河南省南太行地区山水林田湖草生态保护与修复

综合景观管理是基于可持续土地管理（SLM）、可持续林业管理（SFM）和水资源综合管理（IWRM）提出的生态保护和修复方法,强调区域整体性、系统性和多功能性。《河南省南太行地区山水林田湖草生态保护与修复工程实施方案》还在规划设计阶段,概括分析了《河南省南太行地区山水林田湖草生态保护与修复工程实施方案》中提出的区域生态环境条件、问题、总体思路和目标、总体布局和生态功能分区、主要任务和工程等,并提出管控、修山、治水、护渠、复绿、整地、扩湿等综合性生态修复策略,实施矿山环境治理、流域水环境生态修复、生态系统保护、土地整治与污染生态修复、重要生态系统保育与生物多样性维护、科技创新工程,体现系统性和整体性。在此基础上,文章提出应加强综合景观管理,主要包括开展基于“生命共同体”的系统规划设计,加强“生命共同体”景观特征和生态过程研究,提升实施项目的多功能性,加强工程技术集成应用和研发,加强公众参与与合作等建议。     

A spatial multicriteria decision analysis for selecting priority sites for plant species restoration: a case study from the Chilean biodiversity hotspot

Developing conservation strategies to restore populations of threatened species has been signaled as an important task by the Convention on Biological Diversity 2011–2020 targets. Species are being threatened not only by habitat loss and fragmentation but increasingly by climate change. As resources for conservation are often limited, and restoration is among the most expensive conservation strategies, developing approaches that help in the prioritization of areas for restoration efforts is a critical task. In this study, we propose a spatial multicriteria decision analysis (SMCDA) framework for identifying potential areas for plant species restoration initiatives that can explicitly take into account future climatic change. As a way to show how the framework can be applied, we took advantage of freely available niche modeling software and geospatial information to identify regional‐scale priority areas for restoration of two threatened endemic tree species (i.e. Bielschmiedia miersii and Pouteria splendens) of the “Chilean Winter Rainfall‐Valdivian Forest” Hotspot. The SMCDA framework allowed us not only to identify priority areas for species restoration but also to analyze how different environmental conditions and land‐use types may affect the selection of areas for species restoration. Our analysis suggests that the inclusion of climate change is a key factor to assess the potential areas for species restoration because species may respond differentially to future climatic conditions. This framework is conceived to be used as a complementary approach to available landscape‐scale spatial conservation planning tools.     

Softening the agricultural matrix: a novel agri‐environment scheme that balances habitat restoration and livestock grazing

The loss and degradation of woody vegetation in the agricultural matrix represents a key threat to biodiversity. Strategies for habitat restoration in these landscapes should maximize the biodiversity benefit for each dollar spent in order to achieve the greatest conservation outcomes with scarce funding. To be effective at scale, such strategies also need to account for the opportunity cost of restoration to the farmer. Here, we critique the Whole‐of‐Paddock Rehabilitation program, a novel agri‐environment scheme which seeks to provide a cost‐effective strategy for balancing habitat restoration and livestock grazing. The scheme involves the revegetation of large (minimum 10 ha) fields, designed to maximize biodiversity benefits and minimize costs while allowing for continued agricultural production. The objectives and design of the scheme are outlined, biodiversity and production benefits are discussed, and we contrast its cost‐effectiveness with alternative habitat restoration strategies. Our analysis indicates that this scheme achieves greater restoration outcomes at approximately half the cost of windbreak‐style plantings, the prevailing planting configuration in southeastern Australia, largely due to a focus on larger fields, and the avoidance of fencing costs through the use of existing farm configuration and infrastructure. This emphasis on cost‐effectiveness, the offsetting of opportunity costs through incentive payments, and the use of a planting design that seeks to maximize biodiversity benefits while achieving production benefits to the farmer, has the potential to achieve conservation in productive parts of the agricultural landscape that have traditionally been “off limits” to conservation.     

