composition Optimisation

The sustainable management of natural heritage is presently considered a global strategic issue. Owing to the ever-growing availability of free data and software, remote sensing (RS) techniques have been primarily used to map, analyse, and monitor natural resources for conservation purposes. The need to adopt multi-scale and multi-temporal approaches to detect different phenological aspects of different vegetation types and species has also emerged. The time-series composite image approach allows for capturing much of the spectral variability, but presents some criticalities (e.g., time-consuming research, downloading data, and the required storage space). To overcome these issues, the Google Earth engine (GEE) has been proposed, a free cloud-based computational platform that allows users to access and process remotely sensed data at petabyte scales. The application was tested in a natural protected area in Calabria (South Italy), which is particularly representative of the Mediterranean mountain forest environment. In the research, random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and classification and regression tree (CART) algorithms were used to perform supervised pixel-based classification based on the use of Sentinel-2 images. A process to select the best input image (seasonal composition strategies, statistical operators, band composition, and derived vegetation indices (VIs) information) for classification was implemented. A set of accuracy indicators, including overall accuracy (OA) and multi-class F-score (Fm), were computed to assess the results of the different classifications. GEE proved to be a reliable and powerful tool for the classification process. The best results (OA = 0.88 and Fm = 0.88) were achieved using RF with the summer image composite, adding three VIs (NDVI, EVI, and NBR) to the Sentinel-2 bands. SVM and RF produced OAs of 0.83 and 0.80, respectively.

Community heritage and heritage community. Participatory models of cultural and natural heritage management in some inner areas of the Abruzzo region

The purpose of this study is to analyze how research projects involving communities and stakeholders can achieve a deeper understanding of natural and cultural landscapes and provide key elements for self-sustainable territorial development. These strategies find a fertile field for action in the fragile areas, which require restoration works in order to be reconverted into resources, within the framework of a global territorial development plan. This paper focuses on some inner Abruzzo areas that are disadvantaged by marginalization and depopulation. The strong naturalistic imprint of the region has led to the establishment of many parks and ecomuseums; some of them are included within national and European networks and act in partnership with institutions and foundations on a regular basis. This entrepreneurship does not exclude, but rather encourages the contribution of local communities. Inhabitants and other stakeholders cooperate with institutions and play a proactive role in the enhancement of the territory and in the production of social wealth. Lo scopo di questo studio e analizzare come i progetti di ricerca che coinvolgono comunita e stakeholders possano raggiungere una comprensione piu profonda dei paesaggi naturali e culturali e possano fornire elementi chiave per lo sviluppo autosostenibile del territorio. Queste strategie trovano un fertile campo d’azione nelle aree fragili, che richiedono interventi di ripristino e valorizzazione delle risorse nell’ambito di un piano di sviluppo globale del territorio. L’articolo si focalizza su alcune aree dell’Abruzzo interno, penalizzate dalla marginalizzazione e dall’abbandono. La forte impronta naturalistica della regione ha determinato l’istituzione di numerosi parchi ed ecomusei, alcuni dei quali sono inseriti in networks nazionali ed europei e operano in partenariato con istituzioni e fondazioni. Questa imprenditorialita non esclude, anzi stimola, il contributo delle comunita locali che cooperano con le istituzioni e svolgono un ruolo propulsivo per la valorizzazione del territorio e per la produzione di ricchezza sociale.

Making Known and Available: The importance of digitization of a historical malacological collection in the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra

The Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (MCUC) manages the oldest zoological collections in Portugal. The molluscs are among the most relevant invertebrates within this collection, with over one hundred thousand specimens. A significant part of the Portuguese malacological collection in MCUC comes from the Madeira Archipelago, a group of oceanic islands with a high diversity of terrestrial molluscs and a hotspot of endemic taxa. A recent review of land snails from Madeira hosted at the MCUC revealed that there were around 130 lots and 2,000 specimens offered by naturalists since the 19th Century and none of them had been previously digitized. A significant number of these specimens was offered by António da Costa de Paiva (Barão de Castelo de Paiva) who described ten land snail species from the Madeira Archipelago in 1866 and published an extensive monograph on non-marine molluscs in 1867. The main goal of our work was to carry out the inventory of the mollusc collections from the Madeira Archipelago in the database of MCUC, and to discuss the importance of specimens’ digitization for making the collections known and available to researchers and the general public. We inserted data for 1,916 specimens of the Madeira Archipelago collection in the MCUC database ‘In Natura - Natural Heritage Management’ with information on their taxonomy, old inventory numbers (if available), correspondent lot, collector and the study areas, complemented with information about habitat, among others. In addition, we also included photographs of the lots and of some of the most remarkable individuals in the database. The specimens were then reconditioned and identified in the general mollusc collection, although the identification and designation of the type material are still lacking. Digitization is crucial in the field of biological collections in order to transfer specimen data onto worldwide accessible repositories, potentially benefiting the work of researchers and other stakeholders in the ecological and conservation communities. For instance, even when researchers are intensively searching for a type material in a certain collection, if the data are neither known nor available, they cannot trace it and compare it with their material. Thus, this work is fundamental for the accessibility of the malacological collections in the MCUC for researchers and also the society-at-large that has the possibility of consulting them through the digital museum (http://museudaciencia.inwebonline.net), as well as for the dissemination of the important historical and scientific heritage of the University of Coimbra and Portugal, both nationally and internationally.

Heritage Protection as Stabilization, the Emergence of a New ‘Mandated Task’ for UN Peace Operations

ABSTRACT The integration of new tasks like those of cultural and natural heritage management into the mandates of UN peace operations is usually presented as a burden, ‘a star on the top of the Christmas tree’ at a time of scarce human and budgetary resources for contemporary UN peace operations. Through a comparison of MINUSMA in Mali and MONUSCO in DRC, this article aims to demonstrate how, on the contrary, heritage management can bring consistency to the broader ‘stabilization’ mandate mainstreamed in UN peace operations. By creating new links between the seemingly dichotomous activities it encompasses, namely ‘support’ and ‘securization’ activities, this new type of mandated task can increase complementarity between civilian and military components of UN peace operations with regard to local population. As part of their stabilization mandates, both MINUSMA and MONUSCO were charged to protect heritage. Ultimately, the most decisive factor as to why heritage management created a virtuous circle in Mali and a vicious circle in DRC, seems to be the failure or the success on the part of peace operations to include local communities in the heritage management process, a task which is so far better performed by the civilian than by the military component.

Integrated restoration prioritization–A multi-discipline approach in the Greater Toronto Area

Ecosystem restoration planning requires an integrated approach considering many components of the natural system when prioritizing where and what to restore. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and partners have developed a multi-discipline and multi-benefit approach to restoration planning that facilitates effective restoration works, which contribute to realizing regional watershed objectives pertaining to natural system functions. Through various long term monitoring and modeling initiatives, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has amassed a wealth of knowledge on terrestrial biodiversity, aquatic ecosystems, hydrology, and headwater conditions. The aim of Integrated Restoration Prioritization is to identify impairments and threats to ecosystem function as a means to improve the delivery of ecological goods and services. Consolidating data and comparing discrete areas based on different parameters and thresholds can help direct decision making for future restoration initiatives. The first iteration of the Integrated Restoration Prioritization analyzed existing datasets, identified gaps, and made recommendations for future monitoring. This approach will assist with delisting Beneficial Use Impairments #14 Loss of Fish and Wildlife Habitat and #3 Degradation of Fish and Wildlife Populations within the Toronto Remedial Action Plan area. Further, the Integrated Restoration Prioritization will assist in implementing the recommendations made in watershed planning documents pertaining to fisheries and natural heritage management. Specifically, the Integrated Restoration Prioritization will identify where impairments to ecological function are located, ensure habitats and corridor linkages are protected or restored, and prioritize local and upstream catchments that could contribute most to improving the natural system if restored.

