Systematic Conservation Planning

provided a foundation for this work through his previous assessment of the Tweed-Moreton marine bioregion. Ron was also an equal partner and author on the biodiversity assessment for the Manning Shelf. Ron helped develop, refine and map the broad scale environmental classification, researched literature and data sets to support the assessment and helped develop options for marine protected areas. Ron also mapped near shore reef, sand and intertidal habitats and other data for most of NSW. Nick Otway developed the project proposal, funding, supervision and scientific foundation for the bioregional assessments. Andrew Read and Bob Creese assisted with financial, scientific and management support for the projects.

The marine habitats of the world's oceans are being driven beyond their resilience. The ongoing biodiversity crisis is happening fast, within the lifespan of researchers trying to produce the information necessary for the conservation of habitats and marine ecosystems. Here, we report on the destruction of sciaphilic sessile communities and coralligenous concretions produced by the anchoring of a high-tonnage vessel inside a Marine Protected Area in Cyprus. The damage from the anchors and the chains consisted of the dislodgement of large boulders that were dragged or rolled over the seafloor, increasing the breakage and further dislodgement of more boulders; many were left upside-down. The biological communities that thrived in the dark environments below the boulders were directly exposed to high irradiance levels and went through a slow mortality and decaying process, most probably due to a combination of several deterioration agents, such as exposure to direct sunlight, predation, mucilage aggregates, and cyanobacterial blooms. The enforcement of regulatory measures for anchoring and transit in the MPA is necessary to prevent similar destruction. Given the extent of the irreversible damage to these sciaphilic communities, our study is, unfortunately, another environmental post-mortem contribution.

Maiorano, L., Bartolino, V., Colloca, F., Abella, A., Belluscio, A., Carpentieri, P., Criscoli, A., Jona Lasinio, G., Mannini, A., Pranovi, F., Reale, B., Relini, G., Viva, C., and Ardizzone, G. D. 2009. Systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean: a flexible tool for the identification of no-take marine protected areas. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 137–146. We propose the use of systematic conservation planning in the Mediterranean context for the identification of no-take marine protected areas (NTMPAs). We suggest a logical framework that should be used for the identification of areas to be targeted for multispecies, spatially explicit conservation actions. Specifically, we propose seven steps: (i) definition of the study area; (ii) selection of the species or habitats to be considered; (iii) definition of the planning units; (iv) measurement of the fishing effort; (v) definition of the conservation targets; (vi) review of the existing conservation areas; (vii)...

Systematic conservation planning identifies priority areas to cost‐effectively meet conservation targets. Yet, these tools rarely guide wholesale declaration of reserve systems in a single time step due to financial and implementation constraints. Rather, incremental scheduling of actions to progressively build reserve networks is required. To ensure this incremental action is guided by the original plan, and thus builds a reserve network that meets all conservation targets, strategic scheduling, and iterative planning is needed. We explore the issue of scheduling conservation actions using the national scale conservation plan for Papua New Guinea (PNG), commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority that identifies a comprehensive set of priority areas that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. As part of the planning process a subset of areas were identified in collaboration as priorities for immediate action—termed areas of interest (AOIs)...

Our limited understanding of the complexity of nature generates uncertainty in mathematical and cartographical models used to predict the effects of climate change on species’ distributions. We developed predictive models of distributional range shifts of threatened vertebrate species in mainland Spain, and in their accumulation in biodiversity hotspots due to climate change. We considered two relevant sources of climatological uncertainty that affect predictions of future climate: general circulation models and socio–economic scenarios. We also examined the relative importance of climate as a driver of species’ distribution and taxonomic uncertainty as additional biogeographical causes of uncertainty. Uncertainty was detected in all the forecasts derived from models in which climate was a significant explanatory factor, and in the species with taxonomic uncertainty. Uncertainty in forecasts was mainly located in areas not occupied by the species, and increased with time difference ...

provided a foundation for this work through his previous assessment of the Tweed-Moreton marine bioregion. Ron was also an equal partner and author on the biodiversity assessment for the Manning Shelf. Ron helped develop, refine and map the broad scale environmental classification, researched literature and data sets to support the assessment and helped develop options for marine protected areas. Ron also mapped near shore reef, sand and intertidal habitats and other data for most of NSW. Nick Otway developed the project proposal, funding, supervision and scientific foundation for the bioregional assessments. Andrew Read and Bob Creese assisted with financial, scientific and management support for the projects.

