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Conservation Focus on Europe: Major Conservation Policy Issues That Need to Be Informed by Conservation Science
Abstract
Europe is one of the world's most densely populated continents and has a long history of human-dominated land- and seascapes. Europe is also at the forefront of developing and implementing multinational conservation efforts. In this contribution, we describe some top policy issues in Europe that need to be informed by high-quality conservation science. These include evaluation of the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, implications of rapid economic and subsequent land-use change in Central and Eastern Europe, conservation of marine biodiversity and sustainability of fisheries, the effect of climate change on movement of species in highly fragmented landscapes, and attempts to assess the economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Broad policy issues such as those identified are not easily amenable to scientific experiment. A key challenge at the science-policy interface is to identify the research questions underlying these problem areas so that conservation science can provide evidence to underpin future policy development.
... In this framework, the Natura 2000 network represents an European Union goal, aimed at promoting the conservation of natural habitats of flora and fauna species, without excluding populated communities and local economy (Mucher, Hennekens, Bunce, Schaminee & Schaepman, 2009;Pullin et al., 2009;Silva, 2009). The enforcement of the Natura 2000 network appeared as a necessity in fulfilling the objectives of reducing species and habitats loss (Pullin et al., 2009). ...
... In this framework, the Natura 2000 network represents an European Union goal, aimed at promoting the conservation of natural habitats of flora and fauna species, without excluding populated communities and local economy (Mucher, Hennekens, Bunce, Schaminee & Schaepman, 2009;Pullin et al., 2009;Silva, 2009). The enforcement of the Natura 2000 network appeared as a necessity in fulfilling the objectives of reducing species and habitats loss (Pullin et al., 2009). The European Union, through the Convention on Biodiversity, Habitats and Birds Directives, assumed these objectives . ...
... Integrating the socio-economic elements among the management objectives of the Natura 2000 sites significantly complicates the management methods (Pullin et al., 2009), the interest in utilizing natural resources, and rendering services being often of higher importance value than conservation (Anthon, Garcia & Stenger, 2010;Berentsen, Hendriksen, Heijman & van Vlokhoven, 2007). ...
The Natura 2000 network represents a new approach in the sustainable spatial planning promoted at the European Union level. Agricultural landscapes comprise 28.6% of the surface area of the Natura 2000 sites, many of which have significant conservation values. Plant and animal species, and approximately 30% of the natural habitats of community interest are directly influenced by the presence of certain agricultural activities. This chapter presents a GIS analysis of the European Union Natura 2000 ecological network: spatial distribution of Natura 2000 sites in EU-27, dynamic agricultural surfaces in Natura 2000 sites, and GIS tools in managing process. GIS techniques must represent the tool by which the efficiency of this ecological network is monitored, as it must be permanently nourished with important financial resources.
... The return of arable land systems to grassland appears amongst significant measures regarded as determining factors in the adoption of adequate management practices [39]. Over the years, many have doubted the effectiveness of agri-environment measures (AES) for maintaining or improving biodiversity [40,41]. Yet, in the long-term, soil scientists emphasize the effectiveness of agri-environment practice for soil conservation [42], e.g., a return from arable land systems to grassland. ...
... and, further, how aspirational the agrienvironment schemes (AES) focusing on soil water retention and soil carbon cycling are (Section 4). Starting from the agri-environment policy work by [40,51] (Cooper 2006 and) and [43] (Prager 2008), Trnka et al. [48] also alerted to the importance of achieving several elements of soil water targets (a water quality pathway, the effect on drought management, nitrate use and the soil water conservation pathway). These targets had to be considered in AES for such schemes to be credible regarding the provision of environmental public goods by rural development programs after 2020. ...
Building on the agri-environment framework in Central and Eastern Europe, the article emphasizes the role and the use of the agri-environment in provision of different ecosystem services. It shows that relevant conservation measures with regard to ameliorating soil degradation contribute to the existence of sustainable land systems. In our study, we (i) identified what the soil water aggregate means, (ii) reviewed how agri-environment schemes (AES) function to support soil water requirements, and (iii) how appropriate soils are identified with regard to the implementation of soil conservation under the agri-environment. Empirical data were surveyed to assess AES as the pivotal subsidy in four countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Quantitative data were assessed to contribute to evidence on and the expenditure effect of the measures. This review found that AES schemes in arable land systems implement several approaches such as cover crops and the reversion of arable land systems to grassland. The costs of AE measures reflect the costs of the particular agri-environmental practice and its constraints on commercial performance by the farmer. The AES budget analysis showed that subsidization moderately increased over the 2000–2020 time frame. However, the magnitude of the AES budget is still largely overshadowed by generic subsidies at farm level.
... Natural floodplain areas as well as typical floodplain vegetation depending on river dynamics are decreasing due to human impact e.g. by fragmentation due to dams (Jansson et al. 2000;Alldredge and Moore 2014;Pracheil et al. 2015) and altered river flow regime (Rivaes et al. 2015). Vulnerable riparian areas are a main target for conservation management and planning (Pullin et al. 2009), but few guidelines for riparian vegetation in a changing world exist (but see Dufour et al. 2019;Lind et al. 2019). ...
... under current climatic conditions, these might not be persistent over time and new protected areas might be necessary (D'Amen et al. 2011;Hannah et al. 2014a;Barrows et al. 2020;Morelli et al. 2020). Therefore, more riparian species have to be investigated to adjust conservation goals (Pullin et al. 2009;Driscoll et al. 2013). ...
Context
Riparian areas are considered to undergo major alterations under changing climate, making floodplain habitats targets for conservation and landscape planning. Protected areas might provide sanctuaries especially for sessile riparian plant species, but these niches are not always persistent over time.
Objectives
We investigate if plant species of floodplain forests are provided with suitable habitat within currently protected areas and if these refugia persist. A coupled-modelling approach is used to gain spatially explicit information on new areas for sanctuaries.
Methods
We use species distribution models to predict the niche of 12 Salicion albae and 7 Fraxinion floodplain forest species along rivers in Switzerland, under current, moderate and extreme climate change scenarios up to 80 years to the future (2100). The spread of plant species from current habitat to suitable future habitat is simulated using dispersal vectors and life history traits.
Results
Salicion albae species are more flexible under both climate change scenarios than Fraxinion species. The main limitation for the spread of species is their dispersal ability, as only a minority of the suitable cells is colonized during the simulation process. The predicted future presence within currently protected areas decreases under both climate change scenarios in the model.
Conclusions
Current protected floodplains do not provide persistent refugia for the plants studied, but might still be of importance to other organisms. Planning of sanctuaries for riparian plant species and communities need to focus on connectivity along rivers to maintain viable source populations in dynamic riverine landscapes under changing climate.
... For the European Union, a sustainable approach regarding biodiversity is at the forefront of Natura 2000 Network, which has a very important role in promoting the conservation of natural habitats of flora and fauna species, but without excluding populated communities and local economic activities [14,15]. The importance of Natura 2000 is underlined by Pullin, who highlights the fact that this network appeared as a necessity in fulfilling the objectives of reducing species and habitat loss [15]. ...
... For the European Union, a sustainable approach regarding biodiversity is at the forefront of Natura 2000 Network, which has a very important role in promoting the conservation of natural habitats of flora and fauna species, but without excluding populated communities and local economic activities [14,15]. The importance of Natura 2000 is underlined by Pullin, who highlights the fact that this network appeared as a necessity in fulfilling the objectives of reducing species and habitat loss [15]. The fact that economic activities are allowed in the proximity of the sites, or even inside the sites, can induce a series of problems related to the habitats, but one of the main aims of this network is to find a middle ground from which neither the biodiversity nor the economic activities are impaired. ...
The present paper aims to evaluate if the Natura 2000 sites in Romania are placed over dynamic areas from a land cover changes perspective, or if they are placed in areas with low human interest and what the impact of these changes are. The effectiveness of conservation measures was addressed by analyzing the number of land cover changes and their areas in Natura 2000 sites, before and after declaring them as protected areas. Corine Land Cover (CLC) data were used as a tool to identify threats and pressures from each Natura 2000 site, and also assess whether land cover changes are more frequent in sites with a high biodiversity index, compared to those with low diversity, in order to estimate the conservation status. Changes in the land cover during 1990-2018 are characterized by three types of events, from 1990 to 2000 with most changes recorded, followed by a relative period of stability from 2000 to 2012; the most dynamic period is from 2012 to 2018. The main changes are due to deforestation. Only 29.7% ROSCI (Romanian Sites of Community Importance) and 36.5% ROSPA (Romanian Special Protected Areas) sites are characterized by a good degree of conservation without or with low modifications regarding the land cover. The most frequent threats and pressures that were found through CLC changes in the ROSCIs in Romania are related to forestry, grazing, the extent of the urbanized environment and those related to agriculture. The correspondence between Corine Land Cover and Natura 2000 specific threats and pressures emphasizes new guidelines for the Corine Land Cover program; therefore, this correspondence can be a potential tool to get more information for Natura 2000 sites.
... Európában a mezőgazdasági céllal hasznosított területek 38,1%-a, mintegy 180,8 millió hektárnyi terület gyep művelési ágba tartozik. Az intenzív mezőgazdasági művelés kiterjedése Európa szerte a természetközeli állapotú gyepek területének drasztikus csökkenését eredményezte (Pullin et al. 2009). A gyepek jelentős szerepet játszanak mind a faji sokféleség, mind a táji diverzitás megőrzésében és fenntartásában (nösberger és rodriguez 1996). ...
Hazánkban a természetvédelem aktuális feladatai közé tartozik a természetközeli gyepek területének növelése a megmaradt állományok megőrzése és az arra alkalmas területeken féltermészetes gyepek létrehozása által. A gyepesítés kivitelezésre a természetvédelmi és mezőgazdasági gyakorlatban számos módszer áll rendelkezésre. A legelterjedtebbek a spontán szukcesszió támogatása, a szénaráhordás és az alacsony vagy magas diverzitású magkeverékek vetése. A spontán szukcesszió támogatása egy költséghatékony módszer, amely kis technikai hátteret igényel. Leginkább olyan felhagyott szántók gyepesedésének elősegítésére alkalmas, melyek közelében jó természetességű gyepek találhatók, így rendelkezésre áll a megfelelő propagulum forrás. Hátránya, hogy a folyamat lassú és a gyep megrekedhet egy gyomok dominálta állapotban. A szénaráhordás amellett, hogy alkalmas a spontán szukcesszió felgyorsítására, hatékony módszer lehet egy fajgazdag gyep létrehozására. A szénaráhordás bár az egyik legköltségesebb módszer, kis eszközigényű és nem igényel bonyolultabb előkészítő munkálatokat. Alkalmazása esetén a legnagyobb nehézséget a megfelelő minőségű és mennyiségű széna beszerzése jelentheti. Magkeverékek vetésével rövid idő alatt, költséghatékony módon, nagyobb összefüggő területeken lehet záródott, természetes fajokból álló gyepeket létrehozni. Attól függően, hogy csupán vázfajokból álló vagy egy diverzebb fajkészletű gyep létrehozása a cél, alkalmazható a csak a vázfajok propagulumaiból álló alacsony- vagy a színező elemek magvait is tartalmazó magas diverzitású magkeverék. A módszer hátránya, hogy nagy eszközigényű, komoly technikai tudást igényel és problémás lehet a szaporítóanyag beszerzése. A telepített gyepek természetvédelmi szempontú kezelésére számos lehetőség áll rendelkezésre, ilyenek a kaszálás, legeltetés és a kontrollált égetés.
