scholarly journals Managers’ perceptions of threats to the protected areas of Kenya: prioritization for effective management

Oryx ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Warui Kiringe ◽  
Moses Makonjio Okello ◽  
Sylvia W. Ekajul

AbstractIn Kenya knowledge of the relative severity of threats to protected areas and the vulnerability of these areas to any threats is lacking. Such information is required, however, for assessment of the effectiveness of management of the country’s protected areas, and to help identify critical management and policy weaknesses and priorities for improving management and allocating resources. We therefore studied the relative severity of threats to Kenya’s 50 protected areas and their relative vulnerability to such threats based on the perceptions of protected area managers. Ten threats were identified by these managers, of which the most severe were illegal bushmeat hunting, poaching of large mammals, human–wildlife conflicts, human encroachment, and loss of migration corridors and dispersal areas. Thirty-two (64%) protected areas were vulnerable to over half of the threats, 54% vulnerable to over six of the threats and 32% vulnerable to over seven of the threats. Protected areas in marine, forested/montane and inland wetland ecosystems were regarded as highly vulnerable to the perceived threats. Protected areas adjacent to urban/industrial and agricultural areas were vulnerable to most of the threats. Our findings demonstrate that protected areas in Kenya are increasingly threatened, that major threats needs to be mitigated, and that prioritization of protected areas for strategic actions is required for effective management.

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 846-854
Author(s):  
Alessandro Ribeiro Morais ◽  
◽  
Mariana Nascimento Siqueira ◽  
Roniel Freitas-Oliveira ◽  
Daniel Brito ◽  
...  

Protected areas are the most frequently used tool for the mitigation of threats to biodiversity. However, without effective management, the creation of new protected areas may be ineffective. In Brazil, protected areas must have both a governing body (consultative or deliberative council) and an official management plan. Here, we analyzed general trends and patterns in the approval of the management plans for Brazilian federal protected areas. We considered all federal protected areas, and compiled data on (i) the year the area was created, (ii) the type of protected area (integral protection vs. sustainable use), (iii) year its management plan was approved, (iv) year in which the management plan was revised after its approval, (v) total area (in hectares), and (vi) the biome in which the area is located. We stablished three groups of protected area: 1) Group A: protected areas created prior to 1979, 2) Group B: protected areas created between 1979 and 1999, and 3) Group C: protected areas created between 2000 to the present time. Finally, we tested whether time for the approval of the management plan suffered a simultaneous effect of the type of biome and type of categories of protected area (strictly protected vs. sustainable use areas). We found 211 (63.17% of the 334) protected areas with management plan. On average, the time taken for the creation and approval of a management plan far exceeds the deadlines (5 yrs.) defined under current Brazilian law. All Brazilian biomes are poorly covered by protected areas with effective management plans, with the highest and lowest value observed in the Pantanal (100%) and Caatinga (46.42%), respectively. Our results suggest that the effectiveness of many federal protected areas in Brazil can be reduced considerably by the lack of a management plan, with deleterious consequences for the country’s principal conservation strategies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan Abdulaziz ◽  
Foziah Johar ◽  
Mohammad Rafee Majid ◽  
Nasiru Idris Medugu

Nigeria like other countries has experienced rapid increase in number and sizes of protected areas in the last century. As a result, a number of policies, agencies and departments were established to ensure proper protection and management of these areas. To ensure management effectiveness, frequent evaluation is necessary. This paper is a review of relevant literatures on protected area management effectiveness and collaboration in management. The findings of the review indicated that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) framework is the most widely used for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. However, a limitation of the framework is its deficiency to integrate collaboration and motivation. These factors play vital roles in effective management of protected areas through promoting wildlife conservation particularly in developing world. Therefore, this paper proposes a hybrid framework for evaluating protected area management effectiveness, consisting of the IUCN framework, collaboration and motivation to be used in subsequent assessment of protected areas. 


