Part 3: Management Flashcards
international convention
Generally used for formal multilateral treaties with many parties; normally open for participation by the international community as a whole, or by a large number of states. A convention becomes legally binding on the states that sign up and ratify it.
legally binding but no enforcement
- if it could be enforced nobody would sign it
- there is a common goal
declaration
Usually used to declare aspirations rather than to create binding obligations. Are usually not legally binding. (e.g. Stockholm declaration, UN declaration on Human rights, SDGs)
ramsar convention
succesfull convention
-> Preserving wetlands (conservation & wise use), Ramsar site list & effective management.
The only habitat where the number of bird species increased (remember figure)
UNESCO World Heritage Convention
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
Mission: to identify and protect the world’s natural and cultural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value
- protection is the duty of the international community as a whole
- World Heritage list (large number of sites, conservation gets promoted; prestigious, increases tourism but costly & long process to get site on the list)
CBD
Convention on Biological diversity
focus on biodiversity in general, and on sustainable use (governed by COP)
3 main goals but not very specific
- conservation of biodiversity
- sustainable use of biodiversity
- fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of biodiversity
2002: setting the 2010 biodiversity target
- reducing biodiversity loss
2010: international year of Biodiversity
- goals were not met
- strategic plan for 2011-2020 Aichi Biodiversity targets
2012: IPBES
2019: IPBES Global assessment report
2021-2023:
by 2050, harmony with nature
by 2030, specific goals (almost the same as earlier) but more concrete 30-30 rules or goals, more ambitious
UNFCC
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
UNCCD
UN Convention to Combat Desertification
Aichi Biodiversity Targets
20 targets set over the 5 goals
IPBES
Intergovernmental Science-policy platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services
Monitoring progress in implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011- 2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets
Provide scientific basis for future biodiversity policy
2019: 1in 8/9 species is endangered with extinction
5 strategic goals
Goal A:
Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
Goal B:
Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
Goal C:
Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
Goal D:
Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ES
Goal E
Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building
SDG
Sustainable Development goals (2015), this is a declaration
Blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
Goals about Biosphere, society and economy.
Birds directive
European policy:
Aims to protect all the 500 wild bird species naturally occurring in the EU.
These species are listed in 5 categories
-> SPA for annex 1
SPA
Special Protection Areas
These are areas that must be designated by the member states for 194 threatened bird species.
Habitats directive
European policy:
Aims to protect more than 1000 threatened animal and plant species and 220 threatened
habitat types in the European Union.
-> SAC
SAC
Special Areas of Conservation
These are areas that must be designated by the member states for the survival of threatened habitats and species.
Natura 2000
A network of protected areas that combines the SACs and SPAs.
Largest network of protected areas in the world. (18% of the EU’s land area)
They aren’t strictly protected areas. Human activities are allowed as long as they don’t have a negative impact on the species or habitats.
exception: imperative reasons of overriding public interest’ and there is no alternative.
directive
Legally binding law that is practically enforceable. This are EU laws that must be implemented/translated in national laws. There is no direct implementation in the law of the nation.
Legal enforcement is possible in national courts and European court of justice. The Government decisions can be challenged in court.
A time of signing member states didn’t know the full consequences of the laws.
Member states cannot allow any actions that will have a negative impact. The member states are responsible.
ex. Naura 2000, Habitats & birds directive
EU restoration law
Restoring 20% of the EU’s land and sea areas by 2030.
- This is about the total area and not only about degraded are
- this law is more ambitious then IPBES 30% rule.
in situ conservation
Conservation of species in their natural habitats
-> should always be the first choice, most appropriate way
Protected areas or nature reserves
WDPA
ex situ conservation
Preservation of components of biological diversity outside their natural habitats.
These should support the in-situ conservations.
Active: zoos (contribute to conservation through breeding programs, active), botanical gardens
Passive: seed or gene banks
Millenium seed bank
- to provide an insurance policy against the extinction of plants in the wild.
- to conserve 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020 (now 39k of 75k species)
Svalbard global seed vault (Norway)
The world’s largest collection of crop diversity (>1.3M samples)
Protecting crop diversity and making sure the genetic heritage preserved in seed banks is shared among nations.
WDPA
World Database on Protected Areas
protected areas
Not every area is the same their is a wide range: from no to limited human use
First the main focus was on iconic, later more on biodiversity and ES
GBF
Global biodiversity framework
target 3: by 2030
* 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, and of coastal and marine areas (30x30 target)
- effectively conserved and managed
Management is difficult due to lack of resources - equitable governed
mostly not in collaboration with local people (but is slowly changing)
Biodiversity hotspot
Areas that have a high irreplaceability and high vulnerability.
It’s not feasible to protect all threatened species and areas. This makes it possible to support biodiversity at a lower cost. These locations should be the priority.
35 hotspots identified, 17.3% of earths land (excluding Antarctica)
problem: The situation can change in the future. If the focus is only put here what about the other areas.
endemic areas
Areas that experience a high irreplaceability.
They have a lot of endemic species; not threatened perse.