Systematic Postproject Appraisals to Maximize Lessons Learned from River Restoration Projects: Case Study of Compound Channel Restoration Projects in Northern California

We conducted systematic postproject appraisals (PPAs) of seven compound channel restoration projects, supplementing available data with new field data and analyses to produce comparable datasets for all seven projects. We describe how systematic PPAs can be developed and illustrate a systematic PPA for compound channel projects organized around performance with respect to geomorphic, habitat, and conveyance objectives. We found that preexisting monitoring programs for a group of similar restoration projects can be supplemented with relatively low‐effort data collection and analyses to produce lessons on a “class” of restoration projects. Using this approach to assess a set of seven compound channel projects, we found that two fully achieved geomorphic objectives, three appear likely to achieve geomorphic objectives with additional time and/or minor interventions, and two did not achieve geomorphic objectives. Further, four projects achieved habitat objectives and three projects appeared likely to achieve objectives if given more time to develop and/or a minor intervention to mitigate limitations on critical ecological processes. Finally, four of the projects satisfied conveyance objectives, and the remaining three appeared likely to satisfy objectives with minor interventions to maintain design roughness and geometry conditions. Based on observations from our new systematic PPA approach applied to compound channels in Mediterranean climates, we suggest application of systematic PPAs for other classes of river restoration projects to evaluate scale and geomorphic setting issues in project design, to refine postproject monitoring guidelines, and to predict vegetation recruitment, growth, and succession patterns to avoid potential vegetation problems.     

Multi-Action Planning for Threat Management: A Novel Approach for the Spatial Prioritization of Conservation Actions

Planning for the remediation of multiple threats is crucial to ensure the long term persistence of biodiversity. Limited conservation budgets require prioritizing which management actions to implement and where. Systematic conservation planning traditionally assumes that all the threats in priority sites are abated (fixed prioritization approach). However, abating only the threats affecting the species of conservation concerns may be more cost-effective. This requires prioritizing individual actions independently within the same site (independent prioritization approach), which has received limited attention so far. We developed an action prioritization algorithm that prioritizes multiple alternative actions within the same site. We used simulated annealing to find the combination of actions that remediate threats to species at the minimum cost. Our algorithm also accounts for the importance of selecting actions in sites connected through the river network (i.e., connectivity). We applied our algorithm to prioritize actions to address threats to freshwater fish species in the Mitchell River catchment, northern Australia. We compared how the efficiency of the independent and fixed prioritization approach varied as the importance of connectivity increased. Our independent prioritization approach delivered more efficient solutions than the fixed prioritization approach, particularly when the importance of achieving connectivity was high. By spatially prioritizing the specific actions necessary to remediate the threats affecting the target species, our approach can aid cost-effective habitat restoration and land-use planning. It is also particularly suited to solving resource allocation problems, where consideration of spatial design is important, such as prioritizing conservation efforts for highly mobile species, species facing climate change-driven range shifts, or minimizing the risk of threats spreading across different realms.     

A Framework to Optimize Biodiversity Restoration Efforts Based on Habitat Amount and Landscape Connectivity

The effectiveness of ecological restoration actions toward biodiversity conservation depends on both local and landscape constraints. Extensive information on local constraints is already available, but few studies consider the landscape context when planning restoration actions. We propose a multiscale framework based on the landscape attributes of habitat amount and connectivity to infer landscape resilience and to set priority areas for restoration. Landscapes with intermediate habitat amount and where connectivity remains sufficiently high to favor recolonization were considered to be intermediately resilient, with high possibilities of restoration effectiveness and thus were designated as priority areas for restoration actions. The proposed method consists of three steps: (1) quantifying habitat amount and connectivity; (2) using landscape ecology theory to identify intermediate resilience landscapes based on habitat amount, percolation theory, and landscape connectivity; and (3) ranking landscapes according to their importance as corridors or bottlenecks for biological flows on a broader scale, based on a graph theory approach. We present a case study for the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (approximately 150 million hectares) in order to demonstrate the proposed method. For the Atlantic Forest, landscapes that present high restoration effectiveness represent only 10% of the region, but contain approximately 15 million hectares that could be targeted for restoration actions (an area similar to today's remaining forest extent). The proposed method represents a practical way to both plan restoration actions and optimize biodiversity conservation efforts by focusing on landscapes that would result in greater conservation benefits .     

