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Partendo dall’analisi del ruolo che i Parchi e le aree Protette ricoprono per la salvaguardia di zone ambientali di particolare interesse paesaggistico, con il loro patrimonio di specie animali e vegetali, spesso in pericolo di estinzione, il mio studio si è incentrato sul Parco Fluviale dell’alcantara, il più giovane dei parchi regionali siciliani...
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... This creates challenges for river PA management, as rivers are particularly susceptible to impacts from outside of PA boundaries (Mancini et al., 2005;Nel et al., 2009). To ensure effective river conservation, PAs ought to be established at the catchment scale (Pittock et al., 2015), or form part of a tailored multi-zoned system of conservation measures (Abell et al., 2007). Failure to establish sufficiently stringent protections can lead to the PA having no or very low impact on water quality (dos Santos Mollmann et al., 2022) and biodiveristy outcomes (Acreman et al., 2019). ...
Given the dire state of health of rivers worldwide and their significant heritage values, there is a need to consider their current representation in protected areas inscribed under the World Heritage Convention and identify challenges and opportunities for increasing their coverage. This study identifies a total of 153 natural, mixed natural/cultural and cultural landscape World Heritage sites that recognise rivers as a source of Outstanding Universal Value. There are challenges associated with the recognition of river sites as World Heritage, but further nominations could be encouraged through amendments to the World Heritage Convention Operational Guidelines to allow greater discretion to be exercised in relation to integrity requirements at inscription and to explicitly acknowledge freshwater use as a basis for recognising mixed natural/cultural and cultural landscape sites. There is also an opportunity to encourage further nomination of river sites by recognising the important implications of World Heritage inscription for international water cooperation. Together, these recommendations provide a path forward for enhancing the place of rivers in World Heritage protected areas.
... This approach is akin to maintaining aquatic reserves to sustain biodiversity, ecosystem function and the associated ecosystem service values. Riverfloodplain reserves face a number of challenges, including invasive species (Acreman et al. 2020) and connectivity (Pittock et al. 2015;Hermoso et al. 2016) and landscape impacts (Pittock et al. 2015), although they have been effective in around 50% of cases reviewed (Acreman et al. 2020). Within this context, it may be worth considering a conceptualisation that aligns with the way the system functions (Gawne et al. 2018;Palmer and Ruhi 2019), such as an integrated network (Pryke, Samways, and De Saedeleer 2015;van Rees et al. 2021). ...
... This approach is akin to maintaining aquatic reserves to sustain biodiversity, ecosystem function and the associated ecosystem service values. Riverfloodplain reserves face a number of challenges, including invasive species (Acreman et al. 2020) and connectivity (Pittock et al. 2015;Hermoso et al. 2016) and landscape impacts (Pittock et al. 2015), although they have been effective in around 50% of cases reviewed (Acreman et al. 2020). Within this context, it may be worth considering a conceptualisation that aligns with the way the system functions (Gawne et al. 2018;Palmer and Ruhi 2019), such as an integrated network (Pryke, Samways, and De Saedeleer 2015;van Rees et al. 2021). ...
For over two decades, Australia has sought to address the effects of the over allocation of water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin through implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan (2012). It is increasingly apparent that the impacts of climate change on surface runoff and water demand will profoundly impact rivers, potentially negating the Basin Plan’s achievements. It will be critical that we use the lessons from the last two decades to inform adaptation to climate change. Environmental water allocations over the last decade have focussed on providing base flows, freshes, and overbank flows, within a Natural Flow Regime paradigm. In a climate-changed world managers have three broad options. The first would be to continue to pursue single loop adaptive management making improvements within the existing framework. The second option would be to adapt the system approach to focus on a subset of sites, akin to maintaining aquatic reserves. The third option would be to move flow management away from the natural flow paradigm to a more functional regime. This approach would invoke the second adaptive management loop by evaluating options for adaptation and developing processes for navigating trade-offs among social, economic, cultural, and environmental values and between protection, restoration, and adaptation. Changes in water availability because of climate change will require more than incremental adaptation (first loop adaptive management) and will necessitate consideration of either protecting a smaller suite of spatial areas or a smaller set of functional outcomes. This requires profound change to some of the Basin Plan’s approaches to environmental flow management. The review of the Basin Plan in 2026 provides a rare opportunity to adapt the Basin Plan from a foundation of protect and restore to one that includes adaptation, and this will require substantive changes to the Basin Plan (second loop adaptive management).
... Allowing commercial reservoir fishing, notwithstanding its likely negative impacts on ecology (Pittock et al. 2018) or on wildlife utilizing dam reservoir backwaters, is an example. The co-dependence of capture fisheries and freshwater biodiversity on water deserves combined management, especially in aquatic PAs (Pittock et al. 2015;Brooks et al. 2016;McIntyre et al. 2016). ...
