Science-based enforcement to conserve commercially-valuable species

Illegal hunting and wildlife trade are causing major population declines of many species, from elephants, rhinos and tigers to pangolins, turtles and songbirds. The trade is increasingly driven by organized criminal networks, with sophisticated technologies and methods of operation. Success in addressing this, therefore, also requires sophisticated methods. Fundamental to protecting commercially-valuable species are large numbers of well-trained, well-equipped personnel on the ground to protect source populations, and interdict at trade bottlenecks and end markets. Equally important is that enforcement programs operate at all stages on the basis of good science. This includes knowledge of the biology of the hunted species, data-driven law enforcement patrol systems, state-of-the-art tools to identify traded species and their provenance, and detailed monitoring at all levels. This presentation summarizes such methods, and provides examples of their deployment in field conservation programs.

Society's management of runoff from developed watersheds with discharge to receiving streams results in degradation of aquatic resources. The integration of water resource engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, watershed scientists, and activists has resulted in a noteworthy change in the future management of these resources. Until the very recent past, emphasis was placed on conservation of dollars?now the focus is on conservation of remaining high value resources and restoration of degraded resources. This presentation will describe an integrated approach to stormwater collection and conveyance, eroded outfall repair, restoration of incised stream channels, and disconnected floodplains. The regenerative design approach increases storage and biological processing along the flowpath, optimizes floodplain/riparian zone reconnection, incorporates the elements of the material processing stream, and has been documented to provide significant benefits relative to other restoration approaches and to reference stream conditions, including peak attenuation, increased time of concentration, wetland and aquatic system benefits, and improved cultural elements (e.g., property values, reduced O&M costs, etc.). Perhaps more importantly, the regeneration of habitat provides for better fish and wildlife communities, and significant increases in public stewardship of the resource, which has translated into increased funding support for the conservation and restoration of habitat.

Behavior serves as a mediator between genes and the environment by regulating the effects of the environment on the fitness of organisms. Thus, diversity of behaviors is crucial for populations to function in a changing environment. Anthropogenic alterations to the environment may cause behavioral changes in many species (e.g., habituation, avoidance). Since these behaviors usually enable animals to adapt to the disturbance, preventing a demographic decline and in some cases even increasing population size, they had been considered superficially beneficial conservation-wise. However, such behavioral changes may pose a less obvious yet significant risk - namely, a shift in the selective forces that may lead to the disappearance of certain behaviors. This can hamper the population's ability to withstand unforeseen future environmental changes and may ultimately lead to altering the evolutionary trajectory of the species. In this talk I will discuss the different factors affecting the chances of a behavior to go extinct. These include the type of stressor and the rapidity of its appearance, whether the behavior is genetically-wired or learned, and whether behavioral diversity in the population is the result of monomorphism of mixed strategies or polymorphism of pure strategies. I will further discuss the management implications of these different factors.

Resident Canada geese have become a nuisance throughout much of the Atlantic Flyway due to their propensity to congregate in urban areas. Managers have implemented a variety of strategies - including egg depredation, September hunting seasons, and summer culling - in an effort to reduce the resident population while protecting migratory geese. We used banding data to estimate survival of resident geese in New Jersey. We found lower survival in rural areas where geese are more likely to be harvested, and we also found a decline in survival in more recent years corresponding with expanded culling operations in New Jersey. We explored the relative effectiveness of management activities by producing a population model and manipulating survival and reproductive rates. Culling was the most efficient strategy to reduce abundance because it acted on survival, which had the highest sensitivity, and could target geese in urban areas. Because urban geese are not available for harvest, the liberalization of September seasons would be relatively ineffective at reducing the population. Likewise, the insensitivity of population growth rate to reproductive parameters meant that large egg depredation efforts resulted in relatively small changes in population growth rate. Although public perception often deters managers from pursuing culling operations, they provide the most efficient way to reduce the resident population below the goal level while conserving the migratory population.

A global map of sacred natural sites, which are indigenous and community-conserved areas that have spiritual importance to people, is currently underway (www.mappingthesacred.org). The ambition is to map, assess, visualise, analyse and ultimately conserve our rich heritage of biocultural diversity – “the diversity of life in all of its manifestations: biological, cultural and linguistic, which are interrelated (and possibly coevolved) within a complex socio-ecological adaptive system” – which is being lost at an unprecedented rate (Maffi 2007). Sacred natural sites are considered a ‘parallel’ network of nature reserves, these areas are important for conservation of biodiversity, hosting a variety of habitats and species and forming hubs of cultural activity. Yet, there is very little information on their spatial distribution, their role in conservation of biocultural diversity and the rich cultural traditions that are associated with these sites. Dubbed as ‘nodes of nature and culture’ these sites have the potential to provide hubs for conservation of biocultural diversity. The conventional mapping is far too limited for sacred natural sites because there are hundreds of thousands of them distributed all over the world. Also, these sites are not just points or polygons on the map, but they are spaces rich in traditional rituals, myths, folklores, stories, narratives, performances and offerings which can be captured through audio-visual media. This projects therefore proposes a novel ‘citizen science’ approach to mapping and visual representation of sacred natural sites and it creates a platform and repository for a wide variety of data on these sites. The talk explores a variety of challenges encountered in the global mapping of sacred natural sites.

