Connectivity Conservation

Strategic land conservation is a global priority to protect species diversity and local native species in the face of climate change, urbanization, and other forms of anthropogenic disturbance. This paper discusses development of a regional spatial decision support system focused on prioritizing climate and water quality resiliency in conservation management. Spatial multi-criteria decision analysis and publicly available datasets were used to weight complementary cross-county resiliency targets. We further explore use of this model in the context of a participatory GIS project for determining microhabitat restoration potential of nonprofit owned lands in an urban county with low overall resiliency. The results show a wide range of biodiversity, connectivity and water quality target values when parcels with faith-based ownership are examined in urbanized areas. The decision analysis and participatory aspects of both projects encourage continued use and manipulation of data to meet community needs in a way that formulaic models, or those covering larger land areas, would not.

Por tanto, en este proyecto se pretende generar información georreferenciada actualizada al año 2020, que refleje las condiciones socioeconómicas de la población indígena para el Estado de Puebla, en un estudio intra e interregional. Se analiza la dimensión demográfica a partir de la población que habla lengua indígena por: sexo, cortes de edad e índice de envejecimiento de la población. La dimensión social se analiza a partir del acceso a educación en los diferentes niveles, la derechohabiencia a servicios de salud, la discapacidad y los servicios en las viviendas. La participación económica se analiza a partir de la variable población económicamente activa y de la pobreza en sus diferentes niveles, carencias y niveles de ingreso.

With less than 3200 wild tigers in 2010, the heads of 13 tiger-range countries committed to doubling the global population of wild tigers by 2022. This goal represents the highest level of ambition and commitment required to turn the tide for tigers in the wild. Yet, ensuring efficient and targeted implementation of conservation actions alongside systematic monitoring of progress towards this goal requires that we set site-specific recovery targets and timelines that are ecologically realistic. In this study, we assess the recovery potential of 18 sites identified under WWF's Tigers Alive Initiative. We delineated recovery systems comprising a source, recovery site, and support region, which need to be managed synergistically to meet these targets. By using the best available data on tiger and prey numbers, and adapting existing species recovery frameworks, we show that these sites, which currently support 165 (118-277) tigers, have the potential to harbour 585 (454-739) individ...

Tall wet grasslands in the northern alluvial flood plains of the river Ganges and Brahmaputra are popularly known as Terai grasslands. Rajaji National Park (RNP) with an area of 820.42 sq km is along the river Ganges in the state of Uttarakhand in northern India and forms part of Terai Arc Landscape, a prime tiger habitat. A study was carried out to estimate the occurrence of the wild animal species after relocation of Van gujjars in Chila and Motichur Ranges of Rajaji National Park. Five Van gujjars relocated sites were selected for the present study i.e. Mundal, Amgadi, Mitawali, Kara (in Chila range) and Koelpura (Motichur Range). Diversity of grass species were recorded during the study period. In addition, we assessed the presence of prey species using 1-0 sampling and in addition to that camera trapping was done in this study site to enumerate the capture rate of carnivore species using markrecapture framework. The different grassland communities indentified are Saccharum spon...

While spatial accessibility characterises and identifies high-altitude mountain and protected areas in The Alps―monitoring the number of visitors is still largely grounded to the accommodation facilities and/or transport links in the bordering valleys/municipalities. The local spatial planning instruments which might permit a change in tourism bed-density as a key indicator, e.g., municipal space and landscape plans, have a fundamental impact on the surrounding near-natural areas. Yet, the pattern of the non-technical visitor flow (trails) in high-altitude areas is not fully monitored or analysed. In fact, several recent studies focus on the visitor counting methods utilised at observation-based points for the monitoring of tourism flow, i.e., visitor count per hour per point, without equally elaborating on methodology(ies) to identify these points―apart from a selection criteria. Thus, this paper addresses, quantifies and geo-visualises the question of: what points-of-eco/cultural-interest (POIs) of a mountain landscape are being consumed as a commodity―for the monitoring of tourism flow and multi-purpose impact surveys for policy-testing? The POIs are subjected to a profound temporality as a result of the change in landscape consumption, i.e., through the promotion of clusters of POIs. Founded on the cartographic theory and field landscape documentation surveys in Alto Adige/Südtirol (and The Alps), this paper introduces a cartographic and spatio-market planning methodology and indicator to answer the above question. It spatially segments the POIs in the high-altitude mountain and protected areas, based on accessibility and topography, and land cover and feature type (characteristics/geodiversity); and analyses the connectivity clusters of the POIs (preference). All destinations, i.e., nodes (ultimate POIs), within the boundary of a particular high-altitude mountain and protected area, are identified through cross-referencing all available sectoral/industry sources, where the total POIs on all possible routes to a specific node form a single preference (connectivity) cluster. The clusters overlap to create low/medium/high frequency POIs. Thus, the methodology funnels the landscape into a pattern of multiple frequency consumption POIs (quantification) of specific characteristics for the monitoring of tourism flow in actual market terms, and maps these preference (connectivity) clusters for use in local/regional spatial planning instrumentation (protected area and municipal plans), i.e., geodata tool (geo-visualisation). The methodology has formative and comparative implementation in high-altitude mountain and protected areas in The Alps, namely, with regards to conservation and area connectivity. The impact of visitors along the trails is assessed by an impact indicator, i.e., through the aggregation of the multiple frequency POIs into multiple frequency unit areas (localised grid). As an ultimate result, the indicator ‘Impact Density of Tourism Flow’, equals, the number of medium/high frequency unit areas per particular high-altitude area (total area). The geo-visualisation of this indicator act as a management tool to identify medium/high frequency unit areas for the monitoring tourism flow. The latter is mentioned in terms of unit areas not POIs―because within each of the unit areas there might be several medium/high frequency POIs, where only one POI (highest frequency) will be used as a monitoring point to avoid any visitor double-counts. Thus, the monitoring would occur based on both, the patterns of the POIs inside each unit area and the unit areas across a particular high-altitude mountain and protected areas―while factoring-in the geodiversity (characteristics) of the landscape as a unique offering identified at the POIs level (competitive advantage/economy of difference). The monitoring of tourism flow through the implementation of the spatio-market methodology  and the use of the indicator: ‘Impact Density of Tourism Flow’―directly facilitates the cooperation between the supralocal stakeholders: nature protection and tourism associations and businesses, municipalities, etc. The identified and quantified POIs and unit areas are associated with the Sustainable Tourism Management policy in the study-area, i.e., namely, nature conservation, beyond the approach based on the accommodation facilities and/or transport links in the bordering valleys/municipalities. Hence, nature conservation is 1 out 15 key issue areas addressed by the Sustainable Tourism Observatory of South Tyrol, part of the data-driven long-term UNWTO-INSTO International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories. Moreover, this policy is aligned with the AlpCon - Alpine Convention’s Tourism protocol, article 8 on Controlling Tourists Flows, particularly in protected areas, and AlpArc’s Alpine Park 2030, recommendation 10 on Direct and Concentrate Touristic Impact.

