Browsing by Subject "CONSERVATION"

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Open Access
Conceptualizing and operationalizing human wellbeing for ecosystem assessment and management
(Environmental Science and Policy, 2016-12-01) Breslow, SJ; Sojka, B; Barnea, R; Basurto, X; Carothers, C; Charnley, S; Coulthard, S; Dolšak, N; Donatuto, J; García-Quijano, C; Hicks, CC; Levine, A; Mascia, MB; Norman, K; Poe, M; Satterfield, T; Martin, KS; Levin, PS
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd There is growing interest in assessing the effects of changing environmental conditions and management actions on human wellbeing. A challenge is to translate social science expertise regarding these relationships into terms usable by environmental scientists, policymakers, and managers. Here, we present a comprehensive, structured, and transparent conceptual framework of human wellbeing designed to guide the development of indicators and a complementary social science research agenda for ecosystem-based management. Our framework grew out of an effort to develop social indicators for an integrated ecosystem assessment (IEA) of the California Current large marine ecosystem. Drawing from scholarship in international development, anthropology, geography, and political science, we define human wellbeing as a state of being with others and the environment, which arises when human needs are met, when individuals and communities can act meaningfully to pursue their goals, and when individuals and communities enjoy a satisfactory quality of life. We propose four major social science-based constituents of wellbeing: connections, capabilities, conditions, and cross-cutting domains. The latter includes the domains of equity and justice, security, resilience, and sustainability, which may be assessed through cross-cutting analyses of other constituents. We outline a process for identifying policy-relevant attributes of wellbeing that can guide ecosystem assessments. To operationalize the framework, we provide a detailed table of attributes and a large database of available indicators, which may be used to develop measures suited to a variety of management needs and social goals. Finally, we discuss four guidelines for operationalizing human wellbeing measures in ecosystem assessments, including considerations for context, feasibility, indicators and research, and social difference. Developed for the U.S. west coast, the framework may be adapted for other regions, management needs, and scales with appropriate modifications.
Open Access
Contribution of Subsidies and Participatory Governance to Fishers’ Adaptive Capacity
(Journal of Environment and Development, 2016-12-01) Nenadović, M; Basurto, X; Weaver, AH
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. The need for strengthening fishers' adaptive capacity has been proposed in the literature as an important component of effective fisheries governance arrangements in the presence of rising numbers of external drivers of change. Within the context of small-scale fisheries, government subsidies have been the main tool used for increasing adaptive capacity. We examine the relationship among adaptive capacity, subsidy programs, and fishers' participation in fisheries management, as a potentially important mediating factor affecting outcomes using a data set from two periods of a fishing community in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our results show a correlation between those fishers with access to decision-making venues and their reception of subsidies, yet the effect of participation and subsidies on fishers' adaptive capacity is limited. This appears to be due to the authorities' lack of commitment to strengthening fishers' adaptive capacity through subsidies programs, and fishers' lack of trust in the governance processes.
Open Access
Creating linked datasets for SME energy-assessment evidence-building: Results from the U.S. Industrial Assessment Center Program
(Energy Policy, 2017-12-01) Dalzell, NM; Boyd, GA; Reiter, JP
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Lack of information is commonly cited as a market failure resulting in an energy-efficiency gap. Government information policies to fill this gap may enable improvements in energy efficiency and social welfare because of the externalities of energy use. The U.S. Department of Energy Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is one such policy intervention, providing no-cost assessments to small and medium enterprises (SME). The IAC program has assembled a wealth of data on these assessments, but the database does not include information about participants after the assessment or on non-participants. This study addresses that lack by creating a new linked dataset using the public IAC and non-public data at the Census Bureau. The IAC database excludes detail needed for an exact match, so the study developed a linking methodology to account for uncertainty in the matching process. Based on the linking approach, a difference in difference analysis for SME that received an assessment was done; plants that received an assessment improve their performance over time, relative to industry peers that did not. This new linked dataset is likely to shed even more light on the impact of the IAC and similar programs in advancing energy efficiency.
Open Access
Forest elephant movement and habitat use in a tropical forest-grassland mosaic in Gabon.