... After the Second World War, the area of grasslands steadily decreased due to ownership changes, urbanisation, intensification of agricultural production and structural changes in rural economy [49,50]. In Central Europe, two opposing trends in grasslands development have become apparent in recent decades: intensification or marginalisation (abandonment). ...
The intensive exploitation of natural resources, expansion of human population and degradation of natural and semi-natural habitats, caused among others by agriculture, forestry and urbanisation, enforce special care for the natural resources, especially the disappearing types of vegetation that are refugees of biodiversity. One of the most threatened plant communities are grasslands (pastures and meadows), which has suffered the most in recent decades due to the intensification of agriculture and the transformation of land use. The purpose of this paper is to propose a hybrid approach to clean energy production on photovoltaic (PV) farms, taking into account the needs of grassland conservation and restoration. Nine sets of sciophilous species are proposed, including grasslands rich of pollinator benefits, grasslands with low pollen production to maintain high electrical efficiency of panels, and rich, standard meadows in wet ( Molinion, Calthion, Alopecurion, Cnidion ), fresh ( Arrhenatherion ) and dry ( Cirsio-Brachypodion ) types. The combination of clean energy and grassland conservation has been called ecovoltaics (EV) because it combines the production of renewable electricity with care for the diversity of valuable grassland ecosystems. The research will continue on an experimental ecovoltaic farm with innovative technical solutions to effectively maintain the desired meadow species composition. The purpose of this study was to analyse and select plant species that could be introduced into areas where PV cells are installed under climatic conditions in southern Poland. Using databases, environmental and ecological factors were taken into account. As a result of the study, a list of 206 species was selected that could be introduced to areas where they will coexist with PV panels, taking into account the effect of shading. The developed selection of these plant species provides a starting point for future work by botanists and engineers seeking to increase the biodiversity of sites where PV panels will be placed.
... be linked to local, regional, national, or international regulations (Pullin et al., 2009), and their format must be accessible to decision-makers who can translate recommendations into appropriate guidelines, regulations, or legislation (Buxton et al., 2021). In addition, for policy recommendations by scientists to be actionable, it is beneficial to link novel conservation goals with existing targets of national or international conservation-oriented conventions and initiatives, such as the ...
Biodiversity is declining at a record rate. Unfortunately, attitudes favoring non-advocacy remain prevalent in conservation science. Despite our detailed knowledge of biodiversity losses, we, the conservation science community as a whole, are failing to reverse species declines, transforming us into mere accountants of extinction. Conservation scientists frequently miss the opportunity to utilize scientific knowledge for helping reverse species’ declines by not comprehensively or effectively engaging policymakers with conservation-related recommendations. The lack of translation of conservation science into policies therefore represents a detrimental blind spot of conservation biologists. Perhaps older generations had an excuse to practice conservation science without advocating for specific conservation policies, but the urgency of ongoing drastic biodiversity losses make unengaged approaches unacceptable for modern conservation biologists and tantamount to an implicit acceptance of anthropogenic mass extinction.
... Although biodiversity and conservation research is limited globally (Pullin et al. 2009), it is inadequate in Nepal due to scarce funding, poor infrastructure (e.g., lab and equipment, as well as the accessibility of many remote areas), weak institutional support and poor human resource development (Paudel et al. 2012). Early biodiversity research was almost entirely carried out by foreign scholars and funded by international conservation organizations and universities based in developed countries, which greatly contributed to pioneering studies on globally-threatened species, and helped in making critical conservation decisions, training home-grown scientists and incorporating research into Nepal's universities (Heinen et al. 2019). ...
Scientific research on biodiversity and conservation generates the knowledge base useful in achieving sustainability targets. The knowledge gap limits our ability to design well-founded strategies and impedes the prospects of addressing myriad conservation challenges. It is therefore important to assess trends and biases in biodiversity and conservation literature to monitor progress and make corrective actions where needed. Nepal is considered among the most biodiverse regions globally, yet little is known about the progress of biodiversity and conservation science. Here we reviewed 1098 articles published over the last fifty-six years (1964–2019) and provide a snapshot of research patterns, trends and gaps in terms research lens, physiography, ecosystem, protected area, taxonomy, ecological focus, funding, research recommendation, and research authorship and collaboration. The results of our study showed a monotonic trend of article publication until 1990, which increased significantly after 1999. There is a growing trend in the number of publications with socio-economic and multidisciplinary lens. Research publications are highly biased in favour of few taxonomic groups, mainly gymnosperms and mammals, with a preponderance of certain species, while other classes of both the plant and animal kingdoms were less studied. There was disproportionately low focus on certain physiographic regions (e.g., high Himalaya, Siwalik), ecosystem types (e.g., wetlands) and non-protected areas. Articles with an ecological focus were mainly exploratory—e.g., describing general distributions—whereas specialized ecological/evolutionary research (e.g., grazing, competition, physiology), except for genetics and climate change, were rare. More than half of the articles were authored only by foreign-based researchers, who contributed up to 89% of published articles, and consistently maintained dominance as corresponding and lead authors. There is a need to realign research efforts and support home-grown researchers with training, funding and institution-building. This requires a concerted commitment by the Government of Nepal, conservation organizations, researchers and academic institutions. There remains a great need for more empirical science to inform decision-making and consequently achieve ambitious national conservation targets.
... Semi-natural calcareous grasslands rank among the most species-rich, but also highly vulnerable and endangered ecosystems across Europe. Due to the tremendous changes of land-use practices during the nineteenth and twentieth century, this habitat has rapidly declined in area and quality Pullin et al. 2009;Huber et al. 2017). Calcareous grasslands were abandoned, afforested or converted into intensively managed agricultural land . ...
Species-rich calcareous grasslands in Europe strongly declined during the twentieth century due to drastic land use changes. Many grasslands were converted into more productive pastures or are covered by shrubs or forests today, since they were overgrown after abandonment or afforested. Restoration of calcareous grasslands by shrub or forest clearing and subsequent recolonization of grassland species from adjacent grasslands is, therefore, an important conservation approach. Restored populations of calcareous grassland species may, however, differ from their source populations in genetic diversity and differentiation due to potential founder and bottleneck effects. In our study we analyzed, therefore, the impact of restoration by forest clearing and natural recolonization on the genetic variation of three common calcareous grassland species ( Agrimonia eupatoria , Campanula rotundifolia , and Knautia arvensis ) without a contribution of persistent seed bank, in South Western Germany. We used molecular markers AFLPs (Amplified fragment length polymorphisms) to compare genetic diversity within and differentiation between spontaneously recovered subpopulations with adjacent historically old, natural subpopulations at eight study sites. Restored parts of the grasslands have been re-established during the 1990s. Molecular markers revealed broadly similar levels of genetic diversity in source and restored subpopulations of the study species. Only A. eupatoria exhibited slightly higher diversity in restored subpopulations, which may be explained by higher dispersal potential due to the hooky fruits of the species. Genetic differentiation between source and restored subpopulations was not significant, indicating strong gene flow between the subpopulations. Our study underlines, therefore, that restoration of calcareous grasslands by natural recolonization after forest clearing is an efficient method to re-establish genetically variable subpopulations comparable to their sources.
... Thus, obtaining values for dispersal distance are important for species distribution modeling which is used to project future species ranges (Wiens et al., 2009). In the comprehensive review of Driscoll et al. (2014), the authors present a list of 28 applications for which dispersal values were needed in conservation management, and report several independent calls for improved dispersal information and dispersal inference methods (Broquet and Petit, 2009;Hadley and Betts, 2012;Ceballos et al., 2009;Kingsford et al., 2009;Sutherland et al., 2006;Noss et al., 2009;Pullin et al., 2009). ...
The geographic nature of biological dispersal shapes patterns of genetic variation over landscapes, so that it is possible to infer properties of dispersal from genetic variation data. Here we present an inference tool that uses geographically-referenced genotype data in combination with a convolutional neural network to estimate a critical population parameter: the mean per-generation dispersal distance. Using extensive simulation, we show that our deep learning approach is competitive with or outperforms state-of-the-art methods, particularly at small sample sizes (e.g., n=10). In addition, we evaluate varying nuisance parameters during training-including population density, population size changes, habitat size, and the size of the sampling window relative to the full habitat-and show that this strategy is effective for estimating dispersal distance when other model parameters are unknown. Whereas competing methods depend on information about local population density or accurate identification of identity-by-descent tracts as input, our method uses only single-nucleotide-polymorphism data and the spatial scale of sampling as input. These features make our method, which we call disperseNN, a potentially valuable new tool for estimating dispersal distance in non-model systems with whole genome data or reduced representation data. We apply disperseNN to 12 different species with publicly available data, yielding reasonable estimates for most species. Importantly, our method estimated consistently larger dispersal distances than mark-recapture calculations in the same species, which may be due to the limited geographic sampling area covered by some mark-recapture studies. Thus genetic tools like ours complement direct methods for improving our understanding of dispersal.
... Since habitat-level conservation in the EU mainly occurs through the establishment of S.C.I.s, the positive relationship between funding and number of S.C.I.s per habitat is expected. A possible reason is that Alpine habitats are relatively undisturbed in Europe, and thus require limited conservation efforts to maintain local biodiversity compared to lower elevation habitats (Pullin et al., 2009). However, ongoing climate change is predicted to hit these environments heavily (Ciccarelli et al., 2008;Nogués-Bravo et al., 2007), and thus the situation may change in the future. ...
Taxonomic and aesthetic biases permeate biodiversity conservation. We used the LIFE program-the European Union's funding scheme for the environment-to explore the economic dimension of biases in species-and habitat-level conservation. Between 1992 and 2020, animal species received three times more funding than plants. Within plants, species at northern latitudes, with broader ranges, and with blue/purple flowers received more funds regardless of their extinction risk. Conversely, species online popularity was only weakly positively associated with conservation expenditure. At the habitat-level, we found no relationship between expenditure and conservation status of the habitat. Our results can inform ways forward to achieve conservation goals that are comprehensive, sustainable, and cost-effective.
... The impact of human activity on biodiversity is not the same across the continent. Western European countries are generally more affected than Central and Eastern European countries (Pullin et al., 2009;Báldi and Batáry, 2011). The impact of vineyard abandonment on bird populations may be different in different regions. ...
Vineyards are semi-natural, human-modified ecosystems where the extent of natural elements is determined primarily by the type of management and by the abandonment rate. In this study, we analyzed bird assemblages in 40 vineyard plots in six wine-growing regions of Slovakia. We examined bird communities on managed and abandoned vineyards to identify possible patterns. Environmental and spatial predictors of species richness and abundance were analyzed using partial redundancy analysis (pRDA) and a generalized additive model (GAM). Bird communities were influenced by both environmental and spatial factors. As expected, elevation explained most of the variation in bird assemblages. Tree coverage was found to be more important than the vineyard abandonment rate in explaining the observed variability. Only a portion of the variance in the species data reported by pRDA was accounted for by the difference in vineyard abandonment degree. Our results show that the species richness of all birds was positively correlated to vegetation density (captured by NDVI). Herb and shrub cover had less effect on bird species richness than tree cover and the presence of traditional agricultural vineyard landscapes. However, shrub density emerged as a key explanatory factor for the abundance of habitat specialists. Our study shows that, depending on whether the goal is to promote the diversity and abundance of farmland or non-farmland bird species, different conservation biology approaches should be used. Increasing the landscape diversity and avoiding large vineyard abandonment are necessary if we are to stem the decline of valuable farmland species.
