WWF Shining a spotlight on the biodiversity of ... - MarineNZ.org.nz

©2003 <strong>WWF</strong>-New Zealand
certain personalities to dominate, thus
overshadowing the input of other experts.
To minimise the risk of this, a professional
facilitator with experience in marine issues
conducted the workshop and encouraged
feedback from all of the participants.
Participants also had the opportunity to
independently revise their input after the
workshop through a review process.
The workshop was convened at the offices
of <strong>WWF</strong>-New Zealand in Wellington, New
Zealand on 27-28 May 2003. The workshop
began with presentations that reviewed the
ecoregion concept and planning process and
a participant discussion about how to best
proceed with the assessment. The experts
first developed a list of primarily biological
criteria that could inform the delineation of
key biodiversity areas and habitats. The following
criteria contributed to the selection of
key areas or habitats for biodiversity:
• Species diversity
• Species richness
• Endemism
• Dependency for other species
• Trophic/functional diversity
• Representation (i.e. across physical types)
• Conservation status/threat classification
both nationally and globally
• Cultural values
• Extremities of range and adaptation to
environment
• Degree of disturbance
• Special conditions and specialised
organisms
• Species with a global distribution but New
Zealand is a stronghold/significant
• Seasonal/migratory importance
• Unusual degree/proportion of biomass
• Aggregations
• Special phylogenetic grouping
• Relict/genetic lineages (i.e. “living
fossils”)
• Habitat complexity/diversity
• Meeting ground – overlap between
biological regions (at national and global
regions level)
• Links to global patterns
Some of the criteria were difficult to apply
for some groups. For example, it is difficult
to characterise many invertebrates as
endemic because scientific sampling of this
group is incomplete.
After developing the criteria the participants
decided to break into three subgroups that
roughly corresponded with the types of biota
for which they had specialist knowledge.
The oceanographers worked separately to
report on the physical features of New Zealand’s
marine environment. The three biotic
subgroups were:
• cetaceans, seals, and seabirds;
• fish; and
• benthic invertebrates, algae, and plants.
The experts from each subgroup worked
through consensus to delineate key areas
for biodiversity on bathymetric maps of the
New Zealand region (see maps in results
section for extent of the area) and recorded
the justification for their selection on a
standard form (Appendix 3). Selection and
delineation of the areas was an iterative
process that involved considerable
deliberation. Each area identified was
coupled with a description of its physical
and biological attributes, the state of
information, and references to the literature.
Some biodiversity features of New Zealand’s
marine environment do not lend themselves
readily to discrete geographic representation
(i.e. special habitats, for which geographic
locations are not comprehensively known).
In such cases the information was recorded,
but is not illustrated on the maps. At the
end of the first day all of the workshop
participants reconvened and a spokesperson
from each group reported on their progress.
10 ■ BIODIVERSITY – NEW ZEALAND’S MARINE ECOREGION