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 408
Author(s):  
César Benavidez-Silva ◽  
Magdalena Jensen ◽  
Patricio Pliscoff

Chile is a country that depends on the extraction and export of its natural resources. This phenomenon has exacerbated different processes of transformation and disturbance of natural and human ecosystems. Land use change has become a key factor for the transformation of ecosystems, causing consequences for biodiversity conservation. In this study, current and future (2030, 2050 and 2080) land use categories were evaluated. Land use projections were analysed together with models of ecosystem distribution in Chile under different climate scenarios, to finally analyse different dynamics of land use change within the protected areas system. In all the scenarios evaluated, land use projections showed an increase in the areas of industrial forest plantations and urban areas and a decrease in natural and agricultural areas could be expected. In relation to ecosystem modeling, vegetational formations located in the center and south of the country could be expected to decrease, while vegetational formations in the north and center of the country could extend their surface area. Inside Chile’s protected area network, anthropic disturbances are currently undergoing expansion, which could have consequences for ecosystems and protected areas located in the central and central–south zones of Chile.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽  
Liliana Elza Petrişor

AbstractThe alpine region is of crucial importance for the European Union; as a result, the Carpathian Convention aims at its sustainable development. Since sustainability implies also conservation through natural protected areas, aimed at including regions representative for the national biogeographical space, this article aims at assessing the efficiency of conservation. The methodology consisted of using spatial metrics applied to Romanian and European data on the natural protected areas, land cover and use and their transitional dynamics. The findings show a very good coverage of the Alpine biogeographical region (98% included in the Convention area, and 43% of it protected within the Convention area) and of the ecological region of Carpathian montane coniferous forests (88% included in the Convention area, and 42% of it protected within the Convention area). The dominant land cover is represented by forests (63% within the Convention area, and 70% of the total protected area). The main transitional dynamics are deforestation (covering 50% of all changes area within the Convention area and 46% from the changed area within its protected area) and forestations – including afforestation, reforestation and colonization of abandoned agricultural areas by forest vegetation (covering 44% of all changes area within the Convention area and 51% from the changed area within its protected area) during 1990-2000 and deforestation (covering 97% of all changes area within the Convention area and 99% from the changed area within its protected area) during 1990-2000. The results suggest that the coverage of biogeographical and ecological zones is good, especially for the most relevant ones, but deforestations are a serious issue, regardless of occurring before or after achieving the protection status.


Author(s):  
Louise O'Flynn ◽  
Stephen Schweinsberg ◽  
Stephen Wearing

Insufficient funding for terrestrial protected areas is a global challenge, and the ability of a protected area management agency to secure sustainable financing is an obstacle in the effective management of these important areas. While the role of public sector agencies in establishing, financing, and managing protected areas, and in providing a supportive legislative and policy environment will remain essential into the future; the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recommends that alternative finance mechanisms be adopted to help achieve financial sustainability. With this recommendation in mind, one approach is to look to other policy areas which traditionally rely on governments as their primary funding source, to understand the alternative finance mechanisms they have adopted and appraise the suitability of these mechanisms for terrestrial protected areas. One alternative finance mechanism is the social and environmental impact bond which is a subset of impact investment and an example of a pay for success or results-based contract. This paper reviews literature on the social and environmental impact bond with a view to assessing its potential applicability to assist in the effective management of terrestrial protected areas that fall within the management categories defined by the IUCN. Three examples of existing and proposed impact bonds with an environment focus are explored, including the world’s first environmental impact bond in Washington D.C., the publicly offered Atlanta environmental impact bond and the proposed wildlife conservation bond in South Africa. The selected impact bonds will help to illustrate the establishment, operation, and evaluation of impact bonds in a real-world context. It will be argued that the social and environmental impact bond can be a useful finance model for a range of uses in a variety of social sectors and conservation settings, including terrestrial protected areas. The paper further considers how the impact bond might result in both improved social and/or environmental outcomes as well as the perceived challenges associated with this alternative finance mechanism. While the focus of this paper is on terrestrial protected areas, the lessons discussed may also be applicable to marine protected areas.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel de Merode ◽  
Kes Hillman Smith ◽  
Katherine Homewood ◽  
Richard Pettifor ◽  
Marcus Rowcliffe ◽  
...  

