Perceptions and attitudes of land managers in multi-tenure reserve networks and the implications for conservation

Multi-tenure reserve networks aim to connect areas managed for biodiversity conservation across public and private land and address the impacts of fragmentation on both biotic and social systems. The operation and function of Australian multi-tenure reserve networks as perceived by their land managers was investigated. Overall, the conservation of natural assets was the most frequently reported primary reason for involvement in a network. The perceived aims of the respective networks largely reflected the response identified for involvement and management. Over 88% of managers considered their involvement in multi-tenure reserve networks to be a positive or very positive experience. A lack of resources and time for management were considered major limitations of these networks. The majority (80%) of private land managers within networks were willing to be included in a national reserve system of conservation lands. As the Australian National Reserve System currently incorporates mostly public land, these findings have important and potentially positive implications for a greater role for protected private land.     

Transfrontier conservation areas: Integrating biodiversity and poverty alleviation in Southern Africa

Sub‐Saharan Africa continues to face the daunting challenge of alleviating poverty due to slow economic growth. In southern Africa, most countries are adopting policies that promote the integration of biodiversity conservation and rural development to contribute to rural poverty alleviation. Numerous approaches have been undertaken in this endeavour, including Transfrontier Parks (TFPs) and Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). This paper discusses some of the limitations of the TFPs. In conclusion I posit that unlike TFPs, which are state controlled and managed, TFCAs, which promote multi‐land use and multi‐stakeholder participation are attainable and have a higher probability of sustaining biodiversity conservation and contributing to the alleviation of rural poverty, if: (i) areas of high biodiversity conservation within communal areas can be identified, zoned and leveraged to biodiversity conservation and managed in partnership between the communities and the private sector; (ii) local communities can secure legal rights to their customary land being devoted to biodiversity conservation and use such pieces of land as collateral in negotiating partnerships with the private sector in developing conservation‐based enterprises; (iii) functional community natural resource governance institutions can be established and empowered to represent their constituencies in securing fair equity from profits made from sustainable use of the conserved biodiversity assets and tourism businesses; (iv) concerted effort can be invested in developing and implementing family planning and fertility reduction strategies that would slow down human population growth to levels that can be sustained by the available natural resources; and (v) if sustainable financing mechanisms can be developed, and the governance of protected areas occurring in the TFCAs can be broadened to include other stakeholders.     

Private land management for biodiversity conservation

As human influences fragment native communities and ecosystems, remaining land must be better managed to conserve many elements of biodiversity. Much of this land is privately held, yet traditional private land-use management practices often further diminish biodiversity by promoting favored or edge-adapted species. Today, private land stewards are increasingly aware of and concerned about biodiversity, but little guidance exists for them to make land-use decisions incorporating principles and knowledge from conservation biology. Consequently, most management strategies are highly subjective. This article addresses that problem by introducing current conservation wisdom to management and use of private lands. The result is a model program for developing land management plans, with the goal of maintaining viable populations and natural distributions of native species and communities from a landscape perspective. The program establishes a protocol for classifying sites according to the importance of their species, communities, and other elements to global and regional biodiversity. These site classifications are based on the management objectives necessary to maintain important elements. Once managers classify a site, the program provides management standards, general stewardship principles, examples of land management strategies, and basic monitoring and evaluation procedures.     

Paradigms,paradoxes and a propitious niche: conservation and Indigenous social justice policy in Australia

In Australia, redressing past injustices and recognising Indigenous peoples' spiritual and cultural connections to land have resulted in the return of significant amounts of land to Indigenous people. Parallel to this, in attempts to address declining biodiversity, innovative and neo-liberal approaches to conservation under a new paradigm have been promoted. The role and influence of the non-state sector are increasing, and Indigenous peoples’ involvement in conservation is also growing. This paper reviews the history of conservation and Indigenous social justice policy in Australia. It describes how the social justice agenda has been the primary motivator of returning land to Indigenous Australians, and historically has been the driver and catalyst for Indigenous peoples' involvement in conservation, whilst the conservation agenda has increased conservation on private lands and the role and influence of the non-state conservation sector. The paper reveals how the trajectories of conservation and Indigenous social justice have become intrinsically linked with the emergence of new paradigms, providing opportunities for a propitious niche. Yet it also shows how the two trajectories have manifested themselves with a paradox of disparity; achievements secured under an Indigenous social justice agenda are being enjoyed by conservation under the new paradigm, whilst Indigenous social justice is increasingly becoming dependent on a conservation agenda.     