Keywords
... Europe is dominated by semi-natural habitats and cultural landscapes due to a history of major land-use change across the continent. It is also a world leading location for driving multinational conservation efforts (Pullin et al. 2009). This includes Natura 2000, the largest coordinated protected area network in the world-consisting of sites designated as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) or Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) (https://ec.europa.eu/ ...
Protected area (PA) networks have in the past been constructed to include all major habitats, but have often been developed through consideration of only a few indicator taxa or across restricted areas, and rarely account for global climate change. Systematic conservation planning (SCP) aims to improve the efficiency of biodiversity conservation, particularly when addressing internationally agreed protection targets. We apply SCP in Great Britain (GB) using the widest taxonomic coverage to date (4,447 species), compare spatial prioritisation results across 18 taxa and use projected future (2080) distributions to assess the potential impact of climate change on PA network effectiveness. Priority conservation areas were similar among multiple taxa, despite considerable differences in spatial species richness patterns; thus systematic prioritisations based on indicator taxa for which data are widely available are still useful for conservation planning. We found that increasing the number of protected hectads by 2% (to reach the 2020 17% Aichi target) could have a disproportionate positive effect on species protected, with an increase of up to 17% for some taxa. The PA network in GB currently under-represents priority species but, if the potential future distributions under climate change are realised, the proportion of species distributions protected by the current PA network may increase, because many PAs are in northern and higher altitude areas. Optimal locations for new PAs are particularly concentrated in southern and upland areas of GB. This application of SCP shows how a small addition to an existing PA network could have disproportionate benefits for species conservation.
... En Europe, une part importante de la biodiversité est liée aux habitats semi-naturels (prairies, pelouses, landes, marais…) qui ont été façonnés par les activités humaines au fil des siècles (Pullin et al. 2009). Cependant, depuis ces dernières décennies, l'intensification des pressions exercées sur ces milieux naturels a provoqué leur dégradation et le déclin de nombreuses espèces sur l'ensemble du continent. ...
L’inventaire et la cartographie des habitats sont des processus essentiels pour la mise en œuvre des politiques de conservation de la nature. Les méthodes actuelles, basées sur des prospections de terrain, sont difficilement applicables sur de vastes territoires et jugées inadaptées à un suivi régulier et harmonisé des habitats. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’explorer des approches innovantes afin de faciliter l’inventaire et la cartographie des habitats sur de grands sites naturels, en prenant comme cas d’étude le site Natura 2000 ‘Estuaire de la Loire’.
Un système expert a été développé pour l’identification de relevés phytosociologiques afin
d’établir la typologie des habitats du site. Cette démarche a permis de rattacher de manière formelle 1843 relevés de végétation à 89 habitats EUNIS et 17 habitats d’intérêt communautaire.
Des images satellites Sentinel-2 et des données aéroportées hyperspectrales et LiDAR ont été exploitées pour spatialiser les habitats du site par télédétection. Ces différentes données, aux caractéristiques complémentaires (résolutions spatiales, résolutions spectrales, répétitivité, 3D), ont permis de cartographier avec une très grande précision la majorité des habitats des 24 000 ha de l’estuaire de la Loire.
L’application de ces nouvelles approches démontre l’intérêt d’associer les systèmes experts et la télédétection pour typifier et cartographier des habitats de façon rentable et reproductible favorisant une gestion concertée du site Natura 2000.
... The search string was developed systematically. Following Badullovich et al. (2020) and Althor and Witt (2020), at first, triangulation studies were systematically identified through searches in Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS (see Supplementary Table 1) and complemented with 3 relevant recently published studies (that the authoring team had identified from familiarity with the field) to total 9 triangulation studies (namely, Pullin et al., 2009;Sheate and Partidário, 2010;Fazey et al., 2013Fazey et al., , 2014Reed et al., 2014;Cvitanovic et al., 2015a;Wall et al., 2017;Maag et al., 2018;Posner and Cvitanovic, 2019). It is important to note that the selection of these papers does not indicate the authors' interpretation of the quality of the papers, but rather, the relevance of articles to develop the search string. ...
As anthropogenic pressures on the environment grow, science-policy interaction is increasingly needed to support evidence-informed decision-making. However, there are many barriers to knowledge exchange (KE) at the science-policy interface, including difficulties evaluating its outcomes. The aims of this study are to synthesize the literature to elucidate the a) intended and b) claimed outcomes of KE processes at the interface of environmental science and policy, as well as the c) evidence used to evaluate them and d) methods used for collecting evaluation data. Results from systematically identifying and analyzing 397 articles show that co-production, knowledge brokerage, boundary organizations, and social connections were the most common strategies for KE. KE processes commonly aimed, claimed and referred to evidence regarding the usability of knowledge (e.g. credibility, salience, legitimacy) and social outcomes (e.g. networking, awareness, learning, trust-building). They also aimed for deeper policy/economic/societal impacts and actual use of scientific knowledge within decision-making. These additional goals, however, were seldom claimed to have been achieved, although products (e.g. maps/tools) and process attributes (e.g. equity, power-relations, transparency) were commonly used for evidencing impact. Hence, this study found that success from KE at the interface of environmental science and policy comes in diverse forms and showed a divergence between what studies aim for (ambitious) and what they evidence or claim as an achievement (more modest). This may represent failures of KE processes to reach intended goals, shortcomings in evaluation literature/approaches, or mismatches between timescales of evaluation and impact. Overall, this suggests a need to better align goals with evaluation measures to plan, facilitate, and appreciate the diverse impacts of KE processes.
... European level assessment provides data to support future decisions on Nature policy and legislation. To date, the Natura 2000 network, established under the two Directives, with 27,852 sites covering 18% of land and 10% of marine waters in the EU (EEA 2020), represents the core strategy of nature conservation and management and the most important tool aiming at halting, or a significantly reducing, biodiversity loss (e.g., Maiorano et al. 2007;Pullin et al. 2009). In Italy, the Natura 2000 network includes 2,625 sites (SPA and SCI-SACs), covering 19% of land and 11% of marine waters (58,337.94 and 17,636.04 ...
The results of the 4th National Report for the Italian flora under the 92/43/EEC “Habitats” Directive are presented. The outcomes showed a general negative conservation status for plant species, with the worst situation being in the Mediterranean bioregion. At the National level, significant monitoring and conservation activities are required.
... The whole Polish part of BF is included in the Natura 2000 network (Pullin et al., 2009) and is an example of a governance regime crossing scales and governance levels. The implementation of Natura 2000 across Europe, even if based on the same policy documents and guidelines, has to a large extent been affected by the natural conditions, national policies, and nature conservation models of member states and the existing governance settings (Paavola et al., 2009;Sotirov, 2017). ...
Effective protection of biodiversity in areas of high conservation value requires trade-offs between local use of natural resources and conservation restrictions. The compromise is often difficult to reach, which causes conflicts over the management priorities of existing and potential protected areas. Ecosystem services (ES) perspective offers a promising avenue for diagnosing and reconciling contrasting interests concerning the use of benefits from ecosystems. We examined how the spatial proximity to the Białowieża Forest (BF), a European biodiversity hotspot, affects the perceived use of ES by local communities. We performed a survey among 719 respondents from 35 villages situated within BF and in its vicinity. We found that both the declared use of ES and the perceived influence of ES on household’s economy was declining with the distance from BF with particularly high differences between areas not further than 3 km from BF and areas located 3-15 km from BF. Different zones varied in terms of benefits from tourism and costs connected with a potential limited access to ES due to conservation. Broadening the perspective, we argue that the trade-offs linked to ES may vary depending on the location in relation to the protected area and that local communities should not be treated as a homogenous group when considering benefits from the forest. Awareness of common patterns of ES use over space and local specificity may enhance effective management of even highly contested conservation areas.
... Land Use Policy 27, no. 2 (2010): 262-69. 227 Ligji për Themelimin e Regjistrit të Drejtave të Pronës së Paluajtshme, Rregullore e UNMIK nr. 5/20025/ . ...
... There is general consensus on the need for good biodiversity science to inform policy decisions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA] 2005; Sutherland et al. 2004), and a number of approaches to synthesize scientific knowledge have been established (Pullin and Stewart 2006;Pullin et al. 2009;. A number of institutions and processes aim to bring this knowledge to policy processes but, in practice, often fail to produce meaningful policy outcomes (Koetz et al. 2008;Can et al. 2009). Furthermore, they often fail to include the full range of existing knowledge and knowledge holders. ...
This open access book presents up-to-date analyses of community-based approaches to sustainable resource management of SEPLS (socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes) in areas where a harmonious relationship between the natural environment and the people who inhabit it is essential to ensure community and environmental well-being as well as to build resilience in the ecosystems that support this well-being. Understanding SEPLS and the forces of change that can weaken their resilience requires the integration of knowledge across a wide range of academic disciplines as well as from indigenous knowledge and experience. Moreover, given the wide variation in the socio-ecological makeup of SEPLS around the globe, as well as in their political and economic contexts, individual communities will be at the forefront of developing the measures appropriate for their unique circumstances. This in turn requires robust communication systems and broad participatory approaches.
Sustainability science (SuS) research is highly integrated, participatory and solutions driven, and as such is well suited to the study of SEPLS. Through case studies, literature reviews and SuS analyses, the book explores various approaches to stakeholder participation, policy development and appropriate action for the future of SEPLS. It provides communities, researchers and decision-makers at various levels with new tools and strategies for exploring scenarios and creating future visions for sustainable societies.
... There is general consensus on the need for good biodiversity science to inform policy decisions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA] 2005; Sutherland et al. 2004), and a number of approaches to synthesize scientific knowledge have been established (Pullin and Stewart 2006;Pullin et al. 2009;. A number of institutions and processes aim to bring this knowledge to policy processes but, in practice, often fail to produce meaningful policy outcomes (Koetz et al. 2008;Can et al. 2009). Furthermore, they often fail to include the full range of existing knowledge and knowledge holders. ...
Using a case of the Sekisei Lagoon, Okinawa Prefecture, the southeastern tip of Japanese archipelago, this chapter discussed the interrelationships among the sectoral policy interventions by various marine-related ministries, and the whole structure of the integrated ocean policy. First, we developed the Social-Ecological Systems (SES) Schematic, which summarized the main ecosystem structures, functions, use types, and the stakeholders relating to the Sekisei Lagoon. Then, sectoral policy interventions by various ministries were overlaid onto the SES schematic to graphically show their interrelationships. We found that the ecosystem structure and functions used by one sector is closely connected to other structures and functions, which are then used by other sectors. In other words, all the stakeholders in the social system are closely interlinked at the ecological system level. Secondly, all in all, sectoral policy interventions by various ministries are covering almost all part of the Sekisei Lagoon SES, and therefore, the total coordination of the sectoral policy interventions and the creation of the synergy effects are required. In this process, the cabinet office and the local government will play the important roles. Finally, this SES schematic can be used as a boundary object to facilitate the knowledge exchanges among various stakeholders including the policy makers, practitioners, and researchers, to share the common understandings of the current situation, and to cocreate the policy interventions for the sustainable uses of Sekisei Lagoon.
... There is general consensus on the need for good biodiversity science to inform policy decisions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA] 2005; Sutherland et al. 2004), and a number of approaches to synthesize scientific knowledge have been established (Pullin and Stewart 2006;Pullin et al. 2009;. A number of institutions and processes aim to bring this knowledge to policy processes but, in practice, often fail to produce meaningful policy outcomes Can et al. 2009). Furthermore, they often fail to include the full range of existing knowledge and knowledge holders. ...
