Environmental values and willingness to pay for a protected area: a segmentation of Italian university students

The study investigated students’ attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for the protection of some environmental values. The empirical study refers to a site located in Southern Italy and inserted into the Natura 2000 European Network. Students were segmented according to their appreciation of environmental values and the WTP for them. We considered two scenarios of the study site – of use and non-use – and four values – recreational, educational, bequest and existence. Five clusters, from the ‘unconcerned’ to the ‘committed’ one, reveal a diversity of profiles across the sample. Segmentation results point out the multifunctionality of the environmental heritage and highlight the heterogeneity of students’ environmental profiles.     

Priority areas for conservation of Old World vultures

The prosperity and well-being of human societies relies on healthy ecosystems and the services they provide. However, the biodiversity crisis is undermining ecosystems services and functions. Vultures are among the most imperiled taxonomic groups on Earth, yet they have a fundamental ecosystem function. These obligate scavengers rapidly consume large amounts of carrion and human waste, a service that may aid in both disease prevention and control of mammalian scavengers, including feral dogs, which in turn threaten humans. We combined information about the distribution of all 15 vulture species found in Europe, Asia, and Africa with their threats and used detailed expert knowledge on threat intensity to prioritize critical areas for conserving vultures in Africa and Eurasia. Threats we identified included poisoning, mortality due to collision with wind energy infrastructures, and other anthropogenic activities related to human land use and influence. Areas important for vulture conservation were concentrated in southern and eastern Africa, South Asia, and the Iberian Peninsula, and over 80% of these areas were unprotected. Some vulture species required larger areas for protection than others. Finally, countries that had the largest share of all identified important priority areas for vulture conservation were those with the largest expenditures related to rabies burden (e.g., India, China, and Myanmar). Vulture populations have declined markedly in most of these countries. Restoring healthy vulture populations through targeted actions in the priority areas we identified may help restore the ecosystem services vultures provide, including sanitation and potentially prevention of diseases, such as rabies, a heavy burden afflicting fragile societies. Our findings may guide stakeholders to prioritize actions where they are needed most in order to achieve international goals for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.     

Incorporating basic needs to reconcile poverty and ecosystem services

Conservation managers frequently face the challenge of protecting and sustaining biodiversity without producing detrimental outcomes for (often poor) human populations that depend on ecosystem services for their well-being. However, mutually beneficial solutions are often elusive and can mask trade-offs and negative outcomes for people. To deal with such trade-offs, ecological and social thresholds need to be identified to determine the acceptable solution space for conservation. Although human well-being as a concept has recently gained prominence, conservationists still lack tools to evaluate how their actions affect it in a given context. We applied the theory of human needs to conservation by building on an extensive historical application of need approaches in international development. In an innovative participatory method that included focus groups and household surveys, we evaluated how human needs are met based on locally relevant thresholds. We then established connections between human needs and ecosystem services through key-informant focus groups. We applied our method in coastal East Africa to identify households that would not be able to meet their basic needs and to uncover the role of ecosystem services in meeting these. This enabled us to identify how benefits derived from the environment were contributing to meeting basic needs and to consider potential repercussions that could arise through changes to ecosystem service provision. We suggest our approach can help conservationists and planners balance poverty alleviation and biodiversity protection and ensure conservation measures do not, at the very least, cause serious harm to individuals. We further argue it can be used as a basis for monitoring the impacts of conservation on multidimensional poverty.     

