Protected Areas: A Systematic Conservation Planning Approach for Ecoregions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Banu Kaya özdemirel

Cross taxa congruence was investigated between butterfly taxa and ecological community for fine spatial scale (10 × 10 km² UTM grids) in north-eastern part of Turkey. The study area was evaluated within the scope of systematic conservation planning, and analyses were performed for sets of priority protected areas composed using complementarity-based site selection software Marxan. Cross taxa congruence was subsequently examined both in species richness and ecologic complementarity. Accordingly, it has been observed that the cross-taxon congruence between butterfly taxa and ecological community was relatively better than the results of previous studies. Another remarkable finding is that ecological community was a more robust surrogate than butterfly taxa. Although the results are valuable for conservation studies, they highlight the fact that a simple surrogate-based site selection would be inadequate to represent overall biodiversity.  The weakness of congruence patterns among surrogates would also lead to gaps in biodiversity conservation. These findings therefore draw attention to the necessities of incorporating surrogates of distinct ecology or some other surrogates like environmental parameters into conservation planning. Otherwise, there may be mistakes regarding species representation and the vast majority of species may be misrepresented in protected areas and protected area plans. At this point, it should be emphasized that understating cross taxa congruence and/or relationships is a key component for efficient biodiversity conservation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 574-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Foresta ◽  
Maria Laura Carranza ◽  
Vittorio Garfì ◽  
Mirko Di Febbraro ◽  
Marco Marchetti ◽  
...  

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Natalia Boulad ◽  
Sattam Al Shogoor ◽  
Wahib Sahwan ◽  
Nedal Al-Ouran ◽  
Brigitta Schütt

The present study aims to use systematic conservation planning to analyse and review the national protected areas (PAs) network in Jordan. The analysis included the application of three modules: the environmental risk surface (ERS), the relative biodiversity index (RBI), and the application of Marxan. The methodology was based on using Marxan to achieve solutions for three scenarios for the PAs network. Marxan was applied to the input data, which included vegetation types, distribution of threatened mammals and plants, locations of currently established PAs and other types of designations. The first two scenarios aimed to conserve 4% and 17%, respectively, of each vegetation type, and 10% and 20%, respectively, of the extent of occurrence of threatened mammals and plants. The third scenario aimed to conserve 17% of each vegetation type and 10% of the extent of occurrence of threatened plants and mammals, except for forest and the Hammada vegetation which had the target of 30% and 4%, respectively. The results of the three scenarios indicated that the boundaries of existing reserves should be extended to achieve the conservation targets. Some currently proposed (PAs), such as the Aqaba Mountains, did not appear in any of the solutions for the three scenarios indicating that the inclusion of these sites in the proposed (PAs) network should be reconsidered. All three scenarios highlighted the importance of having conservation areas between the western and eastern parts of the country. Systematic conservation planning is a structured, replicable, transparent, and defensible method for designing PA networks. It allows for finding efficient solutions building on what is currently conserved and minimizing the fragmentation and cost of the proposed solution for conservation areas.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Smith ◽  
Samantha J. Cartwright ◽  
Andrew C. Fairbairn ◽  
Deborah C. Lewis ◽  
Gwili E.M. Gibbon ◽  
...  

Conservation area networks in most countries are fragmented and inadequate. To tackle this in England, government policies are encouraging stakeholders to create local-level Nature Recovery Networks. Here we describe work led by a wildlife organisation that used the systematic conservation planning approach to identify a Nature Recovery Network for three English counties and select focal areas within it where they will focus their work. The network was based on identifying core zones to maintain current biodiversity and recovery zones for habitat restoration, meeting area-based targets for 50 priority habitat, landscape, landcover and ecosystem service types. It included the existing designated sites for conservation, which cover 6.05% of the study site, and identified an additional 11.6% of land as core zones and 18% as recovery zones, reflecting the organisation’s broad objective of conserving and connecting 30% of England by 2030. We found that systematic conservation planning worked well in this context, identifying a connected, adequate, representative and efficient network and producing transparent and repeatable results. The analysis also highlighted the pressing need for government agencies to provide national-level guidance and datasets for setting targets and including species data in spatial planning, creating a national framework to inform local action.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibon Galparsoro ◽  
Ángel Borja

Environmental conservation is currently one of the main objectives of marine management. It is agreed that effective management requires evaluating the tradeoffs between protection and economic costs for negatively impacted maritime activities. For these reasons, integrated approaches combining ecological and socio-economic aspects are needed to achieve nature conservation and sustainability targets. Here, we present an approach to identify cost-effective priority marine areas for protection through a Systematic Conservation Planning method, adopting the Basque Country as case study (SE Bay of Biscay). Eight protection scenarios were defined, targeting a combination of protection features: benthic habitats, biological value of cetaceans, birds, macroalgae, and macroinvertebrates, potential provision of ecosystem services, and habitat sensitivity to human activities. In turn, the total fishing pressure produced by artisanal fisheries was adopted as a measure of the socio-economic costs of protection (assuming, for this research, that fishing would be banned in the protected areas). The results indicated that existing marine protected areas (MPAs) were very close to achieving prescribed protection targets, while these targets could be achieved by increasing the size of the existing MPAs. Higher costs were associated with the declaration of areas that were targeting a larger number of protection features. Nevertheless, cost/effectiveness was higher in these cases, with the environmental benefits outweighing a comparatively smaller increase in cost. However, the most cost-effective scenarios were those that included the extension of already existing MPAs. The method implemented can assist managers and decision makers in identifying conservation gaps and ecosystem components that require special attention. In addition, the approach can be used to develop management strategies that may be adopted under different protection scenarios. Thus, the approach proposed here could be used to inform ecosystem-based marine spatial planning.


