The impact of recreational use and access on biotic and abiotic disturbances on areas protected by local communities and a state conservation agency

Local communities often conserve nearby natural areas to support recreational activities and other benefits these areas provide. Areas protected by local communities could contribute to wider efforts to achieve large-scale conservation goals, such as biodiversity protection, provided the ecological conditions on-site are compatible with achieving these goals. To explore the potential contribution of locally established protected areas, we focus on areas protected by local communities in California, USA, using ballot initiatives, a form of direct democracy. We compare the ecological condition of wooded habitat on protected areas funded by local communities through the ballot box to that of similar habitats on protected areas funded by a state conservation agency. As an indicator of ecological condition, we focus on coverage by exotic plant species. We examine whether protected area characteristics or aspects of human-mediated onsite disturbance related to recreational use explain exotic plant cover found on each type of protected area. Exotic plant cover did not differ between areas protected by local communities and those protected by our larger scale conservation actor. Instead, elevation was the best predictor of exotic plant cover. Our results suggest protected areas established by local communities may be in no worse a condition than those established by a state public agency and warrant inclusion when tracking progress towards large-scale conservation goals for protected areas.     

Should conservation of biodiversity involve private land? A Q methodological study in Poland to assess stakeholders’ attitude

Biodiversity conservation is gradually shifting its dependency on public protected areas to take a more holistic ecosystem and landscape approach that includes private lands in addition to public lands. However, effective practice of biodiversity conservation on private land also depends on landowners’ attitude and their willingness to participate and cooperate. This study focuses on Poland where conservation on private land is a relatively new concept but it is slowly gaining recognition, especially after its accession into the European Union. It investigates and classifies the diverse attitudes among stakeholder groups in Poland toward biodiversity conservation on private land that are part of protected areas. Four primary stakeholder groups were considered: conservation and park authorities, local administrative officials, local conservation based NGOs and private landowners. The study was conducted across three sites that represented three different forms of protected areas in Poland: a national park, a landscape park and a Natura 2000 site. Q methodology, a research method from psychology and other social sciences, was used to classify human subjectivity in stakeholders’ attitude in a more systematic manner. The analysis yielded three predominant factors which highlighted the diversity in attitudes among the stakeholder groups based on their knowledge, concerns and experience in the subject. Additionally, it underlined the common recognition among all stakeholder groups for better policy support, stronger collaboration among stakeholder and more financial or compensatory support for landowners to make private land conservation more feasible. Understanding the differences in attitudes will help bridge the gap between conservation priority and conservation opportunity—a current challenge in the field of biodiversity conservation.     

基于机会成本法的海洋保护区生态保护补偿标准

建立海洋保护区已被公认为维持海洋生物多样性和防止海洋生态环境恶化的重要途径,而合理实施生态保护补偿是确保海洋保护区建设和管理成效、促进区域经济发展机会公平的关键手段。以土地、海域为载体,从机会成本补偿的角度出发,分别设置了机会成本补偿基数、区域调整系数、分区补偿系数和开发限度补偿系数,构建了海洋保护区生态保护补偿标准测算方法,并选取全国8个省(市)14个国家级海洋自然保护区开展了实证分析。结果表明:2015年案例区的机会成本补偿测算结果介于0.66×10~4—10.69×10~4元/km~2之间,河北昌黎黄金海岸国家级自然保护区和天津古海岸与湿地国家级自然保护区的补偿金额显著高于其他保护区,分别为10.69×10~4元/km~2和10.47×10~4元/km~2,相比之下,其余12个保护区的平均补偿金额为1.70×10~4元/km~2。     

加拿大的保护区系统

加拿大及其保护区系统在国际自然保护界居领先地位。这个世界第三大保护区系统[3] 具有 4个主要的层次 :国家级、省 /地区级、区域级和地方级。其子系统也有跨两个以上层次的 ,还有的成为国际遗产组织的成员。本文拟对这一庞大而有序的保护区系统进行分析研究。1　国家系统加拿大的国家级自然保护区系统主要有 :由加拿大文化遗产部的加拿大公园局管理的国家公园和国家海洋保护区 ,由加拿大环境部的加拿大野生动植物保护局管理的国家候鸟禁猎区和国家野生动植物保护区 ,由国家首都委员会管理的国家首都保护地。这些系统形成加拿大国家级保护…     

