Conservation at landscape level: A strategy for survival: The role of research

Summary The objectives, appropriate strategies, the state of conservation in South Africa, and the contributed research which is needed, are evaluated. It is suggested that the ultimate objectives of conservation are to maintain the ecosystem to support people and to achieve economic advantages. These can only be obtained by providing for the greatest possible diversity of life on Earth. An appropriate conservation strategy can be based on a balanced combination of five types of conservation opportunities. These opportunities are: (i) formal conservation in reserves, (ii) promotion of land use change for conservation, (iii) law enforcement, (iv) national resource utilisation planning, and (v) the development of a national land ethic. Adjustment of the opportunity combination to address changing threast must be an ongoing exercise. Conservation strategies need to be based on sound conceptual models of ecosystem structure and function, as well as human needs and aspirations. The main goals of the conservation ecologist are the development, testing and validation of conceptual models of ecosystems.Mr Zak Le Roux is employed in the Scientific Services Section of the Ecosystem Conservation Department of the Natal Parks Board. He possesses a BSc in Forestry and Nature Conservation from the University of Stellenbosch, and is currently undertaking research in Plant Ecology at the University of Natal. A tenth generation South African, his work focuses on vegetation dynamics of semi-arid savanna landscapes and general conservation in Zululand. In particular, this involves the integration of wildlife with agriculture, and the development of more appropriate land uses in the areas surrounding the parks.     

Implementation of a national conservation strategy: The case of Australia

Summary The World Conservation Strategy called upon all governments to produce their own national conservation strategies. Many countries responded to this, although their degree of determination has varied considerably. One of the most exemplary responses was the National Conservation Strategy for Australia (NCSA). The production and endorsement of the NCSA, and of its subsequent progress, are reviewed. Attention is then turned to the actual and potential roles of Commonwealth Government, State and Territory Governments, and other governmental and non-governmental organisations in implementing the Strategy. It is noted that various bodies have endorsed the NCSA, whilst some state governments and the Australian Forestry Council have produced their own strategies. These responses are considered further, but it is found that they appear only rarely to chart precise courses of action. More typically, they comprise broad statements of intent: if real progress is to be made, more attention must be given to the production of detailed, tactical documents. These must be expressed with sufficient precision to permit effective measurement and monitoring.Dr. Paul Selman has recently returned to the UK after having completed a short period at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra. He is currently a lecturer in Environmental Management in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Stirling. This paper was first submitted early in 1987.     

The world conservation strategy: Environmental education and local initiative

Summary In the spring of 1981, Tufts University and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature began teaching the World Conservation Strategy to environmentalists working at the local level. The fourteen-week course that they offered was the first of a series of initiatives to increase public awareness of the need for local action toward the solution of global environmental problems. The success of the first course has encouraged other groups to adapt it to their own social and ecological settings, but there is a pressing need for even more public education. While several aids to teaching the World Conservation Strategy are now being developed to give local conservation educators access to the Strategy, the initiative for bringing the World Conservation Strategy to the public should continue to come from these local leaders. Frank Thibodeau is an environmental biologist and policy analyst with MA and PhD degrees from Tufts University. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts, preparing a book on the World Conservation Strategy as a foundation for local environmental initiative under the auspicies of IUCN and the World Wildlife Fund. In addition to his writing and teaching related to the Strategy, he maintains an active research program examining the development of national and international strategies for the preservation of genetic diversity. Hermann H. Field, an urban planner and Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, was director of the Planning Office of the Tufts-New England Medical Center in downtown Boston for 12 years. In 1972 he initiated and then directed a new graduate department of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University. Since 1978 he has been Professor Emeritus in Environmental Planning there. In addition to continued involvement in his department he is active on a range of levels in conservation from the local to the international, including membership on IUCN's Commission on Environmental Planning.     

