Conservation unit 3

5 steps of ecosystem preservation

(1) establishing individual protected areas (2) creating networks of protected areas (3) managing those areas effectively (4) implementing conservation measures outside the protected areas (5) restoring biological communities in degraded habitats

no-take zone

(area in which commercial and recreational fishing is prohibited)

Sustainable development is a useful and important concept in conservation biology because...

...it emphasizes improving current economic development and limiting unsustainable economic growth.

Three criteria are often used to answer the first two of these questions and set conservation priorities:

1. Distinctiveness (or irreplaceability). An ecosystem composed primarily of rare, endemic species or that has other unusual attributes (scenic value, geological features) is given higher priority for conservation than an ecosystem composed primarily of common, widespread species. A species is often considered to have more conservation value if it is evolutionarily distinctive—that is, it is the only species in its genus or family—than if it is a member of a genus with many species (Winter et al. 2013). Similarly, a population of a species with unusual genetic characteristics that distinguish it from other populations of the species might be a greater priority for conservation than a more typical population. 2. Endangerment (or vulnerability). Species in danger of extinction are of greater concern than species that are not; thus, the whooping crane (Grus americana), with only about 600 individuals, requires more protection than the sandhill crane (Grus canadensis), with approximately 650,000 individuals. Ecosystems threatened with imminent destruction are also given priority, such as the rain forests of West Africa, the wetland ecosystems of the southeastern United States, and other ecosystems with numerous endemic and restricted-range species. Endangerment of an ecosystem can be estimated from the present size of its geographic range, the rate of decline in its range, and loss of its ecological function. 3. Utility. Species that have present or potential value to people are given more conservation priority than species of no obvious use to people. For example, wild relatives of wheat, which are potentially useful in developing new, improved cultivated varieties, are given greater priority than species of grass that are not known to be related to any economically important plant. Species with major cultural significance, such as tigers in India and the bald eagle in the United States, are given high priority. Ecosystems of major economic value, such as coastal wetlands, are usually given greater priority for protection than less valuable communities.

Models are being developed and refined that describe the most effective ways to use available funds to optimize biodiversity protection. Conservation biologists often start by considering "the four Rs":

1. Representation. The protected areas should contain as many features of biodiversity (species, populations, habitats, etc.) as possible. 2. Resiliency. Protected areas must be sufficiently large to maintain all aspects of biodiversity in a healthy condition for the foreseeable future, including as climate conditions change. 3. Redundancy. Protected areas must include enough examples of each aspect of biodiversity to ensure its long-term existence in the face of future uncertainties. 4. Reality. There must be sufficient funds and political will, not only to acquire and protect lands, but also to regulate and manage the protected areas.

The research on extinction rates of populations in large parks has four practical implications:

1. When a new park is being established, it should generally be made as large as possible (within the context of an overarching strategy for optimizing protected areas)—to preserve as many species as possible, contain large populations of each species, and provide a diversity of habitats and natural resources. Keystone resources should be included, in addition to habitat features that promote biodiversity, such as elevational gradients. 2. When possible, land adjacent to protected areas should be acquired to re-duce external threats to existing parks and to maintain buffer zones. For example, terrestrial habitats adjacent to wetlands are often necessary for semiaquatic species such as snakes and turtles. Protecting natural ecological units, such as entire watersheds or mountains, is often the best means to re-duce external threats. 3. Even though large parks have many advantages, well-managed small nature reserves also have value, particularly for the protection of many species of plants, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. For example, woodland remnants in an Australian agricultural landscape retained some native insect species when they were as small as 50 m2, an amazing demonstration of the conservation value of even extremely small habitat fragments. 4. The effects of climate change, invasive species, and other threats are altering ecosystems within existing protected areas. These changes can reduce the area of habitat available for a species and lead to declines in population size and increased probability of extinction. Animals living in tropical mountain areas and other isolated habitats with little prospect for dispersing to new areas are especially vulnerable. These changes emphasize the need for preserving corridors or otherwise connecting protected areas to facilitate dispersal among them

bioregional management

A logical extension of ecosystem management is bioregional management, which integrates protection with human use and often focuses on a single large ecosystem, such as the Caribbean Sea or the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, or a series of linked ecosystems, such as the protected areas of Central America.

