Costa Rica's Marine Protected Areas: status and perspectives

With 51 100km2 of terrestrial area and 589 000km2 of national waters, Costa Rica is considered one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity. It has approximately 3.5% of the world marine species. In the last four decades, Costa Rica has done a considerable effort to create a representative system of Protected Areas (PA), mainly terrestrial. We present an assessment of the current situation of the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Costa Rica, through an historical analysis, and an evaluation of their distribution, coverage and management categories. Costa Rica has 166 protected areas covering 50% of the coastline; of these 20 are MPAs, classified as National Parks (90.6%), National Wildlife Refuges (6.6%), Wetlands (1.5%), Biological Reserves (1%), and one Absolute Natural Reserve (0.3%). According to IUCN criteria, 93.7% correspond to category II, 5% to IV and 1.3% to I. The marine protected surface is 5 296.5km2, corresponding to 17.5% of the territorial waters and 0.9% of the Exclusive Economic Zone. The median distance between MPAs is 22.4km in the Pacific and 32.9km along the Caribbean. The median size is close to 54km2. The main threats to MPAs are the lack of coordination between governmental agencies, limited economic resources, restricted patrolling and control, poor watershed management, and rampant coastal alteration.     

Effectiveness of Protected Areas for Representing Species and Populations of Terrestrial Mammals in Costa Rica

Costa Rica has one of the greatest percentages (26%) of protected land in the world. The National Protected Areas System (NPAS) of Costa Rica was established in 1976 and currently includes >190 protected areas within seven different protection categories. The effectiveness of the NPAS to represent species, populations, and areas with high species richness has not been properly evaluated. Such evaluations are fundamental to understand what is necessary to strengthen the NPAS and better protect biodiversity. We present a novel assessment of NPAS effectiveness in protecting mammal species. We compiled the geographical ranges of all terrestrial Costa Rican mammals then determined species lists for all protected areas and the estimated proportion of each species’ geographic range protected. We also classified mammal species according to their conservation status using the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. We found almost complete representation of mammal species (98.5%) in protected areas, but low relative coverage (28.3% on average) of their geographic ranges in Costa Rica and 25% of the species were classified as underprotected according to a priori representation targets. Interestingly, many species-rich areas are not protected, and at least 43% of cells covering the entire country are not included in protected areas. Though protected areas in Costa Rica represent species richness well, strategic planning for future protected areas to improve species complementarity and range protection is necessary. Our results can help to define sites where new protected areas can have a greater impact on mammal conservation, both in terms of species richness and range protection.     

基于Dobson算法的中国受威胁陆栖哺乳类优先保护识别与保护现状分析

优先保护区识别对受威胁物种的多样性保护具有重要价值。基于GIS空间分析、管理及预测能力,以中国受威胁陆栖哺乳动物为对象,建立受威胁物种的分布二值网格系统;利用Dobson算法对研究区3810个网格单元进行筛除,确定全国范围下受威胁物种的优先保护区域;结合中国主要的自然保护地分布数据（国家公园和自然保护区）,采用保护空缺方法分析优先保护区内受威胁动物的保护现状。研究发现,29个50km×50km的网格单元就包含了全部的受威胁陆栖哺乳物种,其中位于喜马拉雅山东南区等地的10个网格区域覆盖有80%以上的物种,其所处的10组县级行政区内被主要自然保护地保护的土地面积占25.9%,物种数占83.6%,存在一定的保护空缺。本文采用Dobson排除算法,以小面积规则网格为基本单元,顾及到了实验结果的客观性,有助于提高优先保护区的识别效率。     