INTERACTIVE DISTRIBUTED CONSERVATION PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: In the environmental and agricultural conservation planning process, more efficient and effective tools are needed for planners to assist private landowners with making wiser land use decisions. Current methods are slow, inefficient, and costly. Scientific techniques have not been fully implemented within the planning process, yet such plans are increasingly needed to meet water quality and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements. The objectives of this study are to (a) utilize the web for accessing an integrated science‐based land use decision support system; (b) link decision tools, models, and databases to the user via the web; (c) link distributed models and databases for enhanced planning efficiency; and (d) integrate the above into an easily usable and readily accessible system. The procedures resulting in the initial design involved planning expertise and focus groups' input. The system was developed in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several state agencies. A survey of 150 certified conservation planners, the end users, was conducted to identify the data sets and planning tools needed. Data, tools, and models then were selected and integrated into a web accessible system. Specifically, the first generation used a web interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) that overlaid onto digital orthoquads and/or soils polygons field boundaries, transportation, hydrologic features (such as drains, rivers, lakes, etc.), and high pesticide risk runoff or infiltration areas. Conservation planners found they could save time with the system. Clients could access the system quickly to help them prepare for meeting with their planner. Previously acquiring GIS maps in some cases had been a lengthy process that limited use of the information in land use decisions.     

CHICAGO METROPOLITAN FLOODWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN1

ABSTRACT: The Chicago Metropolitan Floodwater Management Plan is a cooperative planning program under Public Law 566 of the 83rd Congress (The Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act). The planning effort was jointly sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, and the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago. The project is unique in that it studies a 1260 square mile (3266 sq. kilometer) watershed, which is approximately 35 percent urbanized and contains approximately 7.5 million people. At present, approximately 4.4 percent or 330,600 people live in a floodplain. It is presently estimated that 80,000 acres (32,000 ha.) of the study area are subject to flooding with a current average annual damage estimated at approximately $10 million. The Plan which has been developed to reduce or eliminate these damages is divided into six separate watershed plans, and has been developed through extensive use of local citizen watershed steering committees. The paper discusses the planning process, public participation and implementation both at an overall river basin level and watershed case study level.     

Federalism and environmental politics: An Australian overview

Summary This overview paper examines past Australian conservation controversies and experiences to identify prospective means of ameliorating environmental conflict in the future. Since all community disputes should be resolved by means of political and administrative actions, emphasis is placed on federalism and intergovernmental relations, and measures are suggested which might improve environmental policy and practices in the future.Dr Bruce W. Davis is currently Head of the Department of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and member of the Council of the University of Tasmania. He possesses qualifications and professional experience in engineering, economics and administration. He has numerous publications within the fields of public sector planning and natural resources management, and acts in an advisory and consulting capacity to State and Federal agencies involved in national parks administration, heritage conservation and land-use planning.In addition to University commitments, Dr Davis holds the following appointments: Commissioner, Australian Heritage Commission; Member, Australian National Commission for UNESCO, Man and Biosphere Program; Trustee, World Wildlife Fund Australia; Councillor, Australian Conservation Foundation; and Consultant to IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.     

In defence of the inuit world-saving a way of life

Summary The author describes how the philosophies of the World Conservation Strategy are particularly applicable to the Inuit, or Eskimo, peoples of the Arctic. A trans-national conservation strategy has been established to safeguard the culture, livelihood and interest of these people. The requirements and structure of this strategy are briefly outlined.Finn Lynge was born in Greenland in 1933. He was initially trained as a priest, but subsequently became Director of Radio Greenland, until 1979, when he became Member of the European Parliament until Greenland's withdrawal from the EEC in 1985. After a few years as co-ordinator of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Environmental Commission (ICCEC) he has now become Consultant in Greenlandic Affairs for the Danish Foreign Office. He has published two books;Bulldozer track, on Greenland's cultural policies, andBird, Seal and Human Soul, on Greenlandic folklore.     

AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION PROGRAM: AN EVALUATION1

The Agricultural Conservation Program (ACP), is undergoing a new, rigorous evaluation to determine its effectiveness in conserving the Nation's agricultural soils and waters. ACP deals with many types of conservation practices, but the focus here is on the evaluation of soil and water related practices. ACP has depended heavily on the State and private forestry services, Soil Conservation Service, and the Cooperative Extension Services, for technical expertise. Thus, the process is an evaluation of the effectiveness of a “team of agencies,” as well as of the program itself. Results of the evaluation have helped to develop new thrusts which have moved ACP further into the position of treating the total conservation problem. Phase I has its limitations. It did not address the impact of wind erosion, water quality, change in productive capacity, soil quality, wildlife habitat, off site and farm income impacts. It does show that ACP has and is doing a very good job in meeting its stated purposes. It is clear that ACP's effectiveness can be improved with more and better advanced planning and more intensive use of soil maps, the USLE, and other scientific tools. ACP is headed in this direction.     

