Managing Biodiversity
The key players in management?
Brainstorm ALL the players you think are involved
Transnational and
private enterprise
Indigenous people
Scientists
and
researchers
Local and
regional
governments
Players in
ecosystem
management
International
organisations
Artists and poets
NGOs
stakeholders
Special interest
groups
National
governments
Local
farmers
Individuals
Global Players
• There are 150 wildlife treaties in place
• Such things require a number of nations to sign before becoming
law
• Most involve funding conservation work, designating protected
areas, or regulating endangered species
• The 5 most important treaties in place today are
• RAMSAR Convention- wetland conservation signed 1971- adopted
by 147 countries
• World Heritage Convention- to designate and protect
outstanding cultural and natural sites- signed 1972, by over 180
countries
• The Convention on International trade in Endangered Speciessigned in 1973, adopted by 166 countries
• The convention on the conservation of Migratory Species of
Wild Animals was signed in 1979 and by 2005 adopted by 90
countries to prevent shooting of birds in passage
• The UN Convention on the Law of the sea- ratified by 148
countries
Other global players
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Transnational cooperation's are involved, have say in which goods/
services are mostly exploited- increasingly they are moving to greener
strategies for long term benefit and to improve public image
They also drive innovation and technology, sometimes for the common
good, but sometimes to the detriment of the ecosystem involved
Other international institutions which are involved- UN agencies,
World Bank, World Trade Organisation and the International Tropical
Timber Organisation
Non government Organisations- such as Greenpeace and WWF provide
vital biodiversity conservation
WWF works in over 100 countries- it’s mission is to stop the
degradation of the planets natural environment and build an
environment where people live in harmony with nature
Others are smaller such as FAN (A small NGO working in Eastern
Bolivia to conserve biodiversity by using natural resources in a
sustainable way).
National Players
• Government- regulate and facilitate
• Regulation- establish and enforce laws to conserve
genetic biodiversity, protect various areas and
species and regulate damaging activities such as using
polluting agro chemicals or releasing invasive species
• They also manage natural resources providing clean
air water or open space
• They fund preservation conservation and
development, often through taxes and subsidies
• Positive incentives to conserve are increasingly used,
e.g. paying farmers to be stewards of the landscape
and to farm in environmentally friendly ways
Local players
• Indigenous people are often dependant on
biodiversity for basic survival
• For many local biodiversity has spiritual
significance
• Locals have good knowledge of local plants
and their uses, e.g. traditional medicine
• Local fishers/ farmers can conflict with
conservationists because they live a subsistence
lifestyle relying on the ecosystem for survival
• Ecosystem management issues are increasingly in
previously remote areas like the Amazon and
Antarctica- as more people visit pressures arise
• Some individuals can join together to form special
interest groups- they can degrade delicate areas
• Conflict can arise from scientists hunting for new
drugs, species with indigenous people who just want
to continue their existence
Individual players
• Most diverse group of all
• All having individual morals, beliefs and needs on each
ecosystem
• In OECD countries ethical consumerism is increasing
people buying dolphin friendly tuna.
• Spiritual and recreational demands for new tourist
destinations means areas like the Galapagos and
Arctic are experiencing mass tourism.
Strategies and policies
Scientific
Reserve
Community
wildlife
management
Wildlife
Reserves
and parks
Economic
development
integrated
into
conservation
Extractive
reserves
Tolerant
forest
management
Exploitation
with token
protection
How best to protect?
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Total protection?
Biosphere reserves
Leave to exploit
Conserve certain areas
In the 60s total protection was favoured, in 80s local
voices were heard and biosphere reserves were
created leaving some land to locals and fencing off
the rest.
What problems with this approach?
• In more recent times economic and social aspects of
biodiversity more taken into account- ie ecotourism
What is the spectrum of conservation strategies?
There is a spectrum of conservation
strategies available, from complete protection
through various types of ‘sustainable
development’ to commercially exploited
areas where limited parts are protected
…often for publicity!
The total area of land and number of
protected sites is increasing. Poland,
Ecuador and New Zealand now have 25% of
their land protected.
What sort of protection?