Amazonia (defined herein as the Amazon basin) is home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on Earth, providing unique genetic resources and ecological functions that contribute to ecosystem services globally. The lengthy and complex evolutionary history of this region has produced heterogeneous landscapes and riverscapes at multiple scales, altered the geographic and genetic connections among populations, and impacted rates of adaptation, speciation, and extinction. In turn, ecologically diverse Amazonian biotas promoted further diversification, species coexistence, and coevolution, with biodiversity accumulating over tens of millions of years. Important events in Amazonian history included: (i) late Cretaceous and early Paleogene origin of major rainforest plant and animal groups; (ii) Eocene-Oligocene global cooling with rainforests contracting to tropical latitudes separating Atlantic coastal and Amazonian rainforests; (iii) Miocene uplift of central and northern Andes that separated Pacific coastal and Amazonian rainforests, spurred formation of mega-wetlands in the western Amazon, and contributed to the origin of the modern transcontinental Amazon River; (iv) late Neogene formation of the Panamanian Isthmus that facilitated the Great American Biotic Interchange; (v) Pleistocene climate oscillations followed by late Pleistocene-Holocene human colonization and megafaunal extinctions; and (vi) modern era of widespread anthropogenic deforestation, defaunation, and ecological transformations of regional landscapes and global climates. Amazonian conservation requires decade-scale investments into biodiversity documentation and monitoring to leverage existing scientific capacity, and strategic habitat planning to allow continuity of evolutionary and ecological processes now and into the future.

E cological research is entering a new era of integration and collaboration as we meet the challenge of understanding the great complexity of biological systems. Ecological subdisciplines are rapidly combining and incorporating other biological, physical, mathematical, and sociological disciplines. The burgeoning base of theoretical and empirical work, made possible by new methods, technologies, and funding opportunities, is providing the opportunity to reach robust answers to major ecological questions. In December 1999 the National Science Foundation convened a white paper committee to evaluate what we know and do not know about important ecological processes, what hurdles currently hamper our progress, and what intellectual and conceptual interfaces need to be encouraged. The committee distilled the discussion into four frontiers in research on the ecological structure of the earth's biological diversity and the ways in which ecological processes continuously shape that structure (i.e., ecological dynamics). This article summarizes the discussions of those frontiers and explains why they are crucial to our understanding of how ecological processes shape patterns and dynamics of global biocomplexity. The frontiers are 1. Dynamics of coalescence in complex communities 2. Evolutionary and historical determinants of ecological processes: The role of ecological memory 3. Emergent properties of complex systems: Biophysical constraints and evolutionary attractors 4. Ecological topology: Defining the spatiotemporal domains of causality for ecological structure and processes Each of the four research frontiers takes a different approach to the overall ecological dynamics of biocomplexity, and all require integration and collaboration among those approaches. These overlapping frontiers themselves are not necessarily new. Within each frontier, however, are emerging questions and approaches that will help us understand how ecological processes are interconnected over multiple spatial and temporal scales, from local community structure to global patterns.

Animal behaviour such as dispersal and migration ensure their survival in the landscape. It has been established in the past few decades that wildlife conservation and study of their movement in the wilderness is vital for sustainable ecosystem. Thus, identification of regions having high movement permeability for planning and maintenance of functional wildlife corridors has turn out to be a fundamental requirement for habitat management. This study emphases on movement of big cats-Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca) in the protected area of Rajaji National Park situated in Uttarakhand State of India. The National park is a designated tiger reserve with large amount of tigers and leopards at its disposal. Here, Circuitscape was used to generate connectivity map of the study area. The results were validated using occurrence points downloaded from GBIF. The habitat suitability and resistance of the landscape was estimated based on literature review and expert opinion survey. Since, both the species have comparable ecological niche, similar habitat parameters were used for generation of resistance map of the species. Occurrence points for the species were downloaded from GBIF. 60% of the points were used as nodes or focal points where species presence is recorded whereas 40% of the points were used in validation of the connectivity paths. Results depicts the current density map of the study area highlighting areas with high connectivity for the species.

