Enhancing the Engagement of U.S. Private Foundations with Conservation Science

Abstract: Funding for conservation is limited, and its investment for maximum conservation gain can likely be enhanced through the application of relevant science. Many donor institutions support and use science to pursue conservation goals, but their activities remain relatively unfamiliar to the conservation‐science community. We examined the priorities and practices of U.S.‐based private foundations that support biodiversity conservation. We surveyed 50 donor members of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity (CGBD) to address three questions: (1) What support do CGBD members provide for conservation science? (2) How do CGBD members use conservation science in their grant making and strategic thinking? (3) How do CGBD members obtain information about conservation science? The 38 donor institutions that responded to the survey made $340 million in grants for conservation in 2005, including $62 million for conservation science. Individual foundations varied substantially in the proportion of conservation funds allocated to science. Foundations also varied in the ways and degree to which they used conservation science to guide their grant making. Respondents found it “somewhat difficult” to stay informed about conservation science relevant to their work, reporting that they accessed conservation science information mainly through their grantees. Many funders reported concerns about the strategic utility of funding conservation science to achieve conservation gains. To increase investment by private foundations in conservation science, funders, researchers, and conservation practitioners need to jointly identify when and how new scientific knowledge will lower barriers to conservation gains. We envision an evolving relationship between funders and conservation scientists that emphasizes primary research and synthesis motivated by (1) applicability, (2) human‐ecosystem interactions, (3) active engagement among scientists and decision makers, and (4) broader communication of relevant scientific information.     

Modeling Species' Distributions to Improve Conservation in Semiurban Landscapes: Koala Case Study

Abstract:  Models of species' distributions are commonly used to inform landscape and conservation planning. In urban and semiurban landscapes, the distributions of species are determined by a combination of natural habitat and anthropogenic impacts. Understanding the spatial influence of these two processes is crucial for making spatially explicit decisions about conservation actions. We present a logistic regression model for the distribution of koalas (  Phascolarctos cinereus ) in a semiurban landscape in eastern Australia that explicitly separates the effect of natural habitat quality and anthropogenic impacts on koala distributions. We achieved this by comparing the predicted distributions from the model with what the predicted distributions would have been if anthropogenic variables were at their mean values. Similar approaches have relied on making predictions assuming anthropogenic variables are zero, which will be unreliable if the training data set does not include anthropogenic variables close to zero. Our approach is novel because it can be applied to landscapes where anthropogenic variables are never close to zero. Our model showed that, averaged across the study area, natural habitat was the main determinant of koala presence. At a local scale, however, anthropogenic impacts could be more important, with consequent implications for conservation planning. We demonstrated that this modeling approach, combined with the visual presentation of predictions as a map, provides important information for making decisions on how different conservation actions should be spatially allocated. This method is particularly useful for areas where wildlife and human populations exist in close proximity.     

Disease Surveillance and Control After a Flood: Khartoum, Sudan, 1988

Following a flood in Khartoum, Sudan, emergency disease surveillance was implemented to monitor the health status of the population. Simple, symptom-oriented case definitions for diarrheal disease, measles, respiratory disease, malaria, and jaundice were included on the report form used to collect daily counts of outpatients in a sample of both temporary and permanent clinics located in areas of the city most affected by the flood. Data collected from major teaching hospitals allowed comparison of pre- and post-disaster levels of morbidity and mortality. In addition, special surveys collected information unobtainable from health facilities. Sentinel clinic surveillance data indicated that diarrheal disease accounted for the greatest number of clinic visits, while malaria was the second most common reason for seeking medical attention. Malaria blood smear surveys showed that the parasitemia prevalence ranged from 11% to 19% in the general population and from 21% to 46% among febrile clinic patients. Hospital admission data demonstrated an increase in morbidity from diarrhea and malaria in August 1988, when compared to previous months and August of the previous year, although it is uncertain whether this increase was due to the flood. Nutrition surveys demonstrated that 23% of young children were moderately or severely undernourished, with substantial variation by area of the city. No major outbreaks of communicable disease were detected in the 4 weeks after the flood. Disease surveillance provided data useful in identifying public health problems, setting priorities, targeting interventions and controlling rumors. Disease control measures taken by the Ministry of Health included provision of potable water, standardization of medical care, and distribution of immunizations, oral rehydration salts, and vitamin supplements to children.     