Background: Deforestation is a complex and dynamic process of widespread concern in sub-Saharan Africa which is influenced by a range of social, economic and biophysical factors. Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyse patterns of deforestation and its potential drivers in the Licuáti Forest Reserve, a biodiversity hotspot in southern Mozambique between 1990 and 2016. Method: We performed image classification on Landsat imagery at six time steps and interviewed local community members to understand the spatial pattern and rate of forest cover loss over time. We also examined changes in the incidence of fire. Results: A substantial increase in the rate of deforestation since 1990 was detected in this vulnerable thicket vegetation. The probability of deforestation was significantly higher near the major roads, where houses are located. This suggests that the proximity of human settlements to the forest, and access to charcoal markets in urban areas, influenced the spatial pat...

A number of global priority region schemes have been developed, but local assessments are needed to identify priority areas for conservation within these regions. Here, we describe results from a conservation assessment for Maputaland, part of a biodiversity hotspot in southern Africa that is also the focus of the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) initiative between South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. The TFCA seeks to establish new state-, private-and communally-managed conservation areas to boost economic development through nature-based tourism and game ranching. The assessment will guide the TFCA process and used a systematic conservation planning approach to design a landscape to conserve 44 landcover types, 53 species and 14 ecological processes. The assessment also included data on modelled risk of agricultural transformation, of which low-risk areas were selected where possible. The current PA systems in the three countries cover 3830 km 2 , which represents 21.2% of the region, and meet the representation targets for 46% of the conservation features. The proposed conservation landscape adds 4291 km 2 of new core areas and 480 km 2 of linkages and, if appropriate, could provide potential revenues of US$18.8 million from game ranching, based on modelled large ungulate density, life history and game auction data. We also discuss the benefits of including data on widely distributed, better known conservation features together with less-well studied, range-restricted species and the advantages of using agricultural transformation risk data in conservation assessments.

There is an increasing demand for development of natural resources, which can be accompanied by environmental degradation. Planning for multiple land uses requires navigating trade-offs between social, economic, and environmental outcomes arising from different possible futures. To explore these trade-offs, we use the Daly River catchment, in Australia's Northern Territory, as a case study. The catchment contains areas of priority for both conservation and development. In response to the challenge of navigating the required trade-offs, the Daly River Management Advisory Committee (DRMAC) initiated a land-use plan for the region. Both development and conservation of natural resources in the catchment will affect human well-being and the long-term provisioning of ecosystem services in diverse ways. To understand some of these impacts, an innovative engagement process was designed to elicit the relative importance of key factors to residents' well-being. The process identified 19 well-being factors grouped into four domains: biodiversity, socio-cultural, recreational, and commercial. Overall, the highest-ranked well-being factors were in the social-cultural and biodiversity domains while commercial values were ranked the least important. Respondents reported low satisfaction with commercial factors as well, noting concerns over environmental impacts from existing developments and sustainability of future developments. We identified differences in the reported importance values for several types of stakeholders, most notably between indigenous respondents and those employed in the agricultural sectors. Indigenous respondents placed greater importance on biodiversity and socio-cultural factors. Agricultural respondents placed greater importance on commercial factors. The outcomes of our engagement were integrated into DRMAC's process of objective-setting to ensure that objectives for each domain were included in land-use planning. Our results can also anticipate potential conflicts between different stakeholders and changes in well-being associated with different land uses. We describe how our findings will inform the next stages of stakeholder engagement and comment on the utility of such an approach for integrating well-being into objective setting for land-use and scenario planning.

há consenso entre os cientistas de que a há atualmente uma "crise da biodiversidade", resultado da constante e intensa perda de habitat natural causada pela expansão da ocupação. Como a biologia da conservação tem sido muitas vezes reconhecida como uma ciência da crise, ela deve fornecer informações capazes de mediar, de forma mais científica possível, as tomadas de decisão que são necessárias. Dentre estas, uma das mais importantes é indicar regiões prioritárias para a conservação, já que por motivos óbvios não é possível preservar todos os ecossistemas por inteiro. nesse contexto, recentemente sugeriu-se que a aplicação de princípios, teorias e análises provenientes da biogeografia e da macroecologia seriam importantes na Biologia da Conservação, formalizando uma abordagem que tem sido denominada "Biogeografia da Conservação". Assim, o objetivo deste artigo é discutir e revisar esses componentes da biogeografia da conservação, utilizando uma abordagem macroecológica para desenvolver e aplicar métodos de planejamento sistemático em conservação, utilizando o bioma Cerrado como um modelo de estudo. Foram discutidos inicialmente os padrões de riqueza e diversidade beta e, em um segundo momento, como esses padrões podem ser correlacionados à ocupação humana do Bioma. Essa relação é fundamental para subsidiar a aplicação de modelos de planejamento sistemático de conservação em escala regional (análises de insubstituibilidade, complementaridade e de lacunas). É preciso considerar também que há sérias falhas de conhecimento sobre os padrões de biodiversidade na região e que a escolha de

Dr. Ali Douabul, who compiled the book, is a notable wetland scientist with extensive research and educational leadership experience in wetland systems. This collection of entries enhances knowledge and awareness of wetlands and the key issues surrounding their biota. Each author is an expert in their respective fields, ensuring high scientific integrity. The concise format of each topic makes the book useful as an introduction to wetland ecology in a larger course or as background information on specific subjects.

BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Biological invasions threaten biodiversity worldwide, especially on tropical islands such as Reunion Island. Here we present the results of a collaborative effort to map biodiversity priorities and to prioritise alien plant clearing. We first combined all existing data on habitats, threatened and endemic species and the distribution of alien plant species. Using expert-knowledge where necessary, we provide the first map of invasion level for the whole island. We developed a decision-making process using Zonation, a conservation-planning tool, to identify biodiversity conservation priorities. Conservation priority areas were selected to maximise biodiversity levels in areas lightly invaded. We then included criteria to identify priority areas for alien plant clearing based on clearing costs, accessibility and history of previous clearing programmes. Almost 40% of the remaining natural habitats on Reunion Island are moderately to heavily invaded. We identify 58,500 ha as conservation pri...

Spatial priorities for the conservation of three key Mediterranean habitats, i.e. seagrass Posidonia oceanica meadows, coralligenous formations, and marine caves, were determined through a systematic planning approach. Available information on the distribution of these habitats across the entire Mediterranean Sea was compiled to produce basin-scale distribution maps. Conservation targets for each habitat type were set according to European Union guidelines. Surrogates were used to estimate the spatial variation of opportunity cost for commercial, non-commercial fishing, and aquaculture. Marxan conservation planning software was used to evaluate the comparative utility of two planning scenarios: (a) a wholebasin scenario, referring to selection of priority areas across the whole Mediterranean Sea, and (b) an ecoregional scenario, in which priority areas were selected within eight predefined ecoregions. Although both scenarios required approximately the same total area to be protected in order to achieve conservation targets, the opportunity cost differed between them. The whole-basin scenario yielded a lower opportunity cost, but the Alboran Sea ecoregion was not represented and priority areas were predominantly located in the Ionian, Aegean, and Adriatic Seas. In comparison, the ecoregional scenario resulted in a higher representation of ecoregions and a more even distribution of priority areas, albeit with a higher opportunity cost. We suggest that planning at the ecoregional level ensures better representativeness of the selected conservation features and adequate protection of species, functional, and genetic diversity across the basin. While there are several initiatives that identify priority areas in the Mediterranean Sea, our approach is novel as it combines three issues: (a) it is based on the distribution of habitats and not species, which was rarely the case in previous efforts, (b) it considers spatial variability of cost throughout this socioeconomically heterogeneous basin, and (c) it adopts ecoregions as the most appropriate level for large-scale planning.

By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.

There is a growing recognition that conservation strategies should be designed accounting for cross-realm connections, such as freshwater connections to land and sea, to ensure effectiveness of marine spatial protection and minimize perverse outcomes of changing land-use. Yet, examples of integration across realms are relatively scarce, with most targeting priorities in a single realm, such as marine or freshwater, while minimizing threats originating in terrestrial ecosystems. To date, no study has optimized priorities across multiple realms to produce a spatially explicit integrated conservation plan that simultaneously accounts for multiple human activities at a national scale. This represents a major gap in the application of existing cross-realm planning theory. We present a national scale conservation framework for selecting protected areas using a case study of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that integrates multiple systems and ecological connectivity to account for cross-realm benefits and minimize threats of land-use and climate change. The relative importance of both the forests and inshore reef environments to PNG subsistence and commercial livelihoods emphasizes the importance of considering the connections between the land and sea. The plan was commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and identifies a comprehensive set of priorities that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. Our national-scale prioritization framework is useful for agencies and managers looking to implement actions given multiple objectives, including watershed management and biodiversity protection, and ensures actions are efficient and effective across the land and sea.

Systematic conservation planning identifies priority areas to cost‐effectively meet conservation targets. Yet, these tools rarely guide wholesale declaration of reserve systems in a single time step due to financial and implementation constraints. Rather, incremental scheduling of actions to progressively build reserve networks is required. To ensure this incremental action is guided by the original plan, and thus builds a reserve network that meets all conservation targets, strategic scheduling, and iterative planning is needed. We explore the issue of scheduling conservation actions using the national scale conservation plan for Papua New Guinea (PNG), commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority that identifies a comprehensive set of priority areas that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. As part of the planning process a subset of areas were identified in collaboration as priorities for immediate action—termed areas of interest (AOIs)...