基于随机森林模型的国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种优先保护区的识别

准确可靠地识别国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的优先保护区,是生物多样性保护的热点问题之一。采用随机森林(random forests)模型,基于12个环境变量,对中国263种国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物建模,并预测各个物种在背景点的适生概率,迭加计算得到国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的生境适宜性指数。此外,基于对生境适宜性指数的空间自相关分析,识别和确定国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种优先保护区,并对优先保护区目前的被保护情况进行分析。结果表明,国家重点保护陆生脊椎动物物种的优先保护区的面积为103.16万km~2,约占我国国土面积的10.90%。优先保护区主要分布在我国的西部地区,包括西南地区的秦岭-大巴山山区、云南省与印度及缅甸的交界地区、武陵山山区、喜马拉雅山-横断山脉山区、阿尔泰山脉山区、天山山脉山区、昆仑山山脉山区;东北的大、小兴安岭、东北-华南沿海地区及长江中下游地区有少量分布。优先保护区中被保护的面积为50.40万km~2,占优先保护区总面积的48.86%,保护率偏低,未被充分保护。利用系统聚类分析,将未被保护的优先保护区划分成3种优先保护顺序,以期为相关部门的决策提供科学依据,更好地保护生物多样性。     

Maximizing species conservation in continental Ecuador: a case of systematic conservation planning for biodiverse regions

Ecuador has the largest number of species by area worldwide, but also a low representation of species within its protected areas. Here, we applied systematic conservation planning to identify potential areas for conservation in continental Ecuador, with the aim of increasing the representation of terrestrial species diversity in the protected area network. We selected 809 terrestrial species (amphibians, birds, mammals, and plants), for which distributions were estimated via species distribution models (SDMs), using Maxent. For each species we established conservation goals based on conservation priorities, and estimated new potential protected areas using Marxan conservation planning software. For each selected area, we determined their conservation priority and feasibility of establishment, two important aspects in the decision-making processes. We found that according to our conservation goals, the current protected area network contains large conservation gaps. Potential areas for conservation almost double the surface area of currently protected areas. Most of the newly proposed areas are located in the Coast, a region with large conservation gaps and irreversible changes in land use. The most feasible areas for conservation were found in the Amazon and Andes regions, which encompass more undisturbed habitats, and already harbor most of the current reserves. Our study allows defining a viable strategy for preserving Ecuador''s biodiversity, by combining SDMs, GIS-based decision-support software, and priority and feasibility assessments of the selected areas. This approach is useful for complementing protected area networks in countries with great biodiversity, insufficient biological information, and limited resources for conservation.     

《生物多样性公约》海洋生物多样性议题的 谈判焦点、影响及我国对策

海洋和沿海生物多样性保护和可持续利用等问题是《生物多样性公约》谈判的重要领域。本文梳理了历次缔约方大会的谈判进程, 认为主要焦点议题包括: (1)应对人类活动和全球气候变化对海洋和沿海生物多样性的影响; (2)海洋和沿海生物多样性保护和可持续利用的工具; (3)海洋保护区及具有重要生态或生物学意义的海域。这些议题的讨论将影响包括全球海洋保护区建设在内的海洋生物多样性保护进程, 也将影响全球海洋生物多样性保护国际制度的建设, 以及沿海国家的社会经济。我国应加强履约谈判的技术支持, 加快涉海相关问题研究, 积极参与相关国际谈判, 并大力宣传我国经验。     

Marine biodiversity: patterns, threats and conservation needs

Marine biodiversity is higher in benthic rather than pelagic systems, and in coasts rather than the open ocean since there is a greater range of habitats near the coast. The highest species diversity occurs in the Indonesian archipelago and decreases radially from there. The terrestrial pattern of increasing diversity from poles to tropics occurs from the Arctic to the tropics but does not seem to occur in the southern hemisphere where diversity is high at high latitides. Losses of marine diversity are highest in coastal areas largely as a result of conflicting uses of coastal habitats. The best way to conserve marine diversity is to conserve habitat and landscape diversity in the coastal area. Marine protected areas are only a part of the conservation strategy needed. It is suggested that a framework for coastal conservation is integrated coastal area management where one of the primary goals is sustainable use of coastal biodiversity.     