Farmers' Motivations for Adopting Conservation Practices along Riparian Zones in a Mid-western Agricultural Watershed

In the agricultural Mid-west, riparian corridors are vital for protecting biodiversity and water quality. The cumulative management decisions of hundreds of private landowners have a tremendous impact on this riparian zone. This study of 268 farmers in a typical Mid-western watershed in Michigan looked at farmer's motivations for adopting conservation practices, their current management practices along their rivers and drains as well as their future management plans. The results of the study showed that farmers are intrinsically motivated to practise conservation by such factors as their attachment to their land, rather than by motivations such as receiving economic compensation. Farmers are also likely to engage in conservation practices that make their farm appear well-managed. Furthermore, those farmers with strong intrinsic motivations were likely to adopt conservation practices that protect streams, such as maintaining a woody vegetative buffer or practicing no-till farming. This study shows that protecting riparian resources in agricultural watersheds requires strategies for conservation that respect farmers' attachment to their land and their desire to practise good stewardship.     

Agribusiness Opportunity Costs and Environmental Legal Protection: Investigating Trade-Off on Hotspot Preservation in the State of São Paulo,Brazil

Prior to deforestation, São Paulo State had 79,000 km² covered by Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies, but today less than 8.5% of this biodiversity hotspot remains, mostly in private lands. The global demand for agricultural goods has imposed strong pressure on natural areas, and the economic decisions of agribusiness managers are crucial to the fate of Cerrado domain remaining areas (CDRA) in Brazil. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Brazilian private protected areas policy, and to propose a feasible alternative to promote CDRA protection. This article assessed the main agribusiness opportunity costs for natural areas preservation: the land use profitability and the arable land price. The CDRA percentage and the opportunity costs were estimated for 349 municipal districts of São Paulo State through secondary spatial data and profitability values of 38 main agricultural products. We found that Brazilian private protected areas policy fails to preserve CDRA, although the values of non-compliance fines were higher than average opportunity costs. The scenario with very restrictive laws on private protected areas and historical high interest rates allowed us to conceive a feasible cross compliance proposal to improve environmental and agricultural policies.     

中国绿色服务政策演进、协同及文本内容分析

绿色服务作为促进绿色产业专业化、高端化、规范化发展的综合性服务业,是保障绿色产业持续健康发展的重要支撑。本文以《绿色产业指导目录》为依据,全面梳理1986年以来我国中央政府颁布的各类绿色服务政策,从政策演进、政策主体关系、文本类型、政策工具结构等方面对我国绿色服务政策进行量化分析。研究发现:(1)我国中央政府颁布的绿色服务政策数量及总力度都越来越大,绿色服务政策的制定已经渡过探索期,进入高质量发展的政策体系全面形成阶段;(2)政策主体牵涉广泛,部际合作现象明显且合作模式较为固定,整体上部际合作增强但又呈现出阶段性的发展特征;(3)政策类型多种多样,但不同形式的政策文件分布不均,多通知、公告类低效力文件,缺乏高效力文件;(4)政策客体结构较为完整,但行业分布不平衡;(5)总体上政策工具类型逐渐多样化,但过度重视管理,供给型、环境型、需求型三大政策工具间存在一定程度的失衡,具体表现为重环境,轻供给和需求。本文建议,应进一步加强部际协调和有效合作,平衡政策工具结构和政策的行业分布,完成绿色服务政策由量到质的升级发展。     

国家公园建设背景下的公益型保护地研究进展

当前我国自然保护地体系改革正处于关键时期,公益型保护地是一种利用社会公益力量,由政府监督、民间管理并协调保护与发展的新型保护地模式。该模式注重社会公益力量在自然保护地建设中的作用,能够补充已有保护地资金、技术和人力的不足,填补了我国目前保护地体系的空缺。本文论述了国家公园建设背景下的公益保护地的内涵,分析了当前公益保护地的特征,讨论了国内外公益型保护地的运营管理机制,包括土地权利的获得、基于协议保护机制的保护地运营、特许经营在保护地的实施和社区保护模式的成功经验。今后我国公益型保护地的建设应鼓励公益组织与民间力量参与,在管理理念上应坚持保护第一和公益性,促进管理体制转变和科学划定界限,并完善公益组织参与保护地建设的激励和监督机制。     