I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text, and a list of references is given. I declare that I have stated clearly and fully in the thesis the extent of any collaboration with others. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. Author contributions to data chapters are as follows: Chapter Nature of contribution Contribution Names and affiliations of contributors 2 Intellectual Chapter conception and design

Systematic conservation planning identifies priority areas to cost‐effectively meet conservation targets. Yet, these tools rarely guide wholesale declaration of reserve systems in a single time step due to financial and implementation constraints. Rather, incremental scheduling of actions to progressively build reserve networks is required. To ensure this incremental action is guided by the original plan, and thus builds a reserve network that meets all conservation targets, strategic scheduling, and iterative planning is needed. We explore the issue of scheduling conservation actions using the national scale conservation plan for Papua New Guinea (PNG), commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority that identifies a comprehensive set of priority areas that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. As part of the planning process a subset of areas were identified in collaboration as priorities for immediate action—termed areas of interest (AOIs)...

There is a growing recognition that conservation strategies should be designed accounting for cross-realm connections, such as freshwater connections to land and sea, to ensure effectiveness of marine spatial protection and minimize perverse outcomes of changing land-use. Yet, examples of integration across realms are relatively scarce, with most targeting priorities in a single realm, such as marine or freshwater, while minimizing threats originating in terrestrial ecosystems. To date, no study has optimized priorities across multiple realms to produce a spatially explicit integrated conservation plan that simultaneously accounts for multiple human activities at a national scale. This represents a major gap in the application of existing cross-realm planning theory. We present a national scale conservation framework for selecting protected areas using a case study of Papua New Guinea (PNG) that integrates multiple systems and ecological connectivity to account for cross-realm benefits and minimize threats of land-use and climate change. The relative importance of both the forests and inshore reef environments to PNG subsistence and commercial livelihoods emphasizes the importance of considering the connections between the land and sea. The plan was commissioned by the PNG Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and identifies a comprehensive set of priorities that meet conservation targets in both the land and sea. Our national-scale prioritization framework is useful for agencies and managers looking to implement actions given multiple objectives, including watershed management and biodiversity protection, and ensures actions are efficient and effective across the land and sea.

The Nature Conservancy takes a strategic and systematic approach to conservation planning. Ecoregional assessments are used to set goals and identify geographical priorities, and Conservation Action Planning is used to develop strategic plans for conservation areas. This study demonstrates how these planning processes were applied at the seascape scale based on a case study of Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. Conservation Action Planning was used to identify key threats and strategies, and systematic conservation planning (similar to that used for ecoregional assessments) was used to design a network of marine protected areas to be resilient to the threat of climate change. The design was based on an assessment of biodiversity and socioeconomic values, and identified 14 Areas of Interest that meet specific conservation goals. A detailed community-based planning process is now underway with local communities that own and manage these areas to refine and implement the marine protected area network.

The Choiseul ridges to reefs conservation plan was facilitated and compiled by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in response to requests from the Lauru Land Conference of Tribal Communities (LLCTC) and the Choiseul Provincial Government. These requests came about from an understanding that the future sustainability and prosperity of the Choiseul people is integrally linked to its natural ecosystems, and the development of a Choiseul conservation plan that takes biodiversity, threats and opportunities into account will ...

World governments have committed to increase the global protected areas coverage by 2020, but the effectiveness of this commitment for protecting biodiversity depends on where new protected areas are located. Threshold-based and complementarity-based approaches have been independently used to identify important sites for biodiversity. Here we bring together these approaches by performing a complementarity-based analysis of irreplaceability in Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs; which are sites identified using a threshold-based approach). We determined whether irreplaceability values are higher inside than outside IBAs, and whether any observed difference depends on known characteristics of the IBAs. We focussed on three regions having comprehensive IBAs inventories and bird distribution atlases: Australia, Southern Africa and Europe. Irreplaceability values were significantly higher inside than outside IBAs, although differences were much smaller in Europe than elsewhere. ...

The highest number of species were found in order Passeriformes (78) 59.5% followed by Ciconiiformes (21)16.0% and least number (1) 0.76% in other 2 orders. The highest number of species were found in family Muscicapidae (14) 10.6% followed by Silviidae (12) 9.1% and Passeridae (12) 9.1% and least number (1) 0.76% in other 16 families. The relative abundance of species was Very Common (10), Common (55), Uncommon (58) and Rare (9). The seasonal status of species was Autumn (105) and Winter (109). One globally threatened (IUCN status) species Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus was reported to have relative abundance as Uncommon. Black-headed Munia Lonchura malacca was recorded as new addition to birdlist of Himachal Pradesh. The other interesting rare species found was Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla.

