Participatory Land Use Planning for Conservation, Livelihoods, Infrastructure and Agro-industrial Development in Southeastern Myanmar

Land use conflicts in southeastern Myanmar threaten Asia's largest block of contiguous lowland Dipterocarp forest. Some are due to a disconnect between legal and customary land tenure, others to decades-long conflict and still others to ad hoc and informal allocation of land. However, Myanmar does not have decades to resolve these issues if it is to protect biodiversity, modernize agriculture, provide for resettlement and anticipate impacts of climate change. The 1997 conservation plan proposed a system of protected areas spanning a tropical forest belt that runs for 600 km along the Myanmar-Thailand border. In the north, the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve, declared in 2002, has funding, staff and a management plan. In the south, the Tanintharyi National Park, declared in 2005, is a "paper park" and the proposed site of a major hydro-electric dam. The unprotected central sector is the proposed location for road, rail, powerline and pipeline corridors connecting Southeast Asia with the Andaman Sea at Dawei. In 2013 Tanintharyi Division's government convened a stakeholder workshop. Participants reviewed lessons learned from previous infrastructure and agro-industrial development. They used maps and satellite change imagery to identify plausible land use scenarios for the areas at risk. Their scenarios range from high-risk strategies that could ignite social conflict to strategies that buffer natural areas and protect forests and rivers on which community livelihoods depend.

Restoration and translocation increasingly are used to bolster declining populations of rare species. Because declining species often have limited reproductive success, it can be difficult to acquire sufficient propagules for out-planting large populations. At the same time, certain rare species sometimes persist as small populations without apparent negative effects, indicating that out-planting small populations may be effective for some species. We investigated the feasibility of out-planting small populations of the rare and declining fen plant Trollius laxus. Seedlings were planted at 12 plots (n = 10 plants per plot) located within a protected area where a well-studied metapopoulation of T. laxus already occurs. Suitable plots were identified using a GIS-based, macroscale habitat model. We monitored the subpopulations 1, 2, 3, and 8 years after out-planting. We used population modeling to evaluate the vigor of the transplanted populations, and compared microscale habitat conditions between successfully and unsuccessfully established plots. Of the original 120 transplants, 64 survived at least 1 year, and 10 survived to year 8. These survivors occurred at 6 out of the 12 original plots, and showed increases in size and flowering during the study. Microhabitat conditions appear to influence successful establishment. Therefore, if microscale conditions are considered, out-planting small populations may be a feasible approach to conserving naturally rare plants.

Alarm over the accelerated rate of species extinction, degradation of ecological systems, and threats to the biosphere has prompted scholars and leaders of the world religions to dig deeply into their traditions and practices for ways of responding. They have discovered both treasures to retrieve and apply from their own faith perspectives and expressions of their faiths that may have lost their original meaning and/or need updating informed by contemporary scientific findings. Among the treasures found are compassion for living beings and the merits of relieving their suffering. Among the expressions of faith that need updating is the release of animals for the merit accrued by the individual who engages in this practice. Conservation biologists and religious communities should collaborate on this and other mutual issues to advance biological diversity, the sustainability of Earth, and more responsible and authentic expression of religious faith.

As species shift their ranges in response to climate change, communities will be reshuffled to form new associations. Such changes provide a challenge to the process of conservation planning, which has typically focused on protecting current patterns of biodiversity. One strategy for protecting biodiversity in a changing climate is based on the idea of protecting the diversity of abiotic conditions that influence patterns of biodiversity. Abiotic features, such as soil, topography, and geology, largely determine the distribution of biodiversity, but will remain stable in a changing climate. By protecting unique combinations of abiotic diversity, or land facets, it may be possible to protect areas that will foster a diversity of biota currently and in the future —although these will likely be different sets of species. It is not clear to what extent land facets are already represented in current protected areas or in biodiversity-based conservation plans. Here, we designate land facets across 14 ecoregions in the western United States. We assess the extent to which land facets are already protected and identify the types of land facets that are underrepresented in current protected areas. We found that land facet representation varied across ecoregions and was proportional to the land area designated for protection. Individual land facet representation also varied. Some facet types were always adequately represented and others were largely absent from protected area networks.

