Reproductive ecology of Boswellia ovalifoliolata (Burseraceae), an endemic and endangered keystone medicinal tree species in the Southern Eastern Ghat

Boswellia ovalifoliolata Bal. & Henry (Burseraceae) occurring in the Southern Eastern Ghats Forest Ecosystem of Andhra Pradesh, India, is a narrow endemic and globally endangered deciduous tree species. The tree is a source of gum and resin; it is used for treating different human ailments such as ulcers, scorpion sting, amoebic dysentery, hydrocele and rheumatic pains. It is a prominent dry season bloomer and provides forage to an array of animals. The flowers are small, bisexual, mildly odoriferous and strictly self-incompatible. Insects and sunbirds use the flowers for forage during which they effect pollination. Bud and flower feeding by a weevil and flower and fruit feeding by the Palm Squirrel greatly affect the success of sexual reproduction. The garden lizard is a predator of pollinating insects. Fruit set in open-pollination is

Tropical dry forest (TDF) is poorly represented in protected areas of Colombia. Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of different animal taxa as surrogates to identify priority areas for conservation of this forest in north-eastern Colombia. We compared priority areas obtained from using butterflies, birds, bats, and terrestrial mammals as TDF surrogates, respectively. We considered all registered species as conservation objectives, but set higher targets for threatened, endemic and TDF-specialist species. We developed a fifth scenario by setting conservation targets only for tropical dry forest and shrub (vegetation scenario). We estimated effectiveness in terms of species representativity, land cover representativity, complementarity, and costs. Representativity varied between 89% for bats and 100% for mammals, butterflies and vegetation scenarios. Selected areas for butterflies, birds and mammals corresponded mostly to undisturbed forest, while bats resulted in the selection of a higher percentage of disturbed forests. Shrubs were poorly represented in all animal based portfolios. Costs were highest for the vegetation scenario, while the butterfly scenario resulted in higher costs than any other animal based scenario. Based on our results, birds were the most effective animal group to identify priority areas for conservation of tropical dry forest. Priorization using species as surrogates resulted in lower costs than when only targeting forest and shrub.

The Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) ranges from Mexico to Brazil. The Brazilian populations, however, only occur on restinga (an open shrubby vegetation in sandy coastal plains, associated to the Atlantic forest). These populations likely belong to an undescribed species that is regionally threatened by habitat loss and capture of nestlings for illegal trade. We conducted field surveys in 21 restinga remnants in Rio de Janeiro State, the southernmost portion of the species' range. The bird has already disappeared in most of them. We estimated a current Area of Occupancy (AOO) of 256 km2, which combined with the estimated average population density (52 individuals km-2) and occurrence probability (20%), translated into an estimated population size from 2,662 to 13,312 individuals in Rio de Janeiro. From the original AOO (652 km2), we estimated an original population size of 33,904 individuals in Rio de Janeiro, and a population reduction of 61% to 92% in the last 20 years. The species, therefore, is regionally "Endangered" under IUCN Criteria. The Tropical Mockingbird needs a taxonomic review in order to confirm whether the Brazilian populations belong to a different species. We also recommend the enforcement of the Brazilian Forest Code, that formally protects restingas, together with environmental education that could reduce illegal trade, in order to mitigate the pressures over the species and avoid more local extinctions.