Integrative social–ecological approaches are crucial for addressing sustainability challenges in coastal and marine systems. Among these, Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) emerges as a pivotal approach for integrated management. Often, the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the application of MSP occur in parallel. Given the potential synergies, there is a need to better understand and address barriers to the adoption of MSP approaches for integrative conservation mechanisms. Using São Tomé and Príncipe as a case study, we illustrate how MSP was employed as an operational framework for establishing an MPA network. Drawing on the experiences of people directly involved in this co-design process, we reflect on the main challenges and opportunities in achieving social–ecological integration, and highlight recommendations for conservation practitioners and planners. Applying MSP was perceived to contribute substantially to multiple project goals, with some (e.g., incorporating perspectives and needs of vulnerable groups) more challenging to achieve. While MSP enhanced conceptual, disciplinary, methodological and functional integration, practical challenges in implementation, hindered the extent to which each of these was achieved. Given international commitments to Blue Growth, high fisheries dependence and current patterns of change, developing effective integrative MSP approaches is essential for social–ecological resilience.

AimPalms are an ecologically and societally important plant group, with high diversity in the Neotropics. Here, we estimated the impacts of future climate change on phylogenetic diversity (PD) of Neotropical palms under varying climatic and dispersal scenarios, assessed the effectiveness of the established network of protected areas (PAs) for conserving palms PD today and in 2070, and identified priority areas for the conservation of palm species and their evolutionary history in the face of climate change.LocationNeotropics.MethodsWe used ecological niche modelling to estimate the distribution of 367 species in the present and for 2070 based on two greenhouse gas emission and two dispersal scenarios. We calculated Faith's PD within each five arc‐minute grid cell to evaluate the effectiveness of PAs relative to null models and used phylogenetic spatial prioritisation analysis to detect priority areas.ResultsWe found that even under the most optimistic climatic and dispersal scen...

This study is an exercise to check the efficiency of the existing reserve system, and to show how systematic conservation planning-using information available and the complementarity concept-can improve the basis for decisions and minimize costs. We verified the performance, in number of cells and primate species representation, of the existing Atlantic Forest (Brazil) reserve network with a quarter-degree resolution grid, with 1,884 cells. We used occurrence data of 20 endemic primate species, and the maps of 237 existing reserves. Reserve networks were selected to represent primate species first considering no pre-existing reserves in Atlantic Forest, and then, considering the existing reserve system, taking into account the minimum area for viable population of the larger species (Northern muriqui Brachyteles hypoxanthus). Reserve selection was carried out using the complementarity concept implemented by a simulated annealing algorithm. Primate species representation (at least one occurrence in the network) could be achieved with 8% of the existing reserve system (nine cells in relation to the 120 in the existing reserve system). We found that today's reserve system represents 89% of endemic primate species, excluding the species Coimbra Filho's titi monkey (Callicebus coimbrai) and Marcgraf's capuchin (Cebus flavius). The networks selected without considering existing reserves contained nine cells. The networks selected considering existing reserves (120 cells), had two new cells necessary to represent all the primates. This does not mean that a viable alternative is to start from zero (i.e., nonexistent reserves). Identifying critical supplementary areas using biodiversity information to fill the gaps and then starting ''conservation in practice'' in these areas should be priorities.

The contributions of species to ecosystem functions or services depend not only on their presence but also on their local abundance. Progress in predictive spatial modelling has largely focused on species occurrence rather than abundance. As such, limited guidance exists on the most reliable methods to explain and predict spatial variation in abundance. We analysed the performance of 68 abundance‐based species distribution models fitted to 800 000 standardised abundance records for more than 800 terrestrial bird and reef fish species. We found a large amount of variation in the performance of abundance‐based models. While many models performed poorly, a subset of models consistently reconstructed range‐wide abundance patterns. The best predictions were obtained using random forests for frequently encountered and abundant species and for predictions within the same environmental domain as model calibration. Extending predictions of species abundance outside of the environmental condi...

South Africa is currently proclaiming a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of its sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands. The objectives of the MPA are to: 1) contribute to a national and global representative system of MPAs, 2) serve as a scientific reference point to inform future management, 3) contribute to the recovery of the Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), and 4) reduce the bird bycatch of the toothfish fishery, particularly of albatrosses and petrels. This study employs systematic conservation planning methods to delineate a MPA within the EEZ that will conserve biodiversity patterns and processes within sensible management boundaries, while minimizing conflict with the legal toothfish fishery. After collating all available distributional data on species, benthic habitats and ecosystem processes, we used C-Plan software to delineate a MPA with three management zones: four IUCN Category Ia reserves (13% of EEZ); two Conservation Zone...

