Economic incentives for conservation: beekeeping and Saturniidae caterpillar utilization by rural communities

The economic viability of the wildlife based enterprises (bee-keeping and caterpillar utilization) in Malawi is discussed in relation to conventional agricultural enterprises (maize, beans and ground-nuts). A strong incentive emerges for rural people to adopt wildlife management as an adjunct to subsistence agriculture, and therefore, to promote conservation of natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats in the face of growing human population and demand for land. Dependence on agriculture has depleted the wildlife resource outside protected areas and has been less effective in improving the wealth and living standards of most rural people. This study illustrates that the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife needs to introduce economic incentives that integrate biological conservation with economic development for the rural people. The management programme involves the adoption of a rotation burning policy that promotes vegetation coppicing, eases harvesting and promotes high caterpillar yields.     

Wildlife utilization and biodiversity conservation in Namibia: conflicting or complementaryobjectives?

This paper surveys different economic aspects of biodiversity conservation in Namibia's wildlife sector. One of the main causes of biodiversity loss has been the conversion of wildlife habitat to other land uses, notably livestock and crops. However, wildlife utilization strategies potentially yield significantly higher economic rates of return compared to these traditional land uses. Historically, the move towards land use patterns more favourable to wildlife has been hampered by a number of policy and institutional constraints. Since Namibia's independence, many of these constraints have now been removed or are in the process of reform. These moves are already encouraging investment in wildlife utilization, most notably in wildlife tourism and related activities. Some forms of wildlife utilization, particularly ecotourism and photographic safaris, will certainly complement the national and international commitment to biodiversity conservation. Consumptive uses may be economically attractive in some areas and will discourage further habitat conversion. However, uses which involve specialized management for the production of a few species may alter the species composition and functioning of ecosystems, causing conflict between the aims of wildlife utilization and biodiversity conservation. Less tangible components of biodiversity may remain under threat even under a well-designed wildlife utilization policy.     

Strategic Grassland Bird Conservation throughout the Annual Cycle: Linking Policy Alternatives,Landowner Decisions,and Biological Population Outcomes

Grassland bird habitat has declined substantially in the United States. Remaining grasslands are increasingly fragmented, mostly privately owned, and vary greatly in terms of habitat quality and protection status. A coordinated strategic response for grassland bird conservation is difficult, largely due to the scope and complexity of the problem, further compounded by biological, sociological, and economic uncertainties. We describe the results from a collaborative Structured Decision Making (SDM) workshop focused on linking social and economic drivers of landscape change to grassland bird population outcomes. We identified and evaluated alternative strategies for grassland bird conservation using a series of rapid prototype models. We modeled change in grassland and agriculture cover in hypothetical landscapes resulting from different landowner decisions in response to alternative socio-economic conservation policy decisions. Resulting changes in land cover at all three stages of the annual cycle (breeding, wintering, and migration) were used to estimate changes in grassland bird populations. Our results suggest that successful grassland bird conservation may depend upon linkages with ecosystem services on working agricultural lands and grassland-based marketing campaigns to engage the public. With further development, spatial models that link landowner decisions with biological outcomes can be essential tools for making conservation policy decisions. A coordinated non-traditional partnership will likely be necessary to clearly understand and systematically respond to the many conservation challenges facing grassland birds.     

Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation regime: Rural farmers and the state

This article examines the rhino and elephant conservation policies of Zimbabwe, focusing on the historical experiences of rural farmers with colonial and post-colonial wildlife policies. It begins by defining the social and political ramifications of the current environmental conservation debate in Africa, and how these are crucially affected by rural people's perceptions of environmental goods. Next, the paper explores the exploitative colonial legacy of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe, and how that legacy has or has not been transformed since independence. The paper pays close attention to the development of linkages between rural farmers, local conservation NGOs, and local and national governmental bodies. Finally, the paper finds that, while many positive linkages have been made between conservation authorities and rural farmers and ranchers in elephant conservation programs, few such linkages have been made in the various rhino conservation schemes. Since Zimbabwe has been relatively successful in conserving its elephant population, but relatively unsuccessful in stopping rhino poaching, the paper concludes that the development of positive linkages between rural farmers and the state, which include heavy doses of popular participation at the grassroots level, is crucial for any successful natural resource policy.     

