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Conservation Biology
Conservation Biology:
The science of managing
and conserving
(analyzing and
protecting)
our earth’s biological systems
•  Integrates ecology, population biology
physiology, molecular biology, genetics,
evolutionary biology to conserve biological
diversity at all levels
•  Sustain ecosystem processes
•  Restoration ecology - rehabilitate degraded
systems
Biodiversity
•  Species diversity: number of different species
•  Genetic diversity: ensuring a healthy gene poolproblems with bottlenecks
•  Ecological diversity: numbers of ‘habitat types’
- relates directly with species diversity
•  But WHY is it important??
What’s the problem?
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Fisheries crashing
Resource depletion
Sustainable harvesting?
Social/economic problems?
That global insurance policy?
Disease
Unknowns?
4 major threats to biodiversity
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Habitat destruction**
Introduced species
Overexploitation
Ecosystem dynamics disruption (eg. the otters
and the kelp beds)
•  Climate change
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Treaties and Laws
Endangered Species Act (1973)
•  protect critically imperiled species from
extinction as a "consequence of economic
growth and development untendered by
adequate concern and conservation.”
Treaties and Laws
•  Marine mammal Protection act (1972)
•  Prohibits marine mammal ‘take’ with
exceptions
•  IWC: 1946, 1986, a treaty, under the ICRW
•  Endangered vrs. Threatened and ‘candidate
species’
•  Critical habitat: Critical habitats are required
to contain "all areas essential to the
conservation" of the target species (Section 3(5)
(A)). Such lands may be private or public.
Treaties and Laws
•  The International Union for Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources IUCN:
1948, an organization •  Led to the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora CITES (1973), a Treaty.
One of the largest conservation agreements in
existence
–  International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
Island
Conservation: a
science based
approach to
management
the case of the
burros on the loose
http://www.islandconservation.org - Introduced
Mammals
Habitat fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation is the separation of
a landscape into various land-uses (e.g,
development, agriculture, etc.), resulting in
numerous small, disjunct habitat patches
left for use by wildlife.
Effects on:
•  Migratory animals
•  Animals with large territories
•  Resource availability
•  Ecosystem stability
Habitat fragmentation:
The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona on
the Mexican boarder
Fence Removal
The Refuge is removing or altering barbed wire
fences left over from ranching days. This aids the
movement of deer and pronghorn. Many volunteers
and wildlife organizations assist the refuge in many
of the fence removal projects.
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Habitat fragmentation:
The Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona on
the Mexican boarder
Migration corridors
Refuge land traded for border
fence
Buenos Aires to give up 5.8 acres;
deal upsets environmental group
By Arthur H. Rotstein
THE Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published:
11.10.2007
Nearly a mile of national wildlife refuge
borderland near Sasabe will be traded to
allow completion of border fencing, federal
agencies announced Friday. It drew criticism
from an environmental group.The
Department of Homeland Security will
acquire 5.8 acres along the border now part
of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge.
It needs the land to complete a seven-mile
stretch of fencing to slow illegal immigration
there.
The short-tailed albatross: species approach
Approaches to conservation
biology
•  Species approach
–  Managing for a species, eg. one in critical status: Pandas, California
Condors
–  Breeding programs
•  Population approach
–  Managing for individual populations, not an entire species. Eg.
Elephants
–  Relocation programs
•  Ecosystem approach
–  Managing for an interconnected system to preserve diversity
The California Condor: species approach
Condor history
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1924 last sighting of condor in Arizona
1926 captive condor - infertile eggs
1952: San Diego capture and breed condors
1953 first legal protection
1965 - 60 birds left in the wild 1967 - listed as endangered
1983 - first eggs hatched in captivity
1992-first wild release
1993-5 wild condors (of 72)
2006 - second fledged in the wild!
2007 - 2 eggs hatched at SD zoo - one released back to parents
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Condor recovery
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Condor sanctuaries and protected areas:
corridors?