Biodiversity can be simply defined as the variety of all types of living organism. Spiders are among the most diverge groups on earth, which received the seventh ranking in global diversity after the sixth largest insect orders. Spiders are major playing a vital role in the forest ecosystem is the spiders. The spotted spider specimens were taken photographed identified without disturbing it. A total of 17 species of spiders under 15 genera and 9 families were recorded during the Four months survey in five falls in Coutrallam, Tenkasi district, Tamilnadu state, India.

Piñero for training me to become a scientist and contributing endless hours of edits and advice. Thank you Mom for always telling me about the importance of getting an education and supporting me. Because of you, I have completed the American Dream. Dad, thank you for always supporting and encouraging my adventures, and making sure I took every opportunity to explore the world. Thank you to Joy Shapiro, Kate Hargenrader, Laura Schwebel, Elizabeth Johnson, and Nima Farchadi whose humor, positivity, and love helped me survive the long nights, doubts, and all the other hardships that come with completing a M.S. degree. I would like to thank all sources of funding for this project including, but not limited to: The University of San Diego, the National Science Foundation, and Ocean Discovery Institute. Thank you to all the volunteers that helped collect this data, including Earthwatch, Ocean Discovery Institute and various scientists and assistants; without your help we would not be able to explore this long-term dataset in this beautiful archipelago of Bahía de los Ángeles. Finally, I would like to thank Daniel J. Griffin for his encouragement and unconditional love during this time and always being my number one supporter. Murakoze

Hidalgo, es quizá uno de los ecosistemas que ha sufrido alteraciones debido al cambio climático, como los del resto del país, que ha ocasionado disturbios en sus componentes y funcionamiento. Por ello, el objetivo del presente trabajo fue comparar dos periodos (1941-1970 y 1951-2010) para encontrar evidencias de cambio en los parámetros temperatura y precipitación, además de los cambios en el comportamiento de la altitud de condensación de humedad, de acuerdo con el IPCC, utilizando el método de sensibilidad, estableciendo cuatro rangos de temperatura (1, 2, 4 y 6 °C). Como resultados, se encontró un aumento de temperatura de 0.47 °C y una disminución en la precipitación de 133 mm en la región, afectando la franja de condensación de humedad de la zona, que tiende a desplazarse más de 940 m, ante un aumento de 2 °C para el periodo 2090-2099. Con los probables cambios, la humedad atmosférica ya no condensaría en el bosque mesófilo de montaña, haciéndose necesaria su conservación y restauración.

of the Cliffs Environment team who were incredibly helpful and responsive in this regard. The Department of Parks and Wildlife have also supported the fieldwork with approvals and licences, pertinent information and regular fire safely check-ins; thanks to

In a recent piece in EMR, Burbidge et al. discussed some major impediments to linking research and practice in ecological restoration and management. They identified a lack of collaboration between research and practice, poor communication, inappropriate funding and political timelines, change inertia and a lack of capacity as major barriers to improving restoration praxis. They suggest capacity building, communication, collaboration and involving key stakeholders through an iterative cycle of research to management will improve the translation of research into practice (Ecological Management and Restoration 12, 2011, 54). While we agree with the barriers and recommendations identified, they did not consider how the multifaceted motivations embodied in the practice and social context of restoration shape the research-practice nexus. Given the diversity of actors involved in conservation activities, and the focus on conservation on private land and landscape-scale connectivity in government policy, this is a significant oversight. We suggest it is vital to draw attention to these multifaceted motivations when discussing implementation challenges. This piece draws on our collective insights from three doctoral research projects examining the science, practice and social dimensions of ecological restoration and management in Australia. Our intention is to outline some of the social and contextual influences shaping restoration practice to demonstrate the importance of dialogue between researchers, practitioners and landholders around the goals and expectations of restoration and management interventions. We suggest this is an important aspect of improving the conversation between the actors involved in restoration research, policy and practice.

This paper presents the results of research conducted in a village on the southeastern boundary of Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) which has experienced rapid and dramatic social-ecological change as a result of tiger-related tourism. Our aim was to better understand the impacts of wildlife tourism on the forest ecosystem, village structure, solidarity and institutions and consider the implications of this for tiger conservation management and policy. Our results indicate that while wildlife tourism established linkages between the village society and the global economy, it negatively impacted the local community and ecology. It also created a new village entity, tourist resorts, which are neither an individual nor a village member making dispute-resolution impossible under existing institutional structures. Our results suggest that future forest and conservation policy and management strategies should de-emphasize the monetary function of wildlife-tourism, and instead focus on building social capital and strengthening local institutions. This will likely increase the adaptive capacity of villages to the impacts of tourism and mitigate the associated ecological impacts.

Western Australia's State Barrier Fence represents a continuation of colonial era attitudes that considered kangaroos, emus and dingoes as vermin. Recent plans to upgrade and extend the Barrier Fence have shown little regard for ecological impacts or statutory environmental assessment processes.

Connections between ecosystems via animals (active subsidies) support ecosystem services and contribute to numerous ecological effects. Thus, the ability to predict the spatial distribution of active subsidies would be useful for ecology and conservation. Previous work modelling active subsidies focused on implicit space or static distributions, which treat passive and active subsidies similarly. Active subsidies are fundamentally different from passive subsidies, because animals can respond to the process of subsidy deposition and ecosystem changes caused by subsidy deposition. We propose addressing this disparity by integrating animal movement and ecosystem ecology to advance active subsidy investigations, make more accurate predictions of subsidy spatial distributions, and enable a mechanistic understanding of subsidy spatial distributions. We review selected quantitative techniques that could be used to accomplish integration and lead to novel insights. The ultimate objective fo...

