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Flashcards in conservation management (lecture 9) Deck (23)
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1
Q

What disciplines does conservation management involve?

A
  • biology
  • legal/regulatory frameworks
  • social sciences
  • economics
2
Q

How are declines economically driven?

A
  • long-term economic value usually increased by sustainable management
  • short-term economic value increases with high demand and low supply e.g. rarity
    e. g. european eel: pop decline reduced trade volume by 50%, export value increased tenfold
3
Q

When is non-sustainable management ecologically viable?

A
  • tragedy of the commons: because others are also exploiting resource, future economic gain isn’t viable
  • population growth rates are lower than interest rates
  • usually true for slowly reproducing animals like whales as sustainable harvest rates are low
4
Q

How to deal with economic externalities?

  • smoking example
A
  • costs imposed on some that aren’t paid for by those doing the damage
  • e.g. smokers impose cost of passive smoking and cost of health care due to smoking related diseases
  • internalise the external costs
  • force person causing damage to pay for it, e.g. high taxes on cigarettes
  • internalising costs reduces damage
5
Q

What are the economic externalities of deforestation?

A

forests:
- stabilise soils, regulate water flow, increase water quality

intensive logging reduces these
benefits:
- mud-slides, fluctuating river levels, sedimentation

changes to down-stream water quality & quantity impact farmers & fishermen:

  • logging companies don’t pay for costs imposed downstream
  • instead poor farmers/fishermen subsidising wealthy logging company owners
6
Q

How to deal with economic externalities of deforestation?

A
  • internalise the costs
  • force logging companies to compensate people affected downstream
  • reduces logging profitability and deforestation rates
  • very difficult to work out compensatory scheme details
7
Q

What’s the difference between internalisation vs compensation?

A
  • industry compensated for lost revenue from changing damaging practices to wildlife friendly ones
  • polluter pays vs paid not to pollute
    e. g. agri-environment scheme, REDD+
8
Q

What are the two main legislative processes?

A

regulatory/control
- e.g. trade in endangered species (CITES), persecution, pollution

facilitating legislation
- e.g. green certification schemes

9
Q

What is CITES? What are the three CITES categories?

A
  • CITES = convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora

Category 1:

  • species threatened with extinction
  • international trade usually banned
  • trophy hunting may be allowed in some circumstances
  • ~800 species

Category 2:

  • species that may be threatened with extinction if no action taken
  • international trade controlled
  • ~32500 species

Category 3:

  • species included at the request of a party that regulates trade and needs cooperation
  • ~300 species
10
Q

Do trade bans work?

  • yellow crested cockatoo
A

e. g. yellow crested cockatoo (Cahill, 2006)
- 1981: CITES appendix 2
- heavy trade continued
- total trade ban in 1994
- increase in numbers by 2002

11
Q

Do trade bans work?

A

trade spikes:

  • massive increase in trade after plan to ban trade announced but before implemented
  • (Rivalan et al., 2007): 50% mature population size traded during trade spike, 10% of Geofroy’s cat

decreased price:

  • large carnivore influence on farmers profits
  • negative on livestock predation
  • positive on trophy hunting
  • banning trophy hunting of carnivores imposes net negative effect on profits & thus persecution

crime:

  • trade bans can drive trade underground and promote armed conflict
  • both hinder monitoring and increase conservation cost
  • illegal logging makes $100B/y for organised crime
12
Q

How do the social sciences interact with conservation management?

A
  • can’t ignore people
  • places with high conservation importance often have a lot of people
    e. g. threatened bird species richness maps onto human population density
  • population growth high around protected areas
  • historical response to kick people out of protected areas
  • leads to intense resentment of conservation
  • not sustainable
13
Q

How did social sciences improve local perception of Kossi Tapu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal?

A
  • 65% local people did not like the protected area
  • thought water buffalo broke fences and raided crops
  • disliked resource use restriction

research demonstrated:

  • thatch collection is economically viable
  • fence damage is from lifestock entering reserve
  • education disseminating this info made local perceptions more positive
14
Q

How did social sciences improve local perception of Siamese crocodiles?

A
  • 250 mature individuals left
  • pressure from hunting & deforestation

conservation programmes:

  • doubled rice yields during food insecurity
  • increased non-timber forest product sales
  • significantly decreased logging and poaching
  • crocodile populations recovering
15
Q

To manage or not to manage in a crisis?

A
  • rapid decisions often have to be made on limited knowledge base
  • wrong decisions can be highly detrimental
  • no action may sometimes be best option

lack of action can also be bad though:

  • slender billed curlew went extinct
  • conservation action not implemented until well after decline began
  • max 19 left in 1990s when conservation efforts begam
16
Q

What are the five general principles of conservation management?

A
  • critical biodiversity composition and ecological processes must be maintained
  • minimise external threats and maximise external benefits
  • conserve capacity for ecological processes
  • management must be minimally intrusive
  • management must be monitored and adaptive
17
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • critical biodiversity composition and ecological processes must be maintained
A
  • natural processes & disturbances key to maintaining biodiversity
  • ecosystem management encourages/mimics these processes

hindered by:

  • lack of data on natural disturbance regimes
  • small management areas that limit development of large diverse habitats

ecosystem management can work

  • e.g. north american fire regimes
  • encouraged regeneration, reduced major fire damage

ecosystem management can also fail

  • e.g. restoring natural water flow in everglades failed to prevent wood stork population declines
  • specific habitat needs not met
18
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • minimise external threats and maximise external benefits
A

e.g. ethiopian wolf & rabies control

  • endemic to ethiopian highlands
  • endangered, 500 adults and sub adults, in 7 isolated populations surrounded by numerous villages
external threats:
- canine distemper & rabies outbreaks spread by dogs
external benefits:
- public health
- ecotourism

primary management:

  • dog vaccination & sterilisation
  • uptake rates less than ideal

secondary management:

  • reduce livestock predation and perception of risk
  • education regarding external benefits
  • ensure external benefits are realised
19
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • conserve capacity for ecological processes
A
  • adaptive potential requires natural selection and individual death, conflicting with conservation goals
  • amahiki populations at low elevations are recovering despite high rates of malaria infection
  • probably evolving resistance
    (Woodworth et al., 2005)
20
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • management must be minimally intrusive
A

Chatham Island Black robin
(NZ): a success story but one
that made major errors

- tom-tit exterminated on island
with sole robin population due
to competition
- double clutching & cross
fostering, but failed with 1st trial
species Chatham island
warbler
- only worked with tom-tit so
eggs had to be transferred to
another island
21
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • management must be monitored and adaptive: island fox example
A

Island fox:

  • critically endangered
  • feral pigs: habitat destruction & attract golden eagles that also predate foxes.
  • pig control: increases eagle predation on foxes
  • similar to meso-predator release with control of rats and cats
22
Q

The five general principles of conservation management:

  • management must be monitored and adaptive
A

Conceptualise:

  • define initial team/scope/vision/targets
  • identify critical threats
  • complete situation analysis

Plan Actions and Monitoring:

  • develop goals, strategies, assumption, objectives
  • develop operating/monitoring plans

Implement Actions and Monitoring:

  • develop work plan/timeline/budget
  • implement plans

Analyse, Use, Adapt:

  • prepare data for analysis
  • analyse results
  • adapt strategic plan

Capture and Share Learning:

  • document learning
  • share learning
  • create learning environment
23
Q

What is the centre for evidence based conservation (CEBC)?

A
  • limited access to data for conservation managers
  • poorly connected to scientists and each other
  • much data in grey literature/not written down
  • time and financial constraints on data access

CEBC conducts systematic reviews & freely publishing results to combat this