scholarly journals Using spatial metrics to assess the efficacy of biodiversity conservation within the Romanian Carpathian Convention area

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43
Author(s):  
Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽  
Liliana Elza Petrişor
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Transitional Dynamics ◽  
Spatial Metrics ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Ecological Zones ◽  
Biogeographical Region ◽  
Agricultural Areas

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.

scholarly journals Recent land cover and use in Romania: A conservation perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor ◽  
Liliana Elza Petrişor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Transitional Dynamics ◽  
Human Pressure ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Urbanization Development

The study of land cover and use changes is important for sustainability, given that they are part of the global changes affecting our environment. In order to understand the mechanisms determining them, land cover and use changes must be studied based on their associated transitional dynamics. The present research aims to look at the most recent land cover and use changes from Romania, chosen as an example for post-socialists transitions. The methodology was based on applying geo-spatial analyses to data on land cover and use changes and natural protected areas. The results indicate that the most prominent transitional dynamics are deforestations and abandonment of cropland, rooted in the post-socialist property restitution. Furthermore, the study identified transitional dynamics indicating the human pressure within the natural protected areas, including urbanization, development of agriculture, and deforestation. Although subject to limitations bound to the use of CORINE data, the findings are important for understanding the environmental impact of socio-economic drivers, and provide additional evidence for the fact that emerging economies tend to sacrifice the environment during the economic crises.

scholarly journals The Comparative Analysis of Pressures and Threats to The Natura 2000 Sites for Wild Birds Protection - Case Studies in Wetlands in Romania and Bulgaria

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-192
Author(s):  
Doina Cioacă
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Natura 2000 ◽  
Habitats Directive ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Birds Directive ◽  
Green Corridor ◽  
Natura 2000 Site

ABSTRACT The Natura 2000 concept and wetlands protection are relatively new for Romania and Bulgaria, because they are former communist countries and, after the 1990s, had too little value placed on nature conservation in favour of infrastructure development and agriculture. The development of the European ecological network Natura 2000 on these territories has come as an obligation for accession of these countries to The European Union on 01.01.2007. During the period 2006-2009 I made an analysis for the management of protected areas along the Danube Green Corridor, between Romania and Bulgaria, especially for wetlands, similar to the results of the WWF Germany project “Lower Danube - Green Corridor (LDGC): Freshwater protected area management and freshwater restoration in Bulgaria, Romania and trans-boundary conservation along the Lower Danube”. To have a complete view of the situation of the protected areas management between Romania and Bulgaria, along the Lower Danube Green Corridor, and the perspectives for the next years, I carried out some evaluation for more than 20 Natura 2000 sites, which are alike in many ways, such as: the object of protection (Sites of Community Importance, SCI, under the Habitats Directive; Special Protection Areas for birds, SPAs, under the Birds Directive; natural protected areas of national importance for these two countries, or other natural and semi natural areas with the potential to be protected), human activities, pressures and threats, and other aspects. Later, I used these results to make a comparative analysis of the Cernica area (Ilfov County, Romania), to add another argument to include it in the Natura 2000 Network from Romania, as ROSPA0122 Cernica Lake and Forest. This analysis showed that Cernica faces approximately the same pressures and threats as other protected areas and has almost the same efficiency in management planning as the highest assessed Natura 2000 SPAs, respectively Iezer-Călăraşi in Romania and Srebarna of Bulgaria, which is an argument to establish this area as a Natura 2000 site.

scholarly journals Correlates of long-term land-cover change and protected area performance at priority conservation sites in Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALISON E. BERESFORD ◽  
GRAEME M. BUCHANAN ◽  
BEN PHALAN ◽  
GEORGE W. ESHIAMWATA ◽  
ANDREW BALMFORD ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Land Cover Change ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Absolute Difference ◽  
Area Network ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Natural Land