Biodiversity can be simply defined as the variety of all types of living organism. Spiders are among the most diverge groups on earth, which received the seventh ranking in global diversity after the sixth largest insect orders. Spiders are major playing a vital role in the forest ecosystem is the spiders. The spotted spider specimens were taken photographed identified without disturbing it. A total of 17 species of spiders under 15 genera and 9 families were recorded during the Four months survey in five falls in Coutrallam, Tenkasi district, Tamilnadu state, India.

In an unprecedented response to the rapid decline in wild tiger populations, the Heads of Government of the 13 tiger range countries endorsed the St. Petersburg Declaration in November 2010, pledging to double the wild tiger population. We conducted a landscape analysis of tiger habitat to determine if a recovery of such magnitude is possible. The reserves in 20 priority tiger landscapes can potentially support >10,000 tigers, almost thrice the current estimate. However, most core reserves where tigers breed are small and land-use change in rapidly developing Asia threatens to increase reserve and population isolation. Maintaining population viability and resilience will depend upon a landscape approach to manage tigers as metapopulations. Thus, both site-level protection and landscape-scale interventions to secure habitat corridors are simultaneous imperatives. Co-benefits, such as payment schemes for carbon and other ecosystem services, should be employed as strategies to mainstream landscape conservation in tiger habitat into development processes.

We analyzed mtDNA polymorphisms (a total of 741 bp from a part of conserved control region, ND5, ND2, Cyt b and 12S) in 91 scats and 12 tissue samples of Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) populations across Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) located at the foothills of Himalayas in North Western India, Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), and North East India. In TAL and BTR, we found a specific haplotype at high frequency, which was absent elsewhere, indicating a genetically distinct population in these regions. Within the TAL region, there is some evidence for genetic isolation of the tiger populations west of river Ganges, i.e., in the western part of Rajaji National Park (RNP). Although the river itself might not constitute a significant barrier for tigers, recent human-induced changes in habitat and degradation of the Motichur-Chilla Corridor connecting the two sides of the tiger habitat of RNP might effectively prevent genetic exchange. A cohesive population is observed for the rest of the TAL. Even the more eastern BTR belongs genetically to this unit, despite the present lack of a migration corridor between BTR and TAL. In spite of a close geographic proximity, Chitwan (Nepal) constitutes a tiger population genetically different from TAL. Moreover, it is observed that the North East India tiger populations are genetically different from TAL and BTR, as well as from the other Bengal tiger populations in India.

Conception Coast Regional Conservation Guide zones can occur on public and private lands and include certain types of agricultural and grazing practices, ecologically sustainable forestry, and recreational use such as hunting and fishing. Of critical importance in responding to and utilizing the information contained in this Guide is the use of the same long-range (25-100 years or more) planning perspective that was used in creating it. The Guide concludes with an extensive discussion of implementing its conservation recommendations, efforts we expect will take considerable time and greater financial and other resources than presently exist. Nevertheless, we believe the Guide presents urgently needed information as well as inspiration to guide the use of currently available time, energy and resources to ensure our conservation and stewardship efforts are efficient and pay maximum dividends. Given this timeline, we outline numerous voluntary, pro-active alternatives to complement existing effort towards assuring preservation of our natural heritage while meeting the complex and growing needs of our society.

Large carnivores strongly shape ecological interactions within their respective ecosystems, but experience significant conflicts with human across their range due to their specific ecological resource requirements. The tiger (Panthera tigris) typifies the challenges faced by the large carnivore communities globally. India retains majority of the global tiger population with significant numbers outside protected areas (PAs) that are involved in conflicts from livestock predation and human/tiger death. To understand the prey selection patterns and spatio-temporal patterns of livestock predation-related conflict issues we investigated tiger food habits across the Indian part of the Terai-Arc Landscape (TAL), a globally-important tiger conservation landscape in India. We used 510 genetically-confirmed tiger faeces collected across the landscape and ascertained 10 wild and livestock as major prey species. Large-bodied species (sambar, swamp deer, nilgai, chital, wild pig and livestock) comprised ~94% of tiger diet, with sambar, chital and livestock were the major prey species. Habitatspecific (Shivalik-Bhabar and Terai) analyses show significantly different pattern of prey selections determined by abundance and prey body weight. Results also suggest that PA and non-PAs of Terai habitat are more prone to livestock depredation-related conflicts, and careful management interventions and community involvements are required to reduce such threats. We suggest long-term plans including population estimation of tigers and prey outside PAs, reducing grazing pressures and cattle enumeration, detailed investigation of tiger deaths etc. to ensure future tiger sustainability across this habitat.

Professor Richard Hobbs has had a profound influence on the development of the discipline of restoration ecology. With more than 300 publications spanning a broad scope of applied ecological sciences, he has collaborated with hundreds of researchers. His sometimes-provocative insights, balanced by extensive empirical research, will have a lasting impact by encouraging people to think more broadly about the science and practice of ecological restoration. Here, on the eve of his retirement, some of his staff and students, past and present, take a retrospective look at his contributions to restoration ecology both as a scientist and as a mentor.