基于图论的两栖类生物栖息地网络规划——以黑斑侧褶蛙为例

生物多样性保护和生物栖息地网络建设是目前我国国土空间规划的重要内容,提升生物栖息地网络的景观功能连接度对生物多样性保护具有重要作用。目前,已有研究对生物栖息地网络规划进行了探索,但在实际规划层面仍缺乏可操作性强的技术方法支撑。本研究采用图论方法,聚焦国土空间规划中生物多样性保护和生态网络建设涉及的进行生物栖息地斑块重要性评价,以确定斑块优先保护次序;寻找最优新增斑块位置,以改善生物栖息地网络景观功能连接度;依据景观功能连接度的降低程度,判断建设项目的影响或评价规划新增建设项目的潜在影响3方面内容,在雄安新区两栖类生物黑斑侧褶蛙(Pelophylax nigromaculata)栖息地网络规划中进行应用研究。结果表明: 图论方法可以有效解决上述3方面的问题;本研究识别的5个最优新增黑斑侧褶蛙栖息地位置使栖息地网络整体景观功能连接度提升19%;通过评价G45高速公路对两栖类生物栖息地网络功能连接度的影响,找出了4个穿越通道设置以减弱G45高速公路的影响。     

基于系统保护规划的三江平原湿地保护网络体系优化

综合三江平原湿地不同层次、不同维度的生物多样性特征,在系统保护规划方法(Systematic Conservation Planning,SCP)框架下,以集水区为规划单元,计算研究区域不可替代性指数,确定高保护价值网络体系,通过保护空缺分析对现有保护网络进行优化,并评估优化体系的有效性。结果表明:三江平原湿地高保护价值区域的分布呈现沿河流分布的特点;现有保护区中湖泊和目标物种的保护状态比较好;保护网络体系优化后,沼泽湿地在保护网络中的比重由22.88%重增加到50%以上;河流湿地由16.20%增加到33.92%;地下水资源在现有保护网络中的比重非常低,仅为2.01%,优化后保护网络中保护比重增加到12.05%,因此在今后的保护区规划中,应该重视对地下水资源的保护和管理。另外本研究结合生态脆弱性对高保护价值的空缺设计3个情景方案,并根据生态威胁的种类和强度提出各优先保护方案的保护建议,为保护管理决策提供依据。     

What motivates ecological restoration?

Ecological restoration projects are motivated by diverse environmental and social reasons. Motivations likely vary between stakeholders or regions, and influence the approach taken to plan, implement, and monitor restoration projects. We surveyed 307 people involved in the restoration of native vegetation across Australia to identify their underlying motivations. We also elicited information on planning, implementation, and monitoring of restoration projects. We found that biodiversity enhancement is the main motivation for undertaking restoration, with biodiversity offsetting, water quality improvements, and social reasons as important secondary motivations. Motivations varied significantly by stakeholder type and region. Restoration projects primarily motivated by ecosystem service provision (e.g. water quality improvements and social reasons) sought less pristine ecological outcomes than projects motivated by biodiversity enhancement or offsetting. Rigorous monitoring designs (e.g. quantitative, repeatable surveys, and use of performance indicators) were rarely used in restoration projects, except for projects motivated by scientific research. Better alignment of different restoration motivations with the planning and monitoring of restoration projects should deliver greater benefits through setting appropriate objectives and evaluating outcomes against these objectives. These improvements will increase the capacity of the restoration practice to meet international biodiversity commitments and communicate restoration outcomes to stakeholders.     

