Strategic Conservation Planning Research Articles

Precision conservation: A geospatial decision support tool for optimizing conservation and profitability in agricultural landscapes

The USDA Farm Bill conservation programs provide landowner incentives to remove less productive and environmentally sensitive lands from agricultural production and reestablish them in natural vegetation (e.g., native grasses, trees, etc.) to achieve conservation objectives. However, removal of arable land from production imposes an opportunity cost associated with loss in revenue from commodities that otherwise would have been produced. Recent Farm Bills have increasingly emphasized targeted practices to achieve specific environmental outcomes that maximize environmental benefits relative to cost. The Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds practice (CP-33) under the continuous Conservation Reserve Program is an example of a targeted conservation practice that has produced measureable outcomes (increased bobwhite and grassland bird populations) with relatively minor changes in primary land use. However, establishing conservation buffers on profitable farmland may be incompatible with the economic objectives of landowners/producers. Precision agriculture technologies provide a powerful conservation planning tool for identifying environmental and economic opportunities in agricultural systems. Precision implementation of conservation practices, such as CP-33, is the foundation of strategic conservation planning and is essential for optimization of environmental and economic benefits. Toward this end, we developed a geospatial decision support tool (Arc GIS tool) to inform this decision-making process. We illustrate the geoprocessing workflow of the tool and demonstrate the conditions under which precision implementation of conservation practices can concomitantly increase whole-field profitability and environmental services for an example farm in Mississippi.

Strategic planning for invertebrate species conservation - how effective is it?

Activities for invertebrate conservation range from single species programmes to those spanning habitats or landscapes, but at any scale are often largely isolated and not integrated effectively with other efforts. Problems of promoting invertebrate conservation and synergies by effective cooperation are discussed. The rationale of species-level conservation is outlined briefly, with suggestions of how some of the apparent limitations of this approach may be countered in ways that benefit a greater variety of invertebrate life. This essay is intended to promote debate on some of the complex issues involved, and implies the need for careful and well-considered integration of individual conservation tactics into enhanced strategies to increase the benefits from the very limited resources devoted to invertebrate conservation.

Reimaanlok: A National Framework for Conservation Area Planning in the Marshall Islands

The development ofReimaanlok, a national framework for the planning and establishment of community-based conservation areas in the Marshall Islands, is outlined. A team composed of international experts and local resource management professionals selected and modified an ecoregional planning approach, defined key concepts, selected conservation features and targets, compiled biogeographical information from scientific and local knowledge and carried out a national-level ecological gap assessment. Past development of community-based fisheries and conservation plans was reviewed and the lessons learned informed the development of a robust community-based planning process for the design and establishment of conservation areas on individual atolls, integrating ecosystem based management (EBM) theory, traditional knowledge and management, and the particular socio-economic needs of island communities. While specific geographic, historical, cultural and economic characteristics of the Marshall Islands have created a framework that is unique, several aspects of this process offer ideas for national strategic conservation planning in other Small Island Developing States where there is a paucity of scientific data, significant and increasing threats, and where decision-making about the use of natural resources occurs primarily at the local level.

Improving our legacy: Incorporation of adaptive management into state wildlife action plans

The loss of biodiversity is a mounting concern, but despite numerous attempts there are few large scale conservation efforts that have proven successful in reversing current declines. Given the challenge of biodiversity conservation, there is a need to develop strategic conservation plans that address species declines even with the inherent uncertainty in managing multiple species in complex environments. In 2002, the State Wildlife Grant program was initiated to fulfill this need, and while not explicitly outlined by Congress follows the fundamental premise of adaptive management, ‘Learning by doing’. When action is necessary, but basic biological information and an understanding of appropriate management strategies are lacking, adaptive management enables managers to be proactive in spite of uncertainty. However, regardless of the strengths of adaptive management, the development of an effective adaptive management framework is challenging. In a review of 53 State Wildlife Action Plans, I found a keen awareness by planners that adaptive management was an effective method for addressing biodiversity conservation, but the development and incorporation of explicit adaptive management approaches within each plan remained elusive. Only ∼25% of the plans included a framework for how adaptive management would be implemented at the project level within their state. There was, however, considerable support across plans for further development and implementation of adaptive management. By furthering the incorporation of adaptive management principles in conservation plans and explicitly outlining the decision making process, states will be poised to meet the pending challenges to biodiversity conservation.