In the 1960’s total protection was the only
method of conservation!
In the 1980’s biosphere reserves were
established with buffer zones…for use by
local people
21ST Century conservation now means
species protection, scientific reserves, as
well as incorporating economic development
with biodiversity.
What factors is successful conservation
influenced by?
Demonstrate: What are the problems with the ‘total protection
strategy’?
WALT
To understand
the strategies
and polices in
place for
management
In LEDCs conflict between conservation and
cutting people off from biodiversity
Success
Criteria
Totally protected reserves can be focussed
on for scientific purposes and fail to see that
conservation is influence by social,
economic, etc
A – Examine the
success/ failure
of the polices
and strategies at
a range of scales
Many schemes were based on political and
economic boundaries where as ecosystems
are defined by natural borders!!
C – Describe
and explain the
strategies and
their success
rate
Coordination from outside agencies which do
not always know about needs of local people
Activate: What are biosphere reserves?
WALT
To understand
the strategies
and polices in
place for
management
Success
Criteria
A – Examine the
success/ failure
of the polices
and strategies at
a range of scales
C – Describe
and explain the
strategies and
their success
rate
Reserves are a popular strategy. Many are in
favour of ‘corridor’ like reserves running
north-south. Global warming drives species
from the poles will still be protected!
Many people feel that conservation should
target ‘hotspots’.
WWF favours a broad approach to save
larger areas and more species.
Some others feel we should concentrate in
LEDCs where it would cost less and get
better value for money.
Sustainable Yield= key part of sustainable ecosystem management.
It represents the safe level of harvest that can be hunted/ caught/
utilised without harming the individual ecosystem.
How do they measure the sustainable level?
• Maximum sustainable yield- greatest harvest that can be taken
indefinitely while leaving the ecosystem intact. Harvesting wild
plants, animals or fish is part of the subsistence lifestyle of
indigenous people and is usually sustainable.
• Over harvesting or overexploitation are usually the result of
commercial rather than subsistence activity. When activities such as
shooting elephants for ivory or harvesting shellfish and logging in
natural forests- the targets and their habitats are under threat
• Optimum sustainable yield- best compromise achievable in the light
of all the economic and social considerations. This will not destroy
the aesthetic or recreational value of the ecosystem and will
therefore allow multiple use for the maximum benefit to the
community.
• In order to manage fish/ wildlife mathematical models have been
developed to estimate the CARRYING CAPACITY (CC). This is
maximum human population that can exist in equilibrium with the
available resources (food, nutrients, etc).
• The major problem is that the CC varies seasonally and over time
can be reduced by Climate Change
Intense competition for food
Carrying capacity
Population begins to be
threatened by over harvesting
MSY in practice
No cover against
predators
Mortality
high,
population
reproducti
on low
Population declines for natural reasons,
more rapidly if over harvesting occurs
Maximum sustained yield
halfway between 0 and the CC
OSY lower than MSY, so ecosystem still
has high aesthetic value
Carefully controlled harvesting
allows population growth
Sustainable Yields in the Southern
Ocean
• Managed since 1961 since the Antarctic treaty came
into force. Before this they were exhausted and
overfished. Several fin fish became extinct. A model
was used to calculate the fishing yield.
• Whaling is banned
• No culling of fur or elephant seals
• Limits placed on krill taking
• Protection of penguins and other Antarctic sea birds,
as they being in food web have an impact on sea
stocks
• Environmental protection in place- no military action
or waste dumping, so air pollution kept to minimum
• Few visitors, mainly scientists and some seasonal
tourists, but little noise pollution
Southern ocean SYM – A 3 prong approach!
* Single species approach sets limits for
harvesting individual species that are
indefinitely sustainable.
* Ecosystem approach involves considering
harvested species both on their own and in
relation to dependant species and whole
environment.
* Precautionary principle aims to model
consequences of any planned expansion of
catches before it is permitted.
Case study: CAMPFIRE approach – Why did it collapse?
Under British colonial rule large sections of
indigenous population in Zimbabwe were
forced to live in communal areas - tribal
trust lands.