Increasing the public benefits of agricultural conservation easements: an illustration with the Central Valley Farmland Trust in the San Joaquin Valley

Agricultural conservation easements (ACEs) involve the significant expenditure of public funds through either tax benefits and/or direct public expenditures. The selection of agricultural parcels for conservation should, therefore, maximise net public benefits to the extent possible within financial constraints and the need for agricultural viability to maintain working landscapes. Some programmes select agricultural parcels for conservation easements based only on agricultural viability and/or land cost, however, without explicit consideration of the many other public benefits often associated with ACEs. This paper illustrates application of a method for increasing the public benefits of agricultural conservation easements through a case study in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California. The method is a strategic planning process that incorporates both a GIS-based quantitative assessment and a more qualitative assessment. Such an approach is a supplement to – rather than a substitute for – the more science-based Landscape Evaluation and Site Evaluation (LESA) approach developed by the US Soil Conservation Service (SCS) and cost-minimisation approaches that emphasise economic considerations. However, we show that public land use planning and regulatory policies are essential for agricultural conservation. Acquisition strategies in isolation will not be successful without complementary public regulatory policies.     

The moist tropical forest: Its conversion and protection

Summary Though strong concern over the rapid conversion of moist tropical forests may justifiably arise from any discipline, a growing interdisciplinary tide of voices is expressing its alarm over a particularly disturbing consequence of forest alteration and destruction: the reduction of species diversity through the extinction of numerous plant and animal species. Consequently, an array of ecologists land-use planners, botanists, zoologists and conservationsts are searching for means to enhance the protection and preservation of tropical forests' biotic diversity. Management schemes aimed at achieving this particular end are being investigated, particularly by UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) Project 8 of Biosphere Reserves Projects, by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) tropical forests conservation program (UNEP, 1980) and by the World Wildlife Fund. In addition, many countries with a significant area of moist tropical forest (MTF) are beginning to pursue some form of conservation strategy. Currently Robert T. Perry is a full-time teacher of biology at a private school for a cademically gifted students in the Brooklyn area. In addition he has designed and is teaching courses in environmental chemistry and ethology to advanced high-schoolers. He is also an adjunct instructor for the City College of the City University of New York, where he is teaching graduate students in the Environmental Studies Programme. He graduated in Environmental Conservation from Cornell University, and has a Masters Degree in Environmental Biology from City University, New York.     

Integrated Ecological and Regional Planning in a Rapid-Growth Setting

Toronto is among the fastest-growing urban regions in North America. Regional efforts to preserve rural landscapes and remnant habitat have had variable success. In the 1990s, significant conflict emerged over proposals to build large housing developments on portions of the Oak Ridges Moraine, a 160-km stretch of environmentally sensitive land along the city’s northern edge. After years of planning conflict, Ontario’s provincial government created the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, an Act of the Ontario Legislature. The Plan represents a dramatic change in Ontario’s approach to conservation planning. We examine the development and implementation of the Conservation Plan as an example of environmental planning policy in a complex urban setting. Data from interviews with policy actors, planning agency documents, and geospatial sources are used to construct an analysis and discussion of the Plan and its implementation. From a policy research perspective, the evolution and implementation of the Plan require analysis and monitoring to better understand how such approaches can best be implemented. The Conservation Plan marks a change in policy in Ontario, and the implementation process highlights challenges in putting conservation plans into practice.     

MODIFIED WATER QUANTITY RECEIVING MODEL FOR FLORIDA CONSERVATION AREAS1

ABSTRACT: The Conservation Areas in South Florida have been considered as one of the major water storage areas to provide a water supply for the Everglades National Park and Lower East Coast (LEC). Due to the increasing water demands of the area, additional backpumping of the surplus runoff from the LEC area into the Conservation Areas has been considered as one of several alternative plans. The Receiving Water Quantity (EPA, 1971) model has been adapted and modified to be applicable in the Conservation Areas to investigate the possible impact of additional inflow under various backpumping cases. The modification of the model included Manning's roughness coefficient, depth of flow, width of hypothetical channels through marsh areas, rainfall input, seepage rate, etc. The use of the Monte Carlo technique for area computations was found to be easy and time saving both in area and weighting rainfall input to each node. Comparison of results generated by this modified model with the recorded values in Conservation Areas 1 and 2A indicated that the model not only can be a very good evaluation tool to simulate the hydraulic regime of the Conservation Areas system but also a proper tool for investigating the impact of additional inflow resulting from the backpumping related to the water use planning and management.     

