Abstracts available here - Society for Conservation Biology

25th International Congress for Conservation Biology • Auckland, New Zealand • 5-9 December 2011
protect and apply science-based policies. We will discuss funding for expert
witnesses, controls on misrepresentation of facts in government processes,
scientific integrity procedures, and more. For example, to reveal the likely
costs of legislative proposals US Budget Act of 1974 requires that before bills
can be voted on by the full House or Senate they have to be accompanied by a
budget estimate provided by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
Legislatures and Plenaries of Treaty Conferences could provide a process to
support science in policy by requiring that the primary proposals on the
agenda of a COP or in proposed authorizing legislation be accompanied by a
majority (and if necessary, dissenting) analysis, citing peer-reviewed science,
and by an independent published peer review of those explanations. The
reviewers could be drawn, after checking for financial conflicts of interest,
by the Congressional Research Service or IPBES respectively from rosters
of experts provided by SCB and other professional societies. The scientific
basis for the final decision could be subject to judicial or IPBES review as
well.
2011-12-07 15:00 International Treaties, IPBES, and Domestic Policies
in Protecting and Restoring Forests (and Paying Forest Experts)
John Fitzgerald*, SCB ; Jonsson Bengt-Gunnar, SCB-IPBES Task
Force & MIU, Sweden;
The nations of the earth have recognized in several nearly universally ratified
treaties that sustaining the biological diversity and quality of forests is
necessary for sustaining life as we know it. The Convention on Biological
Diversity goes even further and instructs nations that are party to it to
restore degraded ecosystems. We will explore innovative ways to empower
and fulfill these general obligations using the science of forest conservation
and restoration through market and non-market mechanisms. In reviewing
key treaty provisions and their domestic law counterparts, we will describe
powerful tools to produce investment and procurement decisions that
restore forests. We will review effective policies for taxes, penalties, fines,
tariffs, and embargoes that work together to restore forests’ function and
coverage and protect people at the same time. We will discuss the limited
role that offsets can play. Several nations and the EU are enforcing strong
laws that go beyond parks and protect certain forests for the sake of the
functions they provide even while they allow sustainable uses of those
forests. The US and the EU have banned the importation of illegally
harvested wood or other forest products. The question then is, what does
it mean to be legally harvested? If a permit is issued by a country that has
not fulfilled its treaty obligations with respect to that tree or forest, is it a
legitimate permit? What is the balance between Greenhouse Gas emissions
and ecosystem sequestration that is sustainable and what kind of earth can
we sustain? The IPBES and other bodies can help answer these questions in
a powerful way if we adopt procedures that reject policy decisions that are
neither precautionary nor based on the best available science.
2011-12-06 16:42 Near real-time monitoring systems for deforestation,
illegal logging, and fire
John Musinsky*, Conservation International;
The destruction and degradation of the world’s forests from deforestation,
illegal logging and fire has wide-ranging environmental and economic
impacts, including biodiversity loss, the degradation of ecosystem services
and the emission of greenhouse gases. In an effort to strengthen local capacity
to respond to these threats, Conservation International has developed a suite
of near real-time satellite monitoring systems generating daily alerts, maps
and reports of forest fire, fire risk, deforestation and degradation that are
used by national and sub-national government agencies, NGO’s, scientists,
communities, and the media to respond to and report on threats to forest
resources. Currently, the systems support more than 1000 subscribers from
45 countries, focusing on Madagascar, Indonesia, Bolivia and Peru. This
presentation will explore the types of innovative applications users have
found for these data, challenges they’ve encountered in data acquisition and
accuracy, and feedback they’ve given on the usefulness of these systems for
REDD+ implementation, protected areas management and improved forest
governance.
2011-12-07 14:20 Using systematic monitoring to evaluate and improve
the management of a tiger reserve in northern Laos
Johnson, Arlyne*, Wildlife Conservation Society; Vongkhamheng,
Chanthavy, Wildlife Conservation Society; Saypanya, Santi, Wildlife
Conservation Society; Hansel, Troy, Wildlife Conservation Society;
Strindberg, Samantha, Wildlife Conservation Society;
Monitoring and evaluation is a key ingredient for improving effectiveness of
conservation projects. However, there are few actual examples of how this
is successfully being done as part of an adaptive management cycle. From
2003-2010, we monitored tigers and their prey, key threats to their longterm
survival and our management interventions in the Nam Et-Phou Louey
National Protected Area; the last known site for breeding tigers in Indochina.
We used monitoring results to regularly evaluate and improve management
interventions through several iterations of the project cycle. A baseline survey
estimating 7-24 tigers within a 3,548km2 area was used to set a population
target and define a 3,000 km2 totally protected zone. Identification of the
main threats, including direct killing of tigers and overhunting of prey
as well as contributing factors, led us to select two interventions – law
enforcement and public outreach- to reduce threats. Spatial deployment of
enforcement and outreach teams was based on biological monitoring results
and changes in illegal hunting and public attitudes to evaluate effectiveness
of management interventions and ensured appropriate refinement over time.
Several enabling conditions made successful adaptive management possible
including donor-support for monitoring, mandatory venues for reporting
results, technical support to design monitoring systems, mentors and longterm
support to build national capacity and guide application of the results.
2011-12-07 15:00 Tanzania’s national inventory of wildlife corridors
Jones*, T; Caro, T; Davenport, TRB;
A critical conservation goal for the United Republic of Tanzania is to maintain
its remaining wildlife corridors as this is seen as vital for maintaining its
globally important wildlife populations. A nationwide assessment in 2009
documented 31 remaining wildlife corridors in mainland Tanzania, of
which 23 (74%) were categorised as in extreme or critical condition, defined
as likely to disappear within an estimated five years. Now, two years on,
we review the current conservation status of these 23 corridors, as well as
development of new corridor policy and legislation. We present updated
information from several of these corridors, including a case study in southcentral
Tanzania showing that the two remaining corridors between the
Udzungwa Mountains and the Selous Game Reserve, an important link
between Tanzania’s major western and southern wildlife communities, have
been completely blocked since 2007, with serious ecological and socioeconomic
implications. Overall, our review suggests that 2009 predictions
about the state of some of Tanzania’s wildlife corridors were valid. We provide
recommendations for restoring connectivity, and discuss the prospects for
preventing further corridor losses across mainland Tanzania.
2011-12-07 11:45 Disease management options for contagious cancer
in Tasmanian devils
Jones, M. E.*, University of Tasmania;
Tasmanian devils are threatened with extinction from a novel contagious
cancer. Since Devil Facial Tumour Disease was detected in 1996, species
decline has exceeded 60%, with local declines of 95%. Contagious
cancers, in which live tumours cells are the pathogenic agent, are rare in
nature. Conditions for their emergence include low genetic diversity or
immunosuppression, and intimate injurious contact. Having already lost
half their genetic diversity, devils are the clearest case yet of the devastating
consequences of low genetic diversity for the emergence of new diseases.
Options for management of the devil and its tumour that will lead to
the recovery of devil populations in the wild are limited. In the case of
extinction in the wild, reintroduction could occur from an ex-situ insurance
metapopulation of healthy devils managed for retention of a high level of
remaining genetic diversity. Recent results indicate reduced population
impacts and disease prevalence and possibly virulence as the tumour
encounters a different host genetic subpopulation for the first time. Insitu
management needs to be based on understanding of the evolutionary
interaction between the tumour and its host. Genetic rescue, through
mixing genetic subpopulations, would enhance the resilience of the species
to this and future threats.
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