Designing criteria suites to identify discrete and networked sites of high value across manifestations of biodiversity

Suites of criteria specifying ecological, biological, social, economic, and governance properties enable the systematic identification of sites and networks of high biodiversity value, and can support balancing ecological and socioeconomic objectives of biodiversity conservation in terrestrial and marine spatial planning. We describe designs of suites of ecological, governance and socioeconomic criteria to comprehensively cover manifestations of biodiversity, from genotypes to biomes; compensate for taxonomic and spatial gaps in available datasets; balance biases resulting from conventionally-employed narrow criteria suites focusing on rare, endemic and threatened species; plan for climate change effects on biodiversity; and optimize the ecological and administrative networking of sites. Representativeness, replication, ecological connectivity, size, and refugia are identified as minimum ecological properties of site networks. Through inclusion of a criterion for phylogenetic distinctiveness, criteria suites identify sites important for maintaining evolutionary processes. Criteria for focal species are needed to overcome data gaps and address limitations in knowledge of factors responsible for maintaining ecosystem integrity.     

Accounting for functional connectivity in cross-realm conservation planning in a data poor context: The Cyprus case

In the past years, efforts have been made to include connectivity metrics in conservation planning in order to promote and enhance well-connected systems of protected areas. Connectivity is particularly important for species that rely on more than one realm during their daily or life cycle (multi-realm species). However, conservation plans for the protection of multi-realm species usually involve a single realm, excluding other realms from the prioritization process. Here, we demonstrate an example of cross-realm conservation planning application for the island of Cyprus by taking into account the terrestrial and marine realms and their interface (i.e. coast). Operating within a data-poor context, we use functional connectivity metrics to identify priority areas for the conservation of six multi-realm species, by setting conservation targets simultaneously for the terrestrial and marine realms. MARXAN decision-support tool was used for the identification of the priority areas.Four scenarios were developed to evaluate the impacts of including connectivity in the prioritization process and the effectiveness of the existing coastal/marine protected areas in the achievement of the conservation targets set for the species. All scenarios considered land and sea anthropogenic uses as surrogate costs to influence the prioritization process.Our findings show an increase in the area of the reserve network and, therefore, the cost, when connectivity is included, whilst reducing the total boundary length. Furthermore, the current reserve network fails to achieve conservation targets, particularly for the marine part, which has a substantially smaller protection coverage than the terrestrial part.We conclude that focus should be given in the expansion of the current coastal/marine reserve network following a cross-realm conservation approach. This approach is not only relevant for the conservation of multi-realm species, but also for islandscapes, in particular, where the interdependence between the hinterland and the coast is larger and therefore the magnitude of the impacts generated in one realm and affects the other.     

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。     

厦门市重点保护植物空间优先保护格局研究

生物多样性保护对维持城市生态系统功能具有重要意义。以39种厦门市重点保护植物为对象,通过物种分布模型MaxENT获得物种潜在分布栅格图,利用空间保护优先化定量工具Zonation软件识别理论上既适宜重点保护植物生存又能够保证景观连通性的区域,获得本地重点保护植物景观保护等级。根据2020年全球生物多样性目标,将景观保护等级最高的17%区域视为多物种空间优先保护区,结合Zonation模型生成的随景观丧失物种加权灭绝风险曲线,将保护等级最高的8%区域划为一级保护区,保护等级在8%-17%范围内的区域划为二级保护区。利用MaxENT模型中的jackknife刀切法发现海拔是对本地重点保护植物分布影响最大的环境因子,优先保护区集中分布于海拔较低的海岸带区域。将优先保护区与自然保护地建设现状、厦门市生态功能区规划、土地利用规划、城市总体规划对比发现厦门市岛外西部、北部的优先保护区得到了较好保护;岛外的西南部及东南部、岛内的东部及南部海岸带的优先保护区被建设用地大规模占用,已纳入自然保护地范围的区域较少,存在大量的海岸带优先保护区保护空缺;岛外东南部的部分优先保护区虽未被占用,但规划中属发展备用地,缺乏生态保护。为避免优先保护区面积的进一步萎缩,应重点关注海岸带区域优先保护区的生态保护,将目前属于发展备用地的优先保护区转划为生态留白空间,针对一级、二级优先保护区分别实施刚性和弹性的生态保育措施,在保护生物多样性的同时,严控对海岸带区域优先保护区的进一步开发利用,协调优先保护区内保护与开发利用间的关系。     