The loss of habitat and biodiversity worldwide has led to considerable resources being spent on conservation interventions. Prioritising these actions is challenging due to the complexity of the problem and because there can be multiple actors undertaking conservation actions, often with divergent or partially overlapping objectives. We explore this issue with a simulation study involving two agents sequentially purchasing land for the conservation of multiple species using three scenarios comprising either divergent or partially overlapping objectives between the agents. The first scenario investigates the situation where both agents are targeting different sets of threatened species. The second and third scenarios represent a case where a government agency attempts to implement a complementary conservation network representing 200 species, while a non-government organisation is focused on achieving additional protection for the ten rarest species. Simulated input data was generated using distributions taken from real data to model the cost of parcels, and the rarity and co-occurrence of species. We investigated three types of collaborative interactions between agents: acting in isolation, sharing information and pooling resources with the third option resulting in the agents combining their resources and effectively acting as a single entity. In each scenario we determine the cost savings when an agent moves from acting in isolation to either sharing information or pooling resources with the other agent. The model demonstrates how the value of collaboration can vary significantly in different situations. In most cases, collaborating would have associated costs and these costs need to be weighed against the potential benefits from collaboration. Our model demonstrates a method for determining the range of costs that would result in collaboration providing an efficient use of scarce conservation resources.

Location and topography Culture and language Environment Climate and natural disasters Governance and institutions Formal provincial level governance institutions Governance at the local village or community level Population Education services Early childhood education Primary school education Community high school and secondary school education Health services Revenue generation Service delivery and coordination Agriculture Forestry and logging Afforestation and reforestation Forest conservation Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification Forest related carbon offsets and REDD+ Fisheries and aquaculture Gender analysis Developing small-scale fisheries Fisheries management and sustainability Aquaculture Nutrition situation analysis Gender-based research and interventions Gender and subsistence activities Gender and income generating activities and formal employment Gender and decision-making Appendix I Notes Bibliography List of abbreviations

Conservation projects may be reluctant to attempt Systematic Conservation Planning because existing methods are often prohibitive in the time, money, data, and expertise they require. We tried to develop a ''resource light'' method for Systematic Conservation Planning and applied it to the Ewaso Ngiro Landscape of central Kenya. Over a 6-month preparation period and 1-week participatory workshop, we used expert assessments to select focal biodiversity features, set quantitative targets for these, map their

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for giving me valuable feedback on the content of my final PhD manuscript. Merci à Sylvie Lopinto et Lawrence Saint Eloy pour votre réactivité et votre aide pour toutes les démarches que j'avais à faire pour le CNRS. Merci à Nathalie Arbasetti et tout le pôle administratif du LBBE pour avoir fait de même au niveau de l'Université. I would like to thank all the administrators of the Nelson Mandela University: Little Keith, Pierre-Paul Steyne, Shaun Welman and all the other members who assisted me me during my time at the University. Thank you so much Jonel for your unconditional good mood and also because you made some miracles happened. Je souhaite aussi remercier toutes les autres personnes du Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive. Merci Fabrice Vavre et Emmanuel Desouhant pour votre accueil au laboratoire et pour avoir toujours été très arrangeant et compréhensif. Merci Anne-Béatrice Dufour pour avoir accepté d'être ma tutrice et pour tous tes conseils. Merci Marie-Claude Venner pour ta gentillesse et bienveillance et merci à tous les membres de l'équipe Ecologie Quantitative et Evolutive des Communautés. Merci à l'équipe du suivi de reproduction des chevreuils et tout particulièrement Sylvia Pardonnet et Jeanne Duhayer pour avoir tout organisé. Merci à tous les doctorants de Lyon pour votre accueil :

Marxan is software that delivers decision support for reserve system design. Marxan was initially designed to solve a particular class of reserve design problems known as the minimum set problem (see Box 1.1) where the goal is to achieve some minimum representation of biodiversity features for the smallest possible cost. Marxan helps users to determine the possible contribution of individual areas and whole networks towards meeting their objectives. Users may use Marxan to explore and propose possible network configurations, to facilitate collaborative network design, or to guide their own land acquisition / marine zoning. Marxan is not designed to act as a stand-alone reserve design solution. Its effectiveness is dependent upon the involvement of people, the adoption of sound ecological principles, the establishment of scientifically defensible conservation goals and targets and the construction of spatial datasets. Marxan should be used as part of a systematic conservation planning process (outlined in this chapter) and in collaboration with other forms of knowledge. These other forms of knowledge are essential to the refinement of Marxan inputs, the interpretation of Marxan outcomes and the precise placement of final reserve boundaries. Because it seeks spatially efficient solutions, based on a defined problem, Marxan represents a significant step forward from earlier approaches of scoring sites. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of uncertainty in selecting sites, which is but one aspect of systematic conservation planning, the final step of which is monitoring to evaluate whether the sites make meaningful contributions to the network. 1.1 OVERVIEW OF SYSTEMATIC CONSERVATION PLANNING 1.1.1 What is systematic conservation planning? World-leading conservation planning processes, both marine and terrestrial, are employing an approach known as systematic conservation planning (