基于假设抽取法的黑河流域中游行业用水关联分析

基于2000—2012年张掖市混合型水资源投入产出模型,运用改进的假设抽取法,分析了张掖市6部门水资源关联效应,揭示了水资源在行业间的消耗规律,为调整产业结构提供有利的参考。研究结果表明:(1)各部门水资源直接消耗量与满足自身所需的水资源量不对等,种植业的水资源直接消耗量和纵向集成消耗量均为最大,且其纵向集成消耗水量小于直接消耗量,是张掖市经济系统中真正的水资源净输出部门。(2)种植业的内部效应和复合效应均最大,对自身的依赖性极强。服务业的净后项关联最大,对其他部门的依赖程度最高。(3)水资源在各部门之间发生了转移,种植业是张掖市经济系统中最大的水资源供给者,服务业是各部门中最大的受水者,通过中间投入的方式,由种植业到服务业的路径是最大的水转移途径,而建筑业是"纯"输入部门。(4)2000—2012年间,各部门的内部效应、复合效应、净前项关联和净后项关联均变化显著,进一步反映了产业部门水资源利用的动态关联。     

The Emergence of Waterfowl Conservation Among Yup'ik Hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

This paper presents evidence of emerging waterfowl conservation practices and attitudes among certain groups of contemporary Yup'ik subsistence hunters in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, a remote, wetlands dominated region of western Alaska crucial to several species of Pacific migratory birds. By examining what factors motivate hunters to follow restraint practices and evaluating how federal goose management policies impact these factors, I argue that recent policy has succeeded not by enforcement of regulations but by providing minimum necessary conditions for voluntary conservation to emerge as a cultural practice. This example of cooperative management may serve as a model for future, sustainable wildlife policies that involve indigenous resource users.     

Bird conservation and the U.K. Biodiversity Action Plan

The Biodiversity Convention requires parties to prepare national plans with strategies for the conservation of biodiversity. The U.K. produced its Action Plan in January 1994, one of the first countries to do so. The document of nearly 200 pages sets out the rationale for conserving biodiversity and the U.K. scientific tradition which underpins our understanding of biodiversity and describes in very summary form the key characteristics of U.K. biodiversity and the resources we devote to sustaining it, both in situ and ex situ, as well as our contribution to assisting conservation outside the U.K. It goes on to consider the role of education and public information and the need to improve the coordination and accessibility of scientific data and monitoring. Finally, it sets out a range of targets and commitments including a proposal to set up machinery, involving non-governmental interests, to agree on specific targets for key species and habitats in 1995. The main emphasis of the Plan and the work ahead is to create a collaborative framework for the large but fragmented efforts by the public voluntary sectors to reverse recent losses of biodiversity. In many ways bird conservation and population monitoring provide a benchmark for other species work. Bird conservation will benefit from the increased integration of effort and scientific analysis which looks at the interaction of species, habitats and wider land use issues and the effect of sectoral policies such as agriculture, energy and transport.     

Do wild dogs exclude foxes? Evidence for competition from dietary and spatial overlaps

Abstract The management of wild canids (wild dogs/dingoes and foxes) presents a conservation dilemma for land managers across Australia. These canids are predators of wildlife and domestic stock but dingoes are considered native and anecdotal reports suggest that they may suppress foxes such that dingo/dog conservation may have a net benefit to wildlife. This study examines dietary and spatial interactions between wild dogs and foxes in the Greater Blue Mountains region of NSW to address the possibility of suppression through competitive exclusion by dogs on foxes. Predator diets were compared using faecal analysis as well as an analysis of 19 dietary studies from similar forest habitats in eastern Australia. Spatial relationships were examined using data from an extensive canid control programme. Diets of wild dogs and foxes showed a high degree of overlap in species taken, indicating potential for competition. But there was also evidence of resource partitioning with the size and arboreality of mammalian prey differing between the two predators. Wild dogs and foxes responded to different landscape‐scale variation in the physical environment, but there was no clear evidence of large‐scale differences in their distribution. At the fine scale there was a negative association between these predators that indicated possible temporal avoidance or localized habitat shifts. Therefore, there is evidence for dietary competition and fine‐scale exclusion, but no support for landscape‐scale exclusion of foxes by wild dogs in the Blue Mountains.     