Por décadas el estado de Hidalgo ha sido considerado una entidad con profundas desigualdades sociales y escaso desarrollo social, económico y político. Por lo anterior, se observan condiciones de exclusión, marginación, discriminación y de un inequitativo acceso a los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos, todavía presentes en las cifras de los censos de población del Inegi de 2000 y 2005.
En el estado de Hidalgo existen más de 4.596 localidades de las cuales el 96% son menores de 2500 habitantes, la gran mayoría están ubicadas en municipios y regiones marginadas y por consiguiente carecen del mínimo indispensable de bienestar; pero no solo es la pobreza sino que estas comunidades y sus habitantes se encuentran en condiciones de exclusión y vulnerabilidad.
En la sierra tepehua (San Bartolo Tutotepec, Huehuetla y Tenango), las comunidades rurales, eminentemente indígenas, con vocación económica agropecuaria viven en condiciones de marginación, y el intermediarismo —«coyotaje»— es un flagelo persistente que se realiza, incluso, por los organismos públicos. No obstante, los pobladores rurales generan procesos de respuesta a la globalización a través del capital social y la organización de mujeres.

Landscape-based Ecological Networks (EN) have been considered a conservation tool developed to contrast habitat fragmentation (HF) as an anthropogenic process. This approach, based on the “core-buffer-corridors” model, has been largely applied in the Northern world to plan human-dominated landscapes. However, an application of this
process to the African continent should be carried out with criticism. When adopting the EN approach as a connectivity conservation tool, planners must remember that (i) it is important to be aware that “core–buffer–corridors” designs are species-specific, (ii) the identification of connective areas can be biased due to a “framing effect”, (iii) planners and managers focus too much on areas of conservation concern and less on
human-transformed sites where anthropogenic threats arise, (iv) ecological and social processes are dynamic and that it is necessary to apply a flexible approach, (v) ecologists only partially know the HF problem; therefore, they will have to involve experts from other disciplines, (vi) spatial patterns of HF may be determined by multiple threats, often historically overlapping, (viii) no planning solution can be exclusively
top–down (i.e., only through governmental Agencies) and that, especially in areas of rapid urban expansion and demographic growth, local populations must be involved because they can make a difference in achieving conservation successes.

Large carnivores strongly shape ecological interactions within their respective ecosystems, but experience significant conflicts with human across their range due to their specific ecological resource requirements. The tiger (Panthera tigris) typifies the challenges faced by the large carnivore communities globally. India retains majority of the global tiger population with significant numbers outside protected areas (PAs) that are involved in conflicts from livestock predation and human/tiger death. To understand the prey selection patterns and spatio-temporal patterns of livestock predation-related conflict issues we investigated tiger food habits across the Indian part of the Terai-Arc Landscape (TAL), a globally-important tiger conservation landscape in India. We used 510 genetically-confirmed tiger faeces collected across the landscape and ascertained 10 wild and livestock as major prey species. Large-bodied species (sambar, swamp deer, nilgai, chital, wild pig and livestock) c...

The role of NCCARF is to lead the research community in a national interdisciplinary effort to generate the information needed by decision-makers in government, business and in vulnerable sectors and communities to manage the risk of climate change impacts. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this work are the authors own and the institutional arrangements described are those that were in effect during the timeframe within which the research was undertaken-October 2011 to December 2012.

La ausencia de una metodología consensuada para monitorear la degradación, conservación, aumento y disminución de los recursos forestales ha limitado la identificación de laderas con poco o nulo arbolado, vulnerables a los procesos de remoción en masa (PRM). Con base en el análisis global de los recursos forestales del planeta que efectuó el estudio Cambio Forestal Global 2013 (GFC por su siglas en inglés), realizamos un análisis preliminar de la dinámica de pérdida y ganancia forestal en diversas regiones naturales y sociopolíticas del estado de Veracruz. Durante 2013, encontramos que 80% de los PRM ocurrió en zonas con porcentaje de dosel arbóreo bajo (0-60% de cobertura), mientras que 20% aconteció en zonas de dosel alto o muy alto (60-100% de cobertura). Los resultados y la metodología de este análisis presentan una oportunidad para la identificación de áreas vulnerables a PRM, así como para el manejo de los recursos naturales en el estado de Veracruz.

Corridor design is a centripetal conservation tool to facilitate movement between fragmented patches. Increases in anthropogenic activity have caused degradation in forest connectivity, influencing animal movement to a small degree. Laljhadi-Mohana wildlife corridor (LMWC), a corridor between Shuklaphanta National Park (Nepal) and Dudhwa National Park (India) created to be used by Panthera tigris and Elephas maximus in western Nepal, is under pressure of anthropogenic change. Using current knowledge, we analyzed land cover changes (LCC) of LMWC between 2002 and 2012. We used ERDAS IMAGINE 9.2 and Arc GIS 9.2 to process satellite images, and occupancy survey to assess status of corridor. We classified land cover into dense forest, sparse forest, cultivation, water bodies, grassland, expose surfaces, and sand bank as structural attributes of the corridor. Our analysis found dense forest area was reduced by 18.35% in a decade while cultivation and sparse forest increased by 10.15% and 8.89%, respectively. Illegal forest encroachment, resource extraction, grazing pressure, invasive species, and flood were major drivers of forest change. The null occupancy model estimated the highest detection probability of Elephas maximus (0.48 ± 0.08) and the lowest of Axis axis (0.20 ± 0.08). Incorporating site covariates improved occupancy estimates of Sus scrofa (0.82), Axis axis (0.76), Elephas maximus (0.76), Boselaphus tragocamelus (0.66), and Panthera pardus (0.55). Distance to cultivation was the most influential covariate, supported by the expansion of cultivated land in the corridor. LMWC is a functional wildlife corridor despite a decline in forest cover. This decline influenced the number and detection rates of large mammals, instigating crop raiding and conflict. Mitigation measures on LCC drivers, particularly forest encroachment, can improve the functional status of LMWC and raise detection rates of large mammals in future studies.