ABSTRACT
Findings reveal that the majority of studied areas are classified as bare lands, while the
lowest amount is covered by lichens and mosses. Grassland and cropland occupy major areas of the region, with highest normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) value saw in 2020, showing dense vegetation in the western, northwestern and northern regions. Afforestation
efforts shown positive results, with a 4% increase in forested area between 2000 and 2022.

RÉSUMÉ: Processus de modélisation des changements spatio-temporels de la
couverture végétale et de sa relation avec les facteurs de changement dans les zones arides et
humides du Xianjiang (Chine). Les résultats révèlent que la majorité des zones étudiées sont classées comme des
terres nues, tandis que la plus petite partie est couverte de lichens et de mousses. Les prairies et les terres cultivées occupent une grande partie de la région, la valeur la plus élevée de l’indice
de végétation par différence normalisée (NDVI) étant observée en 2020, ce qui indique une
végétation dense dans les régions de l’ouest, du nord-ouest et du nord. Les efforts de
reboisement ont donné des résultats positifs, avec une augmentation de 4% de la superficie
forestière entre 2000 et 2022.

REZUMAT: Procesul de modelare a schimbărilor spațio-temporale ale acoperirii vegetale și relația acesteia cu factori ai zonelor uscate și zonelor umede din Xianjiang (China).
Rezultatele arată că majoritatea ariilor studiate sunt clasificate ca terenuri goale, cea
mai mică proporție este acoperită de licheni și mușchi. Pajiștile și terenurile cultivate ocupă
arii mari ale regiunii, cu o valoare mare a indicelui de vegetație (NDVI) în 2020, indicând
vegetație densă în regiunile de vest, nord-vest și nord. Eforturile de împădurire au arătat
rezultate positive, cu o creștere cu 4% a suprafeței împădurite între 2000 și 2022.

The loss of habitat and biodiversity worldwide has led to considerable resources being spent for conservation purposes on actions such as the acquisition and management of land, the rehabilitation of degraded habitats, and the purchase of easements from private landowners. Prioritising these actions is challenging due to the complexity of the problem and because there can be multiple actors undertaking conservation actions, often with divergent or partially overlapping objectives. We use a modelling framework to explore this issue with a study involving two agents sequentially purchasing land for conservation. We apply our model to simulated data using distributions taken from real data to simulate the cost of patches and the rarity and co-occurence of species. In our model each agent attempted to implement a conservation network that met its target for the minimum cost using the conservation planning software Marxan. We examine three scenarios where the conservation targets of the agents differ. The first scenario (called NGO-NGO) models the situation where two NGOs are both are targeting different sets of threatened species. The second and third scenarios (called NGO-Gov and Gov-NGO, respectively) represent a case where a government agency attempts to implement a complementary conservation network representing all species, while an NGO is focused on achieving additional protection for the most endangered species.

Conservation strategies are often established without consideration of the impact of climate change. However, this impact is expected to threaten species and ecosystem persistence and to have dramatic effects towards the end of the 21st century. Landscape suitability for species under climate change is determined by several interacting factors including dispersal and human land use. Designing effective conservation strategies at regional scales to improve landscape suitability requires measuring the vulnerabilities of specific regions to climate change and determining their conservation capacities. Although methods for defining vulnerability categories are available, methods for doing this in a systematic, cost-effective way have not been identified. Here, we use an ecosystem model to define the potential resilience of the Finnish forest landscape by relating its current conservation capacity to its vulnerability to climate change. In applying this framework, we take into account th...

Traditional means of assessing representativeness of conservation value in protected areas depend on measures of structural biodiversity. The effectiveness of priority conservation areas at representing critical natural capital (CNC) (i.e., an essential and renewable subset of natural capital) remains largely unknown. We analyzed the representativeness of CNC-conservation priority areas in national nature reserves (i.e., nature reserves under jurisdiction of the central government with large spatial distribution across the provinces) in China with a new biophysical-based composite indicator approach. With this approach, we integrated the net primary production of vegetation, topography, soil, and climate variables to map and rank terrestrial ecosystems capacities to generate CNC. National nature reserves accounted for 6.7% of CNC-conservation priority areas across China. Considerable gaps (35.2%) existed between overall (or potential) CNC representativeness nationally and CNC repres...