This chapter attempts to (a) identify the drivers of biodiversity degradation of the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, (b) present an alternative understanding on the measures for sustainable utilisation and conservation of resources and (c) suggest actions and policy alternatives to reverse the process of degradation and to move towards transformative harmonious human–nature interactions. While it is documented that the size of the Sundarbans of Bangladesh reduced and several floral and faunal species of the forest have been facing threat of extinction, the causes of continuous and unabated loss of the resources of this forest region have not been rigorously demonstrated. By challenging the mainstream approaches, the chapter theoretically and empirically exhibits that the exclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in the conservation and management process has contributed to the losses of biological diversity and suggests that the IPLCs have been practising several unique production methods based upon their traditional knowledge which can significantly contribute to the sustainable management of resources through symbiotic human–nature relationships. Following multiple evidence base (MEB) approaches, it is found that human sociality-based conservation practice positively impacts on resilient indicators and helps achieve Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
... There is general consensus on the need for good biodiversity science to inform policy decisions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA] 2005; Sutherland et al. 2004), and a number of approaches to synthesize scientific knowledge have been established (Pullin and Stewart 2006;Pullin et al. 2009;. A number of institutions and processes aim to bring this knowledge to policy processes but, in practice, often fail to produce meaningful policy outcomes (Koetz et al. 2008;Can et al. 2009). Furthermore, they often fail to include the full range of existing knowledge and knowledge holders. ...
This book presents up-to-date analyses of community-based approaches to the sustainable resource management of socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (SEPLS) in areas where a harmonious relationship between the natural environment and the people who inhabit it is essential to ensure community and environmental well-being as well as to build resilience in the ecosystems that support this well-being. This chapter introduces the key concepts and approaches, objectives, and organization of this book.
... There is general consensus on the need for good biodiversity science to inform policy decisions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [MA] 2005; Sutherland et al. 2004), and a number of approaches to synthesize scientific knowledge have been established (Pullin and Stewart 2006;Pullin et al. 2009;Sutherland et al. 2014). A number of institutions and processes aim to bring this knowledge to policy processes but, in practice, often fail to produce meaningful policy outcomes (Koetz et al. 2008;Can et al. 2009). Furthermore, they often fail to include the full range of existing knowledge and knowledge holders. ...
This chapter contributes to improve an understanding of the effectiveness of different biodiversity science–policy interfaces (SPIs), which play a vital role in navigating policies and actions with sound evidence base. The single comprehensive study that was found to exist, assessed SPIs in terms of their ‘features’—goals, structure, process, outputs and outcomes. We conducted a renewed systematic review of 96 SPI studies in terms of these features, but separating outcomes, as a proxy for effectiveness, from other features. Outcomes were considered in terms of their perceived credibility, relevance and legitimacy. SPI studies were found to focus mostly on global scale SPIs, followed by national and regional scale SPIs and few at subnational or local scale. The global emphasis is largely explained by the numerous studies that focused on the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Regionally, the vast majority of studies were European, with a severe shortage of studies, and possibly SPIs themselves, in especially the developing world. Communication at the science–policy interface was found to occur mostly between academia and governments, who were also found to initiate most communication. Certain themes emerged across the different features of effective SPIs, including capacity building, trust building, adaptability and continuity. For inclusive, meaningful and continuous participation in biodiversity SPIs, continuous, scientifically sound and adaptable processes are required. Effective, interdisciplinary SPIs and timely and relevant inputs for policymakers are required to ensure more dynamic, iterative and collaborative interactions between policymakers and other actors.
... (MacArthur, 1984;Luque et al., 2018). Ces systèmes de suivi doivent alors permettre de dériver des indicateurs à partir des données collectées et de caractériser l'état de la biodiversité dans le temps et l'espace pour évaluer l'eecacité des politiques de conservation mises en oeuvre (Niemelä, 2000;Osinski et al., 2003;Pullin et al., 2009 (MacArthur, 1984;Collinge, 1996;Kreft and Jetz, 2007;Müller and Burkhard, 2007;Stein et al., 2014). Une des hypothèses de base en écologie est qu'il existe un lien positif entre l'hétérogénéité spatiale des paysages et la biodiversité spéciique, et ce, à diiérentes échelles. ...
La préservation de la biodiversité est un enjeu prioritaire, identifié aussi bien au niveau national qu’au niveau européen et international. L’hétérogénéité spatiale des milieux naturels est l’une des composantes clefs pour l’étude de la biodiversité et permet de comprendre le fonctionnement des écosystèmes. Le bassin Méditerranéen est un hotspot de biodiversité pour lequel le lien entre biodiversité et hétérogénéité spatiale des paysages s’illustre particulièrement bien. Les milieux méditerranéens s'organisent en mosaïques hétérogènes de quatre strates verticales: le sol nu, l’herbe, les ligneux bas et les ligneux hauts. La biodiversité de ces milieux est aujourd'hui menacée par une fermeture de milieux naturels qui entraîne la disparition de certains habitats et l’homogénéisation des paysages, homogénéisation qui entraîne elle-même une augmentation des risques d’incendies.Cette thèse se propose de développer des indices caractérisant l’hétérogénéité spatiale des milieux naturels dans un contexte méditerranéen à partir d’images de télédétection à très haute résolution. Parmi les différentes méthodes permettant de caractériser l'hétérogénéité, la méthode FOTO (FOurier Based Textural Ordination) est particulièrement intéressante car elle produit de façon non supervisée un nombre limité de gradients de texture non corrélés, à partir desquels il est possible de décrire les variations continues de l’hétérogénéité spatiale, et ce, à plusieurs échelles spatiales. Ainsi le premier objectif de cette thèse est de tester le potentiel des gradients de texture issus de la méthode FOTO pour la caractérisation de l’hétérogénéité spatiale relative aux quatre strates verticales caractéristiques des milieux méditerranéens. Le deuxième objectif est de tester la sensibilité de l’approche développée à des facteurs techniques et environnementaux, afin de s’assurer de sa réplicabilité pour favoriser son utilisation dans un contexte opérationnel de suivi des milieux méditerranéens. Enfin, le dernier objectif est de valider la pertinence écologique des indices d’hétérogénéité développés à travers un cas d’application~: la caractérisation de la répartition spatiale d’espèces d’oiseaux sensibles à l’hétérogénéité de la végétation.Combinés avec un indice de végétation, le NDVI, les indices de texture issus de la méthode FOTO ont pu être interprétés en termes d'hétérogénéité spatiale et ont permis de caractériser la composition et l'organisation des quatre strates verticales étudiées. Ces indices sont influencés par la présence de surfaces anthropisées comme les cultures ainsi que par la nature de l'information radiométrique des images de télédétection utilisées, qui impacte le contraste apparent des strates de végétation. Ainsi, l'application de la méthode sur une bande panchromatique est plus sensible aux motifs liés à l'alternance de sol nu et d'herbe tandis que l'application de la méthode sur le NDVI est plus sensible aux motifs lié à l'alternance des ligneux avec la strate herbacée. Enfin, nous avons montré l’intérêt de l’approche développée pour la prédiction de plusieurs espèces d’oiseaux à fort enjeux de conservation. Les indices d’hétérogénéité ont permis de mettre en évidence des structures de la végétation particulièrement favorables à certaines espèces d’oiseaux.L'approche développée dans cette thèse est particulièrement intéressante car elle permet la production non supervisée de trois indices complémentaires caractérisant plusieurs composantes de l'hétérogénéité spatiale relatives à quatre strates. Des efforts sont encore nécessaires pour améliorer i) notre compréhension de la contribution de facteurs environnementaux et instrumentaux sur la stabilité de l'approche et ii) son automatisation en vue d'une application dans un contexte opérationnel pour la cartographie et le suivi de l'état de conservation des habitats naturels et de l'avifaune.
... Framing fragmentation as a policy problem is desirable (And el et al. 2009), although it is a challenge because complex issues such as fragmentation are hard to grasp by policies considering that policies are influenced and shaped by different knowledge and values, not only by scientific research (Pullin et al. 2009;Vesel y and Nekola 2007). Our study shows differences and similarities in how fragmentation is framed and the types of proposed solutions to deal with fragmentation in the strategic documents within the spatial planning-and environmental-policy domains. ...
Fragmentation is a complex issue and the way it is framed will impact on policy decisions. The Czech Republic has adopted several strategic policy documents in spatial planning and environmental domains that address fragmentation. However, these documents differ in how they frame fragmentation. Our goal was to evaluate the differences in 1) framing the problem of fragmentation and 2) suggested solutions. We performed a content analysis of the strategic policy documents by coding text using the key fragmentation aspects - biological organization, land cover, and connectivity. Next, we categorized data either to species-oriented, pattern-oriented, or ecosystem service frames and suggested criteria to evaluate the quality of the framing. This method was useful to show the divergence in the framing of fragmentation as a problem between two policy domains. The results show that the pattern-oriented frame and mitigation solutions are the most prominent aspects, and also fragmentation is not well framed.
... Before the twentieth century, pristine and semi-natural grasslands represented a constant element in agro-ecosystems all around Europe (Prach, Jongepierová, Řehounková, & Fajmon, 2014). During the twentieth century, socio-economic changes in Europe led to an increasing loss of grassland surface due to either their conversion to arable land (Edwards et al., 2007;Pullin et al., 2009), or the abandonment of traditional management practices (Valkó, Török, Matus, & Tóthmérész, 2012). More recently, a renewed interest in pristine and semi-natural grasslands has arisen (e.g., Dengler, Janišová, Török, & Wellstein, 2014;Wellstein et al., 2014), because their decline has caused the loss of many ecosystem services (Bastian, 2013;Kahmen, Perner, & Buchmann, 2005). ...
Question
Spontaneous succession is the most natural and cost‐effective solution for grassland restoration. However, little is known about the time required for the recovery of grassland functionality, i.e. for the recovery of reproductive and vegetative processes typical of pristine grasslands. Since these processes operate at different scales, we addressed the question: do reproductive and vegetative processes require different recovery times during spontaneous succession?
Location
Kiskunság sand region (Central Hungary).
Methods
As combinations of plant traits can be used to highlight general patterns in ecological processes, we compared reproductive (pollination‐ and dispersal‐related) and vegetative (growth form) traits between recovered grasslands of different age (<10 yr old; 10–20 yr old; 20–40 yr old) and pristine grasslands.
Results
During spontaneous succession the reproductive trait spectra became similar to those of pristine grasslands earlier than the vegetative one. In arable land abandoned for ten years, pollination‐ and dispersal‐related trait spectra did not show significant difference to those of pristine grasslands; anemophily and anemochory were the prevailing strategies. Contrarily, significant differences in the growth form spectrum could be observed even after forty years of abandonment; in recovered grasslands erect leafy species prevailed, while the fraction of dwarf shrubs and tussock‐forming species was significantly lower than in pristine grasslands.
Conclusions
The recovery of the ecological processes of pristine grasslands might require different amounts of time, depending on the spatial scale at which they operate. Reproductive trait spectrum recovered earlier than the vegetative one, since reproductive attributes first determine plant species sorting at the regional level towards their respective habitats. The recovery of the vegetative trait spectrum needs more time as vegetative‐based interactions operate on a smaller spatial scale. Thus, vegetative traits might be more effective in the long‐term assessment of restoration success than the reproductive ones.
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... While the goals of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 are unlikely to be met, a recognized challenge in the post 2010 era is to directly link scientific knowledge with policy-making and effective implementation, in situ, of conservation actions (Pullin et al., 2009;Rands et al., 2010). Conservation biology is crucial for the evaluation of conservation efficiency at species or ecosystem level (Roe & Van Eeten, 2001). ...
