scholarly journals Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets

2005 ◽  
Vol 360 (1454) ◽  
pp. 443-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Chape ◽  
J Harrison ◽  
M Spalding ◽  
I Lysenko
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Management Effectiveness ◽  
Conservation Action ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Global Indicator

There are now over 100 000 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.

scholarly journals Managing Protected Areas in a Changing World: New Insights and Opportunities

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Z. M. Manzoor Rashid ◽  
Sharif Ahmed Mukul
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Integrated Management ◽  
Population Pressure ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Anthropogenic Pressures ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
The World

Establishment of protected areas (PAs) is one of the key global conservation strategies that currently cover approximately 15% of the earth’s land surface. Globally, PA networks are designed to curb the growing anthropogenic pressures in areas with high biological diversity. Despite the importance of PAs in conserving the vanishing biodiversity and unique habitats, many of them are in critical condition due to poor governance thus functioning below the expected level. Moreover, in many developing countries, the PA coverage is below the global standard. Recognizing their contemporary role in conservation, governments have recently agreed to expand the global PA coverage to 17% by the year 2020 (Aichi target 11). This book with eight chapters from different regions of the world provides an overview of the PAs governance, institutional mechanisms, conservation benefits, limitations and challenges associated with their respective policy discourse, integrated management, and functional attributes. Protected areas expect to to play an important role in the long rn in conservation and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems particularly in countries where population pressure and habitat loss are high. Regular intervention, political commitment, and effective governance are essential for the sustainability of PAs across the world. Here, we also attempted to shed some light on future development clues for the sustainable management and monitoring of PAs worldwide.

scholarly journals Revealing the Predominance of Culture over the Ecological Abundance of Resources in Shaping Local People’s Forest and Tree Species Use Behavior: The Case of the Vhavenda People, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mulugheta G. Araia ◽  
Paxie W. Chirwa
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Conservation Action ◽  
Indigenous Forest ◽  
Use Behavior

The resurrection of the traditional socio-ecological knowledge system as a complimentary biodiversity conservation tool for poorly performing protected areas has fueled a new debate on what drives resource use behavior in forest landscapes. Using ecological assessment and ethno-botanical techniques, we tested whether culture or the ecological abundance of resources can sufficiently explain the use behavior of traditional society for various livelihood-related utilities. Data were analyzed using parametric and non-parametric tests. The two communities of the Vhavenda people had homogenous cultural values, despite the fact that they reside in different forest conditions. The use value of habitats increases along the land use intensity gradient, as defined by cultural norms and taboos. However, despite the presumed strictness of rules related to state-protected indigenous forest, it had the same use value as with open access resource use zones. Almost no resource harvesting from culturally protected (sacred) forests was reported. Species abundance did not sufficiently explain their use value. Generally, the findings show that culture plays a predominant role in explaining use behavior. Neither is resource use decision random nor is the concept of protected areas a new concept to traditional society. Hence, capitalizing on the benefits of cultural assets in conservation action, through genuine partnership and the empowerment of local people, will ensure the sustainability of global biodiversity initiatives.

“DON VALLEY” WINE-MAKING CLUSTER AS AN ENOGASTROTOURISM DEVELOPMENT SITE: SOCIO-CULTURAL COMPONENT

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Е.V. Pokazannik ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Wine Making ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
Regional Cluster ◽  
Educational Programmes ◽  
Development Site ◽  
Cultural Component

“Don Valley” is more than a historic or geographic location, - it is an official name of a wine-making area, proposed by Rostov Region administration for consolidation of local wine-makers under the single mega-brand. Specialized regional cluster “Don Valley” is “an association of leading scientific, educational, industrial, engineering and innovative organizations and enterprises of the Rostov region, operating in the following areas: wine-making, manufacturing of components for wineries, scientific-research and educational programmes, development of retail infrastructure, promotion of wine-tasting and gastronomic tourism, and viniculture”3. The creators of the cluster official web-site declare “Made on the Don” brand communication as their primary goal, along with promotion of wine in the region. The article reviews the specifics of Don region from a standpoint of its attractiveness as a tourist destination. The mandatory components are named that together with the enogastronomic sphere can contribute to the growth of demand for tourist routes of various content and duration. The key role of cultural and historic component in successful promotion of the Don winemaking in the tourism market is emphasized. It is noted that enogastrotourism can be developed successfully in Don region through socio-cultural project management based on the thorough analysis of specifics of the region as a whole and its individual components affecting the marketing and advertising solutions.

scholarly journals Challenging the State: Devolutionary Tenure Transitions for Saving and Expanding Forests

Human Ecology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liz Alden Wily
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Property Relations ◽  
The Will ◽  
Customary Land

AbstractI address a contentious element in forest property relations to illustrate the role of ownership in protecting and expanding of forest cover by examining the extent to which rural communities may legally own forests. The premise is that whilst state-owned protected areas have contributed enormously to forest survival, this has been insufficiently successful to justify the mass dispossession of customary land-owning communities this has entailed. Further, I argue that state co-option of community lands is unwarranted. Rural communities on all continents ably demonstrate the will and capacity to conserve forests – provided their customary ownership is legally recognized. I explore the property rights reforms now enabling this. The replication potential of community protected forestlands is great enough to deserve flagship status in global commitments to expand forest including in the upcoming new Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

scholarly journals Above- and belowground biodiversity jointly tighten the P cycle in agricultural grasslands

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Oelmann ◽  
Markus Lange ◽  
Sophia Leimer ◽  
Christiane Roscher ◽  
Felipe Aburto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Management Intensity ◽  
Use Efficiency ◽  
Grassland Productivity ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Diverse Plant ◽  
Management Effects ◽  
P Cycle

AbstractExperiments showed that biodiversity increases grassland productivity and nutrient exploitation, potentially reducing fertiliser needs. Enhancing biodiversity could improve P-use efficiency of grasslands, which is beneficial given that rock-derived P fertilisers are expected to become scarce in the future. Here, we show in a biodiversity experiment that more diverse plant communities were able to exploit P resources more completely than less diverse ones. In the agricultural grasslands that we studied, management effects either overruled or modified the driving role of plant diversity observed in the biodiversity experiment. Nevertheless, we show that greater above- (plants) and belowground (mycorrhizal fungi) biodiversity contributed to tightening the P cycle in agricultural grasslands, as reduced management intensity and the associated increased biodiversity fostered the exploitation of P resources. Our results demonstrate that promoting a high above- and belowground biodiversity has ecological (biodiversity protection) and economical (fertiliser savings) benefits. Such win-win situations for farmers and biodiversity are crucial to convince farmers of the benefits of biodiversity and thus counteract global biodiversity loss.

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