The conservation of wide-ranging species for which population censuses are impractical presents particular challenges to status assessment and recovery planning. Uncertainties inherent to endangered species recovery efforts are compounded by both scientific and societal reluctance to address associated risks in a transparent framework. Proponents at either end of the conservation spectrum may feel threatened by the requirement to explicitly state a tolerance for risk, rather than using the shroud of science (certain or not) to support a position. The recovery plan for woodland caribou in Canada (boreal population) applies a threshold approach to conservation of critical habitat that relies on indicators of population and habitat condition to establish recovery targets. The identified management threshold does not reflect a discrete ecological transition point, but rather represents a distinct policy choice relative to the likelihood of achieving the recovery objective of self-sustaining populations. In the absence of a comprehensive monitoring program, embedded in a flexible and responsive management framework, this approach risks achieving the recovery criteria (the target or threshold), but failing to conserve caribou. If effectively implemented, however, it provides a foundation for reducing uncertainty, and improving conservation success, through the refinement of recovery criteria.

Wood Bison were reintroduced into the southwest Yukon in the late 1980s as part of national recovery efforts. The Yukon population has subsequently increased from 34 to more than 1,100 animals, prompting concerns that bison may compete with other ungulates in the area, and alter pocket grasslands within the boreal forest (relicts of ice age steppe) that contain rare, endemic plant species. The Yukon Wood Bison Technical Team, which is composed of government, First Nations and co-management body representatives, has identified grasslands as focal points for vegetation monitoring in the Wood Bison Management Plan (2012). In order to quantify the impact of bison on grassland composition and diversity, bison location (GPS) data, fecal samples, orthophotos, existing plant inventory data and consultation with Champagne and Aishihik First Nations were used. After surveying vegetation cover at 70 sites representing different levels of bison usage, preliminary results indicate that both richness and Shannon's Diversity Index increase with the level of bison use, and that forbs are the driver of that change. Two new populations of the endangered Yukon Draba (Draba yukonensis) were also discovered. These results will inform ongoing management decisions and land use planning processes within the herd range and provide important information on an understudied and rare plant community believed to be analogous to Beringian Steppe communities.

This poster presentation describes academic and professional exchanges taking place between the University of Wisconsin - Madison's China Conservation Network, and Chinese academic partners and international NGO's working in China. Multiple political, social, and environmental challenges threaten the long-term maintenance of biodiversity in China. To address this range of challenges our conservation network focuses on programs that are adaptive to site level constraints and area contexts to best account for diverse stakeholder perspectives. Our work in China to integrate diverse stakeholders and academic disciplines is built on the interdisciplinary research and service based learning traditions of the UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. This conceptual model frames our presentation. We will briefly describe two current examples of our work in China - one being policy analysis for Conservation International - China on Payments for Ecosystem Services programs in the giant panda corridor of Daxiangling Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province, and the second being the complex dynamics of hydrology, people and cranes with the International Crane Foundation at Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province. Finally, our poster will comment on the relevance of service based learning models for conservation, and how our Network will continue to use service-based models to adapt to Chinese understandings of biodiversity conservation.

In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service promulgated new planning regulations under the National Forest Management Act. These regulations represent the most significant change in federal forest policy in decades and have sweeping implications for wildlife. This presentation provides a history of wildlife provisions in the planning rules and then discusses the 2012 rule. The new rule is of concern because of its discretionary nature and the inconsistency between its intent and operational requirements. We recommend that the USFS make commitments to directly monitor populations of species of conservation concern and focal species and to maintain the viability of both categories of species. If the USFS determines that the planning unit is not inherently capable of maintaining viable populations of a species, this finding should be made available for scientific review and public comment, and the USFS should commit to doing nothing that would further impair the viability of such species. Where extrinsic factors decrease species viability, the USFS has an increased responsibility to protect those species. Monitoring plans must include trigger points, and plans must include provisions to ensure monitoring takes place. Enforceable provisions will help to prevent additional listings under the Endangered Species Act. Although the 2012 rule gives cause for concern, forward-thinking USFS officials have the opportunity to create a robust and effective framework for wildlife conservation planning.

Source-sink dynamics are an emergent property of complex species-landscape interactions. This study explores the patterns of source and sink behavior that become established across a large landscape, using a simulation model for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) that was developed as part of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's most recent recovery planning effort for the species. Our spotted owl model was constructed with the HexSim life history simulator, and we take advantage of features in HexSim to develop maps of source and sink strength at multiple spatial scales across the range of the species. We also use HexSim to produce relatively simple matrix model representations of the full mechanistic simulation, and extract information about the fluxes of owls across the landscape from those simple models. We describe a quantity "net flux" that turns out to be well correlated with the importance of movement pathways, based on an analysis of dominant eigenvalues.