Inland capture fisheries in rivers, wetlands, lakes, tanks, and dam reservoirs support millions of marginalized people in countries like India. While being a critical resource for many, fishing also has negative impacts on threatened wildlife, through net entanglement and mortality, and fishery-associated hunting or poaching activities. Also, both fishing and river wildlife have declined due to dams affecting river flows, water pollution, and other anthropogenic threats. A dominant approach to protect terrestrial wildlife in India has been the creation of Protected Areas (PAs) where human activities detrimental to wildlife, including fishing, are banned or significantly regulated. But PAs in India have been historically sited in and near dam reservoirs, where culture-based fisheries are often allowed. This triad of PAs, dams, and reservoir/river fisheries can lead to inequitable outcomes, tradeoffs, and conflicts between wildlife conservation and fishery-dependent livelihoods. Hence there is a need to understand factors leading to fishery-wildlife conservation conflicts across PAs. In this review paper, attribute data on ecotype, area, number of dams, fishing intensity levels, and conservation status were compiled for non-marine PAs across India to understand their broad correlations with fishery-conservation conflict intensity levels. Conflict intensity levels were correlated with PA area, PA conservation status, and fishing intensity, and with the number of dams associated with PAs. These results are discussed and specific institutional gaps and management limitations in India are identified, that need to be addressed to prevent negative fishing impacts on wildlife and secure human livelihoods dependent on fisheries.
... The outcome reported by McInnes et al. (2020) is alarming as there is an expectation that the degree of protection conferred under the Convention should support the protection and management of internationally important sites. This conclusion differs from other assessments that suggest that Ramsar sites are being managed more effectively to provide positive conservation outcomes in comparison to non-protected sites (Bowman, 2002;Pittock et al., 2015). ...
... The landscape variables (percent agriculture, percent development, number of wastewater treatment plants, watershed population) are indirect but more stable indicators of stress to benthos. We also included land use variables expected to be related to better benthic condition (percent forest, percent salt marsh) as maintenance of natural lands is assumed to protect estuaries (Pittock et al., 2015). We chose random forest regression, a powerful non-parametric technique that aggregates multiple models to produce a robust model that can provide a measure of variable importance (Breiman, 2001;Cutler et al., 2007). ...
M-AMBI, a multivariate benthic index, has been used by European and American (U.S.) authorities to assess estuarine and coastal health and has been used in scientific studies throughout the world. It has been shown to be related to multiple pressures and stressors, but the relative importance of individual stressors within a multiple stressor context has not generally been assessed. In this study, we assembled data collected between 1999 and 2015 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using consistent methods. These data included sediment and water quality measures and benthic invertebrate data which were used to calculate M-AMBI. We further assembled watersheds for all US estuaries with benthic data and calculated land use metrics. Random forest (RF) was used to identify those variables most strongly related to M-AMBI. Because RF is a compilation of multiple, nonlinear models, we then assessed which of these variables had a direct relationship with M-AMBI. The resulting variables were then assessed using RF to identify the subsets of variables that produced an effective and parsimonious model. This process was conducted at the national and ecoregional scale and the variables identified as being most important to predict M-AMBI were compared with literature reports of ecological patterns in a given area. At the national scale, better condition was correlated with clearer waters, lower amounts of agriculture in the watershed, and lower carbon and metal concentrations in estuarine sediments. Other stressors were identified as being important at the ecoregional scale, although sediment metal concentrations and watershed agriculture were identified as being important in most ecoregions. Our results suggest that this technique is useful to identify the most important variables impacting M-AMBI at broad spatial scales, even when the percentage of sites in Bad or Poor condition is low. This technique also provides an initial identification of important stressors that can be used to target more intensive local studies.
... Despite the well-known importance and value of estuaries and their protected status, their continued degradation calls into question the efficacy of traditional conservation approaches in estuary protection. The existing model of conservation has failed to effectively conserve estuary environments for several reasons, including management issues arising from lack of funding leading to significant staff turnover (Morris et al., 2014) and inadequate consideration of the balance between conservation of the environment and the needs of people and communities (Pittock, 2015). A recent drive to promote the green economy (European Commission, 2019; United Kingdom HM Government, 2020) has led to the consideration of intervention to improve both ecological and economic health in these areas. ...
... This international treaty led to a conservation framework that resulted in many estuaries being designated protected status, with strict regulation for resource exploitation and activity that might damage the important habitats and species. However, this restricted human use of these areas, which led in many cases, to low compliance with the regulations or negative impacts on those who relied on the estuary (Pittock, 2015). In these cases, estuarine areas continued to experience ecological degradation. ...