We investigated the spatial genetic structure of the tiger meta-population in the Satpura-Maikal landscape of central India using population-and individualbased genetic clustering methods on multilocus genotypic data from 273 individuals. The Satpura-Maikal landscape is classified as a global-priority Tiger Conservation Landscape (TCL) due to its potential for providing sufficient habitat that will allow the long-term persistence of tigers. We found that the tiger meta-population in the Satpura-Maikal landscape has high genetic variation and very low genetic subdivision. Individual-based Bayesian clustering algorithms reveal two highly admixed genetic populations. We attribute this to forest connectivity and high gene flow in this landscape. However, deforestation, road widening, and mining may sever this connectivity, impede gene exchange, and further exacerbate the genetic division of tigers in central India.

We conducted a Geographic Information System (GIS) conservation assessment of the "Heart of the West" region, which incorporates the Wyoming Basins Ecoregion. This systematic assessment utilized three widely accepted tracks of conservation planning: representing habitat variation across the landscape, incorporating special elements, and securing important habitat for focal species (Noss 2003). Only 4.1% of our study area is currently in some form of protective federal status (i.e. GAP 1 or 2 status lands), and even these holdings fall short of protecting much of the biological diversity of the study area or representing all vegetative communities. Using a simulated annealing site- selection algorithm, and with static focal species habitat models and special element data (i.e. Natural Heritage species locations) as inputs, we used quantitative conservation targets to identify unprotected areas (or proposed core areas) within the region. If these core areas are protected as ...

Spider webs were shown to be effective collectors of airborne microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. Spider webs were collected from different regions of Melghat forest such as Chikhaldara, Simadoh, Jaridhred . These spider webs were cultured on Potato Dextrose Agar plate supplemented with antibiotic to inhibit the growth of bacteria Methodology assured sterility during collection and permitted In situ microbial growth , observation and enumeration of fungi. These samples were then analyzed for fungi content. To be considered suitable passive collectors, webs had to satisfy some basic conditions such as collection of microorganisms without discrimination based on species or size or type, Collection under variable environmental conditions and saturation avoidance in the presence of strong microbial launching sources. Samples were collected from different height, at different temperatures, from thin to thick forest .These parameters covers major region of Melghat forest to create ...

Mountain regions have played a signifi cant role in the history of biodiversity conservation, and promise to play an even larger part in future efforts to respond to climate change. After an historical overview of scientifi c research into mountain ecosystems, biodiversity conservation in mountain regions is examined in light of the ever-expanding research agenda on landscape connectivity and corridor ecology. An array of potential benefi cial and deleterious effects of 'wildlife corridors' is then discussed, along with a description of the conceptual scientifi c underpinnings of wildlife corridors in the fi eld of island biogeography, metapopulation dynamics, and landscape ecology. The effects of climate change on mountain ecosystems are then reviewed, focusing on the premise that the protection and restoration of corridors constitute the most comparatively effective prospect for protecting mountain biodiversity in the long term. We conclude that three distinct research communities-the mountain research community, the corridor ecology community, and the climate change community-will have to provide mutual support in answering four critical questions: (1) What do we need to know about mountain biodiversity and how it interacts with human communities in the mountains? (2) In what ways can the establishment of 'on-the-ground' corridors provide suffi cient connectivity between 'natural' communities, species, and populations in mountain regions? (3) To what degree will anthropogenic climate change require us to modify our response to the fi rst two questions? (4) How can we best build resilience into mountain ecosystems?

Agencies responsible for recovering populations of iconic mammals may exaggerate population trends without adequate scientific evidence. Recently, such populations were termed as "political populations" in the conservation literature. We surmise such cases are manifested when agencies are pressured to estimate population parameters at large spatial scales for elusive species. For example, India's tiger conservation agencies depend on an extrapolation method using indexcalibration models for estimating population size. A recent study demonstrated mathematically the unreliability of this approach in practical situations. However, it continues to be applied by official agencies in Asia and promoted further by global organizations working on tiger conservation. In this article, we aim to: (a) discuss the ecological oddities in the results of India's national tiger surveys, (b) contrast these survey approaches to known statistical approaches for large scale wildlife abundance estimation, (c) demystify the mathematics underlying the problems with the survey methodology, and (d) substantiate these arguments with results from India's national tiger survey of 2014. Our analyses show that the predictions of tiger abundance reported by the 2014 survey, and consequently on tiger population trends, are misleading because of the presence of high sampling-based overdispersion and parameter covariance due to unexplained heterogeneity in detection probabilities. We plead for designing monitoring programs to answer clearly defined scientific or management questions rather than attempt to meet extraneous social or funding related expectations.

Geographic information systems (GIS) are used in siting decisions as an objective, scientific means of arriving at policy. Siting, however, is typically a contested process and GIS may become politicized. Citizens' groups opposed to routeing an electrical transmission line through southern West Virginia argue that federal decision-makers incorporated their agencies' interests into the GIS procedures used to identify potential power-line corridors. On the basis of this case study, the use of GIS in siting decisions can be argued to be explicitly politicized. All parties must be allowed to help define the practice and purpose of GIS in siting decisions.