African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are of immediate conservation concern because poaching for ivory has decimated populations. This species is the least understood of the extant elephants as they are cryptic in forest habitats. Fission-fusion sociality has been detected in Asian and African savanna elephants, and for the latter species, has importance for fitness. We investigated if forest elephants have kin-based fission-fusion sociality. Individuals were observed in savanna clearings within forests of Lopé National Park, Gabon in 2006, 2008, and 2010. We recorded associations between identified individuals and where possible, collected dung for genetic analyses. Using adult female associations, we created network models for years, seasons, re-sighted females, and for all adult females. We identified 118 adult females and collected dung samples from 40 individuals. Networks were characterized by low densities, disconnected components, short average path lengths, and high clustering coefficients. The average relatedness of adult females within a component was 0.093 ± 0.071 and components typically consisted of the same mitochondrial haplotype. One very large component consisted of 22 adult females, although there were few preferred associations (12.3%). There was no indication of differences between seasons or years. Our results offer some support for fission-fusion sociality in forest elephants, however it appears to differ in structure from the other species.

The Sargasso Sea is a spawning and nursery ground for a number of commercially- and ecologically-important eel species; however, documentation of leptocephali biogeography in the region is incomplete. Pelagic Sargassum species support a diverse community of associated organisms; given that prior studies focused sampling effort on the subsurface, a connection between leptocephali and Sargassum has not been investigated. We identified and measured more than 3000 leptocephali collected in approximately 200 surface and 75 subsurface net tows during 40 Sea Education Association research cruises in the western Sargasso Sea from 1988 to 2012. Over 95% of individuals collected at the surface were identified as the congrid eel Ariosoma balearicum. A positive correlation observed between total leptocephali abundance and Sargassum spp. density suggests that A. balearicum uses pelagic algae as nursery habitat. Seasonal differences were also observed in size and abundance of A. balearicum, with greater quantities of small individuals present from October to November and fewer but larger individuals present in April to June. Diversity was greater subsurface, where multiple species were often collected in the same tow. Results from follow-up population genetics work with A. balearicum planned for spring 2013 will also be presented. These efforts can inform research on adult eel population dynamics and also represent an important step toward better assessing the region's conservation value.

The concept of a High Conversation Value (HCV) forest emerged over 15 years ago within forestry management and has been used as a tool for individual land owners/concessionaires to identify and protect attributes of outstanding conservation value. The delineation of HCV areas gained momentum within the industry and nineteen countries have produced guidance documents on the process for identifying HCV areas. This has typically been a bottom-up process, where companies have used their own data to define conservation priorities in the absence of agreed national conservation priorities or planning frameworks. With increasing progress at the national level in systematically identifying conservation objectives and priority areas to achieve those objectives, there is now a critical need to integrate this work with industry led initiatives like HCV. Concession level HCV analysis must compliment national conservation priorities and the areas identified and values managed for at the concession level must collectively achieve the national conservation objectives. WCS is currently working with an operator at a forestry concession near Mayumba in Southern Gabon to trial a framework for integrating national level priorities into the identification of concession level HCV areas. This talk will explore WCS' experience working with industry to integrate information and priorities identified from national level conservation assessment into site scale HCV assessments and management recommendations.

Understanding factors that affect the persistence of charismatic megafauna in human-dominated landscapes is strategic to inform conservation decision-making and reduce conflict. In this study, we assessed the effect of environmental and anthropogenic factors on the distribution of elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the Greater Mapungubwe Trans Frontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa. We combined aerial counts over a 12 year period with 10 variables on food availability and landscape and anthropogenic variables in a logistic regression. Models were run for the entire landscape, as well as smaller management units with different land-use practices, such as ecotourism, trophy hunting, and a combination of hunting and photographic tourism. The results of all models showed that human activities, such as human population density, the use of electric fences, and hunting, negatively affected the distribution of elephants. The provisioning of water was also found to be an important variable affecting elephant distribution. When planning transboundary conservation areas and corridors in human-dominated landscapes it is important to take anthropogenic factors and their effect on the movements and distribution of megafauna into consideration. Particularly where countries with diverging management strategies are involved.