Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
and to discuss the implications for broad marine conservation policy issues.
Australia was one of the first nations to adopt bioregional ocean planning, and
an Australian fishery was the first worldwide to achieve Marine Stewardship
Council certification. In many ways Australian strategic marine planning
appears impressive. Five case studies of Australian fisheries management are
examined. These indicate that (a) the integrity of the Australian government’s
fisheries accreditation process is seriously flawed, and (b) the application
of the precautionary and ecosystem approaches within Australian fisheries
is characterised by strong rhetoric but weak implementation. Case studies
discussed cover the northern prawn trawl fishery, and fisheries for orange
roughy, western rock lobster, South Australian abalone, and southern
ocean krill. I reach a conclusion that implementation failures largely rest
on management cultures – a finding which reinforces recommendations
made in recent years by several prominent scientists for fundamental and
far-reaching changes to the administration of marine fisheries worldwide.
2011-12-06 10:30 Modelling the response of the biosphere to global
change (symposium keynote)
Newbold, T*, UNEP-WCMC & Microsoft Research; Harfoot, M,
UNEP-WCMC & Microsoft Research; Tittensor, D, UNEP-WCMC
& Microsoft Research; Purves, D, Microsoft Research; Scharlemann,
J, UNEP-WCMC;
Biodiversity continues to be lost at an unprecedented rate, with associated
declines in ecosystem function and the provision of ecosystem services. In
order to stem these declines, we urgently need models that project how
the biosphere will respond to future changes and, through effects on the
provision of ecosystem services, how changes in the biosphere will impact
human well-being and the economy. There are many such models currently
in use, which I will summarize in the first part of the talk. Some focus on
individual species, others on whole ecosystems, and others on the provision
of goods and services by ecosystems to humans. The methods used include
statistical analysis of observed patterns and process-based models that
attempt to capture the ecology underlying the observed patterns. The
functional traits of organisms, such as body size, reproductive rates, diet and
mobility, can determine how they respond to environmental changes and
also how the organisms contribute to ecosystem processes and to the delivery
of ecosystem services. In the second part of the talk, I will present the results
of a model showing that for tropical forest bird species large, slow-breeding
non-migrants that feed primarily on fruit and invertebrates have declined
more in response to land-use intensification than other species. These results
can help identify the species most vulnerable to land-use change and have
implications for the continued provision of important ecosystem processes.
2011-12-09 11:00 Does money grow on trees? Implications of livelihood
heterogeneity for payments for environmental services in Amazonian
extractive reserves.
Newton, P*, University of East Anglia; Nichols, L., Columbia
University; Endo, W., Norwegian University of Life Sciences; Peres,
C., University of East Anglia;
Options for limiting tropical deforestation have included implementation
of payments for environmental services (PES) programs that induce
behavioural changes in local actors through financial incentives. We predict
that heterogeneity in local economies and livelihood strategies may influence
the ability of an undifferentiated reward structured PES to achieve reduced
deforestation. During a two-year study, we collected socioeconomic and
demographic data at the household and community levels across two large
Amazonian extractive reserves encompassing a vast mosaic of unflooded
(terra firme) and seasonally flooded (várzea) forest. Communities with greater
access to terra firme forest were more agricultural, and strongly committed
to manioc production, whereas communities surrounded by flooded forest
showed a greater dependence on extractivism. A spatially extensive PES
program, the Bolsa Floresta, is being introduced across this region but
pays equal financial incentives to all households. Since manioc cultivation
is the primary driver of local primary forest conversion, households most
engaged in agriculture incurred the greatest opportunity costs. The relative
incentives of cash payments and development investment therefore varied
widely according to households’ and communities’ demographic and
socioeconomic status. We show that avoided primary forest conversion
could be greatly increased with differentiated payment structures that are
adjusted for local differences in opportunity costs and livelihood strategies,
and present two metrics that could help to achieve that goal.
2011-12-08 18:30 The potential for cougar recolonization of
Midwestern North America
Nielsen, Clayton*, Southern Illinois University;
Cougars (Puma concolor) were extirpated from Midwestern North America
by the turn of the 20th century. However, since 1990, >300 confirmations
of cougars have been recorded in the region, which indicates a potential
recolonization event. Herein, I summarize the first research efforts regarding
cougars in the Midwest. I created a model of potential cougar habitat in
the 11-state region using geospatial data, expert-opinion surveys, and a
GIS. About 8% of the region contains highly suitable habitat for cougars; 6
large, contiguous areas of highly suitable habitat for cougars were identified.
The habitat suitability map was used for a population viability analysis that
projected cougar occupancy 50 years into the future. Of 136 total suitable
patches available to be recolonized, 35 will be occupied in 50 years. Cougar
occupancy will be higher in patches closer to current cougar range and
female dispersal drives recolonization potential. A mail-in survey was sent
to residents of urban and rural counties of North Dakota (with breeding
cougars) and Kentucky (without breeding cougars) to assess attitudes
regarding cougars and management. Given the differences between states
and especially between rural vs. urban respondents, conservation agencies
will have to develop diverse educational and management strategies for
cougars. Overall, these findings suggest that cougar recolonization potential
in the Midwest is high and that humans are generally supportive of their
return.
Date 14:45 The role of human decision-making for the sustainability
of trophy hunting
Nils Bunnefeld*, Imperial College London;
Trophy hunting has been widely advocated as conservation tool and is
now operating throughout the world, albeit with varying success. Wildlife
populations exploited for trophy hunting are decreasing in many parts of
the world. The reason for the failures of trophy hunting might be rooted
in the following assumptions that are often made in conservation and
management programmes for trophy hunting; perfect implementation
through top down control by an all powerful and knowledgeable manager
and full compliance with the management plan by hunting companies and
local people. However, management plans often disregard both the cultural,
social and economic needs of local people and the economic interests of
hunting companies. We explore these issues using the example of the
Mountain nyala in Ethiopia, and suggest a new framework for management
that incorporates human behaviour into management decision-making
and that takes into account uncertainty in the process of monitoring and
implementation of the management plan. This approach can reveal new
insights into the management of trophy hunting under multiple objectives
of conservation, economic and social viability and under various forms of
uncertainty.
2011-12-06 15:00 Estimating the turnover of Hemipteran assemblages
from the phylogeny of their host plants: a tool for conservation planning?
Nipperess, DA*, Macquarie University; Beattie, AJ, Macquarie
University; Faith, DP, Australian Museum; Kitching, RL, Griffith
University; Hughes, L, Macquarie University;
Insects, despite forming a very large proportion of the terrestrial biota, are
omitted from conservation planning because patterns of spatial turnover
among insect faunas are largely unknown. Because of the high effort
associated with insect surveys, there is a need to be able to predict the
turnover of insect faunas from other, more easily measured, variables. We
here report results investigating a relationship between the phylogenetic
relatedness of plant species and the turnover of their associated Hemipteran
assemblages. Using pyrethrum knockdown techniques, we collected
Hemipterans from 76 plant species across three localities in sclerophyll
woodland in the temperate, subtropical and tropical climate zones of eastern
Australia. Phylogenetic relationships of the host plants were determined
by constructing an informal supertree with branch lengths estimated
from divergence times available in the literature. Distance-based linear
modelling indicated that plant phylogeny explained 12% of the variation in
Hemipteran assemblage composition (p=0.001), being just as important as
the spatial separation of the plants. Our results suggest that: 1) conservation
planning based on maximizing phylogenetic diversity of plants will also
tend to preserve herbivorous insect diversity; and 2) information on plant
phylogenetic diversity can and should be employed in planning for the
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