Week 2 - Protected Areas Flashcards
purposes of protected areas
Maintaining biodiversity
Conserving iconic species
Preventing habitat loss
Cultural heritage
Education
Tourism and employment
Ecosystem functioning
Research
ancient concept of protected areas
Cultural sacred sites
modern definition of sacred sites
areas recognised and managed through legal or effective means to conserve nature and associated ecosystem services and cultural values.
Recognised
Dedicated
Maintained
evolution of the protection concept
1960s - Nature for its own purposes
80s, 90s - human impact becomes dramatic and so nature is protected despite of people, lock people out - negative impact on human rights (find a balance)
2000s - nature for people, teach people to value it
2010s - people and nature, balance between conservation and local livelihood
how much needs to be protected? problems with percentages
What percentage is needed? Maybe 30% maybe 50%
Measuring as a percentage hides a lot of details - types of areas, effectiveness of places, value of places for agriculture (protected areas are often where no one is anyway)
not all conservation areas are equal
Conserve areas for different reasons - are all objectives compatible?
Conserve biodiversity
Protect cultural heritage
Recreation
Education
Research
protected areas IUCN categories:
Category I - nature reserve/wilderness - restricted access
Category II - national park
Category III/IV - protected landscape/sustainable use
national reserve system in Australia
Private protected areas
Few commonwealth, most state
Protected area network has grown but average size of reserves is decreasing
Lots of edges and edge effects in small reserves
Larger proportion of edges are adjoining threatening areas
Lots of under represented bioregions
Very little change in what area is under strict protection - lots is weak protection
Most marine areas are multi-use areas, not strictly protected
measures of doing a good job: PAME (protected area management effectiveness)
Design and planning - good goals? - most effective
Do we have the ability to achieve these goals? - under resourced
How are we going with those goals? - need to do more in this area
Most protected areas fall around basic management. ⅓ falls under inadequate
measures of doing a good job: longitudinal monitoring
262 protected areas in tropical forest
Change in abundance for 31 animal and plant guilds
Came up with a reserve health index
A lot of reserves were ‘suffering’
Why are some suffering? Climate change, invasive species, edge effects
measures of doing a good job: controlled natural experiment
Before and after protection being introduced
Protected area vs not protected area
Compared habitat loss - protected areas were suffering from human populations but did better when there was regulation or they were remote
Compared species population loss - protected areas are helping mammals and birds but active interventions were required to see such success
Marine: species richness and biomass compared in and out of protected areas - we are seeing benefits especially in exploited species
protected areas summary
We need regulation
On-ground enforcement
Limit pollution in surrounding area
Isolation from human population
how can we improve protected areas?
Recognise and celebrate success and learn from them
why manage vegetation?
Basis of all life
Plants store energy from sun as biomass
Animals rely on this biomass
Plants produce oxygen
Provide much physical structure for animals
Humans have negatively impacted it so they need management
Ecological management is mainly vegetation management
what are the dimensions of vegetation?
Structure - grasslands, forest etc.
Function - productivity, nutrient cycling
Composition - species
vegetation determinants
Abiotic factors - climate, geology, aspect of slope, soil etc.
Determines biomes - large scale
But also determines at small scale and local topography
Biotic - competition, consumers, mutualists, detritivores
Disturbance - results in biomass removal or mortality, abiotic or biotic, key influence of dynamics
But disturbance can free up resources and create opportunities
humans (a biotic interaction)
Physical environment - climate, water distribution, CO2, nitrogen
Biotic interactions - introductions, hunting, grazing, domestication
Disturbance - land clearing, urbanisation, natural disasters
issues of vegetation management
Fire
Flooding
Cutting, logging and clearing
Herbicides
Soil disturbance
Grazing
questions for vegetation managers
What are possible vegetation states for this place?
What are the determinants of this vegetation?
How will this vegetation change if left unmanaged?
What are effects of disturbances on vegetation state?
How do we manage these disturbances?
state and transition model
States in boxes - defined based on relevance to management
Transitions are in arrows - focuses on what drives transitions between states
Transient states are possible
Identifies suitable landscape interventions
Useful where discrete states linked by sudden transitions
Also when gradual change - still provides practical way to organise information for management
Focus on transitions - allows identification of hazards and opportunities
example of state and transition model
Ngarkat conservation park, SA
Mallee eucalypt, heath vegetation
Fire common
270,000 ha and 80,000 burnt
There are four bird species of conservation concern
Goal: at least 20% of park should be in each state
States: early succession (less than 10 years), mid (10-30 years) and late succession (over 30 years)
Management options: actively suppress fires, do nothing or prescribed burning
Early stage - do nothing, early goes back to early. It would be costly to prevent and no need for prescribed burning
Late stage - burn some and return some to early stages
If in desired state without much late stage then fight fires - ensure late stage does not burn and mid/early stage can continue to develop