Established under the European Union (EU), the thirty-year trans-national network, Natura 2000, is considered one of the largest biodiversity conservation frameworks worldwide. The global financial crisis has afflicted European economies since 2008 and has not only caused radical changes to the economic development but has also resulted in major implications on nature conservation activities in one of the weakest EU member states, however a biodiversity hotspot, Greece. The present research constitutes a broad-based assessment of the effects of the current economic crisis on the application of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives by the Greek state for the first time. By applying an expert elicitation method, Policy Delphi, we attempt to address the impact of the crisis on the administrative levels, competent authorities and procedural frames of the national protected area system, as perceived by 38 Greek key stakeholders and experts on the topic. An evaluation of the practices and obligations of 4 Management Bodies of the Greek protected area system was conducted to get an insight of the financial consequences on their operation. The structured and participatory approach followed in this study, allowed a systematic collection of experts' transdisciplinary judgments on the state of the Greek Natura 2000 network in terms of implementation, management, administration, monitoring, and legislation. With a strong tradition in managing its high nature value in a centralized way, in the face of the economic crisis, implementation challenges of the Greek state concerning Natura 2000 have been enlarged. According to a substantial part of the Greek conservation community that participated in the survey, many enforcement obstacles are considered, either direct or indirect consequences of the economic crisis, while some are inherent to the lack of a national comprehensive conservation strategy and not necessarily attributed to the austerity. However, the lack of national structural strength, as illustrated by the respondents, rather than the funding size proved to be an important cause of vulnerability for the Greek network. Based on the findings of this study we propose recommendations for improvements that align economic with conservation interests and measures that can substantially counteract the negative impacts of the economic austerity on the enforcement of nature conservation.
... The network includes SPA -Special Protected Areas, (79/409/EEC, 1979) and SCI -Sites of Community Importance (92/43/EEC, 1992), transformed after the letter of advice from the European Commission in SAC (Special Areas of Conservation) (European Commission, 2009). The enforcement of the Natura 2000 network appeared as a necessity in fulfilling the objectives of reducing species and habitats loss (Pullin et al., 2009). However, the vision of the Natura 2000 network as a social rather than ecological network limits its potential for conserving biodiversity to its full potential (Iojă et al., 2010). ...
As urban development has become an increasing problem, urban planning is required to integrate social and economical needs with the sustainable use of natural resources. Since the urban development is favoured by the amount and diversity of the natural resources (land, mineral resources, green areas, aquatic surfaces) available in the area of influence of the cities and its negative externalities aren't limited inside the urban limits the conservation of those resources became an important issue in the scientific circles. Lately planners have been using GIS techniques and remote sensing, based on international and local databases, in finding the most probable scenarios and the best available solutions in order to promote a sustainable development of urban areas. Four models of natural resources conservation have proved effective in the influence areas of cities: protected areas, yellow-green belts, regional parks and oxygen generating surfaces. The establishment and management of these can be better realised by GIS techniques, because of their efficiency and ease of use, the suitability and general availability of data.
... In Europe, extensive biodiversity conservation efforts have been made in the last decades, which resulted in the recent establishment of the ecological network of protected areas Natura 2000, considered the most important initiative for conserving nature and biodiversity (Gaston et al., 2008;Pullin et al., 2009). According to the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) (http://eur-lex.europa.eu), ...
Extensive biodiversity conservation efforts in Europe resulted in the recent establishment of the ecological network of protected areas Natura 2000. However, it remains unclear how such protected areas reflect the distribution of soil biodiversity, which represents a substantial fraction of terrestrial biodiversity and drives a plethora of ecosystem services. Here we analyzed and compared different metrics of soil nematode taxonomic diversity, i.e., taxon richness, Shannon Diversity Index, Shannon Evenness (all based on supraspecific diversity), and functional diversity, i.e., Maturity Index (environmental disturbance), Structure Index (food web complexity), Enrichment Index (system enrichment), and Channel Index (dominant decomposition pathway of soil organic matter) in 16 grasslands assigned to two Natura 2000 priority habitat types and 14 grasslands assigned to five Natura 2000 non-priority habitat types in Romania. Nematode communities consisted of a total of 123 taxa (115 genera and 8 suprageneric taxa). We found no significant difference in nematode taxonomic and functional diversity between grasslands assigned to Natura 2000 priority and non-priority habitats, suggesting that this categorization does not reflect nematode diversity patterns.
... While a high level of agricultural industrialization occurred in Western European countries from the first half of the 20th century onwards and resulted in a massive decrease in the area of extensively managed land, fragmentation and decline in biodiversity, in most parts of the Eastern Europe these negative trends were not so marked until the switch to communist economy (Pullin et al., 2009). After the First World War, the socio-economic settings in the eastern part of the region were influenced by the Soviet Union. ...
This is a chapter on the Eastern European grasslands in book Grasslands of the World: Diversity, Management and Conservation.
... Energies 2018, 11, 3011 2 of 17 their associated species rapidly declined as a result of intensification and abandonment [7]. The change of support mechanisms and other economic pressures had led to abandonment, resulting in the build-up of mature and senescent plant material with high fiber content and low nutritional value due to the lack of management [8]. ...
Biomass-based energy accounts for a notable share of renewable heat and electricity generation in Germany. Due to limited alternative uses, biomass obtained from management of semi-natural grasslands is a potential feedstock. Technical and environmental limitations exist in using this biomass for combustion, due to the presence of harmful elements. Converting biomass using integrated generation of solid fuel and biogas from biomass system (IFBB) produces a solid fuel with lower concentrations of harmful elements and a press liquid usable for biogas generation. In this study, solid fuel generation with a commercial scale IFBB unit was investigated. The concentration of harmful elements such as N, S, Cl, and K in the solid fuel was significantly reduced compared to the original biomass silage. Emissions during combustion of the solid fuel briquettes were below German legal thresholds. Elemental concentration of solid fuel obtained from commercial scale process had a significant improvement in removal rate of harmful elements than the prototype. Hence, the limitations of using semi-natural grassland biomass as an energy source were overcome. The commercial scale IFBB plant could be used in practice to handle large volumes of green residual biomass by converting it into a solid fuel with favorable fuel properties.
... Halting the loss of biodiversity and restoring degraded ecosystems are high priority tasks in the EU Biodiversity Strategy (EUROPEAN COMMISSION 2011). Natural and semi-natural grasslands harbour a high species richness of plants and animals (DENGLER et al. 2014), thus their restoration is of high importance (PULLIN et al. 2009, TÄLLE et al. 2015. Grassland restoration in degraded areas, such as former croplands, offers an opportunity to restore biodiversity and ecosystem services, such as weed control, soil protection, carbon sequestration and pollination (TALLIS et al. 2008). ...
... While impacts of socioeconomic changes on species, habitats and land-use are thus manifold (e.g. Kuemmerle et al., 2008;Pullin et al., 2009), biodiversity governance and conservation institutions have also gone through substantial transformation in these countries (Kluvánková-Oravská et al., 2013), resulting in an ever-so changing socio-political landscape of conservation advocacy. ...
A magyarországi természeti és környezeti állapot változása számos kihívást tartogat számunkra a következő évtizedekben. Annak érdekében, hogy proaktívan tudjunk e változásokkal számolni és rájuk reagálni, lényeges, hogy a megfelelő kutatási potenciál és tudás rendelkezésre álljon számunkra ezen problémák kezelésére. A múlt ismerete mellett (Mihók et al., 2017) a jövő lehetséges változásainak feltérképezése segít abban, hogy célzott kutatások indításával hatékonyabban fel tudjunk készülni az előttünk álló kihívásokra. Az MTA Ökológiai Kutatóközpont (MTA ÖK) kezdeményezésére a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem Gazdaságföldrajz és Jövőkutatás Központjával való együttműködésben 2016-ban indult a Környezeti jövőkutatás: Magyarország 2050 című program, melynek tárgya azon lehetséges veszélyek és lehetőségek feltérképezése, amelyek alapvetően befolyásolhatják Magyarország környezeti állapotát, a hazai biológiai sokféleség és ökoszisztéma szolgáltatások védelmét 2050-ig. A projekt célja, hogy ezen lehetőségek és veszélyek feltárásával javaslatot tegyen olyan kutatási irányokra, témakörökre, amelyek hatékonyan és célzottan segíthetik a természetmegőrzést a következő évtizedekben, valamint hogy további szakmai és közéleti diskurzust generáljon. A kutatócsoportban kooperatívan működött együtt – többek között – ökológus, humán egészségügyi és jövőkutató szakember. További széles látókörű hazai szakértők és jövőkutatók közreműködésével összegyűjtött és értékelt jövőelgondolások alapján a kutatócsoport ökológiai szempontú lehetséges és kutatható témaköröket fogalmazott meg. A metodológiai megfontolások rövid áttekintése után jelen cikk a Magyarországon 2050-re előre tekintő lehetséges és kutatandó komplex ökológiai és humán egészségügyi összefüggéseket mutatja be, azzal a szándékkal, hogy egyrészt további szakmai diskurzust generáljon, illetve a jövővel való szisztematikus foglalkozás jelentőségét hangsúlyozza a szakmai közösség számára, másrészt, hogy tudományos alapozást biztosítson a döntéshozók számára a jövőbeli környezeti változásokhoz kapcsolódó döntéshozatal folyamatában.
... In the context of the Habitats Directive, future actions should prioritize conservation measures to attain and maintain the favorable conservation status of habitat types and species [42]. Indeed, there is a demand for scientific support to identify conservation priorities and feasible management options [43][44][45][46]. ...
The ongoing biodiversity crisis necessitates greater efforts to ensure the adequate conservation of critical habitat types. Even though the identification of protected areas is still required in Europe, conservation efforts are now focusing on management requirements for protected areas and habitat types. Establishing effective management approaches is important for the conservation of the natural and semi-natural habitat types that are identified under the Habitats Directive framework. In this study, we propose a methodology for determining priorities in the conservation management of habitat types based on readily available data. This method relies on four simple criteria to rank habitat types, which includes: conservation condition, biodiversity value, pressure factor, and the cover relevance of habitat types (indicating regional responsibility in terms of area covered). After ranking the habitat types based on the sum of the scores given to all of the criteria, the 25% top-ranking habitat types were prioritized. The pressure factors are analyzed using cluster analysis to better convey information regarding the management needs of groups of habitat types. This prioritization method was tested in habitat types occurring within the Italian Alpine and Continental biogeographical regions. From this analysis, forests, bogs and fens, and dry grasslands were identified as conservation priorities for the Alpine region; meanwhile, a wider variety of habitat types were identified for the Continental region. Important pressure factors were identified (e.g., roads and motorways) for these two biogeographical regions of Italy, which could be used to suggest specific conservation measures. The proposed approach represents a transparent and reliable method for outlining habitat-type priorities based on conservation, biodiversity, pressure, and cover factors, which can be applied to identifying conservation measures that can help achieve biodiversity targets.
... Knowledge on dispersal vectors and dispersal distances in general and specifically of riparian species is still rare (e.g. see Wubs et al., 2016), although they are highly important for conservation and therefore revitalization planning (Driscoll et al., 2014;Pullin et al., 2009). Given the high fragmentation of current riverscapes, dispersal to suitable habitat becomes less likely due to e.g. ...
