Priority Sites For Conservation Research Articles

Important Bird Areas in Europe. Priority Sites for Conservation. Birdlife Conservation Series No. 8.

Important Bird Areas in Europe. Priority Sites for Conservation. Birdlife Conservation Series No. 8.

Birds as biodiversity indicators in the planning of Forest Nature Reserves in Uganda

Baltzer, M., Matthews, R., Howard, P., Kigenyi F. & Viskanic, P. 2000. Birds as biodiversity indicators in the planning of Forest Nature Reserves in Uganda. Ostrich 71 (1 & 2): 291. In Uganda a policy decision has been taken to set aside 20% of the nation's 1.4 million hectare forest estate as Forest Nature Reserves, for the protection of biodiversity. The estate comprises 713 Forest Reserves, ranging in size from just a few hectares to well over 100 000 hectares, scattered all over the country. In order to select appropriate areas for designation as Nature Reserves, the Forest Department (with assistance from the European Community and Global Environmental Facility) has evaluated all the larger reserves for biodiversity, focusing on birds and four other biological indicator groups (woody plants, mammals, butterflies and moths). Building on earlier work, teams of departmental staff carried out detailed systematic biodiversity surveys of 65 major forests between May 1992 and March 1995. The work on birds involved 1 442 person-days of field observation and 1.2 million metre net-hours of mist-netting effort. Altogether 5 744 species-site records were made, involving 604 of Uganda's 1011 species: this brings the total number of species known from Uganda's forest reserves to 841 (83% of the country's birds). Several species not previously known from Uganda were recorded, especially in the north and east of the country where birds of the northern (Sudan/Guinea) savannas and Somali-Masai regions reach the extreme limits of their ranges. The bird data have been analysed alongside comparable data for the other four indicator taxa. Fortunately, areas of high species richness and levels of endemism for the five groups tend to coincide. Priority conservation sites have been identified and a national network of Forest Nature Reserves has been designed as part of a representative and efficient protected areas system for Uganda.

Value of ringing information for bird conservation in Europe

After a century of existence, scientific bird ringing is still a highly versatile and extremely useful research technique. It allows information on bird ecology and behaviour that is critical for conservation strategies to be gathered. EURING has now existed for more than 30 years, so that the availability of ring recovery data for scientific and conservation purposes is ensured through a network of National Ringing Schemes and a unique central computerised Data Bank. So far, around 115 million birds have been ringed in Europe, producing recoveries that have enabled ornithologists to unravel migration routes, wintering areas and the network of staging areas used by populations of European birds. Aspects of stopover ecology have been investigated using data on the physical condition of staging migrants collected by ringers, providing crucial information on habitats and sites of conservation priority. Bird movements between sites in response to cold spells within the same winter have suggested the need for the creation of networks of protected wetlands. Analyses of the survival rates of long‐distance migrants have indicated that ecological conditions experienced in the African winter quarters are the main factors limiting European breeding populations. Long‐term ringing projects greatly contribute to population monitoring, including the provision of data for species originating from remote breeding areas from where only scanty information is available. With the increasing need for accurate monitoring of European bird populations, ringing represents the best way to obtain estimates of critical demographic parameters (eg annual productivity and survival rates). These are also of the utmost importance for improved internationally co‐ordinated management policies for game species. The ever increasing standards of more than 10,000 European ringers are ensured through EURING. Large‐scale ringing projects in Europe will provide unique and crucial information for future integrated conservation policies.

The use of phytosociological data in conservation assessment: a case study of lowland grasslands in mid Wales

Quantified vegetation data from remnant stands of neutral and acidic dry grasslands and wet pastures in lowland Brecknock, mid Wales, are presented. Following a preliminary and comprehensive habitat inventory, detailed plant community survey was carried out at a total of 114 sites, and the survey results were used as a basis for nature conservation assessment. A systematic site selection procedure is followed, based on that used to select Sites of Special Scientific Interest, to identify priority sites for conservation. Critical analysis and evaluation based largely on fine-scale phytosociological data are undertaken to identify a representative network of grasslands meriting priority conservation attention. Sites are assessed for individual vegetation types, grassland mosaics and uncommon plant species; size, naturalness and rarity are the main attributes employed for comparative site evaluation. Unimproved grasslands have become much reduced since the 1930s, and particular consideration is given to uncommon communities, including Centaureo–Cynosuretum and Cirsio–Molinietum, and associated populations of scarce and declining species. Overall, 31 sites are considered to warrant priority conservation measures. The exiguous extent and isolation of some forms of lowland grassland point to the need for urgent protection and also habitat restoration and expansion. The benefits of tailoring agricultural extensification measures to reflect local environmental variation, and of localising resources for habitat reconstruction in the vicinity of remnant aggregations of unimproved grasslands, are briefly considered.