A new analytical method for wildlife habitat conservation planning on a city scale using the classification of physiologically homogeneous areas

Kyoto has a tradition of positively protecting scenic landscapes. However, a question has arisen about the effectiveness of the present legislative system on biodiversity conservation because most laws aim to essentially preserve the aesthetic value of the landscape. It is necessary to identify gaps in the present conservation system to develop an effective conservation policy for the city. The authors propose a practical method of analysis for wildlife habitat conservation planning without wildlife distribution information, which is the usual situation in many cities, and discuss the usefulness and limitations of the method by applying it to Kyoto. The proposed method relies on both of the following two assumptions: (1) the physical properties of the environment are closely related to the potential vegetation communities and (2) the conservation or restoration of rare or extinct vegetation communities ensures diverse wildlife habitats, contributing to biodiversity enhancement in a region. Thus it should be deemed a supplementary analysis to other types of analyses employing endangered, umbrella and/or flagship species in the planning process. A unique aspect of the method is to evaluate land potential, which is important for long-term conservation planning and the determination of target vegetation communities in restoration projects. In Kyoto, this revealed that the candidates for vegetation communities, prioritized for conservation and restoration, were appropriate. Moreover, identifying physiotopes corresponding with none of the existing vegetation communities was another advantage providing useful information for restoration planning. However, it was considered that a filtering process, with auxiliary information about the trend of vegetation communities over time, was necessary after applying the proposed method.     

Planning for the restoration of native biodiversity within the Goulburn Broken Catchment, Victoria, using spatial modelling

Summary   Conservation planning aims to ensure the protection and continuation of biodiversity. In rural landscapes in Victoria, this will require the restoration of habitat and biophysical processes to levels that can sustain the majority of species. Planning is required at scales large enough to have ecological relevance. In this study, a land-use change scenario that plans for the conservation of native biodiversity within the Goulburn Broken Catchment was developed using simple ecological principles. A set of indicative rules for restoring remnant native vegetation was modelled within a geographical information system. The modelling of the rules resulted in a change in rural landscapes from highly fragmented (with few large remnants) to highly connected. Future applications of this approach include incorporating the biodiversity rules into a biophysical model to assess the effect of planning landscapes for the conservation of biodiversity on hydrological and economic outcomes for the region. In addition, the rules are to be refined so that the priority landscapes for biodiversity planning can be identified.     

Improving bioregional frameworks for conservation by including mammal distributions

Large identifiable landscape units, such as ecoregions, are used to prioritize global and continental conservation efforts, particularly where biodiversity knowledge is inadequate. Setting biodiversity representation targets using coarse large‐scale biogeographic boundaries, can be inefficient and under‐representative. Even when using fine‐scale biodiversity data, representation deficiencies can occur through misalignment of target distributions with such prioritization frameworks. While this pattern has been recognized, quantitative approaches highlighting misalignments have been lacking, particularly for assemblages of mammal species. We tested the efficacy of Australia's bioregions as a spatial prioritization framework for representing mammal species, within protected areas, in New South Wales. We produced an approach based on mammal assemblages and assessed its performance in representing mammal distributions. Substantial spatial misalignment between New South Wales's bioregions and mammal assemblages was revealed, reflecting deficiencies in the representation of more than half of identified mammal assemblages. Using a systematic approach driven by fine‐scale mammalian data, we compared the efficacy of these two frameworks in securing mammalian representation within protected areas. Of the 61 species, 38 were better represented by the mammalian framework, with remaining species only marginally better represented when guided by bioregions. Overall, the rate at which mammal species were incorporated into the protected area network was higher (5.1% ± 0.6 sd) when guided by mammal assemblages. Guided by bioregions, systematic conservation planning of protected areas may be constrained in realizing its full potential in securing representation for all of Australia's biodiversity. Adapting the boundaries of prioritization frameworks by incorporating amassed information from a broad range of taxa should be of conservation significance.     

