Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
addition, the infrastructure and knowledge at the Zoo is used to incubate
eggs from damaged clutches and take care of injuded animals. Sound
research and protection measures are carried out by the Emys conservation
program of the Danube-floodplain National park. In the season before the
project initiation only eight nests could be protected due to the limitation
of resources compared to 78 nests in the fourth year of the project. More
than 1000 hatchlings could be documented out of protected nests since
2007.
2011-12-06 11:00 Applying adaptive conservation planning to
conserve biodiversity and improve livelihoods in Africa
Philip Muruthi*, African Wildlife Foundation ; Helen Gichohi,
African Wildlife Foundation ; David Williams, African Wildlife
Foundation ; Jef Dupain, African Wildlife Foundation ;
African conservation landscapes face critical threats including rapid
irreversible land use change, growing impacts of climate change coupled
with loss of habitats, species, ecosystem goods and services; the very
basis for socioeconomic development. The African Wildlife Foundation
(AWF) has developed and applied a landscape-scale conservation planning
methodology, part of the Heartland Conservation Process (HCP), in nine
conservation landscapes across Africa; areas we call African Heartlands.
HCP planning helps AWF and partners develop shared vision, strategies
and actions that address critical threats to ecological viability of these
landscapes, and to specific biodiversity conservation targets, while
contributing to livelihood improvement. Land use zoning based on analyses
of conservation targets, threats including climate change, goals, and actions
allows the envisioning and prioritizing of conservation, integrating it with
socioeconomic development and reduces conflicts. To strengthen local
implementation embedded Heartlands, AWF has supported development
of specific tools including the Protected Area Planning Framework and
the Community Conservation Planning Framework. AWF is learning and
documenting the benefits and limitations of planning and implementation
at the landscape-scale. Central to this are the merits of balancing a systematic
science-based and pragmatic approach to landscape-scale conservation
planning while addressing the needs and aspirations of local people.
2011-12-07 16:30 Estimating vegetation expansion in the Arctic under
climate change using machine learning
Phillips, SJ*, AT&T Labs-Research; Pearson, RG, American
Museum of Natural History; Beck, PSA, Woods Hole Research Center;
Loranty, MM, Woods Hole Research Center; Goetz, SJ, Woods Hole
Research Center; Damoulas, T, Cornell University;
Recent satellite observation of widespread ‘greening’ in the Arctic indicates
that tundra plant productivity has increased with temperature in recent
decades. This Arctic greening has important implications for arctic
biodiversity and for the global climate system, as increased vegetation
cover potentially sequesters more carbon from the atmosphere and
reduces albedo. Here we apply multi-class machine learning algorithms to
estimate the potential redistribution of the vegetation classes defined in the
Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map under climate change. Projections are
based on three general circulation models, two emissions scenarios, and
three scenarios of species’ dispersal ability. The machine learning algorithms
show good predictive performance, with 85% correct classification under
present-day conditions. We demonstrate the algorithms’ ability to generalize
to different times or regions by partitioning the arctic into checkerboards
with a range of granularity, training on black squares and testing on white.
Future projections point toward the expansion of large shrubs and trees,
although expansion is limited by the lack of land at the higher latitudes,
causing declines in the area occupied by some vegetation classes. Our results
have important implications for the global climate system, through changes
in Arctic carbon cycling and albedo, and for conservation of biodiversity
and ecosystem services in the Arctic.
2011-12-09 15:15 Valuing biocultural conservation: can ecological
economics assist coastal forest restoration in northern Aotearoa/New
Zealand?
Phipps, H, Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln, 7640, New
Zealand; Akins, A, Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food &
Environment, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, 9025, New
Zealand; Moller, H*, Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food &
Environment, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, 9025, New
Zealand; Lyver, PO’B, Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln,
7640, New Zealand; Kahui, V, Department of Economics, University
of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin 9025, New Zealand; Towns, D,
Department of Conservation, Private Bag 68908, Newton, Auckland,
1145, New Zealand;
Ecological economic valuation tools have potential to identify crosscultural
differences and common purpose from which strategies for
improved partnership and accelerated conservation might emerge. We
investigated the values assigned by 26 kaitiaki (Māori environmental
guardians), conservation managers and community members to prospective
ecological restoration of coastal forests in northern Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kaitiaki primarily emphasised the importance of ‘Cultural stewardship /
kaitiakitanga’ in the restoration process, yet this was not valued by the non-
Māori interviewees. Otherwise all stakeholders shared common purpose
and enthusiasm for five inter-related value bundles which we called (i) Use
/ Ahi kaa roa, (ii) Personal Engagement / Rangatiratanga, (iii) Connection /
Whakawhanaungatanga, (iv) Knowledge / Mātauranga, and (v) Ecological
integrity / mauri. Therefore cultures in our case study had much in
common and shared a passion to get on with ecological restoration, even
though they differed sharply on how the process of restoration should best
unfold. Many of the values assigned to ecological restoration by indigenous
cultures are subtle, complex, intangible, and inter-related. This will make it
very difficult to quantify cross-cultural differences in values, a necessary first
step before ecological economic choice models can safely assist partnership
and environmental co-management.
2011-12-09 11:00 The use of population viability analysis to inform
small-scale monitoring projects
Pickett, EJ*, University of Newcastle; Stockwell, MP, University
of Newcastle; Pollard, CJ, University of Newcastle; Garnham, JI,
University of Newcastle; Clulow, J, University of Newcastle; Mahony,
MJ, University of Newcastle;
Small-scale population monitoring programs are restricted in their capacity
to conduct rigorous demographic studies, and must usually focus upon
certain aspects of a population’s ecology. We suggest that it is the role of
larger-scale projects which can afford the use of population viability analysis
to determine the most important aspects for population viability, and
then inform project managers for the most efficient and focused methods
to evaluate their target population. We have undertaken this process for
the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) at Sydney Olympic Park.
Population viability analysis was undertaken within the Brickpit population,
and female survival to maturity was found to be the most important
demographic factor. Using this information, we designed a monitoring
regime for small-scale projects which focused upon the ratio of mature
females to immature females. This was then validated on three populations
of L. aurea, where it was found that a difference in this maturity ratio was
linked to an increase in growth rate of individuals between populations. We
recommend this extra step of designing small-scale monitoring regimes is
used for any species where population viability analysis has been conducted
on one of many populations to better enhance the conservation prospects
of the species throughout its range.
2011-12-08 18:30 Frequent colonization of burned forests results in
high gene flow across the boreal forests of North America
Pierson, Jennifer C.*, University of Montana; CSIRO; Allendorf,
Fred W., University of Montana; Michael K. Schwartz, USDA
Forest Service;
Disturbance-dependent species have evolved with a natural mosaic of
shifting habitat patches. As anthropogenic disturbance increasingly
changes this mosaic, ecologists need to consider how this may affect
connectivity for disturbance-dependent species. We estimated spatial
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