Alterations of riparian areas of running waters resulted in fragmentation of the riverscape. The possible impact of climate change additionally stresses the importance for conservation planning for riparian habitats, especially for sessile plant species. The survival of species under changing habitat availability can be counteracted by ensuring functional connectivity of riparian plant species. This study applies a coupled modelling framework using species distribution models and dispersal simulations, which allow to analyze the potential future distribution of species in relation to their ecological niche, life history traits including dispersal abilities as well as barriers to dispersal such as dams. Modelled suitable habitats for six riparian plant species characteristic for the olive willow plant community (Salicion elaeagni) showed dramatic changes under the impact of two climate change scenarios. While habitat suitability remained low for species with a narrow ecological niche, it increased under climate change scenarios for species which are also found in secondary habitat outside riparian areas. Simulations of dispersal to the potential future habitat revealed nevertheless high numbers of decolonized cells after 80 years of dispersal for species with high future habitat suitability. This stresses the importance of a joint investigation of the habitat suitability under climate change scenarios, dispersal parameters as well as life history traits for conservation planning of riparian species. The simulated future distribution revealed that barriers along rivers have a significant negative effect on the spread of the studied plant species. Our results suggest that conservation management should focus on providing connected stepping stone habitats for riparian plant species along rivers, as current species occurrences are not persistent over time.
The geographic nature of biological dispersal shapes patterns of genetic variation over landscapes, making it possible to infer properties of dispersal from genetic variation data. Here we present an inference tool that uses geographically distributed genotype data in combination with a convolutional neural network to estimate a critical population parameter: the mean per-generation dispersal distance. Using extensive simulation, we show that our deep learning approach is competitive with or outperforms state-of-the-art methods, particularly at small sample sizes. In addition, we evaluate varying nuisance parameters during training-including population density, demographic history, habitat size, and sampling area-and show that this strategy is effective for estimating dispersal distance when other model parameters are unknown. Whereas competing methods depend on information about local population density or accurate identification of identity-by-descent tracts, our method uses only single-nucleotide-polymorphism data and the spatial scale of sampling as input. Strikingly, and unlike other methods, our method does not use the geographic coordinates of the genotyped individuals. These features make our method, which we call "disperseNN", a potentially valuable new tool for estimating dispersal distance in non-model systems with whole genome data or reduced representation data. We apply disperseNN to 12 different species with publicly available data, yielding reasonable estimates for most species. Importantly, our method estimated consistently larger dispersal distances than mark-recapture calculations in the same species, which may be due to the limited geographic sampling area covered by some mark-recapture studies. Thus genetic tools like ours complement direct methods for improving our understanding of dispersal.
EU member states have set an ambitious goal of establishing additional protected areas (PAs) preserving 30 % of terrestrial land by 2030, specifying that additions should be of high ecological quality. A targeted selection of existing PA expansions into surroundings marginally fragmented by human infrastructure, may be an efficacious strategy to secure high ecological quality by maximizing PA area, accommodating species movement, and boosting climate change resilience. We used high-resolution data on effective mesh density, a metric measuring landscape fragmentation, in the vicinity of Natura 2000 PAs (N2k) to assess their potential for expansion. Our results show that contrary to most of Central Europe, mountainous and remote territories exhibit the lowest degree of fragmentation in N2k surroundings. Fragmentation in N2k surroundings is highly correlated with national population density, while economic wealth, measured by GDP per capita, plays a minor role. To address the long-standing dilemma of where scarce economic resources in nature conservation do the most-good, we conducted a country-level comparison between fragmentation in N2k surroundings and national expenditures on nature conservation relative to N2k area. Our results show a vast incongruity in resource availability for nature conservation among EU countries. Eastern European states, especially Romania, host underfunded N2k PAs while holding the highest potential for expanding N2k PAs into low fragmented lands. If protecting low fragmented lands is accepted as an efficacious strategy to meet EU biodiversity targets our results could be used to formulate pragmatic conservation decisions, while also ensuring high ecological quality of PA additions under climate change.
Nous bénéficions maintenant de plusieurs retours d'expériences de translocation de la Tortue d'Hermann en France. Avec toutes les précautions sanitaires et génétiques (cf. Lignes directrices de l'IUCN) qui s'imposent, les précédents résultats ont montré que la translocation est pertinente et qu'elle fournit des outils pour les décideurs politiques afin d'enrayer le déclin de l'espèce. Une expérimentation couronnée de succès a même laissé entrevoir la possibilité de réaliser des renforcements de population à l'aide de juvéniles.
La présente étude de faisabilité cible les populations de Tortue d'Hermann à restaurer suite aux incendies qui ont sévi dans le Var. Elle vise à définir les sites "d'accueil" les plus adéquats via une analyse qualitative basée sur la connaissance des lieux, l’expérience et la capacité de jugement de l’évaluateur. Le support des autorités locales, la maîtrise foncière du site et l'accord des propriétaires et/ou gestionnaires étant une étape primordiale, nous avons pu depuis l'année 2020 concerté avec les acteurs gestionnaires et propriétaires. Les précédents REX, l'évaluation des risques et l'étude de faisabilité confirment ici que cette translocation expérimentale est réalisable. Cinq sites ont été qualifiés de « bon » pour une opération de renforcement de population dont un qui s'avère faire l'unanimité après concertation. Nous avons également définis les modalités de sélection des individus, la stratégie de relâcher et les critères de suivi du succès/échec de l'opération.
Roads threaten animal species through habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, and direct mortality. It is crucial to understand how species respond to linear infrastructure for effective conservation of animal communities in fragmented landscapes. We assessed relationships between amphibian abundance and roads/ railways and habitat fragmentation. We examined whether the combined effects of habitat loss and roads or railways (accessible habitat) was a better predictor of amphibian abundance than (1) the total amount of habitat surrounding ponds, (2) distance to a highway or railway, or (3) surrounding road cover. Aquatic surveys for amphibian larvae were conducted at 30 freshwater ponds over the breeding season in a mixed peri-urban/ agricultural landscape in Hungary. Landscape variables were quantified within a 1000-m radius surrounding ponds and habitat variables were measured at the local (pond) scale. The larvae of seven amphibian species were detected. There were strong relationships between the abundance of amphibian larvae and the distance to a highway and the proportion of road cover within 1000 m of ponds. Relationships with accessible habitat and total habitat amount were uncertain, while there were no clear relationships with a major railway. Larval abundance increased with pond size, but there were mixed relationships with the presence of fish. Our results suggest that road effects were having a stronger impact on amphibian abundance than the combined effects of roads and habitat amount in the study area. Highways appeared to be negatively impacting amphibian communities within a wide road-effect zone up to 1 km from ponds. However, our results were obtained from a single-season snap-shot study and multi-season surveys are likely required to reduce uncertainty in the model predictions. Our analysis suggests that road mitigation projects for amphibians should create large ponds in areas with no highways and low road density, and with connectivity to surrounding habitats.
Most European countries have policy objectives on the maintenance of other socio-economic functions and conditions focusing among other things on ecosystem services, free access to forests, forest-related value chain contribution to GDP, favourable employment opportunities, forest biomass for energy production, investments in innovation and on
sustainable wood consumption. Quantitative targets related to the policy objectives were indicated by only one-fifth of the reporting countries, however, the targets are numerous and cover social and economic aspects in terms of jobs, revenue and recreation. Many institutional measures implemented to achieve these objectives were reported and comprise the support of research, education and training, improved access to forests and increased recreation areas, safety and health protection campaigns and training. Policy tools put in place to achieve these objectives include legal tools with a focus on public
access and recreation in forests, public financial support also through the Rural Development Programme and public dissemination actions primarily on recreational issues. Achievements over the past five years differ across countries, comprising
some increase in incomes from forest products and from the recreational services and implementation of new wood processing investment projects. The major challenges and obstacles to maintain other socio-economic functions and conditions relate, among other things, to continuing depopulation of rural areas, to ensuring occupational safety and
health, to pressures of increasing recreation use but also to limited connection infrastructure, volatile wood markets and efficient use of woody biomass.
Human interactions with forests span over ages. Forests have served as a source of food, shelter, and wood for various purposes. Though progress in technologies and urbanisation have reduced the dependence of people on food from forests, forests still generate job opportunities and income, as well as provide many other ecosystem services, including those essential for sustainable livelihoods in rural areas, bringing benefits for human health and sustainable life in urban areas. The forest sector is a part of a circular bio-economy with potential for further development. Key messages: • Forest land is almost equally owned by public and private entities; however, the number of private entities is much higher and their average size much smaller. • Forest sector growth is lagging, resulting in a decline in the sector' s contribution to GDP in Europe. • Income is largely limited to timber production, while undeveloped markets with other ecosystem services often result in low net revenues, which also limits investment for further development. • Forests and their management are a source of livelihood in many rural areas. Despite that, employment in the forest sector is declining in the long term and there remains a high number of accidents in forestry. • Policy objectives related to the maintenance of socioeconomic functions focus, among other things, on ecosystem services, free access to forests, forest-related value chain contribution to GDP, favourable employment opportunities, forest biomass for energy generation, investments for innovation, and sustainable consumption. The major challenges include the continuing depopulation of rural areas, occupational safety and health, pressures of increasing recreation use, but also to the limited connection infrastructure to forests, volatile wood markets, and efficiency of woody biomass use.
https://foresteurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SoEF_2020.pdf
As urban development has become an increasing problem, urban planning is required to integrate social and economical needs with the sustainable use of natural resources. Since the urban development is favoured by the amount and diversity of the natural resources (land, mineral resources, green areas, aquatic surfaces) available in the area of influence of the cities and its negative externalities aren't limited inside the urban limits the conservation of those resources became an important issue in the scientific circles. Lately planners have been using GIS techniques and remote sensing, based on international and local databases, in finding the most probable scenarios and the best available solutions in order to promote a sustainable development of urban areas. Four models of natural resources conservation have proved effective in the influence areas of cities: protected areas, yellow-green belts, regional parks and oxygen generating surfaces. The establishment and management of these can be better realised by GIS techniques, because of their efficiency and ease of use, the suitability and general availability of data.
As urban development has become an increasing problem, urban planning is required to integrate social and economical needs with the sustainable use of natural resources. Lately planners have been using GIS techniques, based on international and local databases, in finding the most probable scenarios and the best available solutions. Four models of natural resources conservation have proved effective in the influence areas of cities: protected areas, yellow-green belts, regional parks, and oxygen generating surfaces. The establishment and management of these can be better realised by GIS techniques, because of their efficiency and ease of use, and the suitability and general availability of data.
As the world's largest coordinated network of protected areas, the Natura 2000 network (N2k) encompasses the most valuable and threatened species and habitats in Europe. However, N2k sites have been often criticized due to their rigid management system that focuses only on conservation practice without a strategic vision for linking with the regional plans. This study aims to develop a novel approach for sustainable management of N2k sites in Italy by identifying existing gaps and developing conservation policies. For this purpose, a panorama of the current challenges in the European sites was provided at the first step. Then, the management status of the natural protected sites in Italy was studied by selecting the Umbria Region as the case study. Finally, we develop a strategic approach for boosting the conservation policies and sustainable management of the N2k sites in Italy. The findings highlight that the sustainability of N2k sites requires an inclusive effort in the social, economic, and policymaking fields to meet its conservation objectives. Such an effort encompasses a sophisticated management approach that consists of a network of tools for monitoring the state of conservation, land uses, and socioeconomic activities at the regional scale. Furthermore, the integration of environmental policies with regional plans is essential for the sustainable management of the N2k sites.