Threatened Species areas
Areas that experience a high vulnerability. Based on IUCN red lists.
endemic species
Species that exists only in one geographic region, or only in a small region.
land sparing
Concentrate high-yield food production on small areas to spare other land for biodiversity conservation.
Better option if the species are sensitive to all agriculture
problem
- there can be external effects of high yield farming
- edge effects
- Paradox of Jevons
- loss of ES: is it sustainable? degradation, pollinator loss, erosion, salinization, ..
land sharing
Integrating biodiversity conservation and food production on the same land, using biodiversity friendly farming methods
Agri-environment schemes, Organic farming or Low intensity farming
species can copes with low intensity farming
The lower yield can lead to a higher land footprint, more land is needed.
Agri-environment
subsidies to stimulate environmental practices in agriculture (e.g. flower strips, hedgerows, …)
These off-field measures are twice as effective as organic farming.
organic farming
Farming without use of synthetic pesticides or synthetic fertilizer.
better? almost all increases are due to synthetic fertilizers, organic pesticides are sometimes more harmful
Biodiversity gains are overestimated
paradox of Jevons
Economic growth will increase the demand for resources. This is why intensification doesn’t guarantee sparing, the intensification will be expanded.
Green deal
25% of land needs to be organic.
Promotion of land sharing approach and de-intensification.
These lower productions will mean higher imports.
ex. exporting deforestation
three compartment landscapes
Combining high-yield farming, natural habitat, and low-yield farming
- protected areas for natural habitat specialists
- low yield farming for farmland specialists as buffer
- high yield farming for food-protection (with environmental measures)
planetary health diet
A diet good for our health and for our planet.
Less meat consumption, 50% vegetables. Less potatoes.
SER
Society on ecological restoration.
An organization
that brings knowledge and people together to improve ecological
restoration. They don’t conduct ER.
GOAL:
Advances the science, practice and policy of ecological restoration to sustain biodiversity, improve resilience in a changing climate, and re-establish an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture
Definiton of ER from ‘nature = wilderness’ viewpoint.
Recovery only when biotic and abiotic parts are sufficiently restored to continue its development without further (human) assistance or subsidy.
Nature is self-organizing and self maintaining. The ecosystem will sustain itself structurally and functionally.
ecological restoration (ER)
The process of ASSISTING the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.
Heatland restoration
Also acknowledged as ecological restoration.
After abandonment of heatlands they evolved into shrubs and forests.
restoration:
shrubs and forests needed to be removed + reinstallation of human activities.
degraded ecosystem
subtle or gradual changes in species composition, ecosystem functioning and structure
damaged ecosystem
acute and obvious changes in an ecosystem.
Destroyed ecosystem
when degradation or damage removes all macroscopic life, and commonly ruins the physical environment as well.
Reference state
Predisturbance conditions; often the historical state.
A model for planning a restoration project, and later for its evaluation
- Historical accounts and oral histories
- Ecological descriptions, species lists and maps of the project site prior to damage
- historical photographs
- remnants of the ecosystem to be restored or similar intact ecosystems
- herbarium & museum specimens
- paleoecological evidence; fossil pollen, charcoal, tree ring history
shifting baseline syndrome
= environmental generational amnesia
Gradual changes in the accepted norms for the condition of the natural environment due to a lack of experience and memory.
Every previous generation has another view on the baseline state of the ecosystem.
Don’t set the bar to low!!
land-use legacies
Persisting impact of past land-use
ex. Maya culture
effects on soil and on forest composition still present. Due to intensive deforestation & agriculture.
ex. former agriculture of forests
hysteresis
Alternative stable states
degradation is not always a linear process, sometimes sudden shift to new ecosystem state.
Stable due to interna feedback mechanisms
ex. clear and turbid water lakes
calcareous grassland
Among the most species rich habitats in Europe.
underwent centuries of extensive human cultivation (open ecosystem)
sod cutting
Removing top layer of
soil containing all the nutrients to recreate the nutrient poor conditions that are optimal for heathland vegetation
This is reparation of abiotic condition.
translocation
The intentional movement of species to new sites
3 categories: reintroduction, restocking/re-enforcement, ecological replacement
Only when causes of decline are known and have been removed.
reintroduction
Translocation process were individuals are moved into an area where the species used
to occur
focus on large emblematic animals (key stone species), ecological complexity makes the succes difficult, ethical issues
ex. beaver, Grey wolf, brown bear, …
restocking
re-enforcement
Translocation proces were individuals are added to an existing population if population is too small for survival.
ecological replacement
Translocation process were the lost function is restored through the establishment of an ecologically similar or closely related taxon with same functions.
translocation of a species outside it’s natural range (native species is extinct), functionality has to be similar.
ex. turtles Galapagos, aurochs (grazers) in Europe
monitoring
Documenting changes over time through repeated observations.
- Indentifying trends in biodiversity & trends in pressures on biodiversity
- evaluation of conservation and restoration efforts (sometimes required by policy)
- looking at causal linkages between pressures and state
Key component of management
State, impact, response, driving forces & pressures.
