Going beyond NTZs: designing TURF-Reserves for fish and fishing

Recent studies have shown that small-scale fisheries around the world are in poor condition and are following a trajectory of continued decline. The state of these small-scale, data-limited fisheries is a concern for the health of marine ecosystems, the livelihoods of those that depend on them, and global food security. While marine reserves have been successful in achieving conservation goals, they may not be enough to address livelihood and food security goals when fisheries surrounding the reserves are still subject to open access management. One possible solution to the challenge of simultaneously conserving marine ecosystems and ensuring productive and sustainable fisheries is to couple marine reserves with exclusive access to fishing grounds by local fishing communities. By having spatial property rights for fishing grounds (i.e. TURFs), local communities will reap the benefits of sustainable management practices and enforcement of marine reserves. To predict the timing and magnitude of community benefits, our team is developing models to compare alternative data-poor adaptive management methods for coupled TURF-reserve systems and the possible timing of fishery recovery and ability to achieve multiple objectives when applying these methods. We also consider the optimal spatial design of these systems to balance conservation and economic objectives.

There is an urgent need for trained biodiversity conservation professionals capable of applying critical thinking, conservation science, and adaptive management to rapidly changing environmental challenges. Yet limited access to training resources and opportunities is one of the greatest obstacles to building capacity in conservation globally. To meet this need, the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation and its partners developed the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP). NCEP improves conservation capacity worldwide by: 1) increasing access to high quality, open access teaching and training materials; 2) advancing an active approach to learning that models the realities of conservation practice and builds critical skill sets; and 3) fostering strategic thinking about different capacity building strategies, such as establishing professional competence standards, in-service training and certification for conservation professionals, and strengthening academic programs in conservation. We will present the latest additions to our collection of over 100 training modules available online (http://ncep.amnh.org) and share lessons learned from our activities in over 15 countries. By supporting long-term planning for capacity building and targeting the trainers of conservation professionals, NCEP expects to have an amplified and sustained impact, as students become the researchers, managers, and decision-makers of the future.

Human-wildlife conflicts are often complex non-linear issues that frequently become conjoined with or surrogates for pre-existing, broader socio-economic struggles between stakeholder groups. On the island of Dominica conflict centered the behavior, meaning and value of native threatened parrots perceived as crop pests is an emerging conservation concern. Using a grounded theory approach I demonstrate that conflict between stakeholders about parrot-induced crop losses is a complex system involving an unintended collision of State-facilitated parrot population recovery efforts, government-led post-banana agricultural diversification policies, festering grievances related to the loss of economic power, financial security, and social status among farmers living in Dominica’s post-banana era. Overall crop loss attributed to parrots on Dominica has become a surrogate issue and focal point within a larger, volatile public dispute about the state of agriculture and the security of farmers. The findings suggest that, given the conflict’s complexity, efforts to understand and mitigate the ongoing dispute in a traditional linear manner, as purely a wildlife-crop loss issue, will be unproductive. Furthermore, it illustrates the advantages of a multidisciplinary systems perspective both in the study and management of this and similar conflicts towards the identification of leverage points for intervention and long-term resolution.

Climatic change and variation, and human activities are leading to land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid ecosystems. In Ghana, the consequence has been a progressive desertification in the savannah ecosystem. The estimated total land area of Ghana prone to desertification is 64.97% (165,000 km2). Of this, close to 50% is occurring in the three uppermost savannah-dominated regions facing the greatest hazard of climate change. Several interventions to halt desertification and alteration in biodiversity have been undermined by the failure to identify where critical resilience resides in savannahs towards developing appropriate indicators to strengthen that resilience. A rapid expert assessment was used to identify the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and indicators to drive interventions that address impacts at the human-biodiversity interface. Impacts range from gene level through to ecosystems with the adverse effect of increased temperatures on gene banks, least adapted species, quality of vegetation and pasture, pathogenic wildlife diseases, plant regeneration and wildlife breeding patterns were amongst some of the sensitive results. Loss of wildlife habitat and increased invasive species were also identified. Increased temperatures, increased short-period precipitation and flooding, scanty rainfall and change in onset of rains, and increased drought intensity and duration were cited as key indicators to drive resilience decision-making.

