Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
2011-12-08 18:30 Asian elephant conservation and human-elephant
conflict mitigation: change in paradigm needed
Fernando, P*, Centre for Conservation and Research; Pathiraja, C,
Department of Wildlife Conservation; Weerakoon, D, University of
Colombo; Jayewardene, J, Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation
Trust; Pastorini, J, Centre for Conservation and Research;
Asian elephants are endangered and the main threats to their survival are
range loss and human-elephant conflict. Across Asian elephant range rapid
human population growth and consequent development may make range
loss inevitable. However, unplanned development makes range loss much
greater than need be and development unmindful of the presence, ecology
and behavior of elephants creates severe conflict. Consequently the humanelephant
conflict has become a major conservation, socio-economic and
political issue. In Sri Lanka and rest of Asian elephant range, the main
strategy for addressing human-elephant conflict is restricting elephants to
protected areas. In Sri Lanka, after over 50 years of its implementation,
this strategy has failed in eliminating elephants from developed areas and
in mitigating the human-elephant conflict. Currently the scale of the
issue is so great and widespread that conservation agencies alone cannot
address it. Therefore a change in paradigm is needed with all stakeholders
and especially development agencies and civil society taking responsibility
for their actions in elephant range. Over the last decade we have been
developing new strategies to mitigate the human-elephant conflict by
taking into consideration elephant ecology and behavior and working with
multiple stakeholders to implement them.
2011-12-07 17:00 Caribbean corals larger than 50 cm in diameter
survive fierce long-term macroalgal competition
Ferrari, R*, University of Queensland, Marine Spatial Ecology Lab;
Gonzalez-Rivero, M, University of Exeter, Marine Spatial Ecology
Lab; Mumby, PJ, University of Queensland, Marine Spatial Ecology
Lab;
The relative importance of physical and ecological processes in driving
macroalgal dynamics is poorly understood. This study looked at the effects
of coral-macroalgal competition on the growth and survival of three
common Caribbean coral species (Porites astreodies, Agaricia agaricites
and Colpophyllia natans). The study looked at two different coral colony
sizes and two common Caribbean macroalgal species (Lobophora variegata
and Halimeda opuntia) over one year. Not surprisingly, smaller colonies
were more susceptible to macroalgal competition, bleaching and disease.
While the susceptibility of coral colonies to macroalgae competition
remained similar across size classes, striking differences were observed on
the interactions between coral and algal species. When competing with L.
variegata, C. natans was the least resistant coral species, while both species of
brooder corals were least affected by the competition with this macroalgae.
When competing with H. opuntia there was not a significant difference
between the three coral species of the large colonies; however, A. agaricites
small colonies were significantly more resistant to the competition than
either of the other two coral species. There was no difference between small
colonies of P. astreoides and C. natans. These results are really interesting
since they identify A. agaricites, as one of the best competitors against L.
variegata and H. opuntia, two of the most abundant algae on coral reefs.
Fruthermore, they shed light on long-term species specific competition
outcomes between corals and macroalgae.
2011-12-08 18:30 Managament effectiveness assessment of Brazilian
protected areas
Ferreira, MN*, WWF-Brasil; Hangae, L, ICMBIo; Kinouchi, M,
ICMBIo; Drumond, MA, UFMG; Onaga, C, Manacá; Catapan,
M, WWF-Brasil; Palazzi, G., ICMBio; LIma, L, ICMBio
Establishment and maintenance of protected areas are a worldwide strategy
to preserve biodiversity. In recognition of this effort and challenge, the
Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a Program of Work for
Protected Areas, including the management effectiveness assessment of the
performance of protected areas systems. The RAPPAM method - Rapid
Assessment and Prioritization of Protected Area Management - provides a
quick and effective way of assessing strengths and weaknesses of individual
protected areas and protected areas systems. This study aimed at applying
RAPPAM for the second time after five years in 292 Brazilian federal
protected areas. Results indicated a significant increase in the status of
management effectiveness. However, some consistent gaps and weaknesses
are still present and the evolution was not homogeneous in different biomes
and PA categories. These results may represent one of the largest efforts
of PA monitoring in the world and are key to adequate planning and
prioritization in a such a large system with funding limitations.
2011-12-06 11:45 Forecasting Consequences of Global-change
Scenarios for Persistence of Compositional Diversity – a Top-down
Modelling Approach
Ferrier, S.*, CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences; Harwood, T.D., CSIRO
Ecosystem Sciences; Williams, K.J., CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences;
Current efforts to forecast impacts of climate and land-use change on
biodiversity (to inform development of policy and management responses)
are focusing almost exclusively on modelling potential changes in the
distribution and abundance of individual species. This bottom-up strategy
plays an important role in planning for better-known species of particular
ecological, social or economic concern. However, its capacity to address
changes in compositional diversity as a whole (the full variety of biological
elements across all taxa, and all levels of organisation) is challenged by the
sheer number of elements involved, and our grossly incomplete knowledge
of both these elements and their interactions – particularly for less-studied
taxa (e.g. invertebrates, microbes) in hyper-diverse systems (e.g. tropical
forests). We describe a top-down, macroecological approach to addressing
this problem, which focuses on modelling change in emergent properties
of compositional diversity at the community level (compositional turnover,
richness) rather than change in the individual elements constituting this
diversity. We present examples of the application of this approach for the
Australian continent, and for the entire planet, using best-available data for
a range of lesser-known, highly-diverse taxa. The approach is not intended
to replace, or compete with, species-level approaches to modelling globalchange
impacts, but rather to complement and add value to these existing
efforts.
2011-12-07 14:00 Reconnecting the Spine of the Continent Wildway
– A network of conservation action in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada
Fields, K*, Wildlands Network; Soule, M, Wildlands Network;
The Spine of the Continent Initiative puts the “large” in large-landscape
conservation planning! From northern Mexico to Alaska a network of
conservation NGOs, private landowners, universities, scientists, wildlife
managers and citizens partner at different scales to “reconnect” the entire
span of the Rocky Mountains. Throughout this Western Wildway© we
cross land management jurisdictional boundaries and instead are guided by
eco-regional analyses that determine priority conservation targets. Led by
Wildlands Network, we employ a variety of approaches necessary to achieve
landscape connectivity and close the gaps between protected areas. This
presentation will review some of the successful approaches we’ve employed
– from “publicity expeditions” to land acquisition to policy reform to
private landowner outreach – in order to engage a wide spectrum of society
as we apply the science of conservation biology to activism.
2011-12-08 14:44 Incorporating process into conservation decisionmaking
for island systems
Filardi, C E*, American Museum of Natural History; Sterling,
E, American Museum of Natural History; Roughan, P, Islands
Knowledge Institute;
Islands are iconic for their isolation, diversity of unique life forms, and
high extinction rates. Recent studies, however, have revealed that island
ecosystems have significant and under-recognized impacts on the
generation and maintenance of global patterns of biodiversity despite often
extreme geographic isolation. Scientists are learning that islands are not
simply the evolutionary dead ends once believed, but are instead engines
of diversification in their own right, and far-flung webs of ecological
connectivity. Tropical oceanic islands in particular have a dynamic
connectivity, a give-and-take with one another, on both evolutionary
and ecological scales. In this talk, we provide examples from across taxa,
and contrasting systems across ocean basins, to define an emerging
understanding of insular connectivity at regional and pan-Pacific scales.
Conservation investment needs to reflect these emerging new paradigms in
island biology, embracing our sense of the ecological and evolutionary scales
of island life, and the contribution of insular processes to continental and
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