A marine protected area (MPA)

A marine protected area (MPA) might allow fishing in certain areas and strictly prohibit it in others; certain areas might be designated for surfing, water-skiing, and recreational diving, but these sports may be prohibited elsewhere.

protected area

A protected area is a clearly defined geographical space, recognized, dedicated, and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Protected areas can prohibit access by people or they can allow uses—such as recreation, traditional uses, hunting, fishing, logging, mining, agriculture, and residential and business development—to occur in ways that are compatible with the conservation of biodiversity

IV - Habitat/Species Management Area

Aim to protect particular species or habitats and management reflects this priority; many need regular, active interventions to address all the requirements of particular species or to maintain habitats, but this is not a requirement of this category

VI protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources

Conserved ecosystems and habitats, together with associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems; generally large, with most of the area in a natural condition, where a proportion is under sustainable natural resource management and where one of the main aims is low-level non-industrial use of natural resources compatible with nature conservation

reconciliation ecology

Developing urban places where people and biodiversity can coexist

umbrella species

Flagship and indicator species, whose protection automatically extends protection to other species and the community

integrated conservation development projects (ICDPs)

In many new conservation projects, the economic needs of local people are included in conservation management plans, to the benefit of both the people and the reserves. Such projects, known as integrated conservation development projects (ICDPs)

conservation development

In these situations, a landowner, a property developer, and a government agency and/or conservation organization reach a compromise that allows part of the land to be commercially developed while the remainder is protected by a conservation easement.

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

International organizations that operate outside of the formal political arena but that are nevertheless influential in spearheading international initiatives on social, economic, and environmental issues.

SLOSS debate

Is species richness maximized in one large nature reserve or in several smaller ones of an equal total area?

II National Park

Large natural or near-natural areas set aside to protect large-scale ecological processes, along with the complement of species and ecosystems characteristic of the area, which also provide a foundation for environmentally and culturally compatible spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational, and visitor opportunities

adaptive management

Managers must continually assess the information they gain from monitoring and adjust park management practices in an adaptive manner to achieve their conservation objectives,

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)

New government programs that compensate farmers and rural landowners directly for protecting elements of biodiversity

V - Protected Landscape/Seascape

Protected areas where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant ecological, biological, cultural, and scenic value, and where safeguarding the integrity of this interaction is vital to protecting and sustaining the area and its associated nature conservation and other values

biocultural restoration

Restoring lost ecological knowledge to people to give them an appreciation of the natural world

1a. Strict Nature Reserve

Set aside to protect biodiversity and also possibly geological/geomorphological features, where human visitation, use, and impacts are strictly controlled and limited to ensure protection of conservation values: can serve as indispensable reference areas for scientific research and monitoring

III Natural monuments

Set aside to protect specific natural monuments, which can be landforms, sea mounts, submarine caverns, geological features such as a caves, or even living features such as ancient groves; generally quite small; often have high visitor value

biodiversity indicators

Some organisms or groups of organisms can be used as biodiversity indicators to identify these hotspots when data about whole ecosystems are unavailable. For example, a site with a high diversity of flowering plants often has a high diversity of mosses, snails, spiders, and fungi

Three large tropical wilderness areas occupying 6% of the Earth's land surface represent urgent conservation priorities as they are experiencing expanding human impacts

South America, Congo basin in Africa, New Guinea

focal species

Species that provide the impetus to protect an area and ecosystems

nonpoint source pollution

The economic consequences of this pollution have also been apparent: harvests of fish and shellfish declined, and the water became unsafe for swimming. This type of general pollution from an entire landscape is referred to as nonpoint source pollution