Protected forests in Europe approaches-harmonising the definitions for international comparison and forest policy making

Comparison of forest protection between regions in Europe is extremely difficult, because there is such wide variation of strategies, procedures and constraints; the way forests have been used historically and their present closeness to nature also varies, and furthermore so does the definition of what constitutes a forest. For the European Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe (MCPFE) in 2003, forest protection has been harmonised into three categories for the sake of comparison: protection to safeguard biodiversity, protection of landscape and specific natural features, and protective forest functions.There is no single, uniform and universal model and no internationally agreed target with respect to the percentage of forests which should be protected. What is more important than a fixed percentage level of forested area (e.g. 5 or 10%) is that the protection network should be biogeographically and ecologically representative and accordingly distributed on a regional basis. Long-term practical experience and research have proved that conservation of different species of organisms can be assured by appropriate silvicultural management of multifunctional production forests. Consequently, the focus of debate in Europe appears to shift more and more from total protection in segregated areas to 'precision protection' and to combining protection and timber production in the holistic, integrated concept of modern management of forest areas.Advances in regional ecological planning and the growing adoption of naturalistic forest management practices have slowed the decline of the biological diversity in the multifunctional production forests. However, this fact is not yet widely and sufficiently acknowledged and appreciated. There is consequently a political and scientific need for continued study of the effects of naturalistic silvicultural management on the biodiversity of forests. Information from such research is crucially needed before new and additional protection networks and schemes are set up on a large-scale. Protection by voluntary contracts between parties is a workable model concept for European forestry based on private forest ownership. In small private forests, patches of forest worth protecting are often small and located within production forests.Forest certification can contribute to the efforts of maintaining biodiversity in multifunctional production forests and offers an instrument of independently monitoring and verifying that forests are managed according to the agreed criteria. Forest certification is not an alternative or a means of increasing forest protection, because as a voluntary process it cannot guarantee the permanence of protected areas or deal with issues of finance and compensation.     

Multi-level discrepancies with sharing data on protected areas: what we have and what we need for the global village

Protected areas present a global heritage. Assessing conservation achievements in protected areas is of crucial importance with respect to the on-time delivery of international biodiversity conservation targets. However, monitoring data from publicly accessible databases for comparative studies of conservation achievements in the protected areas of the world are very scarce, if not non-existent. At first glance this is surprising because, with regards to protected areas, at least according to well established protected area management guidelines and widely accepted public mandates, a great deal of monitoring work and data gathering is to be conducted. This would imply that data on changes of biodiversity in protected areas could be expected to exist, and the constant progress in information technologies and Web tools engenders hope that some of it might even be available online for the global public. This review article presents the results of an extensive online search and review of existing monitoring data from freely accessible online databases for its use in an assessment of conservation achievements in a larger sample of protected areas. Results show two contrary sides to the status quo of accessible data from the World Wide Web for conservation science: data overkill and data scarcity with poor metadata provision. While ever more research is, in fact, based on open-access online data, such as extrapolations of species ranges used in conservation management and planning, it remains almost impossible to obtain a basic set of information for an assessment of conservation achievements within a larger number of protected areas. This awareness has triggered a detailed discussion about the discrepancies in sharing data at the level of protected areas; mismatching relationships between expected activities in protected areas and the capacity for delivering these requirements are certainly among the main challenges. In addition, the fear of data misuse potentially resulting in harm for nature, careers, and competencies still seems to be a critical barrier strictly controlling the willingness to share data. Various initiatives aimed at tackling technical and cultural obstacles are introduced and discussed to reach the goal of a modern resource management based on adaptive management using digital opportunities of the new millennium for a sustainable global village.     