Landscape ecology and social representations as tools for ecological restoration of restinga landscapes

Restingas are subjected to several elements of degradation, making their restoration necessary for the continued existence of this ecosystem. The involvement of local communities in restoration processes is extremely important; however, efforts to involve the users of beach environments in their restoration are is still incipient. This study aims to evaluate landscape attributes and to understand societal representations of the process of landscape transformation as management tools for the ecological restoration of restinga on the beaches of Itaguaçu/Ubatuba, São Francisco do Sul, SC. Interviews were conducted with people between the ages of 18 and 82; residents, or not, of the area; users, or not, of the beaches; and directly, or not, linked, or not, to organizations and institutions that exercise some kind of influence or governance of the beaches. Interviews employed a research form on which were recorded data regarding the identification and description of the interviewee, and answers to questions designed to understand interviewees’ representations of the restinga and its attributes as a clipping of the coastal landscape. In total, 73 interviews were carried out, which documented the population's general lack of knowledge regarding the restinga environment and its ecological importance, as well as their representations of this environment. This study serves to highlight the need for pre-restoration environmental programs with different social actors with an emphasis on education and participation in the management of natural heritage.

Sobre la gestión del patrimonio natural y el paisaje en España en la era de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos: el caso de los invertebrados

En las últimas décadas, en lo que a gestión del patrimonio natural se refiere, el papel de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos ha cobrado una gran relevancia en el campo de la biología de la conservación al constituirse como áreas gestionadas para la conservación de especies de flora y fauna. Estos espacios se encuentran en muchos casos rodeados de zonas de aprovechamiento de recursos agroganaderos, con las cuales forman unidades de paisaje de gran importancia para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad. Analizar el papel de estas unidades de paisaje como áreas interconectadas en mosaico y de interés para especies y comunidades de fauna de alto valor ecológico representa un objetivo necesario y de interés general para la gestión sostenible del paisaje y el patrimonio natural. Sobre muchas poblaciones de invertebrados e insectos dentro de estas unidades de paisaje, aun estando en un segundo plano respecto a otros elementos que han despertado mayor interés social o científico, confluyen tales circunstancias, por su papel determinante en el mantenimiento de la diversidad de ecosistemas y flujo de sus poblaciones dentro y fuera de los Espacios Naturales Protegidos, y el hecho de que a veces constituyen unidades de biodiversidad sobre las que se ha basado la gestión de estos espacios. En el presente texto, a través del caso de los Lepidoptera (Hexapoda) se pretende poner de manifiesto la importancia que tiene para la conservación de los invertebrados e insectos una gestión integral del patrimonio natural y el paisaje de nuestro país, todo ello dentro del contexto de la biología de la conservación.

The Values and the Problems of the Natural Heritage of the Region of Elbasan

Various studies, among them geographical ones, like the application of the new concepts on the Natural Heritage, since 1990, helped in the construction of the biodiversity protection strategy, which served as a basis for providing legal support conservation and management of Natural heritage for identifying and proposing new protected sites, which now accounts around 16% of the territory of Albania and are represented by the six categories of protected areas provided by the IUCN. Studies continue to expand about the protected areas and preparation of their management plans. In this context, particular importance have the studies of the natural heritage for particular regions of the country. Our article has the object of study of Natural Heritage of the region of Elbasan,concentrating mostly on the natural momuments of this region. This article makes evident this valuable asset emphasising in this way the scientific,echological, cultural,spiritual and turistics values of its sites:in the many problems of the protected areas and it analyses and proposes the aplication of better models in the managment with the porpose: the protection and regeneration of the values, their return in a source of scientific informaiton, in didactic laboratories and ecological and patriotc education notably in attractive turistic objects with the intantion of the stable development of the region. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p103

Blending a heritage of recreation and tourism with conservation of natural heritage: an example from Penguin Island, Western Australia

This paper discusses the recreational and natural heritage of Penguin Island in its journey from use as a recreation reserve to its current management within a Class A biodiversity conservation reserve. Protected natural areas were historically managed for tourism and recreation, resulting in a significant heritage of use. They are now mainly managed for biodiversity protection, but continue to be a focus for tourism and recreation. Visitors to natural areas are considered a prime audience to raise awareness about biodiversity protection, but Australia has a poor record of integrating cultural and natural heritage management. The long heritage of recreational use on Penguin Island was superimposed with a biodiversity protection mandate. Effective design based on minimal site hardening and selective restriction of recreational use, rather than education, has successfully restored the island's natural heritage. However, the island's cultural heritage has been obscured. This implies that the biodiversity protection and education mandate has been at the cost of preserving awareness of Penguin Island's recreation and tourism heritage.