Overexploitation is a leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction. Identifying genetic subdivisions in highly exploited species is necessary to minimize the loss of distinct populations and overall genetic variation. The Nile monitor, Varanus niloticus, is extensively harvested for the skin trade in countries throughout the Sudano-topical region of Africa, yet little is understood about the genetic structure of this species. In this investigation, polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to assess the patterns of genetic differentiation in V. niloticus across the Sudano-topical region. The main hypothesis was that V. niloticus populations would exhibit genetic isolation among the major watersheds throughout the region. Significant population genetic structure was observed, as assessed with Bayesian analysis of population structure and F-statistics. However, discrete populations were not confined to individual drainage systems. Additionally, extensive structuring was observed among sub-populations of the Lake Chad region, despite their relative close proximity. The large-scale fluctuations of Lake Chad and the surrounding hydrology within the last thousand years could account for the observed genetic structure of the V. niloticus populations. In addition, the genetically unique populations present in Mali could call for more stringent V. niloticus trade regulations to preserve the genetic diversity of the species.

As more people live in recently urbanized areas and as more wildlife becomes acclimated to living close to people, the potential for human-wildlife interactions increases. In the case of predators, these situations can become explosive, but also provide an opportunity for conservationists to gain further understanding of complex interactions with the goal of furthering conservation efforts. We compared human-coyote conflict in suburban Denver, USA and human-leopard conflict in Mumbai, India, using quantitative and qualitative social science methodologies. In both cases, perceptions of conflict were rooted in narratives of predators and their place in urban areas. Some felt that leopards and coyotes belonged and were willing (and in some cases glad) to accept sharing the landscape with these animals. Others felt that predators do not belong in urban landscapes, which was expressed through fear and/or demands for management interventions such as trapping and translocations (in India) and lethal control (in Denver). Neither of these measures have proven effective and in some cases can increase conflict. Significantly, there are similarities and differences in the social constructions of predators at the two sites, which help to shape the social conflict over them. Understanding these underlying narratives about human-predator interactions can help conservation practitioners to better target outreach and educational programs to better ensure positive conservation outcomes.

With increasing threats to wild animal populations and increasing need for conservation interventions come associated risks to the welfare of individual animals. There is a need to fully examine the interplay between animal welfare costs and benefits within conservation problems and solutions. Conservation interventions that involve harm to animals must consider factors such as the necessity of intervention, the likelihood of success and more humane alternatives. The full extent of anthropogenic impact on wild animals and how far human responsibility extends to the welfare of free-living wild animals needs to be considered. Compassionate Conservation aims to develop and refine robust and humane frameworks that fully consider individual animals within conservation research and practice in which the focus is on species, populations, or ecosystems. There is an increasing recognition that a Compassionate Conservation approach of considering individual animal welfare within conservation policy and practice can improve conservation effectiveness and increase acceptance and support. I will provide an introduction to the emerging Compassionate Conservation initiative, highlight areas of interaction between conservation practice and animal welfare, and examine how far animal welfare ethics and science extend “into the wild”.

Recent mass mortalities of birds, bats, and even humans highlight the substantial threat that rising temperatures pose to species worldwide. Although less dramatic, temperature increases may also result in sub-lethal fitness consequences. These effects may be especially detrimental in desert ecosystems, where species already live near the upper limits of their thermal tolerances, and where heat waves are predicted to become more frequent and severe. While climate change driven range and population shifts are well established, the mechanisms that underpin these processes remain poorly understood. Our multidisciplinary study bridges this gap by quantifying the behavioural (thermoregulation and foraging) and physiological (body condition) responses to increasing temperature of Southern Pied Babblers (Turdoides bicolor) in the Kalahari Desert. Even within the current range of temperatures experienced in the Kalahari, results indicate that increases in air temperature lead to behavioural changes that negatively impact body condition. Consequently, our investigation illustrates an important mechanism by which this species is vulnerable to future warming. This research demonstrates the value of investigations of temperature-dependent behaviour in the context of impacts on body condition, and suggests that increasingly high temperatures will have negative implications for the fitness of these arid-zone birds.

While many conservation practitioners have begun to recognize the threats that climate change poses to natural systems, the response in terms of planning and implementation of adaptation strategies has lagged behind, in part due to a lack of specific guidance on how to incorporate general adaptation principles into specific conservation and management efforts. Here we present a methodology developed to explicitly incorporate threats from climate change into an adaptive planning framework used by a number of major conservation organizations and a small but growing number of natural resource agencies. Our approach builds on existing efforts by explicitly integrating a climate vulnerability framework into the threat assessment and ratings steps described in the "Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation" to identify new threats resulting from climate change, interactions, and synergies with existing threats. We use this framework to identify adaptation strategies that (a) intervene on non-climate threats to reduce the effects of exposure or maintain adaptive capacity of the resource, (b) use restoration to decrease the sensitivity or increase resilience of the resource, or (c) protect/restore occurrences that are less likely to experience exposure. This process provides a systematic and transparent approach to incorporating climate change into conservation planning that is transferable across scales and can be used in a variety of contexts.