Systematic conservation planning and Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are the two most widely used approaches for identifying important sites for biodiversity. However, there is limited advice for conservation policy makers and practitioners on when and how they should be combined. Here we provide such guidance, using insights from the recently developed Global Standard for the Identification of KBAs and the language of decision science to review and clarify their similarities and differences. We argue the two approaches are broadly similar, with both setting transparent environmental objectives and specifying actions. There is however greater contrast in the data used and actions involved, as the KBA approach uses biodiversity data alone and identifies sites for monitoring and vigilance actions at a minimum, whereas systematic conservation planning combines biodiversity and implementation‐relevant data to guide management actions. This difference means there is much scope for combinin...

In the last 30 years, islands and fenced exclosures free of introduced predators (collectively, havens) have become an increasingly used option for protecting Australian mammals imperiled by predation by introduced cats (Felis catus) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes). However, Australia's network of havens is not expanding in a manner that maximizes representation of all predator‐susceptible taxa, because of continued emphasis on already‐represented taxa. Future additions to the haven network will improve representation of mammals most efficiently if they fill gaps in under‐represented predator‐susceptible taxa, particularly rodents. A systematic approach to expansion could protect at least one population of every Australian predator‐susceptible threatened mammal taxon by the addition of 12 new havens to the current network. Were the current haven network to be doubled in number in a systematic manner, it could protect three populations of every Australian predator‐susceptible threatene...

In the last 30 years, islands and fenced exclosures free of introduced predators (collectively, havens) have become an increasingly used option for protecting Australian mammals imperiled by predation by introduced cats (Felis catus) and foxes (Vulpes vulpes). However, Australia's network of havens is not expanding in a manner that maximizes representation of all predator‐susceptible taxa, because of continued emphasis on already‐represented taxa. Future additions to the haven network will improve representation of mammals most efficiently if they fill gaps in under‐represented predator‐susceptible taxa, particularly rodents. A systematic approach to expansion could protect at least one population of every Australian predator‐susceptible threatened mammal taxon by the addition of 12 new havens to the current network. Were the current haven network to be doubled in number in a systematic manner, it could protect three populations of every Australian predator‐susceptible threatene...

Systematic conservation planning is intended to inform spatially explicit decision making. Doing so requires that it be integrated into complex regulatory and governance processes, and there are limited instances where this has been achieved effectively. South Africa is a global leader in the application of conservation plans, the outputs of which are widely used for spatial planning and decision making in many spheres of government. We aimed to determine how conservation planning in the country progressed from theory to implementation, and to identify practical actions that enabled this transition, by assessing temporal trends in the characteristics of conservation plans (1990–2017, n = 94). Since 2010 conservation planning has entered an operational period characterized by government leadership of plans, administrative rather than ecological planning domains, decreasing size of planning units, increasing emphasis on end‐user products, and scheduled revision of plans. Key actions t...

The outcome of analyses that prioritize locations for conservation on the basis of distributions of species, land cover, or other elements is influenced by the spatial resolution of data used in the analyses. We explored the influence of data resolution on prioritization of Finnish forests with Zonation, a software program that ranks the priority of cells in a landscape for conservation. We used data on the distribution of different forest types that were aggregated to nine different resolutions ranging from 0.1 × 0.1 km to 25.6 × 25.6 km. We analyzed data at each resolution with two variants of Zonation that had different criteria for prioritization, with and without accounting for connectivity and with and without adjustment for the effect on the analysis of edges between areas at the project boundary and adjacent areas for which data do not exist. Spatial overlap of the 10% of cells ranked most highly when data were analyzed at different resolutions varied approximately from 15% to 60% and was greatest among analyses with similar resolutions. Inclusion of connectivity or edge adjustment changed the location of areas that were prioritized for conservation. Even though different locations received high priority for conservation in analyses with and without accounting for connectivity, accounting for connectivity did not reduce the representation of different forest types. Inclusion of connectivity influenced most the outcome of fine-resolution analyses because the connectivity extents that we based on dispersal distances of typical forest species were small. When we kept the area set aside for conservation constant, representation of the forest types increased as resolution increased. We do not think it is necessary to avoid use of high-resolution data in spatial conservation prioritization. Our results show that large extent, fine-resolution analyses are computationally feasible, and we suggest they can give more flexibility to implementation of well-connected reserve networks.

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