The under-financing of protected areas in the Congo Basin: so many parks and so little willingness-to-pay

Protected areas in the Congo Basin cover approximately 6% of the landscape, and several international NGOs are proposing substantial additions to the present network of parks and reserves. Yet, chronic under-funding has long precluded effective management of most parks and reserves resulting in their progressive ecological impoverishment, and the loss of biodiversity. Furthermore, not only are the indebted nations of the Congo Basin not in a position to contribute significantly to cover the recurring costs of protected area management, the growing opportunity costs of setting aside protected areas is increasing the incentives to local communities and national governments to 'illegally' exploit economically valuable resources within parks and reserves. If the global value of the biodiversity contained within the Congo Basin is considered worth preserving then donors and international NGOs must work with national governments to reach consensus on an optimal protected area network that (a) contains a representative assemblage of forest species; (b) is composed of forest blocks that are sufficiently large, intact, and likely to persist; (c) contains zones of active speciation (e.g. ecotones), and (d) can expect to receive sufficient long-term financial support to ensure effective management. Given the 'need to eat today' reality of economies in the Congo Basin, the international community must decide to shoulder most of the costs of conservation of globally important biodiversity. If donors continue to under-finance protected areas rather than make the hard choices associated with prioritizing protected area spending then most if not all protected areas within the Congo Basin will continue to exhibit reductions in the biomass of individual species, and risk the extirpation or extinction of large, slow reproducing species, and rare endemics.     

The Impacts of Global and National Policy on the Management and Conservation of Sacred Groves of India

India is home to thousands of community-protected forests, called sacred groves. Sacred forests or groves are sites that have cultural or spiritual significance to the people who live around them. These areas may also be key reservoirs of biodiversity. In India, most sacred groves are managed by a community group, not by a government agency. They are often private or community land, not formal protected areas or parks. This poses an interesting challenge in terms of future management and possible policy relating to the sacred groves. On the international level, organizations such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and UNESCO have created guidelines for management of sacred sites. On the national level, India’s past Forest Acts and recent Forest Rights Act have relevance to the sacred groves. Local differences in land tenure also affect the groves. Ethnographic research conducted in 2009 and 2010 in the states of Meghalaya and Karnataka, India, evaluated the historic and current management and beliefs associated with sacred forests. Cultural change and pressure to use natural resources within the groves is leading to reduction of these forest areas. In the future, a creative combination of policy approaches to conserve groves that respects their spiritual values is recommended.     

保护区发展生态旅游的意义和途径

生态旅游在世界范围内正经历着一个蓬勃发展的时期,它是一个区域或一个保护区生态发展的重要内容,不仅对地区经济和社会发展有重要的促进作用,而且也是激励保护区进一步发展的动力。当然,过分强调经济收入,无控制地发展旅游,就可能引起不适当的开发或管理不周。导致生态破坏。因此,保护区发展生态旅游要有一个周密的规划,寻找旅游者的享受和自然保护之间的平衡。     

People,money, and protected areas: the collection of the caterpillar mushroom <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ophiocordyceps sinensis</Emphasis> in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Baima Xueshan</Emphasis> Nature Reserve,Southwest China

The caterpillar mushroom Ophiocordyceps sinensis (syn. Cordyceps sinensis) is among the most valuable mushrooms in the world, and plays a major role for the local economies in its distribution area on the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions. Large proportions of its habitat fall into protected areas, and best practice of sustainable harvest is under discussion, considering both, O. sinensis as a valuable income source for rural poor and protection of its populations and habitat. This study aims for a detailed analysis of O. sinensis collection in a nature reserve in Southwest China. We found that harvesting is unevenly distributed among households and villages, with households who have access to the resource but lack adequate alternatives for income generation such as rewarding wage labor, fertile agricultural fields or harvest of other high value products being most involved. Although collection is de jure forbidden, authorities of the nature reserve apply adaptive management strategies for sustainable resource use. This includes the allocation of collection areas to communities based on their traditional land use strategies and the control of harvesters from outside, triggering self-policing of the resource by the local people. The strategies applied provide a promising model also for other protected areas where the caterpillar mushroom is collected.     

