Protected areas not likely to serve as steppingstones for species undergoing climate-induced range shifts

Species across the planet are shifting their ranges to track suitable climate conditions in response to climate change. Given that protected areas have higher quality habitat and often harbor higher levels of biodiversity compared to unprotected lands, it is often assumed that protected areas can serve as steppingstones for species undergoing climate-induced range shifts. However, there are several factors that may impede successful range shifts among protected areas, including the distance that must be traveled, unfavorable human land uses and climate conditions along potential movement routes, and lack of analogous climates. Through a species-agnostic lens, we evaluate these factors across the global terrestrial protected area network as measures of climate connectivity, which is defined as the ability of a landscape to facilitate or impede climate-induced movement. We found that over half of protected land area and two-thirds of the number of protected units across the globe are at risk of climate connectivity failure, casting doubt on whether many species can successfully undergo climate-induced range shifts among protected areas. Consequently, protected areas are unlikely to serve as steppingstones for a large number of species under a warming climate. As species disappear from protected areas without commensurate immigration of species suited to the emerging climate (due to climate connectivity failure), many protected areas may be left with a depauperate suite of species under climate change. Our findings are highly relevant given recent pledges to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030 (30 × 30), underscore the need for innovative land management strategies that allow for species range shifts, and suggest that assisted colonization may be necessary to promote species that are adapted to the emerging climate.     

Limitations of Protected Areas Zoning in Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes Under the Ecosystem Services Approach

Protected areas have been created worldwide to set apart certain areas from land-use transformation. The biodiversity and ecosystems protected by these areas deliver several ecosystem services. Recently, besides increasing global protected coverage, there has been a growing demand to assess the adequacy of protected areas management. In this study, we assessed how the management of protected areas can deal with ecosystem services taking as example the Doñana and Sierra Nevada protected areas (Spain). For that aim we analyzed the protected area management plans, mapped seven ecosystem services, and assessed how they are affected by protected area zoning and land-use intensity. We found that although provisioning and cultural services are included in the management plans of the protected areas under a different terminology, regulating services are barely addressed. Ecosystem service delivery varies depending on several factors including the protection category of the protected areas (protection intensity), land-use intensity and geomorphological factors, among others. Therefore, we discuss that integrating ecosystem services in protected area management requires dealing with complexity, necessitating the establishment of specific goals for ecosystem service delivery, which include ecosystem service synergies and trade-offs.     

Are protected areas maintaining bird diversity?

Evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas for sustaining biodiversity is crucial to achieving conservation outcomes. While studies of effectiveness have improved our understanding of protected‐area design and management, few investigations (< 5%) have quantified the ecological performance of reserves for conserving species. Here, we present an empirical evaluation of protected‐area effectiveness using long‐term measures of a vulnerable assemblage of species. We compare forest and woodland bird diversity in the Australian Capital Territory over 11 yr on protected and unprotected areas located in temperate eucalypt woodland and matched by key habitat attributes. We examine separately the response of birds to protected areas established prior to 1995 and after 1995 when fundamental changes were made to regional conservation policy. Bird diversity was measured in richness, occurrence of vulnerable species, individual species trajectories and functional trait groups. We found that protected areas were effective in maintaining woody vegetation cover in the study region, but were less effective in the protection of the target bird species assemblage. Protected areas were less species rich than unprotected areas, with significant declines in richness across sites protected prior to 1995. Small, specialised and vulnerable species showed stronger associations with unprotected areas than protected areas. Our findings indicate that recently established reserves (post‐1995) are performing similarly to unprotected woodland areas in terms of maintaining woodland bird diversity, and that both of these areas are more effective in the conservation of woodland bird populations than reserves established prior to 1995. We demonstrate that the conservation value of protected areas is strongly influenced by the physical characteristics, as well as the landscape context, of a given reserve and can diminish with changes in surrounding land use over time. Both protected areas and off‐reserve conservation schemes have important roles to play in securing species populations.     