This study was conducted to determine the vascular plants of Honaz Forest Planning Unit between 2009-2010. The study area is located between the Mediterranean and Iran-Turanian phytogeographic regions in Denizli province. Because of this study, 276 vascular plant taxa belonging to 56 families were determined. Three of the identified plant taxa belong to Pteridophyta section and 273 belong to Magnoliophyta section. Seven (2.5%) of the plant taxa in the Magnoliophyta section belong to the Pinidae subclass and 266 are within the Magnoliidae subclass. Number of endemic taxa identified was 39 and the endemism rate of the study area was calculated as 14.1%. The distribution of the threat categories is as follows: one taxa in Endangered (EN), 3 taxa in Vulnerable (VU), 11 taxa in Near Threatened (NT), 24 taxa in Least Concern (LC). The richest family was Asteraceae (with 41 taxa), followed by Lamiaceae (with 25 taxa), Brassicaceae (with 21 taxa), and Fabaceae (with 21 taxa). The phytogeographic regions of 125 taxa represented in the study area are as follows: East Mediterranean 17% (47 taxa), Mediterranean 13% (36 taxa), Irano-Turanian 3.9% (11 taxa), Euro-Siberian 2.2% (6 taxa), East Mediterranean (mount) 0.4% (1 taxon), Omni-Mediterranean 0.4% (1 taxon), and multiregional or of unknown phytogeographic origin 55% (153 taxa). Raunkiaer’s life forms showed that Hemicryptophytes with 138 taxa, Therophytes with 51 taxa and Phanerophytes with 41 taxa were the most frequent life forms.
The assessment of the conservation status of a species is the first step in developing a conservation strategy. IUCN Red Lists assessments are an important starting point for conservation actions and the most commonly applied method for assessing the extinction risk of a species. In this study, the global conservation status of the rock rose Helianthemum caput-felis Boiss. (Cistaceae), a perennial Mediterranean plant, was evaluated using the Red List criteria. The distribution of the species was determined by monitoring historical localities and all other suitable sites along the western Mediterranean coasts for 6 years. For each confirmed locality, the ecological and population parameters and the main threats were recorded; these data were used in a quantitative analysis of the species' extinction risk. Our findings indicate there have been several recent extinctions, and there is a continuing decline in the species' area of occurrence, habitat quality and number of reproductive plants. The main threats are related to human activities. Extinction models indicate a probability of quasi-extinction risk of c. 30% in five generations or c. 45% in three generations, with the species likely to become extinct in seven currently known localities within the next 10 years. Application of the Red List criteria indicates H. caput-felis should be categorized as Endangered. This study confirms that legal protection and passive conservation measures are insufficient to guarantee the persistence of a plant species. Active conservation and management actions are needed to protect this and other threatened species of the Mediterranean Basin.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a forest deficit country due to high temperatures and lack of water resources, covering only 1.0% of the country’s landmass. The unfavorable climate not only causes low vegetation forests, but also makes it hard to re-establish forest vegetation once destroyed. Factors responsible for thin forest cover include low and variable rainfall, high temperatures; and low humidity. The lack of rivers and scarcity of underground water also have a great influence on forest stands of Saudi Arabia. In addition to these factors, anthropogenic activities like over-grazing, illegal felling, and heavy extraction of wood fuel by the locals highly damage the local forests, hampering the natural growth and making regeneration of the forests very slow. To bring back the forest cover, various afforestation and tree planting programs, though very expansive, have been initiated in the Kingdom. However, to keep the existing forest cover in place, the most viable option would be to encourage and ensure the participation of all the stakeholders comprising locals, NGOs, government, industries, academicians and Extension Educators in protecting and conserving the prevalent forest stands through an appropriate and acceptable forest management plan. Among the available strategies to enhance and ensure this participation, the role of forestry extension and education is of paramount importance. Forestry extension programs can help educating stakeholders involved in planning, developing policies and undertaking institutional measures aiming at improving the existing forests. This chapter aims to highlight the importance for the Kingdom of a plan that focuses on reforestation, restoration and afforestation, and establish the significance of local participation to slow, halt and reverse deforestation, illegal harvesting and forest degradation. The chapter also provides information on the challenges and constraints currently faced by forests, and discuss the possible roles of participatory management approach and forestry extension education in improving the situation and moving towards a sustainable future.
This paper examines future climate change scenarios for the Mediterranean region using the Tourism Climatic Index. Currently, an estimated 100 million tourists visit the Mediterranean region annually, largely because of its favourable climate. Experiments with climate change scenarios suggest likely changes, with the Mediterranean becoming too hot in summer, with northern Europe having a more attractive climate, and with the Mediterranean becoming a more pleasant destination in spring and autumn. These spatial and temporal changes in climatic attractiveness could have major impacts on the sustainability of tourism development. Preliminary results for the case study of the Balearic Islands suggest that changes are likely to be detrimental from an economic and social point of view, and neutral or favourable from a resource management and biodiversity perspective.
Land-use/land-cover change is the most important factor in causing biodiversity loss. The Mediterranean region has been affected
by antropic disturbance for thousands of years, and is, nowadays, one of the most significantly altered hotspots in the world.
However, in the last years a significant increase in forest cover has been measured. These new patterns are independent from
planned conservation strategies and appear to have a substantial impact on landscapes and biodiversity. We used three land-use/land-cover
maps (from 1960 to 2000) covering the Italian peninsula to analyze the pattern of land-use/land-cover change. We measured
an increase in forests, especially in mountains, an increase in artificial areas, especially in coastal zones, and a decrease
in pastures. Intensively cultivated areas showed a limited decrease while extensively cultivated ones showed a marked decrease.
In the same period mammal and bird species followed a similar pattern, with forest birds, ungulates and carnivores increasing,
and typically Mediterranean species decreasing. We suggest that our results may provide important information, which could
be useful for conservation planning in the entire Mediterranean hotspot. We suggest that an increasing conservation effort
should be made to protect the Mediterranean-type forests and scrublands, as well as traditional agricultural practices. Moreover,
future conservation efforts should consider the broad socio-political and ecological processes that are most likely to occur
across the whole hotspot, especially along coastal areas, and the network of protected areas should be functionally integrated
in a conservation strategy that includes the human-dominated landscape.
The purpose of the current inquiry was to develop a typology of nature tourists based on trip activities. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire at two nature-based attractions located in Northern Norway. The results indicated that the trip activity segmentation criterion enabled the classification of nature-based tourists into three clusters: “culture and pleasure activity oriented”, “nature activity oriented”, and “low activity oriented”. The main finding was that while other trip motivations distinguished the “nature activity oriented” segment from the other two in the current study, “nature” as a trip motivation, surprisingly, did not. Additionally, there were only minor significant differences between the clusters in terms of demographic and trip features. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.
Agricultural intensification presents a major threat to European biodiversity. This generalisation is largely based on studies from western and northern Europe. Here it is shown that the development of agriculture in a post-socialist country (Hungary) was marked by sudden changes, e.g., a 10-fold increase of fertiliser consumption in the late 1960s as a result of decision-making in the socialist command economic structures, and similar decreases after the collapse of socialism in the 1990s. Hungarian populations of two characteristic farmland species, the brown hare (Lepus europaeus) and grey partridge (Perdix perdix) are analysed and their collapse over the past four decades is related to agricultural data on production from FAO statistics. This decline was found to be negatively correlated with most measures of agricultural intensification (cereal and milk yields, number of machinery), and positively with cattle density. Multiple regression analyses of intensification measures indicated a similar pattern, although cattle density was not included into the models. Interestingly, farmland diversity in the models was negative predictor of population sizes. The sudden changes in agriculture were not indicated in the population trends of the two species. Probably, the relationship between agricultural intensification and small game species decline may not be as simple as correlation analyses indicated.
This paper studies the economic implications of climate-change-induced variations in tourism demand, using a world CGE model. The model is first re-calibrated at some future years, obtaining hypothetical benchmark equilibria, which are subsequently perturbed by shocks, simulating the effects of climate change. We portray the impact of climate change on tourism by means of two sets of shocks, occurring simultaneously. The first set of shocks translate predicted variations in tourist flows into changes of consumption preferences for domestically produced goods. The second set reallocate income across world regions, simulating the effect of higher or lower tourists’ expenditure. Our analysis highlights that variations in tourist flows will affect regional economies in a way that is directly related to the sign and magnitude of flow variations. At a global scale, climate change will ultimately lead to a welfare loss, unevenly spread across regions.
This paper presents a range of future, spatially explicit, land use change scenarios for the EU15, Norway and Switzerland based on an interpretation of the global storylines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that are presented in the special report on emissions scenarios (SRES). The methodology is based on a qualitative interpretation of the SRES storylines for the European region, an estimation of the aggregate totals of land use change using various land use change models and the allocation of these aggregate quantities in space using spatially explicit rules. The spatial patterns are further downscaled from a resolution of 10 min to 250 m using statistical downscaling procedures. The scenarios include the major land use/land cover classes urban, cropland, grassland and forest land as well as introducing new land use classes such as bioenergy crops.
Humans are altering the composition of biological communities through a variety of activities that increase rates of species invasions and species extinctions, at all scales, from local to global. These changes in components of the Earth's biodiversity cause concern for ethical and aesthetic reasons, but they also have a strong potential to alter ecosystem properties and the goods and services they provide to humanity. Ecological experiments, observations, and theoretical developments show that ecosystem properties depend greatly on biodiversity in terms of the functional characteristics of organisms present in the ecosystem and the distribution and abundance of those organisms over space and time. Species effects act in concert with the effects of climate, resource availability, and disturbance regimes in influencing ecosystem properties. Human activities can modify all of the above factors; here we focus on modification of these biotic controls. The scientific community has come to a broad consensus on many aspects of the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, including many points relevant to management of ecosystems. Further progress will require integration of knowledge about biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystem properties, how ecological communities are structured, and the forces driving species extinctions and invasions. To strengthen links to policy and management, we also need to integrate our ecological knowledge with understanding of the social and economic constraints of potential management practices. Understanding this complexity, while taking strong steps to minimize current losses of species, is necessary for responsible management of Earth's ecosystems and the diverse biota they contain. Based on our review of the scientific literature, we are certain of the following conclusions: 1)Species' functional characteristics strongly influence ecosystem properties. Functional characteristics operate in a variety of contexts, including effects of dominant species, keystone species, ecological engineers, and interactions among species (e.g., competition, facilitation, mutualism, disease, and predation). Relative abundance alone is not always a good predictor of the ecosystem-level importance of a species, as even relatively rare species (e.g., a keystone predator) can strongly influence pathways of energy and material flows. 2)Alteration of biota in ecosystems via species invasions and extinctions caused by human activities has altered ecosystem goods and services in many well-documented cases. Many of these changes are difficult, expensive, or impossible to reverse or fix with technological solutions. 3)The effects of species loss or changes in composition, and the mechanisms by which the effects manifest themselves, can differ among ecosystem properties, ecosystem types, and pathways of potential community change. 4)Some ecosystem properties are initially insensitive to species loss because (a) ecosystems may have multiple species that carry out similar functional roles, (b) some species may contribute relatively little to ecosystem properties, or (c) properties may be primarily controlled by abiotic environmental conditions. 5)More species are needed to insure a stable supply of ecosystem goods and services as spatial and temporal variability increases, which typically occurs as longer time periods and larger areas are considered. We have high confidence in the following conclusions: 1)Certain combinations of species are complementary in their patterns of resource use and can increase average rates of productivity and nutrient retention. At the same time, environmental conditions can influence the importance of complementarity in structuring communities. Identification of which and how many species act in a complementary way in complex communities is just beginning. 2)Susceptibility to invasion by exotic species is strongly influenced by species composition and, under similar environmental conditions, generally decreases with increasing species richness. However, several other factors, such as propagule pressure, disturbance regime, and resource availability also strongly influence invasion success and often override effects of species richness in comparisons across different sites or ecosystems. 3)Having a range of species that respond differently to different environmental perturbations can stabilize ecosystem process rates in response to disturbances and variation in abiotic conditions. Using practices that maintain a diversity of organisms of different functional effect and functional response types will help preserve a range of management options. Uncertainties remain and further research is necessary in the following areas: 1)Further resolution of the relationships among taxonomic diversity, functional diversity, and community structure is important for identifying mechanisms of biodiversity effects. 2)Multiple trophic levels are common to ecosystems but have been understudied in biodiversity/ecosystem functioning research. The response of ecosystem properties to varying composition and diversity of consumer organisms is much more complex than responses seen in experiments that vary only the diversity of primary producers. 3)Theoretical work on stability has outpaced experimental work, especially field research. We need long-term experiments to be able to assess temporal stability, as well as experimental perturbations to assess response to and recovery from a variety of disturbances. Design and analysis of such experiments must account for several factors that covary with species diversity. 4)Because biodiversity both responds to and influences ecosystem properties, understanding the feedbacks involved is necessary to integrate results from experimental communities with patterns seen at broader scales. Likely patterns of extinction and invasion need to be linked to different drivers of global change, the forces that structure communities, and controls on ecosystem properties for the development of effective management and conservation strategies. 5)This paper focuses primarily on terrestrial systems, with some coverage of freshwater systems, because that is where most empirical and theoretical study has focused. While the fundamental principles described here should apply to marine systems, further study of that realm is necessary. Despite some uncertainties about the mechanisms and circumstances under which diversity influences ecosystem properties, incorporating diversity effects into policy and management is essential, especially in making decisions involving large temporal and spatial scales. Sacrificing those aspects of ecosystems that are difficult or impossible to reconstruct, such as diversity, simply because we are not yet certain about the extent and mechanisms by which they affect ecosystem properties, will restrict future management options even further. It is incumbent upon ecologists to communicate this need, and the values that can derive from such a perspective, to those charged with economic and policy decision-making.