Estuaries are unique and complex systems that are important for ecological, cultural and economic reasons. They provide valuable habitat for biodiversity and provide a wide range of regulating, cultural and provisioning ecosystem services.
Estuaries have a disproportionate importance to people in comparison to other habitats, which has resulted in high levels of utilization and environmental impact. Poor management, ineffective conservation approaches and global economic changes have resulted in many temperate estuaries becoming both economically and environmentally degraded.
We present an argument for the use of the Natural Capital approach as part of the wider green economic agenda in temperate estuaries to support both the environmental and economic recovery of these areas.
We make the case that in a habitat always likely to be subject to intense human pressure it provides a holistic decision‐making approach which considers ecological aspects alongside the ecosystem's anthropogenic importance and pressures. This allows for damage to be identified quickly and accelerates the process of designing and implementing solutions. It provides a framework for multiple partners with a material interest in maintaining a healthy estuarine environment providing multiple benefits to drive investment in natural capital and delivery of nature recovery.
We highlight some of the obstacles in implementing the Natural Capital approach in estuaries at scale, including collaboration and communication between stakeholders in various sectors, the existence of quality natural capital and environmental baselines and the need for partnership to create investment opportunities. We explore how these are being addressed and identify progress in the Natural Capital approach and how this can inform and advance the widespread implementation of the approach.
... Although relatively rare, some FPAs have been established to protect freshwater species and habitats [2]. The most common of these are Ramsar sites, which are often classified as PAs even though many are managed by non-governmental managers or without specific legislation [3]. As of 2021, the Ramsar List contained 2433 sites covering over 2.5 million km 2 , which represents about 20% of the estimated 12.8 million km 2 of global wetlands [4]. ...
... As of 2021, the Ramsar List contained 2433 sites covering over 2.5 million km 2 , which represents about 20% of the estimated 12.8 million km 2 of global wetlands [4]. Besides Ramsar sites, few other FPAs exist [3]. However, with 71% of freshwater fish extinctions being attributed in part to habitat loss and with some species at risk from overharvesting [5], FPAs have never been more topical. ...
Despite the demonstrated benefits of marine protected areas, there has been relatively little dialogue about freshwater protected areas (FPAs) even though some have been established to protect freshwater species from recreational and commercial fishers. After populations recover from fishing pressure, abundances and densities of formerly fished species increase, and we should therefore expect changes in demographic traits compared to those in exploited populations. To test this, we used capture-mark-recapture data for 10 Galaxias maculatus populations across a density gradient mediated by different degrees of fishery closure. We examined the extent to which density-dependent (DD) and density-independent (DI) effects interact to affect specific growth rates in post-recruit populations. We found that population density, stream temperature and individual size interact to affect growth rates. When population densities were high, compensatory responses of far slower growth rates were strongest, indicating that DD growth is a key mechanism regulating post-recruit populations of G. maculatus. This study emphasizes the importance of understanding DD and DI processes, their interactions, function and effectiveness for freshwater fisheries management. For FPAs to be effective, the extent and quality of target species' habitats must serve as key criteria for protection to alleviate competition for limited resources that underpins DD processes.
... Wetlands are defined as: "Places where water is the primary factor controlling plant and animal life and the wider environment, where the water table is at or near the land surface, or where water covers the land" (Pittock et al. 2015). Wetlands have been described as "the kidneys of the landscape", because of their functions in the hydrological and chemical cycles and as "biological supermarkets" because of the extensive food webs and rich biodiversity they support (Mitsch and Gosselink 1993). ...
The study of the importance of physicochemical parameters of water for algal growth and development in Jagdish-pur Reservoir was carried out in the present research. Occurrence of algal species and values of water quality parameters also indicate the ecological nature and the present status of the reservoir. Water samples were collected from Jagdishpur Reservoir in Kapilvastu District (Nepal), in two seasons (wet and dry). The following physicochemical parameters of water were analyzed: temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, concentration of nitrates and phosphates, free CO2, hardness, conductivity, total dissolved solids. The values of free CO2, hardness, phosphate, temperature, and dissolved oxygen were high in wet season while alkalinity, nitrate, conductivity and total dissolved solid were high in dry season. Altogether 81 algal species belonging to 53 genera and 6 classes were recorded. Higher number of algal species was recorded in the dry season rather than in the wet season. The highest number of species was noted among Chlorophyceae, followed by Cyanobacteria > Bacillariophyceae > Euglenophyceae > Crysophyceae and Dinophyceae. Cosmarium had the highest number of species (13) among all genera. During the wet season, Cosmarium, Calothrix and Phormidium were the genera with the highest number of species while Bulbochaete, Trachelomonas and Gomphonema were genera with the lowest number of species. During the dry season, Cymbella, Cosmarium and Rhopalodia were genera with highest number of species while Euglena, Gloeotrichia and Trachelomonas were genera with lowest number of species. Algal diversity was positively correlated with the increase of alkalinity, conductivity and TDS, while negatively correlated with free CO2, hardness, concerntration of phosphates and nitrates, DO, pH and temperature. Shannon-Weiner diversity index value was higher during the dry season than in the wet season.