Conserving biodiversity that matters: practitioners' perspectives on brownfield development and urban nature conservation in London

Policies designed to conserve sites of nature conservation importance are an important aspect of city planning in the UK. London has led the way in putting in place a spatial hierarchy of sites of nature conservation importance designed to protect wildlife habitats from development. Some wasteland habitats associated with derelict and vacant land receive protection in this way but development pressure on these so-called 'brownfield sites' is high and is likely to continue. This paper examines how conservation professionals in the private, public and voluntary sectors are responding to the threats of biodiversity loss and opportunities for habitat creation posed by re-development of brownfield sites. The study draws on in-depth interviews conducted with conservation professionals and the practices employed by ecological advisers employed by developers seeking to re-develop wasteland sites. It finds that practitioners are negotiating their role in the re-development process in different ways. Key issues relate to the role of ecological science in codifying wasteland habitats, uncertainties about how best to evaluate the conservation importance of such sites and the strategies and tactics employed by different practitioners as they seek to mobilise a range of knowledges and practices to secure ecologically sensitive proposals. Scientific knowledge about wasteland habitats has not stabilised in ways that can consistently inform conservation policy and practice. As a result biodiversity issues of wasteland sites are often discounted in the re-development process. Investment in studies of the basic ecology of urban wastelands could provide a firmer scientific foundation on which conservation policies could build. At the same time, many conservation professionals involved in urban re-development are struggling to promote a pro-active approach to secure environmentally sensitive development. The knowledge and co-operation networks being mobilised to support this approach are fluid and unstable, and favourable development outcomes as yet are few. Formalising these networks to achieve more effective engagements with developers and the construction industry could consolidate ecological practices designed to conserve and re-create the biodiversity of wasteland habitats.     

Fiscal incentives for Australian bushland

The clearing of over 80% of the native vegetation from Australian agricultural areas has contributed significantly to the degradation classification applied to more than half this land. Soil erosion, siltation, and salinity damage continue to increase yearly. This situation not only threatens the productivity of the farm sector but has contributed to the estimated loss of 78 species of native flora, endangerment of an additional 2206 species, and the loss of 20 species of Australia's marsupials.Private returns diverge from social returns because the action (or inaction) of farmers has an impact upon others, both now and in the future. There is justification, therefore, for the public sector to intervene on behalf of society in an attempt to influence private decision making for the social good. This article argues for increased incentives from the public sector in Australia to encourage the voluntary cooperation of farmers to improve the balance between development and conservation. In contrast to the essentially temporary nature of man-made measures such as flood-mitigating capital works, increasing the area set aside to native bushland offers scope for the permanent stewardship of the resource—land.     

Investigating biodiversity trajectories using scenarios – Lessons from two contrasting agricultural landscapes

Agriculture is the major land use at a global scale. In addition to food production, multifunctionality of landscapes, including values and ecosystem services like biodiversity, recreation and culture, is now focus for management. This study explores how a scenario approach, involving different stakeholders, may help to improve landscape management for biodiversity conservation. Local farmers and executives at the County Administrative Board were invited to discuss rural development and conditions for farmland biodiversity in two Swedish landscapes. The potential biodiversity for three future land use scenarios for the two landscapes was discussed: nature conservation, outdoor recreation and energy production, and compared with current and historical landscapes in each region.Analyses of habitat areas, connectedness and landscape diversity suggested that the energy and recreation scenarios had a negative impact on farmland biodiversity, whereas the nature conservation scenario, the current and historically reconstructed landscapes had a higher potential for biodiversity. The farmers appreciated the nature conservation scenario, but also the energy production scenario and they highlighted the need of increased subsidies for management of biodiversity. The farmers in the high production area were less interested in nature quality per se. The executives had similar opinions as the farmers, but disagreed on the advantages with energy production, as this would be in conflict with the high biodiversity and recreational values. The local physical and socio-economical conditions differ between landscapes and potentially shaped the stakeholders emotional attachment to the local environment, their opinions and decisions on how to manage the land. We stress the importance of incorporating local knowledge, visions and regional prerequisites for different land uses in conservation, since site and landscape specific planning for biodiversity together with a flexible subsidy system are necessary to reach the conservation goals within EU.     