(PloS one, 2018-01) Mills, Emily C; Poulsen, John R; Fay, J Michael; Morkel, Peter; Clark, Connie J; Meier, Amelia; Beirne, Christopher; White, Lee JT
Poaching of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) for ivory has decimated their populations in Central Africa. Studying elephant movement can provide insight into habitat and resource use to reveal where, when, and why they move and guide conservation efforts. We fitted 17 forest elephants with global positioning system (GPS) collars in 2015 and 2016 in the tropical forest-grassland mosaic of the Wonga Wongué Presidential Reserve (WW), Gabon. Using the location data, we quantified movement distances, home ranges, and habitat use to examine the environmental drivers of elephant movements and predict where elephants occur spatially and temporally. Forest elephants, on average, traveled 2,840 km annually and had home ranges of 713 km2, with males covering significantly larger home ranges than females. Forest elephants demonstrated both daily and seasonal movement patterns. Daily, they moved between forest and grassland at dawn and dusk. Seasonally, they spent proportionally more time in grassland than forest during the short-wet season when grasses recruit. Forest elephants also traveled faster during the short-wet season when fruit availability was greatest, likely reflecting long, direct movements to preferred fruiting tree species. Forest elephants tended to select areas with high tree and shrub density that afford cover and browse. When villages occurred in their home ranges elephants spent a disproportionate amount of time near them, particularly in the dry season, probably for access to agricultural crops and preferred habitat. Given the importance of the grassland habitat for elephants, maintenance of the forest-grassland matrix is a conservation priority in WW. Law enforcement, outreach, and education should focus on areas of potential human-elephant conflict near villages along the borders of the reserve. GPS-tracking should be extended into multi-use areas in the peripheries of protected areas to evaluate the effects of human disturbance on elephant movements and to maintain connectivity among elephant populations in Gabon.
Open Access
Local Institutional Responses to Global Market Pressures: The Sea Cucumber Trade in Yucatán, Mexico
(World Development, 2018-02-01) Bennett, A; Basurto, X
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd The expansion of global seafood trade creates opportunities as well as risks for small-scale fisheries (SSFs) livelihoods. Markets provide economic opportunity, but without effective governance, high demand can drive resource degradation. In the context of small-scale sea cucumber fisheries in Yucatán, Mexico, this study documents local governance responses to new markets and identifies factors driving those responses. We conducted a comparative case study of two SSF communities, collecting participant observation and interview data during 16 months of fieldwork. Our study found that local rules-in-use did not match government regulations and that the emergence of local rules was shaped by relations of production in each study site. Specifically, patron–client relationships promoted an open access regime that expanded local fishing fleets while fishing cooperatives attempted to restrict access to local fishing grounds through collective action and multi-level linkages with government. We propose that the different material incentives arising from the way that patron–client relationships and cooperatives organize labor, capital, and profits help explain these divergent governance responses. We hypothesize that this finding is generalizable beyond the study context, especially given that patron–client relationships and cooperatives are common throughout the world's SSFs. This finding builds on previous research that indicates local institutions can mediate the effects of market pressures, showing that the emergence of local rules depends on how resource users are organized not just in relation to resource governance but vis-à-vis the markets themselves. Therefore, effective policies for SSFs facing market pressures require a greater emphasis on regulating local-level trade and governing the commercial aspects of fishing livelihoods. These lessons are relevant to the estimated 540 million individuals whose livelihoods SSFs support who may increasingly engage in the global seafood trade.