Restoration prioritization for industrial area applying multiple potential natural vegetation modeling

Scaling‐up ecological restoration demands the involvement of private sector actors. Experience regarding science‐based habitat restoration programs in the sector should be made available to support further joint projects. In our case, hierarchical restoration prioritization was applied to select best target for habitat reconstruction at a Hungarian industrial area. Multiple potential natural vegetation model, a novel approach, supported restoration prioritization satisfying both ecological (sustainability and nature conservation value) and other needs (feasibility, rapid green surface, amenity, and education value). The target that met all priorities was the open steppe forest that has a mosaic arrangement with open and closed sand steppes. The potential area of this xero‐thermophile oak wood is expected to expand in Hungary with climate change, therefore the selected target has a likelihood of long‐term sustainability, if established. A matrix of sand steppes was created first at the factory area in 2014–2015, and tree and shrub saplings were planted in this matrix. The seeding induced rapid changes in vegetation composition: the second year samples became close to reference sand steppes in the principal component analysis ordination space. Tree and shrub survival was species dependent, reaching a maximum of 52 and 73% for tree and shrub species, respectively. One tree and 2 shrub species did not survive at all. Altogether 53 of 107 target species have established. So far, restored vegetation development confirmed the suitability of the applied hierarchical prioritization framework at factory scale.     

Recommendations for Integrating Restoration Ecology and Conservation Biology in Ponderosa Pine Forests of the Southwestern United States

Over the past century, ponderosa pine–dominated landscapes of the southwestern United States have been altered by human activities such as grazing, timber harvest, road building, and fire exclusion. Most forested areas within these landscapes now show increased susceptibility to stand‐replacing fires, insect outbreaks, and drought‐related mortality. Recent large wildfires in the region have spurred public interest in large‐scale fuel reduction and restoration programs, which create perceived and real conflicts with the conservation of biodiversity. Conservation concerns include the potential for larger road networks, soil and understory disturbance, exotic plant invasion, and the removal of large trees in treated areas. Pursuing prescribed burning, thinning, or other treatments on the broad scale that many scientists and managers envision requires the reconciliation of ecological restoration with biodiversity conservation. This study presents recommendations from a workshop for integrating the principles and practices of restoration ecology and conservation biology, toward the objective of restoring the composition, structure, and function of dry ponderosa pine forests. Planning on the scale of hundreds of thousands of hectares offers opportunities to achieve multiple objectives (e.g., rare species protection and restoration of ecological structures and processes) that cannot easily be addressed on a site‐by‐site basis. However, restoration must be coordinated with conservation planning to achieve mutual objectives and should include strict guidelines for protection of rare, declining, and sensitive habitats and species.     

Linking landscape-level change to habitat quality: an evaluation of restoration actions on the freshwater habitat of spring-run Chinook salmon

1. Conservation planning is often hampered by the lack of causal quantitative links between landscape characteristics, restoration actions and habitat conditions that impact the status of imperilled species. Here we present a first step toward linking actions on the landscape to the population status of endangered stream‐type Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). 2. We developed relationships between land use, landscape characteristics and freshwater habitat of spring Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River basin. Available data allowed us to find relationships that described water temperatures at several life stages (prespawning, egg incubation and summer rearing) and substratum characteristics, including fine sediments, cobble and embeddedness. Predictors included altitude, gradient, mean annual precipitation, total and riparian forest cover, road density, impervious surface and alluvium. We used a model averaging approach to account for parameter and model selection uncertainty. Key predictors were total forest cover and impervious surface area for prespawning and summer rearing temperatures; precipitation and stream gradients were important predictors of the percent of fine sediments in stream substrata. 3. We estimated habitat conditions using these relationships in three alternative landscape scenarios: historical, no restoration and one that included a set of restoration actions from local conservation planning. We found that prespawning and summer temperatures were estimated to be slightly higher historically relative to current conditions in dry sparsely forested areas, but lower in some important Chinook salmon spawning and rearing areas and lower in those locations under the restoration scenario. Fine sediments were lower in the historical scenario and were reduced as a consequence of restoration actions in two areas currently unoccupied by Chinook salmon that contain reaches with some potential for high quality spawning and rearing. Cobble and embeddedness in general were predicted to be higher historically and changed little as a result of restoration actions relative to current conditions. 4. This modelling framework converts suites of restoration actions into changes in habitat condition, thereby enabling restoration planners to evaluate alternative combinations of proposed actions. It also provides inputs to models linking habitat conditions to population status. This approach represents a first step in estimating impacts of restoration strategies, and can provide key information for conservation managers and planners.     