2008 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Maiorano ◽  
Valerio Bartolino ◽  
Francesco Colloca ◽  
Alvaro Abella ◽  
Andrea Belluscio ◽  
...  

Abstract Maiorano, L., Bartolino, V., Colloca, F., Abella, A., Belluscio, A., Carpentieri, P., Criscoli, A., Jona Lasinio, G., Mannini, A., Pranovi, F., Reale, B., Relini, G., Viva, C., and Ardizzone, G. D. 2009. Systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean: a flexible tool for the identification of no-take marine protected areas. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 137–146. We propose the use of systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean context for the identification of no-take marine protected areas (NTMPAs). We suggest a logical framework that should be used for the identification of areas to be targeted for multispecies, spatially explicit conservation actions. Specifically, we propose seven steps: (i) definition of the study area; (ii) selection of the species or habitats to be considered; (iii) definition of the planning units; (iv) measurement of the fishing effort; (v) definition of the conservation targets; (vi) review of the existing conservation areas; (vii) selection of additional NTMPAs. Moreover, we consider the potential impact of different conservation plans on existing fishing vessels. A working example is presented, focusing on a limited number of species and on a limited study area. This framework can be easily expanded to include datasets of different origin and to accommodate larger spatial scales. Such a process involves major data-collection and capacity-building elements, and conservation of productive commercial fisheries must be a priority.


2016 ◽  
Vol 92 (03) ◽  
pp. 322-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yolanda F. Wiersma ◽  
Darren J.H. Sleep

Systematic Conservation Planning (SCP) is an approach to protected areas planning that follows a step-by-step process. Recent reviews have examined the use of key “biogeographic-concepts”, but an assessment of their use or effectiveness has not been done. We conducted a review of the literature on SCP to assess how the 6-step approach considers these concepts. Most of the 127 papers we reviewed varied in their application of SCP steps. Our findings suggest that protected areas plans are not effectively achieving conservation goals. Only six papers considered data uncertainty. Twenty papers used so-called “data free” conservation targets without clear rationales, and which have been shown to under-represent natural features. The median size of planning units applied (2500 ha) is too small to meet minimum area requirements for many species. We show how an examination of the variation in the ways that SCP is applied helps to identify best practices for achieving conservation effectiveness and efficiency. However, very few SCP efforts have been implemented, making it difficult to assess their effectiveness or efficiency in practice. Detailed examination of how SCP is implemented (perhaps focused on a specific region) can lead to a better understanding of how best to achieve large-scale conservation goals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 153-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romero Gomes Pereira da Silva ◽  
Carlos Henke-Oliveira ◽  
Everaldo Skalinski Ferreira ◽  
Raquel Fetter ◽  
Ronaldo Gomes Barbosa ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. 802-805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis-Vincent Lemelin ◽  
Marcel Darveau

This paper compares the principal concepts and methodologies that have been developed in conservation planning over the past few decades. Of these, the terms coarse filter and fine filter have been used inconsistently, we propose, therefore, consensual grounds for a definition. The term "gap analysis" has been used to refer to the prescriptive methodology of Gap Analysis and the latter is not consensual among conservation biologists. Nevertheless Gap Analysis has contributed greatly, along with the systematic conservation planning methodology, to the development of conservation planning. Overall, conservation planning has proved sound enough to merit interest and involvement from forest managers. Key words: coarse filter, fine filter, gap analysis, systematic conservation planning, ecological representation, protected areas


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel Delso ◽  
Jesús Muñoz ◽  
Javier Fajardo

Abstract Most existing protected area networks are usually biased to protect charismatic species or showy landscapes. We hypothesized that conservation networks designed including unseen diversity –groups usually species-rich but consisting of inconspicuous taxa, or affected by knowledge gaps– would be more efficient than networks ignoring those groups. To test this hypothesis, we created species distribution models for 3,006 species of arthropods and determined which were represented in three networks of different size and biogeographic origin. We assessed the efficiency of each network using spatial prioritization to measure its completeness –increment needed to achieve conservation targets– and specificity –how much overlap the priority areas based on unseen diversity with existing networks. We find that representativeness of unseen diversity in existing protected areas –extrinsic representativeness– was low, as ~40% of unseen diversity species were unprotected. We also find that existing networks should be expanded by an additional ~26-46% of their current area to complete targets, and that specificity can be as low as 8.8%, meaning that existing networks are not efficient to conserve unseen diversity. We conclude that information on unseen diversity must be included in systematic conservation planning approaches to design more efficient and ecologically representative protected areas.


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