基于水鸟保护的长江流域湿地优先保护格局模拟

基于系统保护规划的理论和方法,以长江流域湿地为研究区,构建了基于气候、地貌分异的湿地生态地理综合分类单元,并将其作为宏观尺度湿地生态系统保护目标,同时考虑以湿地鸟类为代表的物种保目标,依托Marxan系统保护规划工具,确定了长江流域湿地保护具有不可替代性的优先保护格局。该格局能以最小的社会经济和土地资源代价最大程度的保护湿地生物多样性,对比现有湿地保护格局,最终确定了游离于现有保护体系外的湿地保护空缺。研究结果表明:长江流域源区和长江三角洲地区的湿地保护体系完善,无需新建保护区;金沙江流域湿地保护空缺主要分布在现有保护区周围,可以适当扩充保护区外围或调整边界;嘉陵江流域和长江上游干流流域的保护空缺严重,大面积集中在重庆西北部,乌江流域的贵州省习水县北部湖泊湿地存在保护空缺,这些区域建议适当新建保护区或者保护小区;长江中下游湿地保护空缺主要分布在湖北、湖南、江西与安徽境内的沿江湖泊湿地,建议建立湿地公园及合理进行河流岸坡修复。研究结果可为长江流域湿地保护体系调整、保护规划制定提供参考依据,从宏观层面上为长江流域湿地统筹保护及合理开发利用提供科学依据。     

Making the Case for Marine Spatial Planning in the Maltese Islands

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has been gaining in stature recently as an ecosystem-based tool for the management of marine space that promotes the sustainable and optimal use of resources with minimal stakeholder conflicts. Malta is the quintessential maritime nation, with a disproportionately large marine area compared to its terrestrial area. Nonetheless, its limited coastline, a considerable portion of which is inaccessible, poses inevitable conflicts between multiple marine activities and designations, including aquaculture, fishing, bunkering, coastal tourism, navigation, renewable energy installations, conservation of biological diversity and protected areas (on ecological criteria). This article makes the case to implement MSP-based policies and an applicable legal framework in the Maltese Islands.     

A collaborative GIS method for integrating local and technical knowledge in establishing biodiversity conservation priorities

Methods for establishing biodiversity conservation priorities are urgently required, as the number of species and habitats that are threatened increases relative to the material resources available for their conservation. The identification of priority areas demands the integration of biophysical data on ecosystems together with social data on human pressures and planning opportunities. But comprehensive and reliable data are rarely available to demarcate where the need for action is most urgent and where the benefits of conservation strategies can be maximized. Strategic conservation initiatives cannot wait for the creation of comprehensive databases. In order to fill the missing data gaps, the combined knowledge of local and technical experts can be used. This study presents a collaborative geographic information system (GIS) method for integrating the knowledge of local and technical experts with existing spatial environmental data to establish priority areas for biodiversity conservation. Procedures for structuring and framing the discussions, establishing assessment criteria, integrating knowledge with data, and building consensus are incorporated into the method. The method provides a novel cooperative mechanism to aid spatial knowledge management and inclusive biodiversity planning.     

时空变化视角下北京市湿地优先保护格局

气候变化通过改变湿地水文过程等影响湿地的空间分布,城市化进程加剧了湿地破碎化程度并导致湿地生境退化,构建连续的湿地生态保护网络体系有利于应对气候变化和城市发展带来的负面影响、提高生物多样性保护水平。北京市现有湿地空间分布呈现斑块面积小、破碎化程度高等特点,为优化湿地保护区格局并应对气候变化和城市发展对北京市湿地生物多样性的影响,基于系统保护规划方法,以Marxan作为空间优化模型,结合PLUS模型和MaxEnt模型,模拟预测北京市湿地优先保护格局、识别湿地保护空缺并构建湿地分级保护区格局。研究表明:2020年北京市湿地存在80.15km²的保护空缺、2035年和2050年优化后湿地保护区占比分别为87.54%和85.95%,在满足本研究预设的生物多样性保护目标的前提下符合北京市湿地保护规划对湿地保护率的要求。为最优化资源分配,综合时空变化对湿地保护区空间分布的影响,构建了湿地分级保护区格局,将湿地保护区分为湿地永久保护区、湿地一级临时保护区和湿地二级临时保护区三个等级,以期为北京市分期建设湿地保护区、优化湿地生态保护网络体系和保护湿地生物多样性提供依据。     