What determines the vulnerability of protected areas, a fundamental component of biodiversity conservation, to political instability and warfare? We investigated the efficacy of park protection at Garamba National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo) before, during and after a period of armed conflict. Previous analysis has shown that bushmeat hunting in the park increased fivefold during the conflict, but then declined, in conjunction with changes in the sociopolitical structures (social institutions) that controlled the local bushmeat trade. We used park patrol records to investigate whether these changes were facilitated by a disruption to anti-poaching patrols. Contrary to expectation, anti-poaching patrols remained frequent during the conflict (as bushmeat offtake increased) and decreased afterwards (when bushmeat hunting also declined). These results indicate that bushmeat extraction was determined primarily by the social institutions. Although we found a demonstrable effect of anti-poaching patrols on hunting pressure, even a fourfold increase in patrol frequency would have been insufficient to cope with wartime poaching levels. Thus, anti-poaching patrols alone may not always be the most cost-effective means of managing protected areas, and protected-area efficacy might be enhanced by also working with those institutions that already play a role in regulating local natural-resource use.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. Kotkova

The paper provides the data on aphyllophoroid fungi of the State Nature Reserve «Kurgalsky» situated in the Kingisepp District of the Leningrad Region. The list includes 285 species annotated by data on their habitats, substrates and frequency. In total 25 species protected in the Leningrad Region and 3 species protected in Russian Federation were found in the protected area. Chaetodermella luna, Phlebia subochracea and Trechispora stevensonii are published for the first time for the Leningrad Region. The specimens of selected species are kept in the Mycological Herbarium of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (LE).


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Verónica Iñiguez-Gallardo ◽  
Fabián Reyes-Bueno ◽  
Olga Peñaranda

The perceptions and values that local communities have towards protected areas are of great value for the improvement of these territories’ management. Such perceptions and values are often absent in the conservation planning process, particularly in those privately protected areas that are established in areas where the land tenure system is based not only on ownership but also on customary uses. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data obtained through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and members of communities surrounding a privately protected area in southern Ecuador, we identify that the level of collaboration with the managers, the distance to the protected area, the percentage of untitled land, and the dependence on the resources (customary uses) are among the variables affecting these perceptions and values. Positive perceptions towards protected areas and naturalistic values are developed among those who collaborate with the protected area managers, whereas negative perceptions, and a mix of naturalistic and biospheric values are developed among those who have a sense of a lack of attention to social needs although supporting nature conservation at the same time. The evidence presented shows the importance of matching local peoples’ expectations with conservation goals during the establishment of a protected area.


Author(s):  
Wiguna Rahman ◽  
Joana Magos Brehm ◽  
Nigel Maxted ◽  
Jade Phillips ◽  
Aremi R. Contreras-Toledo ◽  
...  

AbstractConservation programmes are always limited by available resources. Careful planning is therefore required to increase the efficiency of conservation and gap analysis can be used for this purpose. This method was used to assess the representativeness of current ex situ and in situ conservation actions of 234 priority crop wild relatives (CWR) in Indonesia. This analysis also included species distribution modelling, the creation of an ecogeographical land characterization map, and a complementarity analysis to identify priorities area for in situ conservation and for further collecting of ex situ conservation programmes. The results show that both current ex situ and in situ conservation actions are insufficient. Sixty-six percent of priority CWRs have no recorded ex situ collections. Eighty CWRs with ex situ collections are still under-represented in the national genebanks and 65 CWRs have no presence records within the existing protected area network although 60 are predicted to exist in several protected areas according to their potential distribution models. The complementarity analysis shows that a minimum of 61 complementary grid areas (complementary based on grid cells) are required to conserve all priority taxa and 40 complementary protected areas (complementary based on existing protected areas) are required to conserve those with known populations within the existing in situ protected area network. The top ten of complementary protected areas are proposed as the initial areas for the development of CWR genetic reserves network in Indonesia. It is recommended to enhanced coordination between ex situ and in situ conservation stakeholders for sustaining the long term conservation of CWR in Indonesia. Implementation of the research recommendations will provide for the first time an effective conservation planning of Indonesia’s CWR diversity and will significantly enhance the country’s food and nutritional security.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Buckley ◽  
Paula Brough ◽  
Leah Hague ◽  
Alienor Chauvenet ◽  
Chris Fleming ◽  
...  

Abstract We evaluate methods to calculate the economic value of protected areas derived from the improved mental health of visitors. A conservative global estimate using quality-adjusted life years, a standard measure in health economics, is US$6 trillion p.a. This is an order of magnitude greater than the global value of protected area tourism, and two to three orders greater than global aggregate protected area management agency budgets. Future research should: refine this estimate using more precise methods; consider interactions between health and conservation policies and budgets at national scales; and examine links between personalities and protected area experiences at individual scale.


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