黄淮海地区跨流域湿地生态系统保护网络体系优化

运用系统保护规划方法,以集水区为保护规划单元,综合考虑三维(3D)连接性(横向、纵向、垂向)和跨流域调水工程,通过不可替代性分析和保护空缺识别,对黄淮海地区跨流域湿地生态系统保护网络体系优化进行研究,并通过与已有保护体系对比,评估了优化体系的效用.结果表明： 依据不可替代性大小和连接性原则,湿地保护空缺可分为优先保护空缺和一般保护空缺;黄淮海地区湿地生态系统保护体系经过优化后,湿地保护状况整体上有较大改观,其中所有湿地类型受保护比重由初始的20%左右增长到46.8%,且各湿地类型保护状况都有不同程度的改善,优化体系中的受保护比重大多在40%以上.无论是从近期还是长远来看,湖泊湿地保护都应给予较多关注.生态系统服务价值和生物多样性相整合、保护和恢复相结合是未来湿地生态系统保护规划研究中应关注的方面.     

Global conservation strategies for two clades of snakes: combining taxon-specific goals with general prioritization schemes

Aim We present the first attempt of mapping global conservation priorities for two snake clades, Viperidae and Elapidae. We compared the global conservation priorities of each clade with the nine global conservation schemes defined by Brooks et al. to evaluate how effective these schemes are in ensuring the preservation of viperid and elapid biodiversity. Location Global. Methods Based on range maps of 228 species of Viperidae and 224 species of Elapidae, we used systematic conservation planning methods of complementarity and irreplaceability to generate a set of conservation networks under two cost scenarios: (1) minimizing conservation‐human development conflicts and (2) maximizing environmental suitability for high snake richness. Analysis of variance was used to investigate whether the mean irreplaceability of cells matching the areas covered by each of the nine global prioritization schemes in Brooks et al. was higher than the mean irreplaceability of cells located outside these areas. Results Overall, few areas showed irreplaceability higher than 0.5 based on a goal of representing 25% of the species’ ranges. The conservation networks generated in expectation of low conflicts between human development and conservation were quite different from the networks of high environmental suitability. Areas with higher irreplaceability coincided with the regions covered by global schemes of Endemic Bird Areas (for Viperidae and Elapidae) and High‐Biodiversity Wilderness (for Elapidae). Main conclusions Our findings indicated the existence of viable conservation opportunities for these two snake groups. This study can be viewed as a way to overcome, at least in part, the recent criticism concerning the independent development of several global conservation priorities by evaluating which groups of organisms are better represented in each of them. More than simply determining priorities for snakes’ conservation, our analyses showed that the development of parallel priority‐setting initiatives can be reconciled with those strategies for which financial resources are already being designed.     