跨界自然保护区——实现生物多样性保护的新手段

随着区域合作和大尺度景观保护的需求不断增加,跨界资源管理越来越受到人们的关注,作为跨界资源管理的一种典型方式,跨界自然保护区正成为保护区研究中的热点问题。在对跨界自然保护区概念、类型及历史发展进行阐述的基础上,分析了建立跨界自然保护区的效益和代价及影响跨界自然保护区成败的因素,指出建立跨界自然保护区可能是在更大尺度上实现生态系统管理和生物多样性保护的有效途径。同时,分析了我国保护区的跨界现状和存在的问题,并对我国不同行政区间展开跨界合作的必要性进行了探讨。最后对跨界保护的未来研究提出展望。     

Censusing large mammals in Kibale National Park: evaluation of the intensity of sampling required to determine change

Monitoring programmes are essential for management of large mammal populations because they can detect population change. It is vital that we have the means to evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas. Kibale National Park is a stronghold for large mammal conservation in Uganda. Past wildlife surveys in Kibale focused on specific taxa or areas, but our large mammal survey covered the entire protected area and we evaluated the intensity of sampling required to determine population change. Using line transect sampling, we found that the distribution of large mammals was nonrandom and related to habitat‐type. However, confidence intervals of population estimates revealed that much more intensive sampling was required to detect changes in population density at a time scale reasonable for management. For many species, populations would have to decline by 40–60% for this method to detect population change. Post‐stratification decreased confidence intervals of density estimates slightly, increasing our ability to detect change. However, confidence intervals of estimates were still too large to detect a meaningful population change on a time scale that would allow management to take action. Most incidences of illegal activity were about 5 km from the park boundary; however, animal densities were not lower in this area.     

Conserving what,where and how? Cost-efficient measures to conserve biodiversity in Denmark

Biodiversity conservation efforts in Europe have traditionally focused on farmland and open nature areas such as grasslands, heathlands and meadows, while little attention has been devoted to conservation actions in forest. Using detailed information on the geographical distribution of about 900 terrestrial species in Denmark we apply systematic conservation planning techniques to identify how to protect biodiversity at the lowest cost to society. The results suggest that conservation actions in forest should be given a higher priority. Thus, three to four times the number of forest species are protected per million € compared with species living in open land natural areas. Furthermore, a gap analysis finds the current designation of Natura 2000 and other protected areas is skewed toward open land natural areas, and insufficient to meet the conservation targets on forest species.     

Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets

There are now over 100000 protected areas worldwide, covering over 12% of the Earth's land surface. These areas represent one of the most significant human resource use allocations on the planet. The importance of protected areas is reflected in their widely accepted role as an indicator for global targets and environmental assessments. However, measuring the number and extent of protected areas only provides a unidimensional indicator of political commitment to biodiversity conservation. Data on the geographic location and spatial extent of protected areas will not provide information on a key determinant for meeting global biodiversity targets: 'effectiveness' in conserving biodiversity. Although tools are being devised to assess management effectiveness, there is no globally accepted metric. Nevertheless, the numerical, spatial and geographic attributes of protected areas can be further enhanced by investigation of the biodiversity coverage of these protected areas, using species, habitats or biogeographic classifications. This paper reviews the current global extent of protected areas in terms of geopolitical and habitat coverage, and considers their value as a global indicator of conservation action or response. The paper discusses the role of the World Database on Protected Areas and collection and quality control issues, and identifies areas for improvement, including how conservation effectiveness indicators may be included in the database to improve the value of protected areas data as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets.     

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.     

自然保护区管理有效性评价方法的比较与应用

建立自然保护区是保护生物多样性的最重要的途径之一,开展自然保护区管理有效性评价是了解自然保护区管理状况、提升保护区管理水平、实现保护区管理目标的有效途径。在国际自然保护联盟世界保护区委员会(WCPA)提出的保护区管理有效性评价框架的基础上, 世界上很多国家和组织机构根据本国的实际情况开发了更为详细的评价方法。这些方法可以归为4类, 包括基于证据的深入评价法、基于同行评定的综合评价法、基于专家知识的快速记分评价法, 以及基于假设的分类评价法。本文比较了这4类方法的应用范围、对象、目的、形式, 以及各类方法的优缺点及其适用条件, 总结了8种主要方法的评价指标的构成及其应用现状。在此基础上, 分析了自然保护区管理有效性评价方法在中国自然保护区中的应用及存在的问题, 并提出了适用于中国自然保护区管理有效性评价的方法及其评价指标构成。     

Assessment of Threat Status and Management Effectiveness in Kakamega Forest, Kenya