Existing conservation strategies overlook the wild biodiversity within villages. In this study, we explore the traditional co-existence of human populations with wild vertebrates in villages of south West Bengal, India. Intensive field surveys in 24 sample villages scattered over the region yielded data on occurrences and abundances of wild species along with information like people's perceptions etc. 389 species of wild vertebrates (41 mammals, 235 birds, 52 reptiles, 15 amphibians and 46 freshwater fishes) are found to live within villages in the region. Many are scheduled in the India's Wildlife Act(253 species) and the IUCN (24 species). Species richness per village ranges from 239 to 288. A village is a mosaic of 8-11 distinct habitats, each sustains some wild species. Majority inhabit small patches of wild bushes and tree groves (17.09-47.25% of village area). Despite a decreasing trend, their population sizes are still significant in these villages (e.g. 77-335 Varanus salvator, 15-80 hanuman langur/km2). Villagers accept these wild fauna as natural cohabitants. They assign sacred (e.g. langur, Cobras) or functional values (e.g. Monitors for eating snakes) and give special protections. Such pro-conservative tradition is now facing challenges from the increasing land demands from urbanization and cultural onslaught by it. Emergent conservation strategies must take into account this wealth of wild biodiversity and their conservation traditions remaining in villages.

Science-based conservation can be enhanced by creating organizations and initiatives that link researchers and practitioners. Such organizations vary from non-profit, privately funded groups to state and federally-funded initiatives. As part of these efforts, natural and social scientists take an applied approach to working with conservation practitioners, planners, and businesses so that activities are both scientifically robust and contextually practical. Based on interviews with practitioners and scientists as well as personal experience, this presentation describes success stories and challenges in such projects. The stories cover the Natural Capital Project’s work with public and non-profit conservation organizations as well as businesses, and the University of Washington’s Puget Sound Institute’s work with the state-based Puget Sound Partnership. Primary challenges include physically positioning the bridging academics; finding charismatic scientists to cross the divide; developing a shared non-academic, non-acronym-laden vocabulary; working across practitioner-academic project timelines; and adapting to the political realities of practitioners. The consolidated examples will shed light on an increasing trend in academic-practitioner partnerships and stimulate discussion on the feasibility of such efforts.

The IUCN Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (ACAP) is a unique example of a multi-disciplinary response to the global amphibian crisis. While there is a solid understanding of threats and a diverse academic constituency, compared to other vertebrate taxa there is only a limited global capacity to implement on the ground actions for amphibians. The ACAP prompted stakeholders from around the world to leverage some initial funding to implement real conservation actions that cross disciplines and benefit amphibians world-wide. The Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA) acts as a global partnership for amphibian conservation and is working to mobilize a motivated and effective consortium of organizations to stem the rapid losses of amphibian populations and species worldwide. The purpose of this symposium is to convene some of the implementers of cutting-edge examples of amphibian conservation actions ranging from land acquisition to species management, law enforcement and policy, education and capacity building actions that cross a variety of disciplines. We believe that this session will be sufficiently novel to warrant the drafting of a white paper "The Global Amphibian Conservation Action Plan: Connecting systems, disciplines and stakeholders to save amphibians worldwide" and we will work with participants to ensure that it is published in an appropriate outlet.

Coastal wet lands - are imported self sustained ecosystem plays a significant role for the formation of a wide range of well diversified flora. These aquatic and wet land plants have immense importance for sustainable life support systems including economic and aesthetic values and as such have played a central role in the evolution of human settlement, agriculture, culture, industrial growth etc. An extensive floristic survey was conducted during the year 2012 in the wetland ecosystem of Coastal Odisha, Coastal West Bengal and Coastal Andhrapradesh of India. During the field survey, ethno botanical data have been collected. The documented data indicate that species were used to treat various diseases, for human food, for fodder, for manure, for animal foods, as insecticides and also making mat and basket .In this study we were especially happy, that our indigenous people wanted us to learn, understand, and appreciate where we were and how each species is useful in livelihood (Sustainable power that empowers our tomorrow). As India is one among 12 mega -biodiversity countries and 25 hotspots of the richest and highly endangered eco-regions of the world, there's a tremendous energy about east coast of India, an enigmatic quality that's absolutely unique, and that's what I love to share. Keyword: - Conservation, Livelihood, Ethno botany, Coastal flora, East Coast, India.

Recent research within our multi-disciplinary team involving ecologists, engineers and designers has focused on three novel developments 1) automatic species recognition and detection tools, 2) advanced population monitoring devices and 3) species-specific long-life control tools for invasive pests. This research demonstrates the success of an integrative approach to achieve practical solutions for conservation problems. Examples of these developments and their applications will be provided, including the use of these technologies to detect and then control a reinvading Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) on a pest-free New Zealand Island. These technologies have been designed to offer cost-effective alternatives to current methods for monitoring and controlling animal populations, and have widespread applications in wildlife management and conservation scenarios.