Global assessment of marine biodiversity potentially threatened by offshore hydrocarbon activities

Increasing global energy demands have led to the ongoing intensification of hydrocarbon extraction from marine areas. Hydrocarbon extractive activities pose threats to native marine biodiversity, such as noise, light, and chemical pollution, physical changes to the sea floor, invasive species, and greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we assessed at a global scale the spatial overlap between offshore hydrocarbon activities and marine biodiversity (>25,000 species, nine major ecosystems, and marine protected areas), and quantify the changes over time. We discovered that two‐thirds of global offshore hydrocarbon activities occur in areas within the top 10% for species richness, range rarity, and proportional range rarity values globally. Thus, while hydrocarbon activities are undertaken in less than one percent of the ocean's area, they overlap with approximately 85% of all assessed species. Of conservation concern, 4% of species with the largest proportion of their range overlapping hydrocarbon activities are range restricted, potentially increasing their vulnerability to localized threats such as oil spills. While hydrocarbon activities have extended to greater depths since the mid‐1990s, we found that the largest overlap is with coastal ecosystems, particularly estuaries, saltmarshes and mangroves. Furthermore, in most countries where offshore hydrocarbon exploration licensing blocks have been delineated, they do not overlap with marine protected areas (MPAs). Although this is positive in principle, many countries have far more licensing block areas than protected areas, and in some instances, MPA coverage is minimal. These findings suggest the need for marine spatial prioritization to help limit future spatial overlap between marine conservation priorities and hydrocarbon activities. Such prioritization can be informed by the spatial and quantitative baseline information provided here. In increasingly shared seascapes, prioritizing management actions that set both conservation and development targets could help minimize further declines of biodiversity and environmental changes at a global scale.     

Diversity of the free-living marine and freshwater Copepoda (Crustacea) in Costa Rica: a review

The studies on marine copepods of Costa Rica started in the 1990’s and focused on the largest coastal-estuarine systems in the country, particularly along the Pacific coast. Diversity is widely variable among these systems: 40 species have been recorded in the Culebra Bay influenced by upwelling, northern Pacific coast, only 12 in the Gulf of Nicoya estuarine system, and 38 in Golfo Dulce, an anoxic basin in the southern Pacific coast of the country. Freshwater environments of Costa Rica are known to harbor a moderate diversity of continental copepods (25 species), which includes 6 calanoids, 17 cyclopoids and only two harpacticoids. Of the +100 freshwater species recorded in Central America, six are known only from Costa Rica, and one appears to be endemic to this country. The freshwater copepod fauna of Costa Rica is clearly the best known in Central America. Overall, six of the 10 orders of Copepoda are reported from Costa Rica. A previous summary by 2001 of the free-living copepod diversity in the country included 80 marine species (67 pelagic, 13 benthic). By 2009, the number of marine species increased to 209: 164 from the Pacific (49% of the copepod fauna from the Eastern Tropical Pacific) and 45 from the Caribbean coast (8% of species known from the Caribbean Basin). Both the Caribbean and Pacific species lists are growing. Additional collections of copepods at Cocos Island, an oceanic island 530 km away of the Pacific coast, have revealed many new records, including five new marine species from Costa Rica. Currently, the known diversity of marine copepods of Costa Rica is still in development and represents up to 52.6% of the total marine microcrustaceans recorded in the country. Future sampling and taxonomic efforts in the marine habitats should emphasize oceanic environments including deep waters but also littoral communities. Several Costa Rican records of freshwater copepods are likely to represent undescribed species. Also, the biogeographic relevance of the inland copepod fauna of Costa Rica requires more detailed surveys.     