To counteract an increasing biodiversity decline, parks and protected areas have been established worldwide. However, many parks lack adequate management to address environmental degradation. To improve management strategies simple tools are needed for an assessment of human impact and management effectiveness of protected areas. This study quantifies the current threats in the heavily fragmented and degraded tropical rainforest of Kakamega, western Kenya. We recorded seven disturbance parameters at 22 sites in differently managed and protected areas of Kakamega Forest. Our data indicate a high level of human impact throughout the forest with illegal logging being most widespread. Furthermore, logging levels appear to reflect management history and effectiveness. From 1933 to 1986, Kakamega Forest was under management by the Forest Department and the number of trees logged more than 20 years ago was equally high at all sites. Since 1986, management of Kakamega Forest has been under two different organizations, i.e. Forest Department and Kenya Wildlife Service. The number of trees logged illegally in the last 20 years was significantly lower at sites managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service. Finally, logging was lower within highly protected National and Nature Reserves as compared to high logging within the less protected Forest Reserves. Reflecting management effectiveness as well as protection status in Kakamega Forest, logging might therefore provide a valuable quantitative indicator for human disturbance and thus an important tool for conservation managers. Logging might be a valuable indicator for other protected areas, too, however, other human impact such as e.g. hunting might also prove to be a potential indicator.     

黄海生态区保护空缺分析

黄海生态区是世界自然基金会筛选出来的全球最优先保护的43个海洋生态区之一。目前, 我国已在黄海生态区内建立多处海洋保护地, 有效保护了其海洋生态系统及生物多样性。然而我国海洋保护地管理和建设中仍有许多问题, 存在较多保护空缺区域。因此, 完善黄海生态区内的海洋保护地建设是非常关键的。本文利用空缺分析法研究了黄海生态区内的重要滨海湿地、关键物种以及重点海域, 以识别保护空缺理论图斑, 从而提出新建保护地的提议。根据空缺分析结果, 黄海生态区内的主要保护空缺为辽河口湿地、曹妃甸海草床、天津塘沽和黄骅湿地、胶东半岛湿地、舟山群岛等。建议优化整合黄河口海洋保护地, 扩大或新建斑海豹(Phoca largha)、勺嘴鹬(Eurynorhynchus pygmeus)保护地, 并加强对东亚江豚(Neophocaena asiaeorientalis sunameri)以及小须鲸(Balaenoptera acutorostrata)的调查研究, 以形成更有效的海洋保护地网络。     

Measuring biodiversity and sustainable management in forests and agricultural landscapes

Most of the world's biodiversity will continue to exist outside protected areas and there are also managed lands within many protected areas. In the assessment of millennium targets, there is therefore a need for indicators to measure biodiversity and suitability of habitats for biodiversity both across the whole landscape/seascape and in specific managed habitats. The two predominant land uses in many inhabited areas are forestry and agriculture and these are examined. Many national-level criteria and indicator systems already exist that attempt to assess biodiversity in forests and the impacts of forest management, but there is generally less experience in measuring these values in agricultural landscapes. Existing systems are reviewed, both for their usefulness in providing indicators and to assess the extent to which they have been applied. This preliminary gap analysis is used in the development of a set of indicators suitable for measuring progress towards the conservation of biodiversity in managed forests and agriculture. The paper concludes with a draft set of indicators for discussion, with suggestions including proportion of land under sustainable management, amount of produce from such land, area of natural or high quality semi-natural land within landscapes under sustainable management and key indicator species.     

Neglect of biological riches: the economics of nature tourism in Nepal

Nepal's spectacular parks and reserves have attracted dramatically increasing numbers of foreign visitors. It might be expected that these protected areas would be nurtured as valuable and irreplaceable economic assets. However they are becoming seriously degraded and the financial resources provided for their management have been inadequate. This paper explores why — starting with the hypothesis that so little of the economic value of protected area tourism in Nepal is captured through fees and other charges assessed on foreign visitors that the protected areas are perceived as being of inconsequential value. It is conservatively estimated that $27 million of tourists' total expenditure in Nepal were attributable to the protected area network in 1988, when the costs of managing the parks were less than $5 million but direct fees colleeted from tourists visiting the protected areas amounted to less than $1 million. These figures suggest the parks are a good investment. But it could also be argued that the costs of park management were more than five times the revenues collected by the government from park tourists. Policy measures are identified which could help Nepal increase the economic as well as environmental benefits from nature tourism.Case studies of Nepal's most-visited protected areas emphasize that the lack of funds for protected area management is not the only constraint on effective management. Some important economic and institutional interests have yet to be effectively reconciled with conservation in the protected areas. Most problematic are local people's economic aspirations and the operating practices of the principal government agencies involved — the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the Ministry of Tourism. Fortunately there have recently been some encouraging signs of change within both of these agencies.     