Conservation value for birds of traditionally managed isolated trees in an agricultural landscape of Madagascar

Isolated trees have distinctive economic, social and cultural value for the Betsileo people living on the edge of the protected forest corridor between Ranomafana and Andringitra national parks, in South-East Madagascar. Many of these trees are Ficus spp., traditionally protected and respected. At the landscape level, they are isolated features in a heterogeneous mosaic, providing fruit, shade and aesthetic services in open cultivated areas. Within the current management system, isolated trees may also contribute significantly to the provision of ecological services by enhancing bird diversity in open areas outside the forest. We identified practices and values linked to isolated tree uses and management through ethnographic data collection. Bird presence and abundance were sampled by 338 point counts in isolated trees and open areas of the agricultural mosaic. Isolated trees were occupied by 18 out of 32 (56%) bird species in the agricultural mosaic, including 8 (25%) endemic forest species. Endemic forest birds were significantly more numerous in isolated trees than in open habitats, both in species richness and abundance (mean P value < 0.001). Overall bird species richness was significantly higher in open areas containing isolated trees, than in areas without isolated trees. Bird species richness in Ficus spp. was significantly higher than in other isolated tree species, although no differences were detected in abundance or within guilds. Community-based management of isolated trees may thus represent an opportunity for convergence between bird conservation goals outside protected areas and local management values and practices.     

Modeling Spatial Trends in Estimated Species Richness using Breeding Bird Survey Data: A Valuable Tool in Biodiversity Assessment

We used data from the French breeding bird survey to estimate local bird species richness within sampled sites, using capture–recapture models. We investigated the possible effects of habitat structure and composition (landscape fragmentation, habitat cover and diversity) on estimated species richness at a local scale, and used the identified trends to help with modeling species richness at a large spatial scale. We performed geostatistical analyses based on spatial autocorrelation – cokriging models – to interpolate estimated species richness over the entire country, providing an opportunity to predict species-rich areas. We further compared species richness obtained with this method to species and rarity richness obtained using a national atlas of breeding birds. Estimated species richness was higher in species richness hotspots identified by the atlas. Combining informations on rare species from Atlas and species richness estimates from sound sampling based schemes should help with identifying species-rich areas for various taxa and locating biodiversity hotspots to be protected as high conservation value areas, especially in temperate zones where diversity hotspots are likely to match centers of high species richness because of very few centers of true endemicity.     

In pursuit of ecotourism

Ecotourism is expected, by the tourism industry and academics, to grow rapidly over the next 20 years. Much has been written about ecotourism, often with missionary zeal, but there is little consensus about its definition. It is argued here that conservationists and protected area managers should adopt a definition of ecotourism which contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and an appropriate definition is suggested.Ecotourism is not merely an alternative to mass tourism, nor is it the only alternative. The literature on nature tourism and the environmental impacts of the industry dates back to the late 1970s. Tourism is now the world's largest industry and it has an increasing impact on protected areas. Our understanding of these mechanisms, their ecological impacts and our capacity to manage tourism in protected areas lags behind the growth of tourism to protected areas.A rapid growth in nature tourism and tourism to protected areas has coincided with a shift in protected area management strategies towards integrated development. Tourism is one means available to protected area managers seeking to increase the economic value of a protected area and to offer sustainable opportunities for economic development to local people.This paper argues that potentially conflicting commercial, protected area and development interests all contribute to the emergence of ecotourism and have been doing so for many years. Ecotourism needs to be tightly defined if it is to benefit conservation. Protected area managers should consider how they can take control of nature tourism to the parks they manage and convert it into ecotourism for the benefit of conservation and the livelihoods of local people.     

Effectiveness of protected areas in maintaining plant production

Given the central importance of protected area systems in local, regional and global conservation strategies, it is vital that there is a good understanding of their effectiveness in maintaining ecological functioning. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first such global analysis, focusing on plant production, a "supporting" ecosystem function necessary for multiple other ecosystem services. We use data on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as a measure of variation in plant production in the core, boundary and surroundings of more than 1000 large protected areas over a 25 year period. Forested protected areas were higher (or similar), and those non-forested were lower (or similar), in NDVI than their surrounding areas, and these differences have been sustained. The differences from surrounding areas have increased for evergreen broadleaf forests and barren grounds, decreased for grasslands, and remained similar for deciduous forests, woodlands, and shrublands, reflecting different pressures on those surroundings. These results are consistent with protected areas being effective both in the representation and maintenance of plant production. However, widespread overall increases in NDVI during the study period suggest that plant production within the core of non-forested protected areas has become higher than it was in the surroundings of those areas in 1982, highlighting that whilst the distinctiveness of protected areas from their surroundings has persisted the nature of that difference has changed.     