1B- wilderness area

Usually large unmodified or slightly modified areas retaining their natural character and influence, without permanent or significant human habitation, which are protected and managed to preserve their natural condition

indicator species

a species that is associated with an endangered biological community or set of unique ecosystem processes; for instance, the endangered northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is a forest indicator species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States

ecosystem management

a system of large-scale management involving multiple stakeholders, the primary goal of which is preserving ecosystem components and processes for the long term while still satisfying the current needs of society

Stakeholders

any persons or groups who will be affected by an action

Geographic information systems (GIS)

are a vital tool in gap analysis; they facilitate integration of the wealth of data on the natural environment with information on species distributions. GIS analyses can highlight critical areas that need to be included within national parks and areas that should be avoided by development projects.

biodiversity offsets

areas set aside as compensation for habitat destroyed elsewhere by human activities.

biomes

broad categories of ecosystem linked by the structure and characteristics of their vegetation, each of which supports unique biological communities

sustainable development

economic development that satisfies both present and future needs for resources and employment while minimizing the impact on biodiversity and functioning ecosystems

landscape ecology

focuses on the exchanges of energy, materials, and organisms across multiple ecosystems

degazettement

government actions taken to remove the legal status of protected areas

economic development

implies improvements in efficiency, organization, and distribution of resource use or other economic activity but not necessarily increases in resource consumption.

conservation banking

in which a landowner deliberately preserves an endangered species or a protected habitat type such as wetlands, or even restores degraded habitat and creates new habitat.

land sharing

in which low-intensity human activities, such as traditional or organic agriculture, are able to coexist with some elements of biodiversity

A representative site

includes the species and environmental conditions characteristic of the ecosystem.

leakage

is, protecting a particular forest might lead to more logging in another forest to make up for the lost timber supply

economic growth

material increases in the amount of resources used

flagship species

often a large, well-known species that is one of the "charismatic megafauna." Many national parks have been created to protect flagship species, which capture public attention, have symbolic value, and are crucial to ecotourism (Verissímo et al. 2014). When flagship and indicator species are protected, whole eco-systems that may consist of thousands of other species and their associ-ated ecosystem processes are also protected.

land trusts

private, nonprofit corporations established to protect land and natural resources

community conserved areas

protected area managed and sometimes established by local people

biosphere reserves

protected areas consisting of zones that vary in the amount of permissible human impact

conservation leasing

providing payments to private landowners who actively manage their land for biodiversity protection

conservation psychology

psychology directed toward understanding and promoting a healthy relationship between humans and nature

Additionality

refers to the net positive difference that results from taking an action compared to not taking one. For ex-ample, is the benefit in carbon sequestration that results from the protection of forests and the carbon therein above and beyond what would otherwise be done to the forests?

long-term ecological research (LTER)

research conducted to follow dynamics of natural ecosystems over relatively long time periods. p1213

rapid biodiversity assessments

species inventories and vegetation maps made by teams of scientists utilized to describe an area when urgent decisions need to be made

gap species

species not protected in any part of their range

habitat corridors

strips of protected land running between the reserves

ecocolonialism

the practice by some governments and conservation organizations of disregarding the traditional rights and practices of local people in order to establish new conservation areas. This practice is called ecocolonialism because of its similarity to the historical abuses of native rights by colonial powers of past eras

multiple use habitat

they are managed to provide a variety of goods and services.

rewild

to restore aspects of ecosystems that may have last existed in the Pleistocene era, more than 11,000 years ago.

land sparing

which intensive human activities, such as modern agriculture, are practiced on some of the land while allowing the other lands to remain in their natural state.

Conservation easements

which landowners give up the right to develop, build on, or subdivide their property, typically in exchange for a sum of money, lower real estate taxes, or some other tax benefit

Protected areas can be established in a variety of ways, but the most common mechanisms are

• Government action, usually at a national level, but often on regional or local levels • Land purchases and easements by private individuals and conservation organizations • Actions of indigenous peoples and traditional societies

These multi-management protected areas can be particularly significant for several reasons: (3)

• They are often much larger in area than other categories of protected areas •They may contain many or even most of their original species •They often adjoin or surround other protected areas