Company engagement with supply chains to protect biodiversity and rare,threatened, and endangered species

Future global megatrends project a population increase of 2 billion people between 2019 and 2050 and at least 1–2 billion people added to the global middle class between 2016 and 2030. In addition, 68% of the world's population is projected to be living in urban areas by 2050. With these projected large population increases and shifts, demand for food, water, and energy is projected to grow by approximately 35, 40, and 50%, respectively, between 2010 and 2030. In addition, between 1970 and 2014 there was an estimated 60% reduction in the number of wildlife in the world and an estimated net loss of 2.9 billion birds, or 29%, in North America between 1970 and 2018. Loss of species populations and number of species is interconnected with reduced health of biodiversity and ecosystems. Human activity has been the main catalyst for these substantial declines primarily through impacts on habitats. These losses are accelerating. Since a company's supply chain environmental impacts are often as great or greater than its own direct environmental impacts, it may be prudent for companies to engage with their supply chains to protect and enhance habitats and biodiversity and protect rare, threatened, and endangered species. As one example, companies may have opportunities and strategic reasons to include requirements in their supplier codes of conduct and supplier standards for suppliers to protect biodiversity and rare, threatened, and endangered species, as well as additional requirements to expand or enhance habitats and ecosystems to increase biodiversity. This article follows one pathway that companies could pursue further and with greater speed—to engage with their supply chains to strengthen supplier codes of conduct to protect biodiversity and rare, threatened, and endangered species. The importance of forests, private land, and landscape partnerships is discussed as means to protect much more of the planet's biodiversity and rare, threatened, and endangered species. Lastly, the article identifies examples of opportunities for companies to more formally incorporate biodiversity into their business, supply chain, and sustainability strategies.     

Evaluating Local Benefits from Conservation in Nepal’s Annapurna Conservation Area

Protected areas are integral to the global effort to conserve biodiversity, and, over the past two decades, protected area managers have begun to recognize that conservation objectives are next to impossible to achieve without considering the needs and concerns of local communities. Incentive-based programs (IBPs) have become a favored approach to protected area management, geared at fostering local stewardship by delivering benefits tied to conservation to local people. Effective IBPs require benefits to accrue to and be recognized by those experiencing the greatest consequences as a result of the protected area, and those likely to continue extractive activities if their livelihood needs are compromised. This research examines dispersal of IBP benefits, as perceived by local residents in Nepal's Annapurna Conservation Area. Results reported here are based on questionnaire interviews with 188 households conducted between September and December 2004. Results indicate that local residents primarily identify benefits from social development activities, provisions for resource extraction, and economic opportunities. Overall, benefits have been dispersed equally to households in villages on and off the main tourist route, and regardless of a household's participation in tourism. However, benefits are not effectively targeted to poorer residents, those highly dependent on natural resources, and those experiencing the most crop damage and livestock loss from protected wildlife. This article provides several suggestions for improving the delivery of conservation incentives.     

系统性生物多样性保护法律体系的定位与构建

随着国家政策导向提出实现生物多样性整体性、系统性保护的要求,新时期背景下的生物多样性保护除了注重实现生物多样性在自然生态系统、生物物种、遗传资源(基因)三方面的协同性整体性保护以外,还强调了实现自然生态系统平衡、维护国家安全等总体性目标。在此背景下,本文建议,生物多样性保护法律体系也应当在推动立法实践、提升国家安全治理能力、整合现有立法资源等方面发挥其应有价值。从系统性的角度出发,明确法律体系贯彻生物多样性整体性保护理念、执行国家战略部署以及平衡多元化利益的应有定位,并在此基础上从整体性目标的树立、网格联动性的体系构建、合理配置现行法律制度等方面探寻系统性法律体系的构建路径,将有效发挥我国生物多样性保护法律体系在服务社会需求、回应国家政策导向等方面的制度支撑价值。     

森林自然保护区保护效果评价方法:挑战与进展

建立自然保护区是保护生物多样性的最有效的保护措施之一,但如何评估自然保护区保护效果一直是自然保护研究的难点。本文针对热带森林自然保护区保护效果评价方法进行综述,分析热带森林自然保护区保护效果评价面临的挑战:空间不可比、时间不可比;明确了热带森林自然保护区保护效果评价可比性建立的基本模式:确定森林退化指标,选择协变量,平衡协变量,选择对比方式,判断并去除空间溢出的影响范围;回顾了自然保护区保护效果评估常用统计方法:回归评估法和匹配评估法。为了加强热带森林自然保护区保护效果评估,在今后评估方法选择过程中建议:强化时空对比;强化多学科交叉方法的应用;强调多维度评估指标的选择和应用。     