Protected landscapes in the Netherlands: changing ideas and approaches

Following international initiatives to safeguard the most valuable cultural landscapes, the Dutch government has recently introduced National Landscapes; these are landscapes of international importance because they are either unique to the Netherlands or are seldom found elsewhere. The main policy goal is to preserve the existing landscape quality, while at the same time promoting sustainable social and economic development of the area's communities. The designation of 20 National Landscapes represents the youngest attempt to introduce IUCN‐Category V protected landscapes in the Netherlands. Earlier attempts to promote the preservation of cultural landscapes date back to the 1970s. However, the original ideas were already formulated during the inter‐war period. This paper traces back these earlier ideas on landscape conservation. During the period under investigation, the evolution of ideas on landscape conservation shifted from regulatory to more developmental modes of planning and from authoritative to decentralized‐liberal arrangements. It is argued that factors influencing this shift are the changed position and function of agriculture, the altered role of government planning and a paradigm shift in natural heritage management.

Putting the "And" Back in the Culture-Nature Debate: Integrated Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection

I. INTRODUCTION II. CULTURAL & NATURAL HERITAGE: AN OVERVIEW A. Cultural Heritage B. Natural Heritages C. Nature Conservation Strategies Worldwide D. The Links Between Cultural and Natural Heritage E. Characteristics of Sites of Overlapping Cultural & Natural Heritage III. The Present and Future of Integrated Cultural & Natural Heritage Management A. Challenges Posed to Protecting Cultural and Natural Heritage B. Existing Legal/Regulatory Efforts to Protect Cultural and Natural Heritage 1. Developed Countries a. The United States b. The European Union (1) England (a) National Parks (b) Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (c) Conservation Areas (2) Dartmoor National Park (a) The Dartmoor Local Plan (b) Local Plan Aims (c) Local Plan Landscapes c. Canada 2. Developing Countries a. China b. Brazil IV. CONCLUSION A. Why Integrate Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection? B. Bridging Boundaries for Mutual Gain I. INTRODUCTION Formal legal efforts to protect cultural and natural heritage are not a modern phenomenon. In the developed and developing worlds, regional, state, and local governments undertake efforts to protect their cultural heritage and their natural resources. Most cultural and natural resource protection regimes, however, have evolved independently of one another. This is only recently beginning to change. As scholars, regulators, and activists increasingly recognize the links and overlap between areas of cultural and natural heritage, they are beginning to come together to develop new regimes for joint cultural and environmental protection. These early efforts jointly to protect cultural and natural heritage vary significantly in character and success. These variations reflect a still vague and evolving understanding of the interplay between culture and nature, the relationship between public and private land ownership, and significant regional differences in existing legal regimes, economic development, and environmental agendas. Further, there is currently very little comprehensive research examining global efforts to develop heritage protection areas that integrate both cultural and natural resource conservation. There is even less research analyzing how relationships between land ownership and social conceptions of culture and nature impact the development of future cultural and natural heritage programs. The goal of this paper is to contribute to and encourage the development of innovative, interdisciplinary approaches for the protection, preservation, and enhancement of natural and cultural heritage areas. The second section of this paper examines traditional notions and regulatory regimes for cultural and natural heritage protection, and delves into the links between cultural and natural heritage. Section three analyzes existing cultural heritage and environmental/natural protection laws, and provides examples of joint cultural and natural heritage preservation efforts. In particular, section three considers how current and prospective joint cultural and natural heritage protection efforts in developed and developing countries contribute to the social and economic development of communities and regions, and advance the principles of sustainable development by strengthening the historical continuity of a place and its people, and by guiding development in ways consistent with the characteristics of these cultural and natural resources. Additionally, section three examines case studies in the United States, Europe, Canada, Brazil, and China to demonstrate the challenges and critical elements integral to developing innovative and sustainable cultural and natural heritage preservation schemes. …

The Role of the Victorian Conservation Trust and the Value of Covenants

Abstract While the notion of a covenant has existed in the subdivision history of Victoria since the original allotment sales for the Melbourne ‘golden mile’, the potential role and application of covenants for cultural and natural heritage management and conservation has not been realized. This paper examines the role and function of the Victorian Conservation Trust in pioneering covenant use for natural heritage management in Victoria. It also draws in various examples in an attempt to set an agenda for the future.