Conservation of arboreal herbivores: The Australian scene

Abstract A common global issue in biological conservation, that of land use allocation and subsequent management practice, is also at the core of the problem of conserving arboreal herbivores in Australia. The problem is caused by a number of biological and cultural factors. Many populations of Australia's terrestrial vertebrate fauna species of forest and woodland environments, including notably the arboreal herbivores, are concentrated in habitats on soils relatively rich in nutrients. Such habitats are limited due to (i) Australia's general aridity and its naturally poor endowment of soils of reasonable quality, and (ii) the extent to which habitats on the better soils have been cleared to service Australia's social and economic development. Land clearing has focused on these better soils because of cultural traditions in agriculture, and society's recognition of the importance of ‘good’ soils to a nation's development. As a result, Australia has legislation and numerous government policies and programmes that aim to identify and make maximum use of the productive potential of Australia's land. For example, the Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1861 was enacted expressly to transfer land from public to private or leasehold tenure and to develop those lands best suited for agriculture and pastoralism. As a result, from 1861 to the end of the nineteenth century, large areas were extensively cleared and potentially commercial forests were destroyed. The remaining uncleared land in private tenure today carries a major part of the woodland and forest resource on the better soils. Woodland and forest associations on these soils are generally poorly represented in reserves. Furthermore, the Australian constitution, and laws concerning the rights of the private landholder and the use of forest resources on leasehold land, indirectly or implicitly encourage or otherwise act to minimize the constraints on continued land clearing. From the above facts and because human populations are expected to increase, the prognosis for Australia's woodland and forest fauna, including the arboreal herbivores, is one of ongoing loss of important habitats. This paper suggests the following measures for ameliorating this loss: identify strategically important habitats, and encourage private philanthropic purchase or government purchase of timber rights, or subsidize the management of these habitats; examine possible trade-offs in public expenditures on forest administration and management in return for public purchase of privately held forests; establish educational programmes that encourage a conservation ethic and a better community understanding of the realities and the extent of the difficulties to be addressed.     

Spill-over effect in media framing: Representations of wildlife conservation in Zimbabwean and international media, 1989–2010

Myths and metaphors that occur in media frames play an important role in influencing public perceptions of an issue in times of war, political conflict, crisis and disaster. This, in turn, influences policy makers and (inter)national assistance and aid programmes. We investigated whether a metaphoric spill-over of frames used in connection with political events could explain the misrepresentation in the framing of wildlife conservation. Zimbabwe experienced a severe political conflict and economic downturn in 2000 when land reforms took place. We analyzed newspaper articles on Zimbabwe's wildlife conservation published between 1989 and 2010 from newspapers in Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. We selected three issues about wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe in the local and international media, namely, the ivory ban, rhino protection, and Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources to investigate the spill-over effect. Our results show that in the 1990s, the majority of newspaper articles highlighted that wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe was largely successful. However, two major changes occurred after 2000 following the land reforms in Zimbabwe. First, the international media showed little interest in wildlife conservation in Zimbabwe as evidenced by a sharp decline in published articles and second, the frames changed in the international media with the “political unrest and land reform” blame frame becoming more dominant. This transition in reporting, frames, and low frame parity shows that there was a spill-over effect of political frames into wildlife conservation following Zimbabwe's land reforms in 2000. Metaphoric spill-over effects may thus create myths in the readership, in turn influencing policy-derived actions in a sector that is not or poorly related to the actual disaster.     

A stakeholder perspective into wildlife policy in India

We investigated perceptions of wildlife policy and issues through questionnaires (n = 148) administered to policy makers, conservation scientists, individuals representing non-government organizations (NGOs), and field officials, who implemented government policies and enforced laws. We found significant differences among attitudes of stakeholders identifying major threats to wildlife, the use of science, the role of poaching in conservation, and the composition of species illegally traded. Policy makers and field officials differed in their views with NGOs and scientists on community response to wildlife policies and the varying threat perceptions to different species due to poaching and illegal trade. We noted ambiguity among stakeholders about sustainable use principles in India. Policies must be more effective in conservation and the process of making policy must be broad-based and participatory if wildlife conservation is to advance on the subcontinent. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.     