There is a significant concern about the negative effects that expansive growth of urban areas worldwide may cause on the biodiversity. In response, is evident an increase of the efforts to identify, protect and recover conservation opportunities at urban level. However, little is known about the potential role that different green urban spaces play in the maintenance of the wildlife, mainly in developing tropical countries. We conducted a study to assess a biological indicator group such as birds, in various green elements present at Bogota, the largest city of Colombia and part of the Tropical Andes Hotspot. It was evaluated in 4 contrasting geographical areas (12806 ha) within the city where 940 points were characterized by birding in point counts. 153 species of birds were recorded, included 121 residents, 32 migratory and 6 endangered species. The results show a city dominated by a few species with about 70% of all registered individuals and a large number of rare species. The natural green areas as well as those in regeneration, show an important role as reservoirs of these rare birds. Urban parks, cemeteries and corridors, showed interesting options such as sinks or stepping-stones. However, these trends were not uniform throughout the city. This study presents an accurate picture of the current state of the community of birds present in a highly transformed area in the neotropics as well as the opportunities and challenges offered for the conservation on urban spaces.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emergent prion disease of cervids and a burgeoning wildlife management issue in the North American west. Past management efforts have incorporated hunter participation; however, this has not been effective in the long term, apparently due to lack of hunter and stakeholder interest. This research looks at community perspectives on CWD management in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The goal of this project is to understand how stakeholders frame CWD as a risk, what their preferences for management are, and whether adaptive governance can be used for wildlife disease management. A mixed methods approach incorporating Q-methodology to identify participants' perspectives was used to survey hunters, First Nations, landowners, wildlife managers and other stakeholders. Preliminary results indicate that the knowledge of CWD varies between individuals, and personal understanding of CWD as a risk can impact preferences for management. These results are considered in relation to Canada's current national CWD management plan, as well as to assess the future viability of adaptive governance in addressing CWD and other emergent wildlife diseases.

Protected areas cannot serve their purpose as 'islands'. Using the case of Jim Corbett National Park, our research highlights why protected areas should not be managed based on rigidly delineated boundaries. Research has shown that, in general, forest cover within the administrative boundaries of protected areas remains stable as conservation and habitat management efforts are often confined to these boundaries. This constricted approach, however has some serious impact on forest habitats in the surrounding areas. At this interface of protected areas with human settlements, habitat fragmentation and degradation, blockage of animal corridors, transmission of diseases between, wildlife, people and domestic animals and increased frequency of human-animal conflict have become commonplace. Based on our analysis of global Landsat resolution forest change map, we estimate the extent of forest habitat loss within the park and the surrounding ecologically sensitive areas. We demonstrate how remotely sensed products can help park managers assess the extent of forest habitat change and identify habitat change hotspots. This study allows policy and decision makers understand and situate the processes and drivers of forest change within larger political, economic and social contexts of land use dynamics where forest habitat loss in the periphery is very critical for defining the proposed Eco sensitive buffer zones around highly protected areas, the national parks and sanctuaries in India.

Conservationists need a method to conserve the maximum amount of biological diversity while allowing species and communities to rearrange in response to a continually changing climate. Here, we develop and test such an approach for northeastern North America. First we identified the geophysical factors most correlated with species diversity patterns and subdivided the region into 30 distinct geophysical settings. Next, within each geophysical setting we located sites that were connected by natural cover, and that had complex topography and large elevation ranges increasing their micro-climatic buffering. We hypothesized that these sites had the highest resilience to climate change. We compared these against the current network of secured lands, and against sites identified for their high quality biodiversity features. Results showed a robust correspondence between the biodiversity sites and the high scoring geophysical sites; with universally high average resilience scores across every natural community and species group. Troublingly, low elevation areas on calcareous bedrock or surficial substrates scored markedly low for estimated resilience and securement, and had higher densities of rare species than other geophysical settings. We identified sites for each geophysical setting that are likely to have the highest possible resilience, revealing and correcting for substantial bias in current conservation.

The present study features a plant community of a great relevant fragment from Atlantic Forest, located in Botanical Garden of Salvador (BGS), Brazil, in order to know the floristic composition and tree structure, contributing for further conservation studies. BGS has an area of c.a. 18ha, known as Mata-dos-Oitis, due to the occurrence of an edible and endemic species Licania salzmannii. Thirty 20x10m-plots were used, distributed in four transects, covering a total of 0.6ha. Individuals were selected with circumference ≥ 10cm to 1.30m from soil. 1.237 individuals, 136 species and 41 families were sampled. Shannon diversity index and evenness (J) were 4.276 nats/individuals and 0.870. The absolute dominance (Abs. Dom) was 53.086m²/ha. Fabaceae family had the highest species richness and higher number of individuals. The most important families in relation to Abs. Dom. were Fabaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Chrysobalanaceae and Moraceae, respectively. The species with the highest importance value index was Parkia pendula, followed by Brosimum lactescens, Sloanea guianensis, and L. salzmannii. Brosimum lactescens had the greatest number of individuals. The average height was 9.043m and DBH of 10,219cm. The tallest tree reached 42m and larger girth was 5.5m, in different individuals of P. pendula. Mata-dos-Oitis is the best preserved remnants of Salvador, comparing their diversity and dominance to the forests of Bahia (S) and Espirito Santo (N), regions of greater diversity of planet.