Evidence-based policy requires researchers to provide the answers to ecological questions that are of interest to policy makers. To find out what those questions are in the UK, representatives from 28 organizations involved in policy, together with scientists from 10 academic institutions, were asked to generate a list of questions from their organizations. During a 2-day workshop the initial list of 1003 questions generated from consulting at least 654 policy makers and academics was used as a basis for generating a short list of 100 questions of significant policy relevance. Short-listing was decided on the basis of the preferences of the representatives from the policy-led organizations. The areas covered included most major issues of environmental concern in the UK, including agriculture, marine fisheries, climate change, ecosystem function and land management. The most striking outcome was the preference for general questions rather than narrow ones. The reason is that policy is driven by broad issues rather than specific ones. In contrast, scientists are frequently best equipped to answer specific questions. This means that it may be necessary to extract the underpinning specific question before researchers can proceed. Synthesis and applications. Greater communication between policy makers and scientists is required in order to ensure that applied ecologists are dealing with issues in a way that can feed into policy. It is particularly important that applied ecologists emphasize the generic value of their work wherever possible.
There is now ample evidence of the ecological impacts of recent climate change, from polar terrestrial to tropical marine environments. The responses of both flora and fauna span an array of ecosystems and organizational hierarchies, from the species to the community levels. Despite continued uncertainty as to community and ecosystem trajectories under global change, our review exposes a coherent pattern of ecological change across systems. Although we are only at an early stage in the projected trends of global warming, ecological responses to recent climate change are already clearly visible.
Conservation of the planet's biodiversity will depend on international policy intervention, yet evidence-based assessment of the success of such intervention is lacking. Poor understanding of the effectiveness of international policy instruments exposes them to criticism or abandonment and reduces opportunities to improve them. Comparative analyses of population trends provide strong evidence for a positive impact of one such instrument, the European Union's Birds Directive, and we identify positive associations between the rate of provision of certain conservation measures through the directive and the response of bird populations. The results suggest that supranational conservation policy can bring measurable conservation benefits, although future assessments will require the setting of quantitative objectives and an increase in the availability of data from monitoring schemes.
Summary • Climate change is recognized as a major threat to the survival of species and integrity of ecosystems world-wide. Although considerable research has focused on climate impacts, relatively little work to date has been conducted on the practical application of strategies for adapting to climate change. Adaptation strategies should aim to increase the flexibility in management of vulnerable ecosystems, enhance the inherent adaptability of species and ecosystem processes, and reduce trends in environmental and social pressures that increase vulnerability to climate variability. • Knowledge of the specific attributes of climate change likely to impact on species or habitats is central to any adaptive management strategy. Temperature is not the only climate variable likely to change as a result of anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases. In some regions changes in precipitation, relative humidity, radiation, wind speed and/or potential evapotranspiration may be more marked than for temperature. • Uncertainty exists in the response of species and ecosystems to a given climate scenario. While climate will have a direct impact on the performance of many species, for others impacts will be indirect and result from changes in the spatiotemporal availability of natural resources. In addition, mutualistic and antagonistic interactions among species will mediate both the indirect and direct effects of climate change. • Approaches to predict species’ responses to climate change have tended to address either changes in abundance with time or in spatial distribution. While correlative models may provide a good indication of climate change impacts on abundance, greater understanding is generated by models incorporating aspects of life history, intra- and interspecific competition and predation. Models are especially sensitive to the uncertainty inherent in future climate predictions, the complexity of species’ interactions and the difficulties in parameterizing dispersal functions. Model outputs that have not been appropriately validated with real data should be treated with caution. • Synthesis and applications. While climate impacts may be severe, they are often exacerbated by current management practices, such as the construction of sea defences, flood management and fire exclusion. In many cases adaptation approaches geared to safeguard economic interests run contrary to options for biodiversity conservation. Increased environmental variability implies lower sustainable harvest rates and increased risks of population collapse. Climate change may significantly reduce habitat suitability and may threaten species with limited dispersal ability. In these cases, well-planned species translocations may prove a better option than management attempts to increase landscape connectivity. Mathematical models, long-term population studies, natural experiments and the exploitation of natural environmental gradients provide a sound basis for further understanding the consequences of climate change. Journal of Applied Ecology (2005) 42, 784 –794 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2005.01082.x
This article develops a spatial analysis applied to examine the main driving forces of land-cover and land-use (LCLU) change in a Mediterranean region. Three different tools have been used in order to differentiate LCLU changes, driving forces and landscape dynamics. LCLU changes have been quantified with remote sensing techniques, driving forces have been analysed with multiple logistic regressions combining biophysical and human variables, whereas landscape dynamics have been quantified using different metrics. Results show the intensification of subsidised herbaceous crops on the coastal agricultural plain, the abandonment of olive trees and vineyards in the transitional area and forest restoration in the mountainous subregion.
In this paper I argue that prehistoric British forests and their avifauna were similar to those persisting in a near-primeval condition in the Białowieża Forest (Polish/Belarussian border). Therefore, observations in the Białowieża Forest may serve as a baseline against which effects of changes in the British woods can be assessed. The results of long-term (30 years) studies of the breeding birds in the Białowieża National Park are summarized. They reveal that the local avifauna shows some features (high species richness, low population densities, high nest predation and low production of young) regarded as typical for undisturbed tropical forests. It is proposed that high productivity, high population densities and sedentary habits found in many British populations are to a large extent a recent phenomenon, due to forest fragmentation, reduction of predator diversity and changes in forest structure. The necessity to preserve the whole Białowieża Forest – currently seriously threatened by ongoing logging – as a benchmark for future biological studies is underlined.
Consumers are increasingly interested in sustainability and more sustainable production methods but, especially in Europe, they have been quite critical toward particular applications of genetic modification (GM). While there is little doubt that the sustainability issue entails substantial opportunities for biorenewables, the GM issue –posing either a threat or an opportunity –is less straightforward. Although initial findings suggest that European consumers feel positive about biotechnology applications for biofuel production, consumer attitudes toward and acceptance of GM, specifically in the production of biorenewables, have not been investigated in depth, leaving numerous questions unresolved and calling for further social sciences research in this area. A particularly interesting path to explore is to what extent the consumer's belief that GM is tampering with nature, and therefore is ethically wrong, might be outweighed by the perception that GM in biorenewables production contributes to re-establishing the balance in nature and therefore is beneficial overall. Further challenges pertain to communication, providing tangible benefits to consumers, and monitoring consumer acceptance and adoption of biorenewables. © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
1. Climate change is recognized as a major threat to the survival of species and integrity of ecosystems world-wide. Although considerable research has focused on climate impacts, relatively little work to date has been conducted on the practical application of strategies for adapting to climate change. Adaptation strategies should aim to increase the flexibility in management of vulnerable ecosystems, enhance the inherent adaptability of species and ecosystem processes, and reduce trends in environmental and social pressures that increase vulnerability to climate variability. 2. Knowledge of the specific attributes of climate change likely to impact on species or habitats is central to any adaptive management strategy. Temperature is not the only climate variable likely to change as a result of anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases. In some regions changes in precipitation, relative humidity, radiation, wind speed and/or potential evapotranspiration may be more marked than for temperature. 3. Uncertainty exists in the response of species and ecosystems to a given climate scenario. While climate will have a direct impact on the performance of many species, for others impacts will be indirect and result from changes in the spatiotemporal availability of natural resources. In addition, mutualistic and antagonistic interactions among species will mediate both the indirect and direct effects of climate change. 4. Approaches to predict species’ responses to climate change have tended to address either changes in abundance with time or in spatial distribution. While correlative models may provide a good indication of climate change impacts on abundance, greater understanding is generated by models incorporating aspects of life history, intra- and interspecific competition and predation. Models are especially sensitive to the uncertainty inherent in future climate predictions, the complexity of species’ interactions and the difficulties in... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Conservationists are far from able to assist all species under threat, if only for lack of funding. This places a premium on priorities: how can we support the most species at the least cost? One way is to identify 'biodiversity hotspots' where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confined to 25 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth. This opens the way for a 'silver bullet' strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on these hotspots in proportion to their share of the world's species at risk.
The Natura 2000 network is the most important conservation effort being implemented in Europe. Nevertheless, no comprehensive and systematic region-or nationwide evaluation of the effectiveness of the network has been conducted. We used habitat suitability models and extent of occurrence of 468 species of vertebrates to evaluate the contribution of the Natura 2000 network to biodiversity conservation in Italy. We also estimated the population size of 101 species inside the Natura 2000 network to assess its capacity to maintain or improve the population status of listed species. In general the Italian Natura 2000 did not seem to integrate existing protected areas well. The Natura 2000 network increased from 11% to 20% the area devoted to conservation in Italy and the coverage provided to areas with high biodiversity. Nevertheless, some areas with high numbers of species were devoid of conservation areas, and more than 50% of the highly irreplaceable areas were not considered in the system. Moreover, the Natura 2000 network cannot maintain 44-80% (depending on the taxa considered) of the species in a "favorable conservation status" under World Conservation Union Red List criteria. The Natura 2000 network is probably stronger than the results of our analyses suggest. The system is based on a site-specific expert-based strategy and is driven by direct and detailed knowledge of local diversity. Nevertheless, if Natura 2000 is taken to represent the final point of all the EU conservation policies, it will inevitably fail. Its role in conservation could be enhanced by integrating the Natura 2000 system into a more general strategy that considers natural processes and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these processes.
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Conservation Biology
Volume 23, No. 4, 2009
Natura 2000 barometer
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