ICP forest
Permanent monitoring network
International Co - operative Programme on assessment and monitoring of Air pollution effects on forests
one of the world’s largest biomonitoring networks
Aims: provide information on forest condition, air pollution, climate change, and biodiversity
anual assessments of crown conditions and periodic intensity surveys
citizen science
Involvement of volunteers in the scientific process. Becomes more and more important and useful due to new technologies.
Early warning systems alien species,
problem: chances of bias, data cleaning is important, focus on ‘western world’, small things tend to be overlooked.
GBIF
global biodiversity information facility
International data infrastructure funded by world governments. A single online portal that makes the data available, open acces.
Global Aichi biodiversity indicators
A global set of indicators which focusses on monitoring the 2020 Aichi targets.
developed by BIP (Biodiversity Indicator Parnership)
ex. LPI, red list index, wild bird index,
LPI
Living planet index
An indicator of the state of global biodiversity based on trends in populations of species from around the world.
Vertebrate species
wild bird index
Index that measures average population trends of a suite of representative wild birds as an indicator of the general health of the environment.
RLI
red list index
Trends in overall extinction of species
GBO
Global Biodiversity Outlook
Periodic report (4-5 yr) summarises progress made towards achieving the objectives of the CBD.
Looking how we are doing based on 5 goals and 20 targets.
5 directions:
exceeding, achieving, towards but at insufficient rate, no significant progress or moving away from target
IBP
index for biodiversity potential
A score form 1-5 to
- indigenous trees
- vertical structure
- number of large and old trees
- presence of specific habits
- presence of micro habits
very easy way of monitoring, speeds up process.
EBVs
essential biodiversity variables
intermediate step between primary data and international indicators
6 EBV classes and 21 EBV candidates
- genetic composition
- species populations
- species traits
- community composition
- ecosystem functioning
- ecosystem structure
nature based solution
Nature & climate solutions, no engineering solutions. Natural processes and ecosystems that are used to solve the issues.
model
mathematical description of the real world
complexity, understanding, modelling
simulator
Tool that calculates results for a model using a sample of representative scenarios. Simulators for decision support may preferentially focus on model simplification, automation and visualization
modelling
scenarios, automation, visualization
decision support
DSS
decision suport systems
Tool providing support to solve ill-structured decision problems by integrating user interface, simulation tool, expert rules, stakeholder preferences, database management and optimization algorithms.
allowing the user to identify and select a preferred strategy
from two or more alternatives against a pre-determined set of
criteria.
decision support
user interfaces, queuing, optimization, evaluation & choice
easy in use, flexibility & adaptability to help end-user in decision making.
Treansdisciplinarity
= stakeholders are active partners in DSS development
Management planning
aim: Providing multiple ecosystem services benefits under global change
Supporting ecosystem management plans with optimized future scenarios obtained by running the simulator fed with data from ecosystem monitoring.
reliable & user friendly simulators!
pioneer vegetation (developmental)
high provisioning services, medium biodiversity (supporting services), medium regulating services
r-strategy: fast reproduction, keep vegetation in the pioneer state/developmental state
climax vegetation (mature)
low provisioning services, high biodiversity (supporting services), high regulating services.
Mature are finetuned to stabilize themselves, we can take adventage of this
k-strategy: low reproduction, longliving organisms
emperical models
simplest models, based on observations
- linear regression analysis
problem
- not for future
- only valid onder certain circumstances
process-based model
Describes the complex behavior of the system, the eco physiological processes.
- mathematical formula
- can function under different circumstances
problem
- difficult to develop & understand
- long differential equations
- long run times
metamodels
AI emulators
Simplication of the process based models
Emperical/statistical model/functions are made between inputs and outputs. The understanding is gone. High prediction capacity & speed.
black box models
This can be built into the DSS
end user customization
Interface that helps the users work with the simulator.
User group specific interfaces, scale-adapted front ands
important: transparante, credibility & ownership
user activation & attractive visualization & rendering
easy access, batch executions, …
user activition
If no one can use the model it’s not a good model
-user guides, training & user community
software modularity
the design principle of breaking down a complex software system into smaller, manageable, and independent modules or components
higher flexibility & maintainability.
heuristic technique
any approach to problem solving that uses a practical method or various shortcuts in order to produce solutions that may not be optimal but are sufficient given a limited timeframe or deadline.
- pracical method with various shortcuts
- no optimal solutions bur sufficient
- limited timeframe/deadline
spatially explicit simulation
complement simulator with heuristic techniques to optimize management at landscape level
landscape metrics as decision variable
particle swarm optimization
- Randomly selects a number of particles in the multidimensional problem space
- Moves these particles around searching for the best solution
- Particles adapt their direction and velocity depending on their own experience (particle best = pbest) and the experience of the other particles (global best = gbest)
technique inspired by nature, speeds up optimization
sDSS
spatially explicit decision support system
DSS coupled to a GIS database
open simple question
inputs are given/not all inputs and we want just the output
simple cause only one ES is asked
ex. How much carbon sequestration do we get 20 years after afforestation with pine on sandy loam soils in Flanders?
open complex question
outputs are given, but complex cause 2ES, not all is given
optimization is needed
ex.Where in Flanders, Belgium to afforest with deciduous
trees to reach after 30 years maximal carbon sequestration and minimal nitrate leaching? (where question)