生物多样性适应气候变化的国家政策和措施: 国际经验及启示

气候变化已成为威胁生物多样性及生态系统服务功能的主要因素之一, 许多国家已经意识到必须提高本国生物多样性适应气候变化的能力。一些国家出台了国家战略, 采取增加连通性、改进现有保护区域的管理和恢复措施等基于生态系统的适应措施, 采用跨学科与跨部门协作手段加强生物多样性适应气候变化的监测和评估, 并且从制度和资金等方面加强政策措施的落实。作者对部分发达国家和发展中的生物多样性大国的生物多样性适应气候变化的相关政策和措施进行了梳理, 并结合我国现状提出以下建议: (1)把生物多样性适应气候变化作为国家整体适应战略中的优先措施之一; (2)将提高生物多样性和生态系统的恢复力作为适应气候变化的基础性原则; (3)整合并完善国家生物多样性监测网络, 参考国际通行标准制定信息和数据收集标准, 并且尽快对气候变化下我国生物多样性脆弱性开展全面且持续的评估。     

Conserving biodiversity efficiently: what to do, where, and when

Conservation priority-setting schemes have not yet combined geographic priorities with a framework that can guide the allocation of funds among alternate conservation actions that address specific threats. We develop such a framework, and apply it to 17 of the world's 39 Mediterranean ecoregions. This framework offers an improvement over approaches that only focus on land purchase or species richness and do not account for threats. We discover that one could protect many more plant and vertebrate species by investing in a sequence of conservation actions targeted towards specific threats, such as invasive species control, land acquisition, and off-reserve management, than by relying solely on acquiring land for protected areas. Applying this new framework will ensure investment in actions that provide the most cost-effective outcomes for biodiversity conservation. This will help to minimise the misallocation of scarce conservation resources.     

A tool for protected area management: multivariate control charts ‘cope’ with rare variable communities

Performance assessment, impact detection, and the assessment of regulatory compliance are common scientific problems for the management of protected areas. Some habitats in protected areas, however, are rare and/or variable and are not often selected for study by ecologists because they preclude comparison with controls and high community variability makes meaningful change detection difficult. Shallow coastal saline lagoons are habitats that experience comparatively high levels of stress due to high physical variability. Lagoons are rare, declining habitats found in coastal regions throughout Europe (and elsewhere) where they are identified as one of the habitats most in need of protected area management. The infauna in the sediments of 25 lagoons were sampled. Temporal and spatial variation in three of these [protected] lagoons was investigated further over 5 years. In a multivariate analysis of community structure similarities were found between some lagoons, but in other cases communities were unique or specific to only two sites. The protected lagoons with these unique/specific communities showed significant temporal and spatial variation, yet none of the changes observed were attributed to human impacts and were interpreted as inherent variability. Multivariate control charts can operate without experimental controls and were used to assess community changes within the context of ‘normal’ lagoon variability. The aim of control chart analysis is to characterize background variability in a parameter and identify when a new observation deviates more than expected. In only 1 year was variability more than expected and corresponded with the coldest December in over 100 years. Multivariate control charts are likely to have wide application in the management of protected areas and other natural systems where variability and/or rarity preclude conventional analytical and experimental approaches but where assessments of condition, impact or regulatory compliance are nonetheless required.     

基于CVM的山东海洋保护区生态系统多样性维持服务价值评估

选取山东济南(代表内陆城市)和青岛(代表沿海城市),基于条件价值法(CVM),对两市城镇居民进行问卷调查,通过建立支付意愿多元线性回归方程用以评估山东省城镇居民对维持山东88个海洋保护区永续存在的支付意愿,进而估算山东海洋保护区的生态系统多样性维持服务价值。研究发现,人均年收入较高,支付意愿较大;文化程度较低,支付意愿较小;男性比女性的支付意愿高;内陆城镇居民对于海洋保护区的人均支付意愿为102.15元,比沿海城镇居民的支付意愿高23.05元。2014年,山东全部88个海洋保护区的生态系统多样性维持服务价值为43.7亿元,平均0.497亿元/个。其中,12个自然保护区的价值为16.14亿元,平均1.35亿元/个;30个海洋特别保护区的价值为14.47亿元,平均0.489亿元/个;46个水产种质资源保护区的价值为12.9亿元,平均0.28亿元/个。结果表明:海洋自然保护区的生态系统多样性维持服务价值比海洋特别保护区和水产种质资源保护区高。在修订我国各类保护区的选划标准和管理目标时,应增加生态系统多样性维持服务价值并作为关键的选划指标。具有最高生态系统多样性维持服务价值的海域,宜选划为自然保护区,实施最严格的管理措施,确保其生态系统多样性维持服务价值增加,至少不降低。具有较高生态系统多样性维持服务价值的海域,因地制宜选划为海洋特别保护区或者海洋水产种质资源保护区,实施较严格的管理措施,确保其生态系统多样性维持服务价值不降低。     