Primate Conservation and Local Communities—Ethical Issues and Debates

Hunting and habitat destruction and alteration threaten the existence of many primate species. However, the conservation of these primates has significant costs, as well as benefits, for people living alongside them. Conservation policy now recognizes that people should not suffer impoverishment from wildlife preservation and that, instead, conservation programs should make a significant contribution to alleviating rural poverty. Ethical consideration requires that local communities have greater control over natural resources, and that conservation programs contribute to these people's livelihood security. Nevertheless, this conservation on the basis of potential economic value may not protect primates adequately and may render them still vulnerable to extinction, given their sensitivity to human activities. This presents an ethical dilemma: primates have intrinsic moral value so should be conserved for their own sake, yet conservation policies should not cause harm to local human populations. This article explores ethical issues that arise when primates and people live in close proximity. [Keywords: primate conservation, ethical issues, human–wildlife conflict]     

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.     

Entrepreneurs, Elites, and Exclusion in Maasailand: Trends in Wildlife Conservation and Pastoralist Development

Maasai pastoralists in Kenya are rapidly diversifying. Maasai may now derive their main livelihoods (and sometimes considerable income) from farming, wildlife tourism, and/or the leasing of land for large-scale cereal cultivation. The spread of large-scale commercial cultivation competes with wildlife for grazing land, and wildlife populations around protected areas are rapidly declining as a result. This paper presents new data to analyse the way returns from different land uses, and the social structures affecting their distribution, influence the land-use choices being made by Maasai around the Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Returns to different interest groups from livestock, cultivation, and wildlife enterprises, seen in the light of current social, economic, and political trajectories, can help to clarify likely future land-use trends in the Mara. In particular, community conservation initiatives that seek to make conservation worthwhile to reserve-adjacent dwellers inevitably have a strong economic dimension. However, the choices made by Maasai landowners are not a simple function of the economic returns potentially accruing from a particular enterprise. They are as much or more influenced by who is able to control the different flows of returns from these different types of enterprise. These findings are relevant not only for the wider Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem, but also for pastoral livelihoods and wildlife conservation elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Land use changes and conservation threats in the eastern Selous–Niassa wildlife corridor,Nachingwea, Tanzania

Selous–Niassa miombo woodland ecosystem has been and continues to face conservation threats. Understanding of changes happening in such ecosystem overtime is important for establishing management baseline data. This study identified land use changes, socio‐economic factors and conservation threats to the Selous–Niassa wildlife corridor across Nachingwea district, Tanzania. Landsat images of 1978, 1993 and 2000 were used to assess land use changes. Household survey was conducted to obtain socio‐economic data; logistic regression model was used to analyse the data. In 15 years (1978–1993) cultivated land only increased by 131% while forestlands decreased by 8.7%. In 12 years (1993–2005) cultivated land increased by 65.6% while forestland decreased by 10.7%. Land cover change per year has been found 0.54% relatively low compared to national land cover change of 45%per year. Land tenure, shifting cultivation and crops prices were major factors influencing land use changes while wildfires, farm encroachment and illegal timber harvesting were major conservation threats. Basing on the results, it was recommended that there is a need for a government to introduce community‐based natural resource management plans to improve natural resource utilization and reduce human stress to the corridor.     