SUMMARYThe loss of natural habitats is a major threat to biodiversity, and protected area designation is one of the standard responses to this threat. However, greater understanding of the drivers of habitat loss and of the circumstances under which protected areas succeed or fail is still needed. We use visual assessment of satellite images to quantify land-cover change over periods of up to 30 years in and around a matched sample of protected and unprotected Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in Africa. We modelled the annual survival of forests and other natural land covers as a function of a range of environmental and anthropic predictors of plausible drivers. The best-supported model indicated that survival rates of natural land cover were highest in steeper areas, at higher altitudes, in areas with lower human population densities and in areas where the cover of natural habitats was already higher at the start of the period. Survival rates of natural land cover in protected areas were, on average, around twice those in unprotected areas, but the differences between them varied along different environmental gradients. The overall survival rates of both protected and unprotected forests were significantly lower than those of other natural land-cover types, but the net benefit of protection, in terms of the absolute difference in rates of loss between protected and unprotected sites, was higher in forests. Interaction terms indicated that as slope and altitude increased, the natural protection offered by topography increasingly nullified the additional benefits of legislative protection. Furthermore, protected area designation offered reduced additional benefits to the survival of natural land cover in areas where rates of conversion were higher at the start of the observation period. Variation in the impacts of protected area status along different environmental gradients indicates that targets to improve the world's protected area network, such as Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, need to look beyond simple area-based metrics. Our methods and results contribute to the development of a protocol for prioritizing places where protection is likely to have the greatest effect.

scholarly journals Global protected area impacts

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1712) ◽  
pp. 1633-1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas N. Joppa ◽  
Alexander Pfaff
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Conservation Priorities ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Natural Land ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Landscape Protection

Protected areas (PAs) dominate conservation efforts. They will probably play a role in future climate policies too, as global payments may reward local reductions of loss of natural land cover. We estimate the impact of PAs on natural land cover within each of 147 countries by comparing outcomes inside PAs with outcomes outside. We use ‘matching’ (or ‘apples to apples’) for land characteristics to control for the fact that PAs very often are non-randomly distributed across their national landscapes. Protection tends towards land that, if unprotected, is less likely than average to be cleared. For 75 per cent of countries, we find protection does reduce conversion of natural land cover. However, for approximately 80 per cent of countries, our global results also confirm (following smaller-scale studies) that controlling for land characteristics reduces estimated impact by half or more. This shows the importance of controlling for at least a few key land characteristics. Further, we show that impacts vary considerably within a country (i.e. across a landscape): protection achieves less on lands far from roads, far from cities and on steeper slopes. Thus, while planners are, of course, constrained by other conservation priorities and costs, they could target higher impacts to earn more global payments for reduced deforestation.

scholarly journals Future Scenarios for Land Use in Chile: Identifying Drivers of Change and Impacts over Protected Area System

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 408
Author(s):  
César Benavidez-Silva ◽  
Magdalena Jensen ◽  
Patricio Pliscoff
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Area Network ◽  
The North ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Human Ecosystems ◽  
Agricultural Areas

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.

scholarly journals Integration of Instruments for the Protection of Natural Protected Areas in Urban and Biodiversity Strategies and in Urban Planning Regulations

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cerasella Crăciun ◽  
◽  
Atena Ioana Gârjoabă ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Development ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Urban Ecology ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Urban Fabric ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Spatial Point ◽  
Urban Settlements

Approximately 75% of the urban settlements in Romania are superimposed or are tangent to at least one natural protected area, these not being integrated from the point of view of their regulation in the urban strategies and in the urban planning regulations. From a spatial point of view, this type of relationship often represents a contrast between the urban fabric and the quasi-natural fabric. However, in the regulatory or strategy instruments for the development of urban settlements, where such contrasts exist, they are only integrated at the border level. The ecotone is, in most cases, the only element mentioned in urban planning instruments and is approached as a land that can only function in isolation and that in no way can support urban development. This reluctance and fear of approaching natural protected areas, also negatively influences the conception of the community, investors and the administration. Urban actors are not informed and therefore not motivated, but neither do they have the opportunity to get involved in the conservation and protection process. The purpose of this article is to research urban and biodiversity strategies at E.U level, to identify gaps in the formulation of urban planning tools, what are the reasons behind generating these gaps and how they can be eliminated, or at least mitigated. The analysis will focus on some models of urban strategies which address natural protected areas, but will also consider related elements, directly related to their conservation, urban ecology and the involvement in the process of urban actors.

scholarly journals Can trail characteristics influence visitor numbers in natural protected areas? A quantitative approach to trail choice assessment

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-20
Author(s):  
Kamila Svobodova ◽  
Luis Monteiro ◽  
Jiri Vojar ◽  
Katerina Gdulova
Keyword(s):  
Land Cover ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Planning And Management ◽  
Geographic Information System Analysis ◽  
New Research ◽  
Visitor Numbers