Under given management plans and sets of reserves, we seek to identify office locations for managers that minimize unnecessary travel. Every management plan that involves regular site maintenance incurs travel costs, which depend on the overall distance between reserves and managers' base offices. Minimizing the overall office-to-reserve distance reduces travel costs, meaning that more of an organization's operating budget can be spent directly on conservation. Travel-optimal office locations also reduce the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emitted during management. We use operations research methods to solve this optimization problem heuristically for two real-world case studies. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT), UK, and the Nortwest Florida Water Management District (NWF), USA, differ in their organizational structure, extent and road densities. For each, we found the optimal location of all existing offices, and for an additional office when the others remain in their current locations. For both case studies, we identified office configurations that reduce travel cost relative to their current locations. In YWT, an optimally located additional office would reduce annual travel costs by £25,000. An optimal configuration of NWF's four existing offices would save $85,602 annually. Both outcomes produce enough savings to hire an additional management officer. Each of these solutions also prevents the annual emisson of 20-23, and 45-49 tons of CO2e, respectively.

The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) (EGS) is one of the most common wildlife species in urban and suburban communities within the eastern United States. Due to their relative adaptability and lack of predators in urban environments, their numbers have increased in communities across their natural range leading to a corresponding increase in human-squirrel conflicts. Most notably is the damage EGS are causing to trees and shrubs in managed landscape settings. Efforts to control EGS numbers and their associated damage have been limited to exclusion techniques, habitat modification, repellents, trapping, shooting, and recreational hunting. Unfortunately in some situations, these alternatives are not effective, practical, or socially acceptable as tools for controlling their numbers and associated problems that they cause in urban and suburban communities. This project is the first field test of DiazaCon in reducing EGS reproduction and damage. DiazaCon has been shown to be effective at inhibiting reproduction in a variety of birds and mammals. An additional benefit of DiazaCon is that it is an oral bait so it does not require capturing EGS; therefore, it may be a cost-effective method of controlling their reproduction and damage on Clemson University's main campus.

The oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface, and the majority of this area (or half the Earth's surface) is in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ). The international community provided a program of action for achieving sustainable development of the oceans, coastal areas and seas at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, however sustainable use of living resources on the high seas has been challenging and remains a major concern for the international community. In 2002, an aspirational target was set to establish marine protected areas, including representative networks by 2012. In 2008, the Conference of the Parties to the CBD adopted seven scientific criteria to identify ecologically or biologically sensitive areas (EBSAs) to enhance conservation and management measures and encouraged competent parties to conduct regional workshops. The first regional workshop, convened by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) in November 2011 was to identify potential EBSAs in the western South Pacific region. Subsequent workshops have been held in the Western Atlantic, Southern Indian, Eastern Pacific, and Southeast Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. We report on the results of those workshops here, discuss their progress through the international negotiations at the 16th meeting of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and COP11, and look to the future.

We used molecular tools on non-invasively collected fecal samples of leopards from protected areas and corridors in central India. Using a panel of neutral markers, we identified 217 individuals, and evaluated their genetic structure. We further evaluated gene flow in the landscape, using simulations and coalescent approaches. We found that leopards use these corridors, and found several first and second generation migrants in the landscape. Current gene flow levels are significantly lower than historic gene flow, and all results indicate that these corridors are effective in maintaining genetic connectivity for leopards in this landscape. We suggest corridors to be protected for the conservation of the long term persistence of large carnivores in this landscape. 

Ocean warming and acidification threaten many species with extinction, but species-specific impacts remain difficult to predict. Marine invertebrate species facing potential extinction are often rare, with uncertain taxonomies and poorly known life history and ecological traits. This makes determining extinction risks challenging, and is best met through integration across multiple scientific disciplines. In 2009, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was petitioned to list 83 tropical, reef-building coral species as endangered or threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). An expert Biological Review Team (BRT) assessed the extinction potential for each species using a expert-based approach. The BRT determined that warming and ocean acidification posed two of the three most important extinction risks to corals. Species with wide geographic and habitat ranges and lower exposure or sensitivity to key threats were interpreted to be at less risk of extinction. NOAA has since proposed the listing of 12 of these species as endangered and 54 as threatened. As ocean warming and acidification are occurring globally, it has become clear that, while necessary, local management and conservation efforts alone are insufficient to conserve coral reef diversity. Efforts to address carbon dioxide emissions directly need to be implemented soon to prevent the loss of many species of corals and ecosystem services provided by coral reefs.