... The remaining 1.5% are designated as Ramsar sites (Table B1.4). It is important to note that inadequate consideration of the freshwater ecosystems ecological functioning when designing terrestrially focused protected areas could compromise the effectiveness of freshwater ecosystems conservation efforts and wetlands in particular (Pittock et al., 2015). ...
This volume on Fundamentals of Tropical Freshwater Wetlands is comprised of a collection of twenty-three chapters, covering a range of relevant topics and authored by specialists working in tropical freshwater environments. While diverse and voluminous, the book is by no means comprehensive. Projects of this nature often involve compromise at various stages from conceptualization through to production, with this volume being no exception. The book does, however, provide considerable coverage of components typically regarded as important in wetland science and management, within the tropical context. As such, we trust the book will be well received by our target audience and hope that it inspires future work, potentially even addressing any gaps and biases associated with this volume. Following this introductory chapter, the book has been organised into three themed sections. The first section covers the abiotic processes theme for tropical wetlands (in order of appearance- Job et al. 2021; Deemy et al. 2021a; Deemy et al. 2021b; Moyo 2021; Deemy et al. 2021c). The second section deals with biota (in order of appearance, Piedade et al. 2021; Dalu et al. 2021; Brendonck et al. 2021a; Brendonck et al. 2021b; Dube et al. 2021; Reichard et al. 2021; Moraes et al. 2021; Tarakini et al. 2021; Vanhove et al. 2021) and biotic processes (in order of appearance- Pegg et al. 2021; Cuthbert et al. 2021; Gálvez et al. 2021). The final section is a compilation of chapters under the theme of monitoring, conservation and management (in order of appearance- Irvine et al. 2021; Greenfield 2021; Dube et al. 2021; Marambanyika et al. 2021; Laltaika 2021). Chapter content has been overviewed in the Preface section by Kenneth Irvine.
... The Anthropocene is characterised by ubiquitous loss of biodiversity at unprecedented rates and scales (Kingsford, Bino & Porter 2017a). Globally, this biodiversity loss is severest across the freshwater realm (Albert et al. 2021;Vorosmarty et al. 2010), which exhibits the highest species diversity per unit area (Pittock et al. 2015). Over the last half century, alteration to natural flows in rivers -from land-use change, water over-abstraction and building of dams -has contributed towards more than 80% reduction in the freshwater species population (Harwood et al. 2017;WWF 2020 -Freshwater Living Planet Index). ...
Freshwater biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene escalates the need for successful environmental water management to sustain human benefiting ecosystem services. Of the world’s river basins, one-third are now severely water depleted, rendering the quality and quantity of water to maintain or restore freshwater ecosystem integrity increasingly urgent. However, managing environmental water is intricate because of complexity and uncertainty in interacting social and biophysical system components, and trade-offs between costs and benefits of implementing environmental flows. Learning enabled adaptive management – embracing the uncertainty – is essential; however, practising adaptive management (worldwide) is challenging; single-, double- and triple-loop learning is required, along with social learning, to tackle complex problems. There is progressive realisation of environmental flows (Ecological Reserve) in the Crocodile River, South Africa, linked to the Kruger National Park, using Strategic Adaptive Management (SAM). In this research article, we reflected on
adaptive (single- and double-loop) learning and transformative (triple-loop) learning capacity emergent in SAM between 2009 and 2019 whilst also considering social learning potentials. We found evidence of preconditions (e.g. transparency) for social learning within a burgeoning stakeholder ‘community-of-practice’, likely fostering capacities (e.g. information sharing) for sustained social learning. Adaptive and transformative learning is enabled by social learning,
underpinned by ongoing nested feedbacks supporting assessment and reflection, which facilitates single-, double- and triple-loop learning. Champions exist and are vital for sustaining the adaptive management system. Executing adaptive and transformative learning aids in positive change across the range of ecological, social and economic outcomes that are essential for success in environmental water programmes, worldwide.
Conservation implications: Crocodile River Ecological Reserve implementation, associated with Kruger National Park, provided an important national precedent (lessons) for protecting the ecological integrity of river systems – obligatory under the National Water Act (Act No 36 of 1998). We demonstrated the importance of ongoing stakeholder learning for successful management of the Ecological Reserve