The first world conservation lecture

Summary This, The First World Conservation Lecture, was presented at the Royal Institution, London, UK, on 12 March 1981. The Lecture celebrated the 20th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund, and the first anniversary of the World Conservation Strategy. The Lecture was organized by the World Wildlife Fund, UK.Published with the kind permission of the World Wildlife Fund, UK.Edward Max Nicholson, CB, CVO, Commandeur (Netherlands), Order of the Golden Ark, holds honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen, and The Royal College of Art London. He was educated at the University of Oxford, and was a member of the University's expeditions to Greenland (1928) and to British Guiana (1929). He was General Secretary (until 1940), later Chairman of PEP (Political and Economic Planning): now Vice-President of its successor body, the Policy Studies Institute. From 1945 to 1952 he was Secretary of the Office of the Lord President of the Council, then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was member of the Advisory Council on Scientific Policy from 1948–1964. In 1952 he was leader of the joint UN/FAO Development Team in Baluchistan. Charter Member from 1949, and Director-General (1952–1966) of the Nature Conservancy, London, UK. From 1963 to 1974 he was Convenor of the Conservation Section of the International Council of Scientific Unions' International Biological Programme. President of the IUCN Technical Meeting in Edinburgh in 1956, concerned with rehabilitation of areas biologically devastated by human disturbance, and relation of ecology to landscape planning. Member, Panel on Landscape Action Program, The White House Conference (USA) on Natural Beauty (1965). Secretary, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh's Study Conference on The Countryside in 1970 (1963 and 1965). Council and Board Member of IIED. Godman-Salvin Medallist British Ornithologist Unions. Phillips Medallist and Member of Honour IUCN, Geoffroy St. Hilaire Gold Medal, Société Nationale de Protection de Nature de France, Premio Europeo Cortina-Ulisse (1971), Europa Preis für Landespflege (1972), Hon Member of World Wildlife Fund, Chairman Ecological Parks Trust, President RSPB, 1980. Principal Consultant and Chairman of Land Use Consultants Ltd (London) since 1966. Author of many books,Birds and Men (1951);Britain's Nature Reserves (1958),The System (1967);The Environmental Revolution (1970).     

Drought planning and water allocation: an assessment of local capacity in Minnesota

Water allocation systems are challenged by hydrologic droughts, which reduce available water supplies and can adversely affect human and environmental systems. To address this problem, drought management mechanisms have been instituted in jurisdictions around the world. Historically, these mechanisms have involved a crisis management or reactive approach. An important trend during the past decade in places such as the United States has been a shift to a more proactive approach, emphasizing drought preparedness and local involvement. Unfortunately, local capacity for drought planning is highly variable, with some local governments and organizations proving to be more capable than others of taking on new responsibilities. This paper reports on a study of drought planning and water allocation in the State of Minnesota. Factors facilitating and constraining local capacity for drought planning were identified using in-depth key informant interviews with state officials and members of two small Minnesota cities, combined with an analysis of pertinent documentation. A key factor contributing to the effectiveness of Minnesota's system is a water allocation system with explicit priorities during shortages, and provisions for restrictions. At the same time, the requirement that water suppliers create Public Water Supply Emergency Conservation Plans (PWSECP) clarifies the roles and responsibilities of key local actors. Unfortunately, the research revealed that mandated PWSECP are not always implemented, and that awareness of drought and drought planning measures in general may be poor at the local level. From the perspective of the two cities evaluated, factors that contributed to local capacity included sound financial and human resources, and (in some cases) effective vertical and horizontal linkages. This analysis of experiences in Minnesota highlights problems that can occur when senior governments establish policy frameworks that increase responsibilities at the local level without also addressing local capacity.     