Responses of New Zealand forest birds to management of introduced mammals

Over the past 1000 years New Zealand has lost 40–50% of its bird species, and over half of these extinctions are attributable to predation by introduced mammals. Populations of many extant forest bird species continue to be depredated by mammals, especially rats, possums, and mustelids. The management history of New Zealand's forests over the past 50 years presents a unique opportunity because a varied program of mammalian predator control has created a replicated management experiment. We conducted a meta-analysis of population-level responses of forest birds to different levels of mammal control recorded across New Zealand. We collected data from 32 uniquely treated sites and 20 extant bird species representing a total of 247 population responses to 3 intensities of invasive mammal control (zero, low, and high). The treatments varied from eradication of invasive mammals via ground-based techniques to periodic suppression of mammals via aerially sown toxin. We modeled population-level responses of birds according to key life history attributes to determine the biological processes that influence species’ responses to management. Large endemic species, such as the Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) and New Zealand Pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), responded positively at the population level to mammal control in 61 of 77 cases for species ≥20 g compared with 31 positive responses from 78 cases for species <20 g. The Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa) and Grey Warbler (Gerygone igata), both shallow endemic species, and 4 nonendemic species (Blackbird [Turdus merula], Chaffinch [Fringilla coelebs], Dunnock [Prunella modularis], and Silvereye [Zosterops lateralis]) that arrived in New Zealand in the last 200 years tended to have slight negative or neutral responses to mammal control (59 of 77 cases). Our results suggest that large, deeply endemic forest birds, especially cavity nesters, are most at risk of further decline in the absence of mammal control and, conversely suggest that 6 species apparently tolerate the presence of invasive mammals and may be sensitive to competition from larger endemic birds.     

Improving species status assessments under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and implications for multispecies conservation challenges worldwide

Despite its successes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven challenging to implement due to funding limitations, workload backlog, and other problems. As threats to species survival intensify and as more species come under threat, the need for the ESA and similar conservation laws and policies in other countries to function efficiently has grown. Attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to streamline ESA decisions include multispecies recovery plans and habitat conservation plans. We address species status assessment (SSA), a USFWS process to inform ESA decisions from listing to recovery, within the context of multispecies and ecosystem planning. Although existing SSAs have a single-species focus, ecosystem-based research can efficiently inform multiple SSAs within a region and provide a foundation for transition to multispecies SSAs in the future. We considered at-risk grassland species and ecosystems within the southeastern United States, where a disproportionate number of rare and endemic species are associated with grasslands. To initiate our ecosystem-based approach, we used a combined literature-based and structured World Café workshop format to identify science needs for SSAs. Discussions concentrated on 5 categories of threats to grassland species and ecosystems, consistent with recommendations to make shared threats a focus of planning under the ESA: (1) habitat loss, fragmentation, and disruption of functional connectivity; (2) climate change; (3) altered disturbance regimes; (4) invasive species; and (5) localized impacts. For each threat, workshop participants identified science and information needs, including database availability, research priorities, and modeling and mapping needs. Grouping species by habitat and shared threats can make the SSA process and other planning processes for conservation of at-risk species worldwide more efficient and useful. We found a combination of literature review and structured discussion effective for identifying the scientific information and analysis needed to support the development of multiple SSAs. Article impact statement: Species status assessments can be improved by an ecosystem-based approach that groups imperiled species by shared habitats and threats.     

Mapping cumulative impacts of mining on sediment retention ecosystem service in an Australian mining region

Mining development can potentially lead to cumulative impacts on ecosystems and their services across a range of scales. Site-specific environmental impact assessments are commonly assessed for mining projects; however, large-scale cumulative impacts of multiple mines that aggregate and interact in resources regions have had little attention in the literature and there are few examples where regional-scale mining impacts have been assessed on ecosystem services. The objective of this study is to quantify regional-scale cumulative impacts of mining on sediment retention ecosystem services. We apply the sediment delivery ratio model of Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs to calculate and map the sediment retention and export using a synthetic catchment model and a real case study under different mining scenarios in an Australian mining region. Two impact indices were created to quantify the cumulative impacts associated with a single mine and the interactions between multiple mines. The indices clarified the magnitude of impacts and the positive/negative impacts associated with regional-scale sediment retention and export. We found cumulative impacts associated with multiple mines’ interaction occurred but the influence of these interactions was relatively weak. This research demonstrated the potential for utilising ecosystem services modelling for the quantitative assessment of the cumulative impacts. Such research provide decision-makers and planners with a tool for sustainable regional and landscape planning that balances the needs of mining and the provision of ecosystem services.     