Communal Areas Management Programme
for indigenous resources (CAMPFIRE)
project was set up in the late 1980’s. It was
aimed at long-term development,
management and sustainable use of natural
resources in each communal area.
Case study: CAMPFIRE approach
The responsibility was placed with local
people, whilst allowing them to benefit
directly from the exploitation of resources.
‘Bottom Up’ Approach – varies and advice is
given by the Zimbabwe Department of
National Parks and Wildlife Management.
Case study: CAMPFIRE approach
Many of the schemes made money from biggame hunting at sustainable yield
levels…this money was then fed back into
the community.
The economic collapse of Zimbabwe
undermined the whole scheme. Loss of
staff, lack of funding, poaching, hunger saw
it collapse.
Demonstrate: Questions…
Describe what sustainable yield means (5)
Explain how the Southern Oceans and
CAMPIRE are examples of sustainable
management. (10)
Conservation priorities?
• Some want to target HOTSPOTS as they are areas of
maximum diversity and are under greatest threat
• WWF favours a broader approach in which
representative areas of land and sea known as ecoregions are targeted to save a max of variety of
habitats and species
• Some say focus should be a poorer regions of world as
costs are lower.
• Some question focus of conservation on high interest
animals like Pandas and tigers
Restoring degraded areas
• The ultimate conservation challenge
• i.e. Recreating wetlands
• Or linking fragmented reserve areas to make larger
reserves easier to manage and more biodiverse
• These schemes rely on how degraded land is the more
degraded and polluted the harder it is
• An example of this is the Great Fens recreation
project in East Anglia, UK.
Conservation
• Other approaches to conservation, ex situ conservation, e.g.
captive breeding of endangered animals in zoos.
• Zoos also contain biodiversity banks such as seed banks for
plants
• Several species have been saved in this way such as Scimitar
horned Oryx, bred at Marwell Zoo and re released into Arabia
• Giant pandas are also being bred in captivity to increase
numbers
• Some people do not like zoos feeling sorry for captive animals,
but they play a vital role in education of people and allowing
people to see animals they otherwise may not see
Task
1) Produce short fact files on each of the
varying management strategies
a) Buffer zones
b) Biosphere reserves
c) Global agreements like CITES
d) Gene banks
e) Restoration
f) Captive breeding
2) Assess the relative advantages and
disadvantages of each method of
management
•IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is considered the
most comprehensive record of the conservation status of
plants and animals.
•Essentially precise criteria is utilised by different countries
and organisations to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands
of species and subspecies.
• These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of
the world.
• Records are continually being updated.
• The IUCN aim to convey the urgency of conservation
issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the
international community try and reduce species extinction.
• The Living Planet Index (LPI) is an indicator of the state
of global biological diversity, based on trends in vertebrate
species- fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds mammals- from all
around the world.
• By tracking wild species, the Living Planet Index is also
monitoring the health of ecosystems.
• The information can be used to define the impact humans
are having on the planet and for guiding actions to address
biodiversity loss.
•The WWF developed a system of eco-regions.
• 200 Eco-regions were identified.
• They are deemed the most biologically distinct
terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems on the
planet and subsequently are to be protected and
conserved to ensure species, habitats and ecological
processes continue.
• The eco-regions identified are to be representative of
all ecosystems of that type.
• World Resource Institute – Earthtrends
• Millennium Assessment
• Find out how they conserve biodiversity. Write a
short paragraph about each.
a) Explain the distribution of the world’s terrestrial and
marine hotspots in Figure 3.
1
• Define hotspot
2
• Terrestrial hotspots - % land covered. Geographical
location of majority of hotspots. Examples. Biodiversity
Threats
3
• Marine hotspots- types of ecosystem. Examples.
Threats.
4
• Explanation – detailed locations mentioned. Explains
reasons for high biodiversity. Highlights range of
ecological niches, complex food chains, details of
endemism and reasons for the range of threats.
b) Evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of the
‘hotspot’ approach to biodiversity management (compared
with other strategies) (15)
1
• For hotspot approach
2
• Against hotspot approach – against protectionist
approach
3
4
• Alterative mode of conservation
• conclusion