Open Access
The effect of accelerated soil erosion on hillslope morphology
(Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 2019-12-01) Bonetti, S; Richter, DD; Porporato, A
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Intensive agricultural land use can have detrimental effects on landscape properties, greatly accelerating soil erosion, with consequent fertility loss and reduced agricultural potential. To quantify the effects of such erosional processes on hillslope morphology and gain insight into the underlying dynamics, we use a twofold approach. First, a statistical analysis of topographical features is conducted, with a focus on slope and gradient distributions. The accelerated soil erosion is shown to be fingerprinted in the distribution tails, which provide a clear statistical signature of this human-induced land modification. Theoretical solutions are then derived for the hillslope morphology and the associated creep and runoff erosion fluxes, allowing us to distinguish between the main erosional mechanisms operating in disturbed and undisturbed areas. We focus our application on the landscape at the Calhoun Critical Zone Observatory in the US Southern Piedmont, where severe soil erosion followed intensive cotton cultivation, resulting in highly eroded and gullied hillslopes. The observed differences in hillslope morphologies in disturbed and undisturbed areas are shown to be related to the disruption of the natural balance between soil creep and runoff erosion. The relaxation time required for the disturbed hillslopes to reach a quasi-equilibrium condition is also investigated. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Open Access
The next widespread bamboo flowering poses a massive risk to the giant panda
(Biological Conservation, 2019-06-01) Tian, Zhaoxue; Liu, Xuehua; Fan, Zhiyong; Liu, Jianguo; Pimm, Stuart L; Liu, Lanmei; Garcia, Claude; Songer, Melissa; Shao, Xiaoming; Skidmore, Andrew; Wang, Tiejun; Zhang, Yuke; Chang, Youde; Jin, Xuelin; Gong, Minghao; Zhou, Lingguo; He, Xiangbo; Dang, Gaodi; Zhu, Yun; Cai, Qiong
The IUCN Red List has downgraded several species from “endangered” to “vulnerable” that still have largely unknown extinction risks. We consider one of those downgraded species, the giant panda, a bamboo specialist. Massive bamboo flowering could be a natural disaster for giant pandas. Using scenario analysis, we explored possible impacts of the next bamboo flowering in the Qinling and Minshan Mountains that are home to most giant pandas. Our results showed that the Qinling Mountains could experience large-scale bamboo flowering leading to a high risk of widespread food shortages for the giant pandas by 2020. The Minshan Mountains could similarly experience a large-scale bamboo flowering with a high risk for giant pandas between 2020 and 2030 without suitable alternative habitat in the surrounding areas. These scenarios highlight thus-far unforeseen dangers of conserving giant pandas in a fragmented habitat. We recommend advance measures to protect giant panda from severe population crashes when flowering happens. This study also suggests the need to anticipate and manage long-term risks to other downgraded species.
Open Access
The size of savannah Africa: A lion's (Panthera leo) view
(Biodiversity and Conservation, 2013-01-01) Riggio, Jason; Jacobson, Andrew; Dollar, Luke; Bauer, Hans; Becker, Matt; Dickman, Amy; Funston, Paul; Groom, Rosemary; Henschel, Philipp; de Iongh, Hans; Lichtenfeld, Laly; Pimm, Stuart
We define African savannahs as being those areas that receive between 300 and 1,500 mm of rain annually. This broad definition encompasses a variety of habitats. Thus defined, savannahs comprise 13.5 million km2 and encompass most of the present range of the African lion (Panthera leo). Dense human populations and extensive conversion of land to human use preclude use by lions. Using high-resolution satellite imagery and human population density data we define lion areas, places that likely have resident lion populations. In 1960, 11.9 million km2 of these savannahs had fewer than 25 people per km2. The comparable area shrank to 9.7 million km2 by 2000. Areas of savannah Africa with few people have shrunk considerably in the last 50 years and human population projections suggest they will likely shrink significantly in the next 40. The current extent of free-ranging lion populations is 3.4 million km2 or about 25 % of savannah area. Habitats across this area are fragmented; all available data indicate that between 32,000 and 35,000 free-ranging lions live in 67 lion areas. Although these numbers are similar to previous estimates, they are geographically more comprehensive. There is abundant evidence of widespread declines and local extinctions. Under the criteria we outline, ten lion areas qualify as lion strongholds: four in East Africa and six in Southern Africa. Approximately 24,000 lions are in strongholds, with an additional 4,000 in potential ones. However, over 6,000 lions are in populations of doubtful long-term viability. Lion populations in West and Central Africa are acutely threatened with many recent, local extinctions even in nominally protected areas. © 2012 The Author(s).