Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
restoring those natural processes and responses that have enabled species
to persist through past environmental change. The following key elements
are a crucial component of an effective conservation plan: identifying and
protecting important climate refugia (both ecological and evolutionary);
conserving the large-scale migration and connectivity corridors that operate
at continent scales (including regional networks of habitat patches and
habitat ‘stepping stones’); maintaining viable populations of all extant
species to maximize intra-species genetic diversity and thus options for
local adaptation; reducing all current threatening processes at the landscape
scale across the continent; and protecting and restoring key large scale
ecological processes (especially hydro-ecology and ecological fire regimes).
Finally, underpinning climatic adaptation responses must be a thorough
understanding of the special role extensive intact landscapes will play in the
future protection of native biodiversity.
2011-12-09 10:42 Aloha Aina: Successfully Integrating Traditional
Ecological Knowledge into Conservation Efforts
Watson, TK*, Honua Consulting;
Traditional ecological knowledge continues to be a vital asset to biodiversity,
environmental conservation, and restoration globally. Drawing from
multiple examples in Hawai`i where the use of traditional knowledge has
enabled collaborations with Native Hawaiians and local communities, this
presentation will highlight conservation success stories from endangered
species recovery, climate change, community education and outreach, and
co-management of protected areas. This presentation will provide summaries
and “lessons learned” from past experiences for communities around the
world that continue to seek out pathways for successful partnerships between
western conservation science and indigenous communities. The goal of this
presentation is to emphasize the common conservation goals shared by
western science communities and indigenous communities, encouraging
all peoples committed to a healthy earth and ecology to come together to
achieve their shared environmental goals.
2011-12-09 15:30 Genetic translocations of fragmented populations to
cope with climate change
Weeks AR*, The University of Melbourne; Sgro CM, Monash
University; Hoffmann AA, The University of Melbourne;
Translocations are being increasingly proposed as a way of conserving
biodiversity, particularly in the management of threatened and keystone
species, with the aims of maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function
under the combined pressures of habitat fragmentation and climate change.
Evolutionary genetic considerations should be an important part of
translocation strategies but there is often confusion about concepts and goals
and therefore they are rarely considered by managers. Yet the imperative
for conservation managers should now be conservation and restoration
practices that maintain and increase genetic diversity within species, thereby
promoting in situ adaptive processes. The long term implications of ignoring
adaptability when planning translocations will extend well beyond the
persistence of species, with potential impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem
function and resilience in response to climate extremes. Here we discuss how
adaptive evolution can be considered when undertaking translocations. We
develop case studies to illustrate how managers can undertake translocations
to increase gene flow, genetic variation and adaptability of populations to
help counter stressful conditions arising from climate change.
2011-12-09 10:45 Conservation Prioritisation in a changing landscape
- New Zealand’s indigenous grasslands a case study
Weeks, ES*, University of Waikato; Walker, S, Landcare Research;
Overton, J, Landcare Research; Clarkson, B, University of Waikato;
To be effective, conservation planning needs to better anticipate the rates and
patterns of dynamic threats to biodiversity, such as rapidly changing land
use trends. This is a pressing need in temperate grasslands internationally,
and New Zealand’s indigenous grasslands are a good example. Although
the area of formally protected temperate grasslands in New Zealand has
increased in recent decades, low to mid-altitude systems continue to be
poorly protected and land use intensification has accelerated in recent years.
The area of remaining indigenous grassland was reduced by 7% (from 43
to 40%) between 1990 and 2008. Poor understanding and prediction of
the drivers and patterns of change has made it difficult to assess the relative
vulnerability of areas of remaining indigenous grassland habitat, and identify
those in most immediate need of protection. Here we use quantitative spatial
models to assess and predict the vulnerability of New Zealand’s remaining
indigenous grassland habitat to land use intensification in for the first
time. Our models are based on our new mapping and measurement of
past and current land use in relation to patterns of climate, topography,
soils, and proximity to infrastructure (i.e. roads) or existing development.
Overall, areas most vulnerable to land-use intensification are located at
moderate to high elevations with low slopes that have previously been
classified as more suitable for low productivity extensive grazing, but we
also found important regional variations. We show that the significance of
the remaining biodiversity of the most vulnerable grasslands is recognized
by other New Zealand conservation planning tools, but they have not been
targeted for conservation in recent land reforms. We demonstrate how
rapidly conservation priorities may change over time, and the importance of
regularly-updated spatial land use information, by comparing models based
on land use data from earlier time periods and other recent New Zealand
conservation prioritization tools.
2011-12-08 12:30 Improving the Effectiveness of Community-Managed
Marine Protected Areas for Biodiversity Conservation, Fisheries
Management and Climate Change Adaptation
Weeks, R*, Wildlife Conservation Society - Fiji; Pressey, RL, ARC
Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University;
Jupiter, SD, Wildlife Conservation Society - Fiji; Comley, J, Institute
of Applied Science, University of the South Pacific;
Community-managed marine protected areas (MPAs) are a primary tool
for marine and coastal conservation and management throughout Oceania
and the Coral Triangle. In most cases, community objectives are focused
primarily on fisheries benefits for fishes and commercially important
invertebrates. Marine protected areas often emerge as a synthesis of local
tradition and scientific knowledge and comprise a multitude of different
management strategies, including permanent closures, temporary closures,
size limits, seasonal or species bans, and gear restrictions. This focus group
will review theoretical and empirical evidence for the effectiveness of
different community-based MPA management strategies for biodiversity
conservation, fisheries management, and climate change adaptation
objectives, and will work towards developing practical ecological criteria
(rules of thumb) for size and spacing of MPAs that are applicable to
community-based management, recognising upper size limits and that
permanent no-take closures are not always feasible. Anticipated outputs
include a review paper for journal publication and a standardised framework
for quantifying the contribution that community-managed MPAs make
towards conservation targets.
2011-12-08 14:30 Building Social and Ecological Connectivity for
Climate Resilience
Weeks, R*, Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji; Jupiter, SD, Wildlife
Conservation Society Fiji; Eisma-Osorio, R-L, Coastal Conservation
and Education Foundation;
Protected areas are increasingly recognised for their role in strategies to
conserve biodiversity, support livelihoods and maintain ecosystem services
in the face of future climate change. Mindful of the fact that protected
areas are embedded within both a physical landscape and a complex human
landscape of governance, policy and management, conservation planners
and policy makers are beginning to look beyond individual protected areas
when developing climate change strategies. We provide two examples of
how improving ecological and social connectivity can increase the benefits
of protected areas for climate change mitigation. In Fiji’s Vatu-i-Ra Seascape,
conservation partners are focusing on managing for the predicted but
uncertain impacts of flooding and coral bleaching through implementation
of protected area networks designed to maximise ecological resilience,
located within a broader ecosystem-based management framework.
Concurrently, social capacity to adapt to climate fluctuations is being
increased through efforts to strengthen community-based management
structures, improve communications networks, and build collaboration
amongst a range of sectors and partners. In the Philippines, building social
connectivity amongst community-based coastal resource managers has
proven an effective approach to develop ecologically connected and resilient
marine protected area (MPA) networks. Inter-municipal collaborations have
led to rapid improvements in management effectiveness and enforcement
capacity, followed by efforts to redesign MPA networks following scientific
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