Reorienting Systematic Conservation Assessment for Effective Conservation Planning

Migratory animals play vital ecological roles in ecosystems worldwide, yet many species are threatened by human activities. Understanding the detailed patterns of habitat use throughout the migration cycle is critical to developing effective conservation strategies for these species. Migratory shorebirds undertake some of the longest known migrations, but they are also declining precipitously worldwide. To better understand the dynamics of shorebird declines along the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, we quantified the spatiotemporal foraging distribution of 17 migratory shorebirds at two critical stopover sites. We found that shorebirds exhibit substantial interspecific and site-specific differences in their foraging distributions. Notwithstanding these differences, however, the upper tidal flats appear to be especially important to most shorebirds by providing more than 70% of the birds' cumulative foraging time, twofold greater than their proportional area. Because the upper tidal flats are also more prone to coastal development, our findings may help to explain why shorebird populations along the flyway have declined much faster than the overall rate of tidal flat loss. Our work highlights the importance of protecting upper tidal flats to conserve migratory shorebirds and demonstrates the value of a detailed ecological understanding of habitat usage by migratory animals for conservation planning.

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Phylogenetically informed spatial planning is required to conserve the mammalian tree of life

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2017.0627 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 284 (1865) ◽

pp. 20170627 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Dan F. Rosauer ◽

Laura J. Pollock ◽

Simon Linke ◽

Walter Jetz

Keyword(s):

Conservation Planning ◽

Phylogenetic Diversity ◽

Informed Choice ◽

Tree Of Life ◽

Phylogenetic Information ◽

Mammal Conservation ◽

The Face ◽

New Generation ◽

The Impact ◽

Effective Conservation

In the face of the current extinction crisis and severely limited conservation resources, safeguarding the tree of life is increasingly recognized as a high priority. We conducted a first systematic global assessment of the conservation of phylogenetic diversity (PD) that uses realistic area targets and highlights the key areas for conservation of the mammalian tree of life. Our approach offers a substantially more effective conservation solution than one focused on species. In many locations, priorities for PD differ substantially from those of a species-based approach that ignores evolutionary relationships. This discrepancy increases rapidly as the amount of land available for conservation declines, as does the relative benefit for mammal conservation (for the same area protected). This benefit is equivalent to an additional 5900 Myr of distinct mammalian evolution captured simply through a better informed choice of priority areas. Our study uses area targets for PD to generate more realistic conservation scenarios, and tests the impact of phylogenetic uncertainty when selecting areas to represent diversity across a phylogeny. It demonstrates the opportunity of using rapidly growing phylogenetic information in conservation planning and the readiness for a new generation of conservation planning applications that explicitly consider the heritage of the tree of life's biodiversity.

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Systematic conservation planning: a review of perceived limitations and an illustration of the benefits, using a case study from Maputaland, South Africa

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605306001232 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 400-410 ◽

Cited By ~ 50

Author(s):

Robert J. Smith ◽

Peter S. Goodman ◽

Wayne S. Matthews

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Distribution Data ◽

Systematic Conservation Planning ◽

Conservation Assessment ◽

Game Ranching ◽

Setting Process

Systematic conservation planning is widely considered the most effective approach for designing protected area and other ecological networks. However, many conservation practitioners still ignore these methods and we suggest that five perceived limitations of this process are affecting its uptake. These perceptions are that (1) systematic conservation planning software is difficult to use, (2) the process requires extensive biodiversity distribution data, (3) setting targets for representing conservation features is not possible, (4) the advantages of systematic conservation planning do not outweigh the costs, and (5) the resulting plans often identify unsuitable areas. Here we review these perceived limitations and argue they are all misplaced, although we recognize difficulties in the target setting process. We then illustrate the value of systematic conservation planning to practitioners using a case study that describes a low-cost exercise from Maputaland, South Africa. This preliminary conservation assessment measured the effectiveness of the existing reserve system and identified a number of candidate areas that could be the focus of community- or privately-run ecotourism or game ranching ventures. Our results also emphasize both the importance of producing planning outputs that are specifically targeted for stakeholders, and the role of systematic conservation planning in providing a framework for integrating different provincial, national and transnational conservation initiatives.

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The potential for voluntary instruments to achieve conservation planning goals: the case of conservancies in South Africa

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605310001559 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 45 (3) ◽

pp. 357-364 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Linda Downsborough ◽

Charlie M. Shackleton ◽

Andrew T. Knight

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Protected Areas ◽

South African ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Nationwide Survey ◽

Land Conservation ◽

Private Land ◽

Eastern Cape ◽

Private Land Conservation ◽

Effective Conservation

AbstractSpatial prioritizations and gap analyses are increasingly undertaken to allocate conservation resources. Most spatial prioritizations are conducted without specifying the conservation instruments to be implemented and gap analyses typically assess formally protected areas but increasingly include private land conservation instruments. We examine conservancies to see if these voluntary instruments contribute towards achieving goals of South African conservation planning initiatives. We conducted a nationwide survey and interviews with conservancy members in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. Conservancies have potential for assisting South Africa to achieve conservation planning goals at national and local scales but their inclusion in spatial prioritizations and gap analyses predicates improved protection for nature, operational refinement and increased support. We sound a warning to conservation planning initiatives that incorporate voluntary instruments on private land, and present recommendations for strengthening such instruments to make them more effective. Our findings may assist conservation planners elsewhere to design more effective conservation planning initiatives focused on private land.

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Improving the Key Biodiversity Areas Approach for Effective Conservation Planning

BioScience ◽

10.1641/b570309 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 57 (3) ◽

pp. 256-261 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Andrew T. Knight ◽

Robert J. Smith ◽

Richard M. Cowling ◽

Philip G. Desmet ◽

Daniel P. Faith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conservation Planning ◽

Effective Conservation

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Site complementarity between biodiversity and ecosystem services in conservation planning of sparsely-populated regions

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892915000132 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 56-68 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

JÉRÔME CIMON-MORIN ◽

MARCEL DARVEAU ◽

MONIQUE POULIN

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Conservation Planning ◽

Freshwater Wetland ◽

Conservation Assessment ◽

Eastern Canada ◽

Local Flow ◽

Biodiversity Surrogates ◽

Wetland Biodiversity ◽

Conservation Actions ◽

Populated Region

SUMMARYThe consequences of considering ecosystem services (ES) in conservation assessment are still widely debated. The degree of success depends on the extent to which biodiversity and ES can be secured under joint conservation actions. Unlike biodiversity, ES conservation is inseparably linked to human beneficiaries. Reconciling biodiversity with ES and conservation can be particularly challenging in sparsely populated areas. This study, in a sparsely-populated region of eastern Canada, focused on freshwater wetland biodiversity and ten ES provided by wetlands. Within a given maximal total area, the results showed that planning for biodiversity underrepresented local flow ES supply by 57% and demand by 61% in conservation networks. Planning for ES alone underrepresented wetland biodiversity surrogates by an average of 34%. Considering both biodiversity and ES simultaneously, all of the biodiversity and ES targets were achieved with only a 6% mean increase in area. Achieving all conservation targets starting from a network that was primarily built for either ES or biodiversity features alone was two to five times less efficient than considering both ES and biodiversity simultaneously in conservation assessment. A better framework is required to translate these spatial synergies into effective joint conservation actions.

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