chapter 7 Flashcards
Establishment and classification of Protected Areas
Most common mechanisms to establish a protected area
-Government action: national, regional and local level
-Land purchases by private individuals and conservation organizations
-Actions of indigenous people and traditional societies
-Development of biological field stations by universities and other research organizations.
-IUCN Protected Areas Designations I-VI
Establishment and classification of Protected Areas
At least 180 countries or more, have protected areas
More than 108,000 protected areas in IUCN categories I-VI have been designated worldwide
30 million km2 on land
2 million km2 at sea
= 13% of Earth’s land surface
-Same as the area used to grow crops
Marine protected areas
-6% of the world’s territorial seas near costliness
-1% of the total marine environment are included in protected areas
-20% of the marine environment may need to be protected
-Over 5000 marine and costal protected areas have been established, but most are small.
-USA has 1700 marine protected areas, of which 13 are marine sanctuaries covering 46,548 km2.
The effectiveness of protected areas
Although the number of species living within a protected area is an important indicator of its potential to protect biodiversity, protected areas need to maintain healthy ecosystems and viable populations of important species.
Prioritization: what should be protected?
WHAT? WHERE? HOW?
Criteria to answer the questions:
Distinctiveness or irreplaceability
Endangerment (or vulnerability)
Utility.
Species approach:
Ecosystem approach:
Wilderness approach
Hotspot approach:
Species approach:
- Focal species
- Indicator species
- Flagship species
- Umbrella species
Ecosystem approach:
- A representative site
- Rapid biodiversity assessments RAPS
Wilderness approach
- “controls”
Hotspot approach: Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund
- Biodiversity indicators
Measuring effectiveness: Gap analysis
1.Data: distribution of species, ecosystems, physical features of the region, etc.: Conservation units.
2.Conservation goals
3.Existing protected areas are reviewed
4.Additional areas are identified
5.Additional areas are protected
6.New areas are monitored
- Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Designing Protected Areas
Four “Rs” must be considered
-Representation
-Resiliency
-Redundancy
-Reality
Specific questions:
-How large must a nature reserve be to effectively protect biodiversity that cannot survive outside the reserve?
-Is it better to have a singly large protected area or multiple smaller reserves?
-What is the best shape for a natural reserve?
-When a network of protected areas is created, should the areas be close together or far apart?
Park size implications
- When a new park is being established, it should be made as large as possible. Keystone resources should be included, in addition to habitat features that promote biodiversity.
- Whenever possible, land adjacent to protected areas should be acquired in order to reduce external threats to existing parks and to maintain critical buffer zones.
- The present and predicted effects of climate change will change ecosystems within existing protected areas.
Designing Protected Areas
Habitat corridors: strips of land running between the reserves.
Conservation corridors
Movement corridors
Landscape Ecology
Landscape ecology investigates repeating patters of habitat type son a regional scale and analyzes their influence on species distribution and ecosystem process.
Managing Protected Areas
Management plans area needed that articulate conservation goals and practical methods for achieving them. Management activities can include controlled burns, enforcement of restrictions on human use, and maintenance of keystone resources, specially water.
Key stone resources: Any resource in an ecosystem that is crucial to the survival f many species; for example, a watering hole.
Management and people
The involvement of local people is often the crucial element missing form conservation strategies. Local people need to be involved in conservation programs, as participants, employees, and leaders.
Zooning
Zooning helps to deal with conflicting demands on protected areas.
Examples: Zoned marine reserves, also known as marine protected areas (MPAs).
Zooning allows the separation of mutually incompatible activities.
Biosphere reserves
Protected areas established as part of a United Nations program to demonstrate the compatibility of biodiversity on conservation and sustainable development to benefit local people.
Integrates: human activities, research, protection of natural environment, and sometimes tourism at a single location.
Challenges to park management
- STAFF
- FUNDS!!!
protected area
is an area of land or sea dedicated by law or tradition to the protection of biodiversity and associated natural and cultural resources (WRI 2003).
focal species.
Protected areas are often established to protect individ- ual species of special concern, such as rare species, endangered species, key- stone species, and culturally significant species; species that provide the impetus to protect an area and biological community are known as focal species.
indicator species,
a species that is associated with an endangered biological community or set of unique ecosystem processes; for instance, the endangered northern spotted owl is an indicator species in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
flagship species,
such as tigers and pandas, which capture public attention, have symbolic value, and are crucial to ecotourism.
umbrella species
Flagship and indicator species are also known as umbrella species—protecting them pro- tects other species (Ozaki et al. 2006).
representative site
A representative site includes the species and environmental condi- tions characteristic of the ecosystem.
biodiversity indicators
Certain organisms can be used as biodiversity indicators when specific data about whole communities are unavailable.
endemism,
Further, areas with high diversity often have a high percentage of endemism, that is, species occurring there and nowhere else (Lamoreaux etal.2006).
gap analysis,
At the present time, a more systematic conservation planning process, known as gap analysis, issome- times used (Shriner 2006; Margules and Sarkar 2007). The following steps are often taken:
Geographic information systems (GIS)
represent the latest development in gap analysis technology—using computers to integrate the wealth of data on the natural environment with information on protected areas and biodiversity (Friedlander et al. 2007).
SLOSS debate
An early debate in conservation biology occurred over whether species rich- ness is maximized in one large protected area or in several smaller ones of an equal total area (Soulé and Simberloff 1986; McCarthy et al. 2006), known in the literature as the SLOSS debate (Single Large Or Several Small).
habitat corridors
One intriguing suggestion for designing a system of protected areas has been to link isolated protected areas into one large system through the use of habitat corridors: strips of land running between the reserves (Dinerstein et al. 2006; DeFries et al. 2007).
conservation corridors or movement corridors,
Such habitat corri- dors, also known as conservation corridors or movement corridors, allow plants and animals to disperse from one protected area to another, facili- tating gene flow and colonization of suitable sites.
adaptive management
Managers must continu- ally refine the information they need on conditions inside, or sometimes outside, protected areas and be ready to adjust park management practices in an adaptive manner to achieve conservation objectives, sometimes referred to as adaptive management
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
One program is the
system of 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites established by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Another isUNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere system of Biosphere Reserves
keystone resources
In many parks, itmay be necessary to preserve, maintain, and supplement keystone resources on which many species depend. These resources include sources of food, water, minerals, natural shelter, and so forth.
Biosphere Reserves
in an attempt to integrate human activities, research, protection of the natural environment, and sometimes tourism at a single location. A desirable feature of Biosphere Reserves is a system in which there are zones delineating varying levels of use