Abstract Planning for recreational activities in protected areas involves an understanding of multiple and complex factors. Trails constitute the main recreation facility in protected areas. They are an important and common infrastructure that concentrates visitor movement. Their sustainable planning and management requires an understanding of how the visitors made their selection. The aim of this study was to identify the effect of trail attributes on visitor numbers in the Krkonoše Mountains National Park in the Czech Republic. The methods used in this study present an analytical approach involving geographic information system analysis, field monitoring and data analyses using generalised linear models. The results showed the preferential tendencies among visitors to certain trail attributes. Marginal significance and a rather strong variability in preferences (over 10%) were identified for five trail characteristics: the amount of local attractions; diversity of land cover types; dominant land cover along a trail; soil erosion; and the type of trail surface. In our study, we illustrate an analytical framework for the assessment of trail characteristics that can help guide trail analyses and management efforts. On the other hand, our findings raise new research questions and point to the requirements for further research in order to better understand how environmental attributes influence visitor choice and to use this knowledge for trail planning and management.

scholarly journals Terrestrial biodiversity threatened by increasing global aridity velocity under high-level warming

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (36) ◽  
pp. e2015552118
Author(s):  
Hao Shi ◽  
Hanqin Tian ◽  
Stefan Lange ◽  
Jia Yang ◽  
Shufen Pan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Physiological Response ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Species Ranges ◽  
Terrestrial Species ◽  
Terrestrial Biodiversity ◽  
High Level ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Global aridification is projected to intensify. Yet, our knowledge of its potential impacts on species ranges remains limited. Here, we investigate global aridity velocity and its overlap with three sectors (natural protected areas, agricultural areas, and urban areas) and terrestrial biodiversity in historical (1979 through 2016) and future periods (2050 through 2099), with and without considering vegetation physiological response to rising CO2. Both agricultural and urban areas showed a mean drying velocity in history, although the concurrent global aridity velocity was on average +0.05/+0.20 km/yr−1 (no CO2 effects/with CO2 effects; “+” denoting wetting). Moreover, in drylands, the shifts of vegetation greenness isolines were found to be significantly coupled with the tracks of aridity velocity. In the future, the aridity velocity in natural protected areas is projected to change from wetting to drying across RCP (representative concentration pathway) 2.6, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5 scenarios. When accounting for spatial distribution of terrestrial taxa (including plants, mammals, birds, and amphibians), the global aridity velocity would be -0.15/-0.02 km/yr−1 (“-” denoting drying; historical), -0.12/-0.15 km/yr−1 (RCP2.6), -0.36/-0.10 km/yr−1 (RCP6.0), and -0.75/-0.29 km/yr−1 (RCP8.5), with amphibians particularly negatively impacted. Under all scenarios, aridity velocity shows much higher multidirectionality than temperature velocity, which is mainly poleward. These results suggest that aridification risks may significantly influence the distribution of terrestrial species besides warming impacts and further impact the effectiveness of current protected areas in future, especially under RCP8.5, which best matches historical CO2 emissions [C. R. Schwalm et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 19656–19657 (2020)].

scholarly journals A natural life: neo-rurals and the power of everyday practices in protected areas

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose A. Cortes-Vazquez
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Protected Area ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Natural Protected Areas ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
New Locations ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
The Right ◽  
Natural Life

The worldwide expansion of nature conservation initiatives has attracted a great deal of attention among political ecologists. Concerned about the effects on people and the environment, critical scholars have attempted to identify the drivers of conservation, and how power operates. Conservation policies, practices and conflicts have generated a large literature about the role of states, expert bureaucracies, private corporations, NGOs and technologies of government. In this article I aim to extend this literature by paying attention to a largely neglected field of power relations, defined by the efforts made by new inhabitants of natural protected areas, who have moved to these new locations and have strived to construct and maintain an idyll wherein they can enjoy a new, 'natural life.' Using Bourdieu's notions of cultural capital and habitus, I demonstrate that, in certain places, it is in the everyday practices of making a natural protected area a new home where power relations unfold more subtly, although no less intensely. I illustrate this empirically with a particular case study: the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park in southeastern Spain. I examine the role played by neo-rurals in the establishment of this protected area, present an ethnographic account of their everyday practices, and link them to the conflicts that have emerged with other social groups, with whom they compete for the right to use and access local resources.Key words: Conservation, political ecology, protected areas, neo-rurals, power, Europe

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