The Race for Space: Tracking Land-Cover Transformation in a Socio-ecological Landscape, South Africa

Biosphere Reserves attempt to align existing biodiversity conservation with sustainable resource use, specifically for improving socio-economic circumstances of resident communities. Typically, the Biosphere Reserve model is applied to an established landscape mosaic of existing land uses; these are often socio-ecological systems where strict environmental protection and community livelihoods are in conflict, and environmental degradation frequently accompanies “use”. This raises challenges for successful implementation of the model, as the reality of the existing land-use mosaic undermines the theoretical aspirations of the Biosphere concept. This study focuses on the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve (K2C), South Africa; a socio-ecological landscape where formal conservation is juxtaposed against extensive impoverished rural communities. We focus on land-cover changes of the existing land-use mosaic (1993–2006), specifically selected land-cover classes identified as important for biodiversity conservation and local-level resource utilization. We discuss the implications of transformation for conservation, sustainable resource-use, and K2C’s functioning as a “Biosphere Reserve”. Spatially, changes radiated outward from the settlement expanse, with little regard for the theoretical land-use zonation of the Biosphere Reserve. Settlement growth tracked transport routes, transforming cohesive areas of communal-use rangelands. Given the interdependencies between the settlement population and local environmental resources, the Impacted Vegetation class expanded accordingly, fragmenting the Intact Vegetation class, and merging rangelands. This has serious implications for sustainability of communal harvesting areas, and further transformation of intact habitat. The distribution and magnitude of Intact Vegetation losses raise concerns around connectivity and edge effects, with long-term consequences for ecological integrity of remnant habitat, and K2C’s existing network of protected areas.     

A case study of the opportunities and trade-offs associated with deproclamation of a protected area following a land claim in South Africa

Reconciling conservation and social justice imperatives is a major challenge facing many postcolonial states worldwide. Where historically disenfranchised communities have laid legal claim to protected areas, the typical resolution has been collaborative management agreements between the state and claimant communities. The real outcomes of such strategies for people and ecosystems have been seriously questioned, although alternative approaches are seldom explored. Here, we reflect on one such alternative that was pursued in a case in South Africa, where the land was handed back to the community and a replacement protected area created. Our objective was to explore the opportunities and trade-offs associated with this approach for communities and conservation agencies alike, and to compare these to typical collaborative management outcomes. Methods included key informant interviews, focus group discussions and household surveys. We find that, surprisingly, this approach created more benefits for the conservation agency than for claimant communities. Indeed, the community experiences bore a striking resemblance to those experienced in collaborative management settings: intra-community conflict, confusion over leadership and serious questions about the boundaries of the “community”. Processes aimed at redressing past injustice in disputes over conservation land, regardless of the approach adopted, must bring with them a strong commitment to building institutional and leadership capacities within communities, and pay serious attention to the ways in which equity and social justice can be fostered after the settlement of a land claim. Settlement agreements are frequently treated as the final step towards social justice, but are in fact just the beginning.     

Implications of Land Use/Land Cover Change in the Buffer Zone of a National Park in the Tropical Andes

The impacts of land use and land cover (LULC) change in buffer zones surrounding protected ecological reserves have important implications for the management and conservation of these protected areas. This study examines the spatial and temporal patterns of LULC change along the boundary of Rio Abiseo National Park in the Northern Peruvian Andes. Landscape change within four ecological zones was evaluated based on trends expected to occur between 1987 and 2001. Landsat TM and ETM imagery were used to produce LULC classification maps for both years using a hybrid supervised/unsupervised approach. LULC changes were measured using landscape metrics and from-to change maps created by post-classification change detection. Contrary to expectations, tropical upper wet montane forest increased despite being threatened by human-induced fires and cattle grazing of the highland grasslands inside the park. Within the park’s buffer zone, tropical moist forest remnants were fragmented into more numerous and smaller patches between 1987 and 2001; this was in part due to conversion into agricultural land. The methods used in this study provide an effective way to monitor LULC change detection and support the management of protected areas and their surrounding environments.