Forks in the Road: Choices in Procedures for Designing Wildland Linkages

Abstract:  Models are commonly used to identify lands that will best maintain the ability of wildlife to move between wildland blocks through matrix lands after the remaining matrix has become incompatible with wildlife movement. We offer a roadmap of 16 choices and assumptions that arise in designing linkages to facilitate movement or gene flow of focal species between 2 or more predefined wildland blocks. We recommend designing linkages to serve multiple (rather than one) focal species likely to serve as a collective umbrella for all native species and ecological processes, explicitly acknowledging untested assumptions, and using uncertainty analysis to illustrate potential effects of model uncertainty. Such uncertainty is best displayed to stakeholders as maps of modeled linkages under different assumptions. We also recommend modeling corridor dwellers (species that require more than one generation to move their genes between wildland blocks) differently from passage species (for which an individual can move between wildland blocks within a few weeks). We identify a problem, which we call the subjective translation problem, that arises because the analyst must subjectively decide how to translate measurements of resource selection into resistance. This problem can be overcome by estimating resistance from observations of animal movement, genetic distances, or interpatch movements. There is room for substantial improvement in the procedures used to design linkages robust to climate change and in tools that allow stakeholders to compare an optimal linkage design to alternative designs that minimize costs or achieve other conservation goals.     

Factors affecting perceptions of workplace sexual harassment

This study investigated several variables that determine how one interprets another's behavior as sexually harassing in ambiguous situations. Data were collected from 1234 male and female graduate and undergraduate student subjects who responded to 24 versions of a vignette describing an interaction between a male and female who worked for the same firm (2×3×2×2 design). Variables manipulated included (1) amount of prior socializing of the man and woman; (2) job status (peer coworker, direct supervisor, executive) of harasser; (3) verbal versus touching behavior; and (4) physical setting (at computer terminal or happy hour). Results revealed several main effects such that a male's potentially harassing behavior toward a female was evaluated more negatively (1) when the pair had not previously socialized, (2) when the harasser was a supervisor or executive, (3) when it involved verbal comments, and (4) when the behavior occurred in a work (versus social) setting. Additional analysis revealed that, contrary to previous studies, there were no male–female differences among respondents in evaluations of behavior as harassing.     

Interacting Effects of Phenotypic Plasticity and Evolution on Population Persistence in a Changing Climate

Abstract: Climate change affects individual organisms by altering development, physiology, behavior, and fitness, and populations by altering genetic and phenotypic composition, vital rates, and dynamics. We sought to clarify how selection, phenotypic plasticity, and demography are linked in the context of climate change. On the basis of theory and results of recent empirical studies of plants and animals, we believe the ecological and evolutionary issues relevant to population persistence as climate changes are the rate, type, magnitude, and spatial pattern of climate‐induced abiotic and biotic change; generation time and life history of the organism; extent and type of phenotypic plasticity; amount and distribution of adaptive genetic variation across space and time; dispersal potential; and size and connectivity of subpopulations. An understanding of limits to plasticity and evolutionary potential across traits, populations, and species and feedbacks between adaptive and demographic responses is lacking. Integrated knowledge of coupled ecological and evolutionary mechanisms will increase understanding of the resilience and probabilities of persistence of populations and species.     

Environmental Impacts of the Emerging Digital Economy: The E-for-Environment E-Commerce?

The Internet-led digital economy is changing both the production and consumption patterns at the global scale. Although great potential exists to harness information technology in general and the Internet in particular and improve the environment, possible negative impacts of e-commerce on the environment should also be considered and dealt with. In this forum, we discuss both the potential positive and negative impacts of e-commerce. Drawing from insights gained from the complexity theory, we also delineate some broad contours for environmental policies in the information age. Given the paradoxical nature of technological innovations, we want to caution the scientific community and policymakers not to treat the Internet as the Holy Grail for environmental salvation.