Using prioritisation tools to strategically restore vegetation communities in fragmented agricultural landscapes

Restoring native habitats in heavily cleared and fragmented areas such as agricultural landscapes is important to maintain and increase remaining native floral and faunal communities. Identifying priority vegetation types for restoration – as well as the parcels of land where this restoration could take place at a landscape scale – may assist in strategically protecting these biodiversity assets. To prioritise the restoration of terrestrial habitats around an ecologically and culturally significant Ramsar‐listed wetland in South Australia, we used the spatial prioritisation tool Marxan. Originally designed for prioritising the protection of reserve areas, Marxan can also be used to identify parcels of land for restoration purposes. We tested how Marxan prioritised the restoration of four distinct vegetation types around the Coorong and Lower Lakes region of South Australia using the inverse of habitat remnancy as a cost and soil type and distance to ecologically significant bird species as a conservation feature. By prioritising restoration activities around certain landscape features, such as remnant areas, our results indicate that we would be able to strategically restore parcels of native habitat that would maximise biodiversity outcomes. This study highlights the need for robust input data, such as priority vegetation types and bird species associated with these habitats, to ensure informative modelling outputs. It also suggests that other measures, such as the cost of different land types, should be included in future restoration planning. Finally, we illustrate how prioritisation tools such as Marxan can be used by natural resource managers to restore areas within fragmented agricultural landscapes.     

Systematic landscape restoration in the rural–urban fringe: meeting conservation planning and policy goals

Many landscapes that straddle the rural/urban divide suffer from low levels of species diversity following extensive clearing and fragmentation of native vegetation communities and conversion of land to agriculture. Further pressures are placed on remnant vegetation by encroaching urban expansion. These landscapes now exhibit a mosaic of small, patchy vegetation remnants that are under considerable pressure from housing and light-industrial development. Furthermore, agriculture in these landscapes tends to be of high economic value from uses such as intensive horticulture. Concerted and well-planned efforts are needed to balance the many conflicts of interest and competing demands for land with the need to restore landscapes for the protection of biodiversity. There has been a recent move in Australia toward regional biodiversity planning and goal setting, however specific detail on how to plan for achieving targets in complex landscapes is lacking. This paper applies a systematic landscape restoration model to a mixed-use, peri-urban landscape on the northern fringes of Adelaide, South Australia. The region contains fragments of remnant vegetation amongst a mosaic of high-value horticulture, light industry and urban development. Models produce maximally efficient solutions that meet comprehensive, adequate and representative conservation targets. Further constraints are added to the model to take into account the value of agricultural output, the biodiversity value of remnants, and property size and tenure. The effects on solution efficiencies as the number of constraints increase are investigated. This paper demonstrates the flexibility found in applying a systematic landscape restoration methodology. The process we present can be transferred to any rural–urban fringe region.     

Solving the maximum representation problem to prioritize areas for the conservation of terrestrial mammals at risk in Oaxaca

Oaxaca, located in south‐west México within the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, holds exceptionally high biodiversity for several taxa, including mammals. It has four decreed natural protected areas (NPAs) covering 5% of its total area, but only three of these, covering only 0.2% of the area, are strictly protected as National Parks. The current study develops ecological niche models for 183 terrestrial mammals for use as biodiversity surrogates in a systematic conservation planning exercise. Forty‐five of these species were selected on the basis of their being either endangered or threatened or otherwise listed under the Mexican Red List or because they were endemic to either Oaxaca or to Mexico. The niche models were constructed with a machine‐learning algorithm (GARP, Genetic Algorithm for Rule‐Set Prediction) and refined by restricting each model to sites with suitable vegetation and habitat patches contiguous with known occurrences of the species. If the entire predicted geographical distribution of each of the 45 species listed above is put under protection, the entire state of Oaxaca gets included. Therefore, we imposed different constraints on the maximum area that can be put under protection (5–30% of the area of Oaxaca) and selected nominal conservation area networks based on different percentage representation targets for the species’ modelled distributions based on their conservation status (10–100%). The area selection utilized a rarity‐ and complementarity‐based algorithm (in the ResNet software package). The goal was to have as many as possible of the 45 species at risk meet their specified representation targets in the budgeted area. The methods developed here combine ecological niche modelling and area prioritization algorithms for integrated conservation planning in a protocol that is suitable for other highly biodiverse regions.