野生动物就地保护与其分布地经济发展的相容性

生态文明建设对野生动物资源保护提出了新的要求。在实践中,需要借鉴国内外研究成果和成功案例,并克服目前我国野生动物保护中存在的问题。综述了国内外相关文献,认为:目前世界上的野生动物就地保护方式主要是建立保护区和国家公园,在发挥保护作用同时,也给周边居民带来负面影响,从而制约了野生动物保护与当地社区经济的协调发展。传统的"命令-控制型"保护政策忽略了当地居民的生活需求,不利于形成居民积极的保护态度;居民的保护态度除了受来自野生动物造成的损害的影响,还和周边居民的年龄、受教育程度、经济收入等密切相关;为提高居民保护积极性,经济激励机制有着重要作用。目前,国内外保护工作中一般应用的经济激励措施主要包括直接经济补偿、生态旅游、现代狩猎、生态补偿等。     

Forecasting suitable areas for wind turbine occurrence to proactively improve wildlife conservation

The United States is rapidly expanding production of renewable energy to meet increased energy demands and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Wind energy is at the forefront of this transition. A central challenge is understanding the nexus between wind energy development and its capacity for negative effects on wildlife causing population declines and habitat loss. Collaboration among conservationists and developers, early in the planning process, is crucial for minimizing wind-wildlife conflicts. Such collaborations require data showing where wind and wildlife impacts occur. To meet this challenge and inform decision-making, we provide natural resource agencies and stakeholders information regarding where future wind turbines may occur, and the potential affects on natural resource management, including the conservation of priority species and their habitats. We developed a machine learning model predicting suitability of wind turbine occurrence (hereafter, wind turbine suitability) across an eight-state region in the United States, representing some of the richest areas of wind potential. Our model incorporates predictor variables related to infrastructure, land ownership, meteorology, and topography. We additionally created a constraint layer indicating areas where wind would likely not be developed because of zoning, protected lands, and restricted federal agency proximity guidelines. We demonstrate how the predictive wind turbine suitability model informs conservation planning by incorporating animal movement models, relative abundance models coupled with spatial conservation planning software, and population density models for three exemplar, high priority species often affected by wind energy: whooping cranes (Grus americana), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus). By merging the wind turbine and biological models, we identified conservation priority areas (i.e., places sharing high suitability for wind turbines and species use), and places where wind expansion could minimally affect these species. We use our “species-wind turbine occurrence relationships” to demonstrate applications, illustrating how forecasting areas of wind turbine suitability promotes wildlife conservation. These relationships inform wind energy siting to reduce negative ecological impacts while promoting environmental and economic viability.     

Ecological Footprint Policy? Land Use as an Environmental Indicator

This article argues that policies aimed at sustainability need to address the spatial dimensions of environmental problems and their solutions. In particular, spatial configurations of economic activities deserve attention, which means addressing land use, infrastructure, trade, and transport. Unfortunately, good theory and indicators to support the analysis and design of spatial‐environmental policies are not fully developed. One approach that has become very popular in the last decade is the ecological footprint (EF). It is both an environmental accounting tool and aggregate indicator, which is used by scientists, environmental organizations, and popular media. Despite criticisms of the EF method in the past, its popularity has only increased. In fact, an increasing number of publications with an application of the EF appear in scientific journals. We review the EF approach from indicator‐methodology and welfare angles and assess its policy relevance. Our conclusion is that it does not offer any meaningful information for public policy.     

The resurgence in resource nationalism and private protected areas: Through the lens of Save Valley Conservancy's indigenisation

It has been observed that the resurgence in resource nationalism in the past decade worldwide has profound implications for all economic sectors including protected areas. However, a review of the international protected area literature reveals a paucity of studies that make use of the construct of resource nationalism as an analytical framework. This paper addresses this gap by bringing to the fore how Zimbabwe's ZANU PF (the political party that brought the country's independence in 1980) has deployed and extended this construct from the 2000 land reform programme to one of the world's largest private wildlife sanctuaries, namely the Save Valley Conservancy (SVC). In doing so, the paper relies extensively on the narratives, debates and legitimations of the ruling elite and other stakeholders around the recent ‘indigenisation’ of the SVC. It was found that a range of actors attempted to use resource nationalism as a ‘resource’ to further their own private economic and political interests whilst others resorted to the conservation discourse. One of the main conclusions of this paper is that managers of protected areas need to be sensitive to the resurgence in resource nationalism. In this connection, it is argued that the ability to negotiate the resurgence in resource nationalism will determine the fate of some private protected areas. The study suggests possible solutions around the indigenisation of SVC and points to future research priorities.