Urbanisation in Ghana is upward trending, with a quarter of current population living along the coast; where global climate changes are expected to cause various socio-economic impacts. Yet, the country still lacks a comprehensive communication framework to address knowledge gaps on climate compatible planning for coastal environments. Using Focus Group Discussions and In-Depth interviews in consonance with a livelihood framework tool, we assessed the impact and coping strategies to sea level rise, flooding amongst three dominant economic groups (i.e. fishermen, fishmongers and non-fish traders) within six communities in Greater Accra Region. Results obtained show negative impacts on natural ecosystem goods and services. Importantly is the effect on fisheries and other aquatic biodiversity; deemed important for the dominant fishery occupation and tourism of the area. Differentiated impacts amongst socioeconomic groups have far-reaching implications for their collective responses to the effects of climate change. Thus, building resilience amongst and within groups will demand an integrative coastal zone management (ICZM), which takes cognizance of current climate change vulnerabilities of the coastal area and bridging gaps in climate change knowledge within the area. Such ICZM should be reflective of local ecological knowledge and equally embrace the adaptive strategies of the people to future climate change scenarios.

Avian Influenza (AI) and Newcastle Disease (ND) are the two most important diseases of poultry and other birds. This is not only because of its ability to cause serious threat to the welfare of wild bird populations, but also its effects on agriculture and human health. However, not much is understood on the route of recurrent outbreaks of these diseases. Wild resident birds (bridge species) have been implicated with harbouring these viruses and capable of transmitting it to poultry. This study sort to understand the role of these bridge species in the transmission of AI and ND. A total of fifty eight (58) bridge species were caught using mist nets. All cloacal and tracheal samples collected tested negative for AI, but 53% showed positive result for ND. Although no positive case of AI was recorded, it was possible that infected birds died quickly after infection. The presence of ND virus is a great threat to wild birds and poultry farms, and could lead to great economic loss. This study suggests that poultry farms should be located away from streams and open waters to minimize contact with wild birds, and if possible they should be reared in bird-proof concealments.

Three species of flamingo are found in southern South America. The Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopteruschilensis) has the broadest distribution from the Pacific coast of Peru and Chile, lakes in the Central Dry Puna, to lowland and coastal lakes in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. The Puna (P. jamesi) and Andean Flamingos (P. andinus) are primarily in the altiplano, although they use lowland wetlands of central Argentina, particularly in winter. The population status of Puna and Andean Flamingos is known and conservation strategies are being implemented. However, less is known about the population and conservation status of Chilean Flamingos. During a workshop with experts from the region, we identified breeding and non-breeding wetlands, threats at these sites, and knowledge gaps. The global population of Chilean Flamingos was estimated at 290,000. Priority sites holding 1% or more of the population or where breeding activity had been recorded were identified, generating a list of 8 priority sites in lowland wetlands and 13 in the high Andes. Excluding the global threat of climate change, top threats in lowland wetlands were water extraction for commercial agriculture and contamination with agrochemicals. In Andean wetlands top threats were habitat loss and degradation due to mining, road development and domestic contamination. We also identified information gaps and evaluated areas of overlap between priority areas for conservation forthe 3 flamingo species.