Development and application of a comprehensive ecological risk assessment indicator system in Xiamen,China

Urban ecological risk is one of the important factors that may restrict the social and economic development. Therefore, it is of great significance to carry out a comprehensive assessment of ecological risks so that an ecological risk prevention and control plan can be scientifically formulated. In this paper, a comprehensive ecological risk assessment indicator system of Xiamen was established based on local ecological properties and socioeconomic status. This indicator system covers seven indicators including air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, fresh water consumption, change in land use, occupation of key zones with ecological functions, and road network expansion. Based on this indicator system and in conjunction with the single factor assessment of ecological risks, this study constructed a model of comprehensive ecological risk assessment and forecasted the comprehensive ecological risk of Xiamen in 2020. The results showed that the comprehensive ecological risk level of Xiamen in 2020 is medium and the main stressors are the discharge of air and water pollutants. From the perspective of risk receptors, i.e. the ecosystem services, the risk posed to the ecosystem services associated to the maintenance of air quality and water purification is the highest. Therefore, this study proposed the recommendations on ecological risk prevention and regulation in Xiamen based on the comprehensive assessment of ecological risks, in the hope to provide scientific support for local ecological protection and sustainable development.     

长江三角洲地区复合生态系统生态承载力研究

利用生态压力与生态弹性力之间的相互作用关系构建了生态承载力评价的指标体系,并以长江三角洲地区为例,对复合生态系统生态承载力进行评价。结果显示,上海市、江苏省、浙江省的生态压力指数在过去的10 a中虽略有起伏,但整体都在缓慢增大,生态弹性力指数也基本保持持续增长的态势,生态承载力水平基本向好的趋势发展,但依然处于高压平衡甚至失衡状态。     

青海省1998—2012年草地生态系统服务功能价值评估

由于人类活动对草地生态系统的干扰,草地退化加剧,科学评估草地生态系统服务功能的价值对于草地保护与管理决策具有重要意义。论文通过整合青海省多源、多尺度、多过程的生态环境数据,结合大规模的野外调查数据,构建各类专项和综合数据库,以千年生态评估生态系统服务分类系统和Costanza等的分类方法为基础,结合青海省生态系统特征及生态地位,选取了青海省生态系统服务指标评估体系。开发定量核算青海省生态系统服务功能及其价值的数据-模型融合平台,对青海省1998—2012年的草地生态系统固碳释氧、水文调节、土壤保持、生物多样性等16种生态系统服务功能价值进行了全面的评估,成功实现了草地生态系统服务价值评估的动态化、精细化和智能化。结果表明：1998—2012年草地生态系统服务功能总价值在2 349.97~3 374.49亿元之间,均值为2 935.63亿元,是青海省2012年全省GDP的1.55倍,平均每公顷达92.87万元。最后,以此为基础,提出青海省草地生态系统适应性管理策略,为青海省生态立省战略提供决策支持和依据。     

退耕还林工程对四川盆周低山丘陵区生态系统服务价值的影响——以洪雅县为例

退耕还林工程是我国实施的重点林业生态工程。以四川盆周低山丘陵区退耕还林工程重点示范县洪雅县为研究对象,基于遥感和地理信息系统技术,参照中国陆地生态系统单位面积生态系统服务价值当量表,结合研究区粮食平均产量和收购价格,分析了退耕还林前(1994-1999年)、后(1999-2007年)的生态系统服务价值变化,探讨了退耕还林工程对生态系统服务价值的影响。结果表明:退耕还林工程在一定程度上使土地利用程度呈减弱趋势,土地利用处于衰退阶段;退耕前,生态系统服务价值变化不明显;退耕后,生态系统服务价值发生显著变化,总生态系统服务价值增加2.90×10⁸元,可能是由于退耕还林使耕地生态系统服务价值降低,林地生态系统服务价值增加;各项生态功能服务价值中,食物生产功能价值下降,其它各项功能价值上升,以水源涵养功能上升最大,水源涵养价值增加0.78×10⁸元;敏感性分析表明,研究区生态系统服务价值对生态系统服务价值系数变化缺乏弹性,研究结果具有稳定性。