Conflicts between humans over wildlife management: on the diversity of stakeholder attitudes and implications for conflict management

Conflicts involving wildlife are, in essence, often conflicts between human parties with differing wildlife management objectives. However, the study and management of wildlife conflicts often focuses on the ecological context without addressing disagreements between people over these objectives. This research uses quantitative approaches to examine actors’ views on a complex wildlife-related conflict: a raptor of conservation concern that impacts on game-bird management. Four dominant elements of the debate emerged from initial semi-structured interviews: perceptions of conflict related issues; perceptions of each other; perceived barriers to consensus within the debate; and assessment of proposed practical management solutions. A quantitative survey that built on these elements demonstrates the degree to which perceptions differ between groups and how local variation in these elements may be obscured in a regional or national level debate. The findings emphasise the importance of understanding the social issues involved in wildlife related conflicts if management aims are to be agreed and achieved.     

Diversity of salt-tolerant culturable aerobic microorganisms on historic buildings in Southern Brazil

Halotolerant and halophilic microorganisms may be expected to be present on the external walls of buildings, especially in dry and/or hot climates. They have been detected in Europe in various molecular biological studies. Using plating on specific salt-supplemented medium (10 and 15%), bacteria and fungi were detected in winter, spring and summer months on the discoloured external walls of 5 historic buildings in Porto Alegre, South Brazil. Microbial biodiversity in the samples was calculated using the Simpson Index. Halotolerant non-phototroph diversity was highest in the winter (September), when environmental conditions are less extreme. Some collections yielded organisms that grew on media with 15% added salt; diversity in this case was lower. Frequently, and in all winter collections, only one type of microorganism grew; this was a brown-pigmented fungus, probable genus Cladosporium. Greater diversity was found at 15% salt in 2 collections made in the summer month of January. It is suggested that this results from the selection of organisms able to resist the more extreme conditions of high temperature and lower relative humidity.     

Biodiversity gradients in the Alps: the overriding importance of elevation

Land abandonment is causing woodland expansion and loss of open habitats in the Alps, coupled with a shift in forestry practices from coppice management to high forest. Despite such rapid large-scale changes, there has been very little investigation of the environmental predictors of biodiversity in the Alpine landscape. We assessed the richness of amphibians, reptiles and breeding birds (n = 189 species), used as a surrogate of biodiversity, in 58 quadrats of 100 km², located within a well surveyed area of the province of Trento (central-eastern Italian Alps). The surrogates were then related to a series of environmental variables by means of stepwise multiple regression. Depending on the surrogate analysed, species richness declined linearly or quadratically with elevation, and increased with habitat heterogeneity and the availability of grassland and arid-rocky habitats. The same results were obtained when incorporating a measure of species threat into the biodiversity estimates. Different surrogates were positively inter-correlated, probably because of a common response to the same factor, namely elevation, which was the only variable to enter all models. Such elevational gradient produced a clear biodiversity peak in low-elevation areas, generating potential conflict between efficient biodiversity conservation and economic interests linked to human development, a scenario which probably applies to many mountain regions worldwide. The current network of protected areas was quite satisfactory in terms of area covered but biased towards high-elevation areas, of high scenic beauty but relatively low in animal biodiversity value. Low-elevation reserves were small and isolated. Proposed conservation targets include the establishment of corridors increasing the connectivity of low-elevation reserves and the promotion of incentives for the extensive management of grassland, an agro-ecosystem of high historical and biological value.     

The contribution of cacao agroforests to the conservation of lower canopy ant and beetle diversity in Indonesia

The ongoing destruction of tropical rainforests has increased the interest in the potential value of tropical agroforests for the conservation of biodiversity. Traditional, shaded agroforests may support high levels of biodiversity, for some groups even approaching that of undisturbed tropical forests. However, it is unclear to what extent forest fauna is represented in this diversity and how management affects forest fauna in agroforests. We studied lower canopy ant and beetle fauna in cacao agroforests and forests in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a region dominated by cacao agroforestry. We compared ant and beetle species richness and composition in forests and cacao agroforests and studied the impact of two aspects of management intensification (the decrease in shade tree diversity and in shade canopy cover) on ant and beetle diversity. The agroforests had three types of shade that represented a decrease in tree diversity (high, intermediate and low diversity). Species richness of ants and beetles in the canopies of the cacao trees was similar to that found in lower canopy forest trees. However, the composition of ant and beetle communities differed greatly between the agroforest and forest sites. Forest beetles suffered profoundly from the conversion to agroforests: only 12.5% of the beetle species recorded in the forest sites were also found in the agroforests and those species made up only 5% of all beetles collected from cacao. In contrast, forest ants were well represented in agroforests, with 75% of all species encountered in the forest sites also occurring on cacao. The reduction of shade tree diversity had no negative effect on ants and beetles on cacao trees. Beetle abundances and non-forest ant species richness even increased with decreasing shade tree diversity. Thinning of the shade canopy was related to a decrease in richness of forest ant species on cacao trees but not of beetles. The contrasting responses of ants and beetles to shade tree management emphasize that conservation plans that focus on one taxonomic group may not work for others. Overall ant and beetle diversity can remain high in shaded agroforests but the conservation of forest ants and beetles in particular depends primarily on the protection of natural forests, which for forest ants can be complemented by the conservation of adjacent shaded cacao agroforests.     

Impending disaster or sliver of hope for Southeast Asian forests? The devil may lie in the details

Here, I report on how forest area in Southeast Asia has changed for different types of forest and across different countries between the periods of 1990–2000 and 2000–2005. The loss of old growth forests has accelerated in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam but have ceased in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and the Philippines. Secondary forests continue to be lost in Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. Plantation forests have increased in area by 25.0% from 1990 to 2005 but still comprise only 6.2% of the total forest area in Southeast Asia. Overall, the loss of native forests (old growth and secondary forests) has slowed down in Thailand, the Philippines and Brunei but has worsened in Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia.     