We conducted a Geographic Information System (GIS) conservation assessment of the "Heart of the West" region, which incorporates the Wyoming Basins Ecoregion. This systematic assessment utilized three widely accepted tracks of conservation planning: representing habitat variation across the landscape, incorporating special elements, and securing important habitat for focal species (Noss 2003). Only 4.1% of our study area is currently in some form of protective federal status (i.e. GAP 1 or 2 status lands), and even these holdings fall short of protecting much of the biological diversity of the study area or representing all vegetative communities. Using a simulated annealing site- selection algorithm, and with static focal species habitat models and special element data (i.e. Natural Heritage species locations) as inputs, we used quantitative conservation targets to identify unprotected areas (or proposed core areas) within the region. If these core areas are protected as ...

Landscape connectivity, or “the degree to which the landscape facilitates or impedes movement among resource patches” (Taylor et al. 1993), is important for many ecological and evolutionary processes (McRae et al. 2012, Singleton and McRae 2013). For example, the ability of animals to move at a variety of spatial and temporal scales is important for population persistence, genetic exchange, dispersal, and movement in response to climate change (Crooks and Sanjayan 2006, Heller and Zavaleta 2009, Nunez et al. 2013). Consequently, the maintenance or restoration of habitat connectivity has become a central issue addressed in conservation assessments and planning (Crooks and Sanjayan 2006, Hilty et al. 2006, WHCWG 2010). This has led to a variety of methods and tools that have been developed to assist researchers and managers in their planning efforts (see Singleton and McRae 2013 for a recent overview).

Occupying only 7% of their historical range and confined to forested habitats interspersed in a matrix of human dominated landscapes, tigers (Panthera tigris) typify the problems faced by most large carnivores worldwide. With heads of governments of tiger range countries pledging to reverse the extinction process and setting a goal of doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022, achieving this target would require identifying existing breeding cores, potential breeding habitats and opportunities for dispersal. The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) represents one region which has recently witnessed recovery of tiger populations following conservation efforts. In this study, we develop a spatially explicit tiger occupancy model with survey data from 2009-10 based on a priori knowledge of tiger biology and specific issues plaguing the western TAL (6,979 km 2), which occurs in two disjunct units (Tiger Habitat Blocks; THBs). Although the overall occupancy of tigers was 0.588 (SE 0.071), our results clearly indicate that loss in functionality of a regional corridor has resulted in tigers now occupying 17.58% of the available habitat in THB I in comparison to 88.5% in THB II. The current patterns of occupancy were best explained by models incorporating the interactive effect of habitat blocks (AIC w = 0.883) on wild prey availability (AIC w = 0.742) and anthropogenic disturbances (AIC w = 0.143). Our analysis has helped identify areas of high tiger occupancy both within and outside existing protected areas, which highlights the need for a unified control of the landscape under a single conservation unit with the primary focus of managing tigers and associated wildlife. Finally, in the light of global conservation targets and recent legislations in India, our study assumes significance as we identify opportunities to secure (e.g. THB II) and increase (e.g. THB I) tiger populations in the landscape.

Rajaji National Park, which forms the northwestern limit of the range of the tiger Panthera tigris in India, is bisected into western and eastern sectors by development activities along the banks of the river Ganga. Following a voluntary pastoral Gujjar resettlement programme initiated in the Park by the Uttarakhand Forest Department, we assessed the status of the tiger and its prey. We used sign surveys for tigers, leopards Panthera pardus and their prey, estimated prey densities using line transects and distance sampling, and estimated the density of tigers using photographic capture-recapture analysis. Our results indicate that the use of the area by tigers differed significantly between the two sectors of the Park, with pug mark encounter rates per 250 m segment from sign surveys of 0.07-SE 0.04 in the west and 1.6-SE 0.3 in the east. Although the high estimated prey densities (. 80 km-2) in the Park have the potential to support high densities of tigers, we photo-captured only one tigress in the western sector and five adult tigers and two cubs in the east (the latter with a mean density of 5.12-SE 0.7 per 100 km 2). Whereas recovery of the tiger population in the eastern sector following the resettlement of Gujjars is evident, the lack of connectivity to source populations (Corbett Tiger Reserve and eastern Rajaji National Park) and increased anthropogenic pressures appear to have inhibited the recovery of tiger populations in the western sector. Restoration, therefore, of the Chilla-Motichur corridor to facilitate the dispersal of tigers from the eastern to the western sector of the Park is of critical importance.

Despite massive global conservation strategies, tiger populations continued to decline until recently, mainly due to habitat loss, human-animal conflicts, and poaching. These factors are known to affect the genetic characteristics of tiger populations and decrease local effective population sizes. The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) at the foothills of the Himalaya is one of the 42 source sites of tigers around the globe. Therefore, information on how landscape features and anthropogenic factors affect the fine-scale spatial genetic structure and variation of tigers in TAL is needed to develop proper management strategies for achieving longterm conservation goals. We document, for the first time, the genetic characteristics of this tiger population by genotyping 71 tiger samples using 13 microsatellite markers from the western region of TAL (WTAL) of 1800 km 2. Specifically, we aimed to estimate the genetic variability, population structure, and gene flow. The microsatellite markers indicated that the levels of allelic diversity (MNA = 6.6) and genetic variation (Ho = 0.50, H E = 0.64) were slightly lower than those reported previously in other Bengal tiger populations. We observed moderate gene flow and significant genetic differentiation (F ST = 0.060) and identified the presence of cryptic genetic structure using Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches. There was low and significantly asymmetric migration between the two main subpopulations of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve and the Corbett Tiger Reserve in WTAL. Sibship relationships indicated that the functionality of the corridor between these subpopulations may be retained if the quality of the habitat does not deteriorate. However, we found that gene flow is not adequate in view of changing land use matrices. We discuss the need to maintain connectivity by implementing the measures that have been suggested previously to minimize the level of human disturbance, including relocation of villages and industries, prevention of encroachment, and banning sand and boulder mining in the corridors.