Prioritizing South African estuaries for conservation: A practical example using waterbirds

This study uses estuarine waterbirds to examine alternative methods for prioritizing sites for conservation. South African estuaries are evaluated using single-criterion and multiple-criteria scoring indices and an iterative technique. The viability of alternative scoring indices for more qualitative data is examined. Species richness, conservation status, total numbers, and percentage of the regional population were considered to be the most important criteria for ranking wetlands in terms of their value to waterbirds. Indices of abundance and site endemism provide an adequate substitute for the last two criteria when biota are difficult to quantify. Sites should be evaluated separately according to single-criterion indices, thereby making the decision process explicit. Biogeographical zones should be considered separately when scoring techniques alone are used to select priority sites for conservation. It is imperative that iterative (‘complementarity’) analyses, which select the minimum set of sites in which all species can be conserved, take abundance into account, so that viable populations are conserved as far as possible. This selection procedure is flexible, and should be used in conjunction with a scoring-and-ranking procedure. Seven of the 10 estuaries selected by complementarity analysis to conserve waterbirds in South Africa were top ranking sites. Two sites (one high ranking) were selected a posteriori to replace three low ranking sites selected by the program.

Conservation of Afrotropical antelopes: consequences and efficiency of using different site selection methods and diversity criteria

The consequences of different measures of biotic diversity for the selection of priority sites for conservation were investigated using a dataset on Afrotropical antelopes. Site networks were selected using species richness, taxonomic diversity and restricted-range diversity as selection criteria. Restricted-range diversity was the most efficient criterion at representing all the species in the dataset. However when only a few sites could be conserved (insufficient to include all species) restricted-range diversity was relatively poor at representing absolute numbers of species and also taxonomic diversity. Use of unweighted species richness rather than a taxonomically weighted score did not significantly reduce the amount of taxonomic diversity represented. As expected an iterative selection of sites was considerably more efficient at representing all aspects of diversity than selection of the top-scoring sites. However the efficiency of an iterative selection procedure was reduced when some areas were already part of the reserve network. Since none of the criteria for selecting reserves maximizes all aspects of biodiversity under all circumstances, it is necessary to be clear about the objectives of a reserve network when deciding on a method for site selection.

Integrating local plant resources and habitat management

The use of wild plant resources as a source of basic needs is an important aspect of multiple-use of land in much of Africa, ranging from vegetation with a low species diversity, high biomass production and resilience to harvesting (e.g.Phragmites reedbeds,Cymbopogon grasslands) through to vegetation with a high diversity of species (and plant life-forms), with a multiple of uses and often low resilience to resource harvesting (e.g. medicinal plants, pole cutting, fuelwood from Afro-montane forest). Complexity and costs of managing sustainable use of wild populations increase markedly with an increasing number of uses and resource users. It is suggested that if the primary objective of core conservation areas is accepted to be the maintenance of habitat and species diversity, then the limited money and manpower available for management of core conservation areas in southern Africa limits sustainable harvesting use of plant resources to low diversity, low conservation priority vegetation types or encroaching species. For high diversity, high conservation priority sites such as Afro-montane or Coastal evergreen forest, the emphasis must be on providing alternative sources of supply to resource users outside of core areas. Botanical gardens staff, with their horticultural experience, can play a very important role through ‘bulking up’ material for supply to small farmers, herbalists and introducing additional species for agro-forestry. Botanical gardens can play a greater role in the establishment of field gene banks andex situ conservation of vulnerable species. They can also provide a valuable educational and research role on mass production techniques to boost local stocks of threatened and commercially valuable species for cultivation by local people, whether farmers or specialist users (e.g. herbalists) in the country of origin as a means of generating employment and restoring local self-sufficiency.

British Bryological Society Expedition to Mulanje Mountain, Malawi 1. Background, itinerary and procedures

In June 1991 a nine-man British Bryological Society Expedition collected bryophytes and made ecological observations in many parts of Mulanje Mountain, Malawi. Mulanje Mountain is an isolated member of the Afro-montane archepelago where the rich and distinctive ecosystem is under threat from a range of human activities. Over 4500 specimens were collected and it is clear that they will add many species to the known bryophyte flora of Malawi, as well as providing phytogeographical and ecological data and indicating priority sites for conservation. The present paper, the first in a series reporting the work of the Expedition, describes the objectives, itinerary, logistic arrangements and collecting procedures.