Ecological effects of the frog's legs trade

Summary The author reviews the trade in frogs from India, conducted to provide a culinary delicacy in frogs' legs for the West. Excessive harvesting of frogs upsets the ecological balance in their natural habitats and increases the need for extensive use of insecticides, with consequent additions to both pollution and costs.Dr G.M. Oza is Reader in Botany in the Faculty of Science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. He is also General Secretary of the International (formerly Indian) Society of Naturalists (INSONA), and Founding Editor ofEnvironmental Awareness. He serves as a Member of the Commission on Ecology and the Commission on Education and Training of IUCN — the World Conservation Union. This paper was first submitted for publication in 1986.     

A future for the forest of dean

Summary This article outlines the historical background of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the Acts of Parliament which have affected its landscape character. Problems relating to the present situation are discussed. These include rights of access, common rights, sales of public land, intrusion of industry, open cast mining and tourism. The suggestion is put forward that there should be a new Act of Parliament establishing a Dean Forest Authority which would be an autonomous estate management body with an executive committee drawn from the many interests in the district. The Forestry Commission, which is at present responsible for management, with its main concern that of commercial tree growing, is not considered to be sufficiently sympathetic to local needs. The author originally intended reading for a Forestry degree at Oxford, but eventually took a degree in Botany at that University (1957). For some time he was Biology teacher at King Edward VI's School, Norwich, and Head of Science at the Blyth School, Norwich. Since establishing the Centre for Environmental Studies for the Gloucestershire Education Authority in the Forest of Dean in 1969 he has become closely involved with a number of conservation organisations in Gloucestershire. He was for a time chairman of the Dean branch of the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the North Dean Reserves Committee of the Gloucestershire Trust for Nature Conservation. Besides writing the occasional paper on field studies and local history he writes a ‘Conservation Piece’ monthly for the local papers. He has been an outspoken critic on a number of local issues on radio, television and in local inquiries.     

Environmental management within an institutionalized planning process—Avoiding a paradox in the belgian environmental movement

Summary The position and weaknesses of the Belgian environmental movement are assessed within their historical context. Recent intentions pronounced by prominent members of the movement are put into the context of the on-going constitutional and administrative reformation in Belgium. An analysis is made of the organizational and operational problems that exist within any planning process, including environmental planning processes. The problems in the latter type of process are severe due to the derived or indirect nature of the subject matter of environmental management and planning. It is argued that an appropriate response to the unique opportunities furnished by the administrative reorganization consists of demanding the establishment of a central planning and strategic control authority. This authority would be the initiator of the general planning processes within the Flemish Community. It would act on the indication of the Executive Cabinet and it would be charged with planning, programming, budgeting, and strategic control of goals and policy guidelines adopted by the Flemish Community Council. The role of environmental managers and planners will be twofold. They would be members of the planning teams within the central planning and strategic control authority, thus they would ensure the environmental soundness of planning. Secondly, they will be the implementators of specific planning actions, undertaken solely to enhance the quality of Flanders' battered environment. To execute the latter function, they will constitute the personnel of peripheral, implementation-geared, environmental agencies. Walter E. J. Tips holds degrees in general biology, ecology and town and regional planning from the State University of Ghent (Belgium). He has published in fields as varied as conservation, animal ecology, environmental planning and environmental impact assessment, and rural development planning. He has been a lecturer in planning in Malaysia and an advisor to Belgian landscape planning authorities. At present his main interest is in research on the possibilities of organizational reform of government administration to include environmental planning procedures in decision making and planning.     

Book reviews

John Ambrose is on the graduate faculty of the University of Guelph, and until recently was curator of The Arboretum. He is involved in many North American conservation organizations and is a member of the Grand River Conservation Authority.     

An integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management

Sustainable environmental planning and management require effective integration of ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional elements. This paper presents an integrative methodological framework for sustainable environmental planning and management. The development of this integrative framework is accomplished by combining two complementary analytical approaches—Hufschmidt's conceptual framework for watershed planning and management and the ABC resource survey method. The combined methodological framework seeks to delineate and synthesize essential ecological information utilizing an integrative resource survey method. This method generates classifications of environmental significance and constraint. Areas of environmental significance and constraint are then linked to appropriate and acceptable resource management actions, implementation tools (e.g., education, technical assistance), and institutional and organizational arrangements. The integrative methodological framework was developed for application in the Rio Fortuna watershed in Costa Rica's Arenal Conservation Area. The watershed is characterized by a variety of land and resource uses, including biologically diverse and ecologically fragile protected areas, small-parcel agriculture, cattle ranching, and tourism.