Monitor causes of death (lead)
Education
Captive breeding programs**
Radio-tagging for monitoring
Control poaching
Federal listing and State listing as
‘endangered’: legal protection
Research: life history, behavior
Translocation
Tuna, Manta Rays - a population approach?
•  Population level
management: ESUs or
Evolutionarily
Significant Units
•  Identify populations
(units) that need
protection
•  Develop and implement
plans
Steelhead: Onchorhynchus mykiss
Yellowfin Tuna - tag data
www.TOPP.org
African Elephants
Ecosystem Approach
•  IUCN - world conservation union:
•  History of •  severe poaching and habitat
Population Approach
fragmentation
•  Establishment of protected areas left
some populations expanding and others
still in trouble
•  Manage populations separately
•  Complex social systems
•  Translocation programs
•  Induced sterility
•  Culling
•  The Ecosystem Approach places human
needs at the centre of biodiversity
management. It aims to manage the
ecosystem, based on the multiple
functions that ecosystems perform and
the multiple uses that are made of these
functions. The ecosystem approach
does not aim for short-term economic
gains, but aims to optimize the use of an
ecosystem without damaging it.
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Figure 55.14 The zoned reserve concept of landscape management
Management approaches
•  Landscape and regional conservation
–  Sustaining biotas - look at past and present patterns
•  Habitat fragmentation
–  Corridors
–  Metapopulations/subpopulations
•  Establishing protected areas - not an easy process!
–  Eg. marine reserves
–  Multiple use?
–  Zoned reserves
West Coast Marine Managed Areas
(MMAs) at a Glance
•  269 MMAs exist in west coast waters (0 - 200 m).
•  These MMAs cover nearly half (47%) the west coast
waters.
•  Almost this entire area (99.9%) allows multiple uses,
such as fishing and recreation.
•  A small fraction of the MMA area (0.1%) is no-take. •  Federal MMAs are fewer, but much larger than state
MMAs.
•  Fishing is allowed in almost the entire MMA area
(99.9%).･ ･ ･ ･ ･
Marine Protected Areas
•  The official federal definition of an MPA is: any area of the
marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state,
tribal, territorial, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting
protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources
therein. Executive Order 13158 (May 2000)
Marine Protected Areas classification
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–  Natural Heritage –  Cultural Heritage
–  Sustainable Production •
•  Multiple use! - less than 1% are ‘no take’
•  Designed to set aside critical habitat to ensure ‘breeding stock’ to
‘feed’ the fishery - no use or ‘rotational’ use
•  Designed for territorial or non-migratory organisms
(a) Conservation Focus (one or more)
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•  A management strategy to help sustain fisheries
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(b) Level of Protection Afforded (one attribute) –  Uniform Multiple-Use
–  Zoned Multiple-Use Zoned with No-Take Area(s)
–  No Take –  No Impact No Access (c) Permanence of Protection (one attribute) –  Permanent –  Conditional –  Temporary (d) Constancy of Protection (one attribute)
–  Year-round
–  Seasonal
–  Rotating
(e) Ecological Scale of Protection (one atrribute) –  Ecosystem
–  Focal Resource
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Species Approach Case Study: The
Asian Elephant
Management
Protected areas:
The Convention on Biological Diversity defines protected
areas as:･
"a geographically defined area which is designated or regulated and
managed to achieve specific conservation objectives.”
IUCN the world conservation union defines protected areas
as:･"areas of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection
and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and
associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other
effective means."
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Elephant and wildlife corridor between park and sanctuary
Manage human/elephant conflict (elephant deterrents
Education
Use domesticated Elephants to help protect
Radio-tagging elephants outside of protected areas
Control poaching
Restore landscapes for elephants
Ecotourism ($$)
Breeding
Monitoring populations
Research: life history, behavior
Translocation
And YOU own this one - make good informed decisions about it!
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