基于爱知生物多样性目标11的我国自然保护地管理有效性评估进展与分析

本文基于我国相关政府部门、国际机构、科研机构和文献关于我国自然保护地管理有效性评估数据, 梳理和分析了我国针对爱知生物多样性目标11的自然保护地管理有效性评估的进展情况。结果显示, 我国已按时完成了爱知生物多样性目标11中2015年之前对60%以上自然保护地管理有效性评估的指标; 目前已开展管理有效性评估的自然保护地面积达136.19万km², 占我国自然保护地面积(186.60万km²)的72.99%; 我国自然保护地管理有效性受多方关注。本研究调查数据与世界自然保护地数据库、自然保护地管理有效性全球数据库的数据差异较大; 我国自然保护地管理有效性评估工具多样, 各类型自然保护地管理有效性评估工作进展差异显著, 管理有效性评估标准化和连续性有待提高。最后, 提出了如下建议: 加强自然保护地整体性和连通性; 参考世界自然保护区委员会的评估框架和世界自然保护联盟自然保护地绿色名录标准, 按照国家公园、自然保护区和自然公园分类制定管理有效性评估规范并将评估制度化; 有效利用评估结果促进我国自然保护地建设的标准化、科学化并建立激励机制等。     

Residents’ attitudes toward three protected areas in southwestern Nepal

Understanding people’s beliefs and attitudes toward protected areas is a key factor in developing successful management plans to conserve those areas over the long-term. Yet, most of the emphasis in understanding people’s perceptions has been on the conflicts that exist between people and protected areas, such as loss of traditional extraction access or damage by wildlife to crops and livestock. This study addresses the need to explore people’s attitudes toward protected areas in a way that allows them to define and describe the values they hold toward the areas and the relevant issues and concepts. Three contrasting protected areas in the southwestern region of Nepal were chosen for this study to gain a broad representation of the values people hold toward different types of protected areas. Three themes emerged that describe the positive perceptions residents have: recreation/esthetics, environmental preservation, and economic benefits. Four themes emerged that describe the negative perceptions: negative economic impacts, belief that benefits are for the government or foreigners, fear of wildlife, and negative interactions with park guards. People’s perceptions are affected by different aspects of the areas, including the size of the area and people’s access to them, management objectives, history, and tourism. The diversity of these perceptions suggests that conservation strategies should recognize both positive and negative perceptions and work to foster and integrate diverse values in order to more accurately reflect the reality and complexity of people’s lives.     

国外生态保护地体系对我国生态保护红线划定与管理的启示

中国共产党第十八届三中全会和《环境保护法》明确提出依法划定生态保护红线, 实施最为严格的源头保护制度。世界上大多数国家都实行了将天然或近天然的区域划作保护地、建立生态空间体系对物种及其生境进行保护。在国际上虽未有“生态保护红线”这一提法, 但是划定生态保护区域的做法是相似的。作者基于相关文献, 对世界自然保护联盟(IUCN)保护地系统, 以及美国、欧盟、俄罗斯、日本等地区和国家的生态保护地(区)体系的保护地面积和管理实践进行了系统梳理和总结。大多数国家的生态保护地(区)的面积在5-40%之间, 并建立了专门的保护管理职能部门或成立了多部门分工负责的管理体制, 根据人类活动强度的不同制定差异化的管控措施。对比我国现有保护地体系的空缺分析以及保护地分类管理中存在的问题, 本文提出了整合与优化我国现有各类保护区域, 通过重要性、敏感性评价对在生态系统服务功能、生物多样性和生境保护方面作用最为重要的土地优先划入生态保护红线内, 面积比例以占到陆地国土总面积的30%以上为宜。为严守生态保护红线, 根据我国现有部门职能分工, 建议强化环境保护部门对生态保护红线区域的统一监督管理职能, 制定生态保护红线管理办法, 在生态保护红线区域内实行分级分类管理。