A Global Analysis of Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Distributions with Identification of Priority Conservation Areas

Abstract There are currently ca. 317 recognized species of turtles and tortoises in the world. Of those that have been assessed on the IUCN Red List, 63% are considered threatened, and 10% are critically endangered, with ca. 42% of all known turtle species threatened. Without directed strategic conservation planning, a significant portion of turtle diversity could be lost over the next century. Toward that conservation effort, we compiled museum and literature occurrence records for all of the world's tortoises and freshwater turtle species to determine their distributions and identify priority regions for conservation. We constructed projected range maps for each species by selecting geographic information system–defined hydrologic unit compartments (HUCs) with verified locality points, and then added HUCs that connected known point localities in the same watershed or physiographic region and that had similar habitats and elevations as the verified HUCs. We analyzed a total of 305 turtle species and assi...

Care of the collection in University of Peradeniya library: strategic planning for the preventive conservation

This paper discusses some problems which prevail with regard to preventive conservation of rare materials presently available in the university library. It reveals the problems that have arisen due to deteriorating factors and negligent areas of the library, such as lack of awareness of the importance of the documents and materials; lack of positive thinking on preventive conservation; shortage of trained staff, equipment and chemicals; and lack of funds. It points out the importance and need of preservation of different kinds of material including wooden objects and paintings and the factors that need to be addressed with regard to preventive conservation. Lastly it highlights strategic planning for preventive conservation which needs to be implemented.Key words: Collection care, preservation of rare materials, strategic planning for preservation doi: 10.4038/jula.v12i0.326 Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka (Vol. 12) 2008 p.1-16

Quantifying Plant Population Persistence in Human‐Dominated Landscapes

We assessed population performance of rare plants across a gradient from rural to urban landscapes and evaluated 2 hypotheses central to strategic conservation planning: (1) population performance declines with increasing human dominance and (2) small populations perform poorly relative to larger ones. Assessing these hypotheses is critical to strategic conservation planning. The current conservation paradigm adheres to the well-established ecology theory that small isolated populations, particularly those in human-dominated landscapes, are the least likely to succeed over the long term. Consequently, conservation planning has strongly favored large, remote targets for protection. This shift in conservation toward ecosystem-based programs and protection of populations within large, remote systems has been at the expense of protection of the rarest of the rare species, the dominant paradigm for conservation driven by the endangered species act. Yet, avoiding conservation of small populations appears to be based more on theoretical understanding and expert opinion than empiricism. We used Natural Heritage data from California in an assessment of population performance of rare plants across a landscape with an urban-rural gradient. Population performance did not decrease in urban settings or for populations that were initially small. Our results are consistent with a pattern of few species extinctions within these landscapes over the past several decades. We conclude that these populations within compromised landscapes can contribute to overall biodiversity conservation. We further argue that conservation planning for biodiversity preservation should allocate relatively more resources to protecting urban-associated plant taxa because they may provide conservation benefit beyond simply protecting isolated populations; they may be useful in building social interest in conservation.

The identification of Broad Habitat Units as biodiversity entities for systematic conservation planning in the Cape Floristic Region

Despite many decades of vegetation-related research, the globally significant Cape Floristic Region (CFR) lacks a system of land classes that can be used as surrogates for biodiversity in conservation planning at the region-wide scale. Here we present a system of Broad Habitat Units (BHUs), suitable for planning at the 1:250 000 scale or larger. The BHUs were derived by intersecting coverages of Homogeneous Climate Zones, geology and topography in a geographic information system. A vegetation type coverage (Low and Rebelo 1996) was used to guide the classification under certain circumstances. A total of 15 primary and 88 secondary BHUs were identified in the CFR (87 892 km2). Of the latter, 69 were included in the Fynbos biome, which covered 81.5% of the CFR. At the primary BHU level, the system is very similar to existing vegetation treatments. The system is a good surrogate for biodiversity pattern and process, and therefore has good potential to provide meaningful entities for systematic and strategic conservation planning in the region.