Plant communities on ironstone outcrops: a diverse and endangered Brazilian ecosystem

Mountain areas are recognized centres of endemism and diversity on account of their isolation and altitudinal diversity. In tropical regions, mountain tops usually stand as islands of xeric vegetation among mesophytic assemblages. Unlike the vegetation growing on other rock outcrops lithologies, such as inselbergs (granite/gneiss) or campos rupestres (quartz/arenite), ironstone outcrop plant communities still lack systematic studies in Brazil. These outcrops (locally known as canga) share most of the characteristics of other rock outcrops, such as isolation and edapho-climatic harshness, but differ in that they are the object of opencast mining, and thus subjected to irrecoverable degradation. In addition, they are expected to harbour metal-tolerant and hyperaccumulator plant species. A botanical survey of two ironstone outcrop locations in the most important mining region of southeastern Brazil, the Iron Quadrangle, revealed a high within-site (138 and 160 species per site), and between-site diversity (only 27% of common species), totaling 64 families and 234 species among basal families and eudicots (154 species), monocots (68 species), and ferns (12 species). Canga crusts are rich in dicots, several of which play an important role in community structuring, together with the more usual monocot aggregations. Distinct plant communities are found associated to different microhabitats within the iron crust, depending primarily on the amount of soil and moisture retention in the different microtopographies. The environmental uniqueness, high diversity, lack of studies and rapid destruction of these ecosystems pose an immediate challenge for their conservation.     

Distribution, diversity and environmental adaptation of highland papayas (Vasconcellea spp.) in tropical and subtropical America

Vasconcellea species, often referred to as highland papayas, consist of a group of fruit species that are closely related to the common papaya (Carica papaya). The genus deserves special attention as a number of species show potential as raw material in the tropical fruit industry, fresh or in processed products, or as genetic resources in papaya breeding programs. Some species show a very restricted distribution and are included in the IUCN Red List. This study on Vasconcellea distribution and diversity compiled collection data from five Vasconcellea projects and retrieved data from 62 herbaria, resulting in a total of 1,553 georeferenced collection sites, in 16 countries, including all 21 currently known Vasconcellea species. Spatial analysis of species richness clearly shows that Ecuador, Colombia and Peru are areas of high Vasconcellea diversity. Combination of species occurrence data with climatic data delimitates the potential distribution of each species and allows the modeling of potential richness at continent level. Based on these modeled richness maps, Ecuador appears to be the country with the highest potential Vasconcellea diversity. Despite differences in sampling densities, its neighboring countries, Peru and Colombia, possess high modeled species richness as well. A combination of observed richness maps and modeled potential richness maps makes it possible to identify important collection gaps. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of climate data at the collection sites allows us to define climatic preferences and adaptability of the different Vasconcellea species and to compare them with those of the common papaya.     

The reliability of product-specific eco-labels as an agrobiodiversity management instrument

This paper seeks to understand why multinationals prefer to launch a label specific to their own product and examines how reliable these product-specific eco-labels are. A new methodology is applied to assess the extent to which eco-labels live up to claims about their contribution to conservation and the sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity. Product-specific eco-labels are considered as industry self-regulation and all three regulatory stages are studied: the planning, implementation and outcome stage. There are major differences between the product specific eco-labels in the degree in which agrobiodiversity management is part of the normative labeling schemes. Although there are some problems of reliability, such as transparency in the implementation stage and the monitoring in the outcome stage, the degree of reliability of product-specific labels is comparable with eco-labels of international labeling families. The conclusion is that only one of the product-specific eco-labels examined here is reliable when examined in the light of all three stages. The main reason why multinationals establish a product-specific eco-label instead of adopting one from an existing labeling family is that they want to profile themselves as distinct from other companies. The unique character of a product-specific label creates a market opportunity for them.     

The rare Chrysopidae (Neuroptera) of southwestern Europe

Quantitative surveys of the chrysopid fauna from southwestern Europe, namely the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, France south of 46° N, and the west-Mediterranean Islands, were analysed. A total of 56 species of Chrysopidae were reported, of which three species were abundant. These, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens, 1836) sensu lato, Dichochrysa prasina (Burmeister, 1839) and D. flavifrons (Brauer, 1850), comprised a large percentage of the specimens. For the rarer species, comments are made on their distributions, the enhanced geographic range of exotic ones, and on levels of endemism and stenotopy.     

Distribution of ground-dwelling beetles in fragmented tropical habitats

The conservation of biodiversity is increasingly dependent on human-altered habitats. In a fragmented forest landscape in northern Costa Rica within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, an area of great conservation importance, we compared the diversity and composition of ground-dwelling beetle communities in five habitat types along a gradient of increasing disturbance: primary forest, logged forest, secondary forest, plantation (Gmelina arborea) and pasture. Using pitfall trapping we captured a total of 1,877 beetles (Coleoptera), comprising 422 morphospecies in 26 families. The plantation sites had the lowest number of species followed by secondary forest and pasture. Multivariate analysis separated the beetle fauna according to land use, and suggested that only the logged forest maintains a similar species assemblage to primary forest. However, each habitat harboured a number of unique species indicating the conservation value of the mosaic of habitats found in fragmented landscapes. Our results suggest that to maintain forest beetle species diversity it is essential that areas of natural forest are conserved. However, other land uses also provide beetle habitats and in fragmented areas active management to maintain a mosaic of land uses will contribute to the conservation of beetle diversity.