The Tonle Sap is the largest wetland in Southeast Asia, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with great value to regional biodiversity and migratory endangered fishes and birds. The Tonle Sap’s productivity and diversity are driven by the Mekong river flood pulse, which is facing disruptions due to hydropower development and climate change. Conservation efforts are underway to mitigate changes, and a better understanding of the impacts of hydrological disruptions on the future spatial distribution of fauna of the Tonle Sap is necessary to optimize these efforts. We developed a spatial modeling framework to simulate changes in fauna habitat. We analyzed the preferred habitats of 63 animal species with nutritional, conservation, and ecological value. We found that gallery forests provide habitat to the greatest number of species. We estimated that changes in flooding regime by the end of the 2030s could alter habitats in 19% of the 15,000 km2 floodplain. The most affected animals will be those that use gallery forests exclusively. The strong synchronicity between biota’s life history and the flood pulse seasonality implies that ongoing disruptions will alter ecosystem dynamics, imposing further conservation challenges. Protecting areas feasible for future gallery forests and shrublands is critical to maintain a diverse ecosystem. This modeling framework can be applied to other floodplains along the Mekong and elsewhere there are known links between seasonal flooding and habitat.

Incentive payment programs to private landowners provide a center-piece of conservation strategies in many parts of the world. We examine how payment programs can be designed to provide cost effective improvements in biodiversity, using 44 extensive livestock farms in northern England as a case study and bird species as an indicator of biodiversity. We first estimate the "true" supply price to farmers of producing improvements in different biodiversity targets. We then derive the optimal (i.e. most cost effective) program design for each target. This provides a benchmark against which to compare the cost effectiveness of simpler, more readily implemented, payment programs. Existing payment schemes appear cost ineffective and primarily act to subsidize farm profits. The optimal policy exploits variation in costs of producing biodiversity enhancements within and among farms. However such a policy would be prohibitively complex to administer. By comparing alternative, simpler policies to the optimal policy, we show that common simplifications in payment scheme design can result in 49-100% of promised biodiversity gains being given up. Moreover, we are able to identify which policy simplifications are most problematic. Spatially differentiating pricing for biodiversity improvements is critical to the success of such programs, a finding that is robust to idiosyncratic responses of different biodiversity targets to management actions.

The field of conservation science has grown exponentially in the past several decades, as evidenced by the proliferation of dedicated university programs and scientific publications. However, the achievement of on-the-ground conservation results has been impeded by significant barriers to the application of research by conservation practitioners. Such barriers can lead to the application of suboptimal or ineffectual conservation actions and the misuse of limited conservation dollars, which in turn can undermine socio-political and financial support for conservation work. Moreover, the lack of rigorous assessment of current practices precludes adaptive management, the cornerstone of accountability and improvement in conservation practice. To overcome these challenges, we advocate for a much tighter working relationship between academic researchers and practitioners with an aim to increase the impact of research beyond the typical ‘management implications’ paragraph in peer-reviewed articles and ensure a more direct contribution toward solving specific real-world problems. Drawing on examples from private and public land management organizations in Canada, we explore how practitioners can play a stronger role in influencing the research agenda and

Increasing pressure on forest with rapid decrease in biological diversities justifies the need for integrating private stakeholders in restoration and conservation strategies. This study therefore evaluates integrated approach of private stakeholders in plantation forest and biodiversity conservation in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through administration of structured questionnaire and interview of 49 private tree growers. Secondary data were obtained from classified documents of the State Forestry Department. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study reveals that between 2007 and 2012, wood cut in the public forest within the State ranged from 42,216m3 to 88,642m3. Out of the 581 ha of plantations established within the five years' period, only 160 ha of Tectona grandis and Gmelina arborea was established by the State while the private tree growers established 421 ha (72.5%) on their owned lands. Top three constraints to increasing private plantation size include non-availability of land, lack of incentives and lack of technical advice. Identified strategies for effective integration approach of private stakeholders include transfer of degraded public forest to private stakeholders, stakeholders' empowerment for the sales of carbon credits and planting of mixed species. Participation of private tree growers in public forest plantation and conservation of biological diversities in the State is crucial.