Conservation efforts tend to focus on the direct impacts humans have on their surrounding environment; however there are also many ways in which people indirectly affect ecosystems. Recent research on ecological subsidies-the transfer of energy and nutrients from one ecosystem to another-has highlighted the importance of nutrient exchange for maintaining productivity and diversity at a landscape scale, while also pointing toward the fragility of ecotones and vulnerability of subsidies to human activities. We review the recent literature on landscape connectivity and ecosystem subsidies from aquatic systems to terrestrial systems. Based on this review, we propose a conceptual model of how human activities may alter or eliminate the flow of energy and nutrients between ecosystems by influencing the delivery of subsidies along the pathway of transfer. To demonstrate the utility of this conceptual model, we discuss it in the context of case studies of subsidies derived from salmon, mari...

Ecotonal Networks (ENTs) 3.1 Ecological Diversity in an Urbanised World: From Conversion to Sustainable Management 3.1.1 The Resilience Theory The goal of sustainable environmental management of Sundaland forested wetlands and associated habitats can be discussed by adopting the ecological resilience theory (Holling 1973; Gunderson and Holling 2002; Walker et al. 2004; Resilience Alliance 2010). Ecological resilience is defined as the capacity of an ecosystem to withstand perturbations without changing its identity i.e. its structures, functions, and ecological feedbacks (Pisano 2012). According to this theory, social-ecological systems (SESs) are self-regulating and complex adaptive systems that do not reach single state equilibria definable by differential equations; instead, they cycle adaptively in a non-linear way through multiple states within regimes, or 'basins of attraction', created by stabilising or amplifying feedbacks, and accommodating uncertainty. Disturbance above critical thresholds of key variables, or 'tipping points', can move the SES to different basins of attraction (sometimes irreversibly), where states have drastically different structures and functions, i.e. performing regime shifts, or 'transformations'. Resilience can be defined as the distance between a focal SES and these critical thresholds. Different regimes of the SES imply different delivery from the biophysical subsystem in terms of services and goods. Management can aim at decreasing the probability of transition to undesirable regimes, increasing or preserving resilience and adaptive capacity of the SES, or at increasing transition probabilities to more desirable regimes. Even if the position and quantity of the critical thresholds to change is unknown, as it is often the case, the same knowledge of their existence can inform management strategies. Command-and-control management approaches that maximise efficiency or stability assuming a static model of the SES are therefore replaced with approaches that aim at sustainable longterm delivery of resources and services, analysing SES dynamics while avoiding erosion of resilience. Resilience assessment protocols can be applied to different

The current Global Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Transport and other Linear Infrastructure primarily sets up the objectives and principles for governments and organizations for mainstreaming biodiversity and ecological connectivity on transport infrastructure development. Additionally, it addresses the overall framework of stakeholders who must be engaged as key players in:
• launching proactive policies,
• establishing appropriate legal frameworks,
• supporting better planning,
• promoting multi-sector cooperation, and
• encouraging innovative science-based solutions.
We consider this as a living document as future versions may integrate additional elements with regards to governance, policy, and financing, in the attempt to develop a common comprehensive language and grounds for cooperation.
This “Global Strategy” has been developed by an international working group coordinated by IENE and supported by an international coalition formed from the international conferences on transport and ecology and conservation organisations as IENE, ICOET, ANET, ACLIE, WWF and IUCN. The working group is drawn from global experts in transport and ecology and aims to work towards finding a ‘win-win’ solution for securing mainstreaming biodiversity and ecological connectivity and avoiding,
mitigating, or compensating ecosystems’ fragmentation during transport infrastructure development or adaptation.
This Strategy builds upon five years of development of the guidelines “International Guidance for Ecologically - Friendly Linear Infrastructure (IGELI)” initiated at the ICOET 2015 conference in North Carolina, USA. IGELI was an international debate with experts from all over the world continued during workshops held at the international conferences of IENE (Lyon, France, 2016 and Eindhoven, Holland, 2018), ICOET (Salt Lake City, USA, 2017 and Sacramento, USA, 2019), IUCN (Hawaii, USA, 2016) and
ACLIE (Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2019). Summarising the Decision 14/3 on mainstreaming of biodiversity in the energy and mining, infrastructure, manufacturing, and processing sectors (CBD/COP/DEC/14/3/30 November 2018) of 14th COP CBD (Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Nov 2018) (Convention on Biological Diversity 2018), the international coalition of the working group, initiated to promote the
Strategy at the CBD COP 15 in China.
We hope, this Strategy provides a useful tool and roadmap for promoting the urgent need of supporting biodiversity conservation and securing ecological connectivity at all scales of governance, policies, planning and implementation of transport projects internationally. The creation of an International Observatory for monitoring the fragmentation status globally as an important threat for biodiversity loss is proposed as a common ambition of the working group members and their organizations.