An improved understanding of the evolutionary processes that generate diversification, and in particular how they are influenced by the environment, is crucial in the face of ongoing and predicted environmental changes that will threaten global biodiversity. Here we used climate-based ecological niche models (ENMs) to test hypotheses about ecological divergence and speciation processes between sister species pairs of lemurs (genus Eulemur) in Madagascar. We produced ENMs for eight species, all of which had significant validation support. We found non-equivalent niches between sister species pairs, varying degrees of niche overlap in ecological and geographic space, and support for multiple divergence processes. Specifically, three sister-pair comparisons supported the null model that niches are no more divergent than the available background region, consistent with an allopatric speciation model. However, for one pair we found support for niche divergence; and consistent with their parapatric distribution on an ecotone and the lack of obvious geographic barriers, these findings most strongly support a parapatric model of speciation. Our results support conserving intact ecotones as a means to maintain evolutionary processes, and our study takes a crucial first step towards better understanding how evolutionary processes and the evolutionary ecology of species may respond to continued environmental change.

Habitat loss and degradation, over-exploitation of resources, invasive species, pollution, disease, and climate change are conservation priorities. Road proliferation facilitates all of these, yet how many conservation organisations have a Roads Coordinator? In tropical forests road impacts can be catastrophic. In central Africa, large mammals are hunted out along new roads with areas closest to roads being the hardest hit. Megavertebrates such as forest elephants are impacted by roads even in the most remote forests. Elephant abundance declines dramatically near to roads, and home range size increases with roadless wilderness size because elephants are afraid to cross roads. Each new road built into the forest will bring not just industrial exploitation, but also settlement and access to illegal harvest of wildlife and commercial markets, yet conservationists have little impact on road development and management. Most roads are built with the goal of evacuating natural resources to markets as cheaply as possible, but the cheapest route is often the most ecologically destructive and least socially beneficial. Development agencies see roads as the skeleton on which to build economic growth, and aggressively promote road expansion, yet seldom consider the negative ecological and social impacts. Conservationists must make a last ditch effort to develop and force implementation of a “least bad” regional roads blueprint if functional forests and their megafauna are to survive.

Forecasting the extinction risk of species from limited data is a critical step to enabling a better understanding of biodiversity patterns and threats to species. To date, over 65,000 species have been assessed by the IUCN, including 10,673 as Data Deficient (DD). Determining the status of DD species is essential to both developing a more accurate picture of biodiversity and enabling the protection of potentially threatened DD species. We compared the outcomes of seven Machine Learning tools in determining the threat status of non-DD mammals using taxonomic, life-history, geographical and threat information. We then used the best tool to predict the status of DD mammals. Machine Learning tools achieved very high classification accuracy (up to 92%) and ability to correctly identify threatened species (up to 94%). We predict 313 out of 493 DD species (64%) to be at threat, increasing the estimated proportion of threatened terrestrial mammals from 22% to 27% globally. We find that regions predicted to contain large numbers of threatened DD species are already conservation priorities, but show higher levels of species imperilment than previously recognized. We conclude that unless directly targeted for re-assessment and conservation, DD species are likely to slide towards extinction unnoticed. Taking into account information on DD species has substantial implications for tackling Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls, as well as conserving the earth's poorly known biodiversity.

Illegal fishing has detrimental environmental and social impacts, but these effects are difficult to mitigate without reliable estimates of fisher noncompliance. This research applies the randomized response technique (RRT) to directly estimate non-compliance in the Northern California recreational red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) fishery before and after the introduction of new fishing regulations and marine protected areas (MPA’s). Anonymous paper-based compliance and sociodemographic surveys were conducted of recreational fishers in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties in August of 2007 and 2011. The 2011 survey found slight reductions in illegal take across most violation types. The sociodemographic information collected in 2011 reconfirmed higher non-compliance rates among visitors than local fishers; particularly within the newly designated MPA’s. Ignorance of rule change was the most common explanation provided by respondents for non-compliance, and the 2011 survey reflected declines in fisher knowledge of regulations. Promisingly, since the introduction of on-animal tagging regulations the proportional daily take limit violation among local residents was found to have decreased from 72% to 43%. These rule-specific violation estimates confirm some non-compliance reductions have been achieved, but also point to opportunities for improving managerial communication and enforcement.

2014 is the centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon. It provides a teachable moment for scientists, educators, and public to consider how the most abundant bird in the world went extinct over a matter of decades and to consider its implications for today. The story of its extinction is often incorrectly oversimplified as “exterminated by overhunting”. Extinction was a result of the interplay between biological and human factors – including vulnerability resulting from specialization, the rise of technology (railroads and telegraphs), economics (market hunting to provide meat to urban markets) and values. The story of the Passenger Pigeon holds many lessons for today. These range from the obvious that abundance is not a predictor of resilience to the subtle that new forms of technology that may appear unrelated can actually be significant causes of extinction. Project Passenger Pigeon (P3) - a multi-disciplinary effort is engaging many people in conservation education. P3 includes music, theatre, poetry, film, stories, art, exhibits, speakers, a book, new research, digital and traditional media and many other approaches to share the story of the Passenger Pigeon and its relevance for today (www.passengerpigeon.org).