Erasing a European biodiversity hot-spot: Open woodlands,veteran trees and mature forests succumb to forestry intensification,succession, and logging in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Open woodlands are among the biologically richest habitats of the temperate zone. Although open woodlands were much more common in the past and covered large areas of Europe, their original cover and magnitude of their loss remain mostly unknown. Here, we quantify the loss of open woodlands and assess the potential for their restoration in an internationally protected biodiversity hot-spot, floodplain woodlands of lower Thaya and March rivers of Dolní Morava UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Czech Republic. Aerial photographs from years 1938 and 2009 were used to analyse changes in forest canopy closure across an area of 146 km² and separately for 270 ha of nature reserves found in the area. Forestry maps and aerial photographs were used to analyse changes in forest age structure. Between 1938 and 2009, expansion of closed-canopy forest reduced open woodlands cover from 41% to 5.7% of total wooded area, or 68.5% to 14.1% in the state reserves respectively. Logging has led to a decrease in mature forest cover from 45% to 26% between 1990 and 2009. State reserves prevented logging, but not open woodlands loss. The magnitude of open woodlands loss parallels that of tropical habitats, but has gone unabated by nature conservation. Opportunities to restore open woodlands and conserve associated biodiversity in the internationally protected (e.g. UNESCO, Natura 2000), mostly state-owned, woodlands are being compromised by rapid logging. Our results also point to the low efficiency of international conservation measures in post-communist members of European Union.     

Effectiveness of strict vs. multiple use protected areas in reducing tropical forest fires: a global analysis using matching methods

Protected areas (PAs) cover a quarter of the tropical forest estate. Yet there is debate over the effectiveness of PAs in reducing deforestation, especially when local people have rights to use the forest. A key analytic problem is the likely placement of PAs on marginal lands with low pressure for deforestation, biasing comparisons between protected and unprotected areas. Using matching techniques to control for this bias, this paper analyzes the global tropical forest biome using forest fires as a high resolution proxy for deforestation; disaggregates impacts by remoteness, a proxy for deforestation pressure; and compares strictly protected vs. multiple use PAs vs indigenous areas. Fire activity was overlaid on a 1 km map of tropical forest extent in 2000; land use change was inferred for any point experiencing one or more fires. Sampled points in pre-2000 PAs were matched with randomly selected never-protected points in the same country. Matching criteria included distance to road network, distance to major cities, elevation and slope, and rainfall. In Latin America and Asia, strict PAs substantially reduced fire incidence, but multi-use PAs were even more effective. In Latin America, where there is data on indigenous areas, these areas reduce forest fire incidence by 16 percentage points, over two and a half times as much as naïve (unmatched) comparison with unprotected areas would suggest. In Africa, more recently established strict PAs appear to be effective, but multi-use tropical forest protected areas yield few sample points, and their impacts are not robustly estimated. These results suggest that forest protection can contribute both to biodiversity conservation and CO2 mitigation goals, with particular relevance to the REDD agenda. Encouragingly, indigenous areas and multi-use protected areas can help to accomplish these goals, suggesting some compatibility between global environmental goals and support for local livelihoods.     

Biodiversity Conservation and Human Well-being: Challenges for the Populations and Protected Areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

The Atlantic Forest (AF) of Brazil is a highly endangered natural ecosystem whose rural human inhabitant’s socioeconomic and health situation also is generally precarious. Using a transdisciplinary and participatory methodology, the different characteristics of rural populations living near three protected areas in Santa Teresa—ES, Brazil, were investigated in a pilot project examining the human groups and the biodiversity of the region. This article presents a general overview of the project, its bioanthropological methodology, socioeconomic, demographic, environmental perception, and sanitary findings, and their possible implications for the three protected areas. A total of 178 families, living in 119 properties participated in the research. The water and sanitation infrastructure of these properties is often poor, over 85% of the cultivated land is used for products which make heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, education levels are low, and two-thirds of the inhabitants do not perceive a value in the protected areas. Hunting and extraction of forest products in the areas is common and many local animal species are highly endangered. Considering that the AF protected areas are under intense anthropogenic pressure, it is imperative to study their surrounding populations in order to propose initiatives that can contribute simultaneously to environmental conservation and the improvement of their quality of life. The project is based on the participation of the local population with the aim of contributing to a better integration of the communities with the protected areas.     