Marine biodiversity in the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America: knowledge and gaps

The marine areas of South America (SA) include almost 30,000 km of coastline and encompass three different oceanic domains--the Caribbean, the Pacific, and the Atlantic--ranging in latitude from 12°N to 55°S. The 10 countries that border these coasts have different research capabilities and taxonomic traditions that affect taxonomic knowledge. This paper analyzes the status of knowledge of marine biodiversity in five subregions along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America (SA): the Tropical East Pacific, the Humboldt Current,the Patagonian Shelf, the Brazilian Shelves, and the Tropical West Atlantic, and it provides a review of ecosystem threats and regional marine conservation strategies. South American marine biodiversity is least well known in the tropical subregions (with the exception of Costa Rica and Panama). Differences in total biodiversity were observed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the same latitude. In the north of the continent, the Tropical East Pacific is richer in species than the Tropical West Atlantic, however, when standardized by coastal length, there is very little difference among them. In the south, the Humboldt Current system is much richer than the Patagonian Shelf. An analysis of endemism shows that 75% of the species are reported within only one of the SA regions, while about 22% of the species of SA are not reported elsewhere in the world. National and regional initiatives focusing on new exploration, especially to unknown areas and ecosystems, as well as collaboration among countries are fundamental to achieving the goal of completing inventories of species diversity and distribution.These inventories will allow accurate interpretation of the biogeography of its two oceanic coasts and latitudinal trends,and will also provide relevant information for science based policies.     

The potential impacts of global climate change on marine protected areas

The potential effects of global climate changeon marine protected areas do not appear to havebeen addressed in the literature. This paperexamines the literature on protected areas,conservation biology, marine ecology,oceanography, and climate change, and reviewssome of the relevant differences between marineand terrestrial environments. Frameworks andclassifications systems used in protected areadesign are discussed. Finally, a frameworkthat summarizes some of the importantoceanographic processes and their links to thefood chain are reviewed. Species abundance anddistribution are expected to change as a resultof global climate change, potentiallycompromising the efficacy of marine protectedareas as biodiversity conservation tools. Thisreview suggests the need for: furtherinterdisciplinary research and the use oflinked models; an increase in marine protectedareas for biodiversity conservation and asresearch sites for teasing apart fishingeffects from climate effects; a temporallyresponsive approach to siting new marineprotected areas, shifting their locations ifnecessary; and large-scale ecosystem/integratedmanagement approaches to address the competinguses of the oceans and boundary-less threatssuch as global climate change and pollution.     

How well do the existing and proposed reserve networks represent vertebrate species in Chile?

Increasingly, biogeographical knowledge and analysis are playing a fundamental role in assessing the representativeness of biodiversity in protected areas, and in identifying critical areas for conservation. With almost 20% of the country assigned to protected areas, Chile is well above the conservation target (i.e. 10–12%) proposed by many international conservation organizations. Moreover, the Chilean government has recently proposed new conservation priority sites to improve the current protected area network. Here, we used all 653 terrestrial vertebrate species present in continental Chile to assess the performance of the existing and proposed reserve networks. Using geographical information systems, we overlaid maps of species distribution, current protected areas, and proposed conservation priority sites to assess how well each species is represented within these networks. Additionally, we performed a systematic reserve selection procedure to identify alternative conservation areas for expanding the current reserve system. Our results show that over 13% of the species are not covered by any existing protected area, and that 73% of Chilean vertebrate species can be considered partial gaps, with only a small fraction of their geographical ranges currently under protection. The coverage is also deficient for endemic (species confined to Chile) and threatened species. While the proposed priority sites do increase coverage, we found that there are still several gaps and these are not the most efficient choices. Both the gap analysis and the reserve selection analysis identified important areas to be added to the existing reserve system, mostly in northern and central Chile. This study underscores the need for a systematic conservation planning approach to redefine the conservation priority sites in order to maximize the representation of species, particularly endemic and threatened species.