Emergence of distinct genotypes of Cryptosporidium parvum in structured host populations

Cryptosporidium parvum is an apicomplexan parasite that infects humans and ruminants. C. parvum isolated from cattle in northeastern Turkey and in Israel was genotyped using multiple polymorphic genetic markers, and the two populations were compared to assess the effect of cattle husbandry on the parasite's population structure. Dairy herds in Israel are permanently confined with essentially no opportunity for direct herd-to-herd transmission, whereas in Turkey there are more opportunities for transmission as animals range over wider areas and are frequently traded. A total of 76 C. parvum isolates from 16 locations in Israel and seven farms in the Kars region in northeastern Turkey were genotyped using 16 mini- and microsatellite markers. Significantly, in both countries distinct multilocus genotypes confined to individual farms were detected. The number of genotypes per farm was higher and mixed isolates were more frequent in Turkey than in Israel. As expected from the presence of distinct multilocus genotypes in individual herds, linkage disequilibrium among loci was detected in Israel. Together, these observations show that genetically distinct populations of C. parvum can emerge within a group of hosts in a relatively short time. This may explain the frequent detection of host-specific genotypes with unknown taxonomic status in surface water and the existence of geographically restricted C. hominis genotypes in humans.     

The other side of the border: Austrian local residents’ attitudes towards the neighbouring Czech Šumava National Park

Attitudes towards protected areas are seen as a key factor in influencing their success. While the majority of park–people relation research has addressed local residents’ attitudes towards protected areas in their own country, analyses on their attitudes towards a neighbouring national park on the other side of the border have rarely been carried out. This study investigated the attitudes of local residents in Upper Austria towards the Czech ?umava National Park. In 2008, residents (N = 468) of four rural communities bordering the ?umava National Park answered a mailed questionnaire. Compared to national parks in general, the ?umava National Park was perceived as not providing as many ecological, social, and economic benefits as others. Psychological reactance, past visits to the ?umava National Park, and attitudes towards landscape change and national parks in general predicted attitudes towards the ?umava National Park, while group membership, except for that of being a farmer, was not significant. Variables that have been previously identified as influencing the attitudes of local residents towards protected areas also seem to be relevant for protected areas on the other side of the border, while items addressing local trans-border issues and group membership appear to be less important. Management implications are discussed.     

Can tourism make a major contribution to the conservation of protected areas in Madagascar?

The authors review the anticipated benefits from tourism for protected areas in Madagascar, the mechanisms that have been adopted, and how these are working at national and local levels. The contribution of tourism to the maintenance of Protected Areas in Madagascar is assessed. The anticipated benefits of tourism envisaged by the 1991 National Environmental Action Plan are considered to be over-optimistic. The growth rate in tourist arrivals is found to be smaller than previously anticipated as a result of infrastructural constraints at national and local scales. It is suggested that revenues from tourism are inadequate in meeting park management costs although the local transfer of entrance fee revenues to development projects is found to be more beneficial. It is also argued that the benefits of revenue sharing can be effective only for a limited number of protected areas until unfrastructure is improved and protected areas become more accessible to tourists.     

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The Lesser Crested Tern Thalasseus bengalensis emigratus breeding population in the Mediterranean is found exclusively in Libya, on the two coastal islands of Gara and Elba and one wetland on the mainland coast at Benghazi. In order to improve knowledge of the species migration to wintering quarters in West Africa, a ringing programme was conducted from 2006–2008 and 2009–2012. From a total of 1 354 nestlings ringed using metal and/or colour rings, 64 were recovered along their flyway and in their wintering range, representing 6.9% of birds ringed with both colour and metal rings. This provided the opportunity to collect information on post-natal movements (staging and wintering ranges), breeding philopatry and recruitment, in addition to a preliminary estimate of their migration journey duration. This paper indicates sighting and recovery distributions in space and time, highlighting the important areas for the species during its journey between breeding and wintering sites. The findings indicate that several areas where ringed terns stop-over during pre- and post-breeding migration journeys are not protected, causing an additional threat to their survival, as some wintering areas are also not protected. Conservation of this highly localised and threatened population needs not only to address protection at breeding sites but also at migratory stop-overs and wintering strongholds.