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Reconciling nature conservation and traditional farming practices: a spatially explicit framework to assess the extent of High Nature Value farmlands in the European countryside
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Over past centuries, European landscapes have been shaped by human management. Traditional, low intensity agricultural practices, adapted to local climatic, geographic, and environmental conditions, led to a rich, diverse cultural and natural heritage, reflected in a wide range of rural landscapes, most of which were preserved until the advent of industrialized agriculture (Bignal & McCracken 2000; Paracchini et al. 2010; Oppermann et al. 2012). Agricultural landscapes currently account for half of Europe’s territory (Overmars et al. 2013), with ca. 50% of all species relying on agricultural habitats at least to some extent (Kristensen 2003; Moreira et al. 2005; Halada et al. 2011). Due to their acknowledged role in the maintenance of high levels of biodiversity, low-intensity farming systems have been highlighted as critical to nature conservation and protection of the rural environment (Beaufoy et al. 1994; Paracchini et al. 2010; Halada et al.2011; Egan & Mortensen 2012).
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Scaling up from gardens: biodiversity conservation in urban environments
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As urbanisation increases globally and the natural environment becomes increasingly fragmented, the
importance of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation grows. In many countries, private gardens area major component of urban green space and can provideconsiderable biodiversity benefits. Gardens and
adjacent habitats form interconnected networks and a landscape ecology framework is necessary to understand the relationship between the spatial configuration of garden patches and their constituent biodiversity. A scale-dependent tension is apparent in garden management, whereby the individual garden is much smaller than the unit of management needed to retain viable populations. To overcome this, here we suggest mechanisms for encouraging ‘wildlife-friendly’ management of collections of gardens across scales from the neighbourhood to the city.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Are conservation organizations configured for effective adaptation to global change?
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Conservation organizations must adapt to respond to the ecological impacts of global change. Numerous
changes to conservation actions (eg facilitated ecological transitions, managed relocations, or increased corridordevelopment) have been recommended, but some institutional restructuring within organizations may also be needed. Here we discuss the capacity of conservation organizations to adapt to changing environmental
conditions, focusing primarily on public agencies and nonprofits active in land protection and management
in the US. After first reviewing how these organizations anticipate and detect impacts affecting target
species and ecosystems, we then discuss whether they are sufficiently flexible to prepare and respond by reallocating funding, staff, or other resources. We raise new hypotheses about how the configuration of different
organizations enables them to protect particular conservation targets and manage for particular biophysical
changes that require coordinated management actions over different spatial and temporal scales. Finally, we
provide a discussion resource to help conservation organizations assess their capacity to adapt.
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Resources
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Climate Science Documents
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Using a structured decision making process for strategic conservation of imperiled aquatic species in the Upper Tennessee River Basin
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Development of strategic conservation of imperiled species faces several large challenges, including uncertainty in species response to management actions, budgetary constraints that limit options, and issues with scaling expected conservation benefits from local to landscape levels and from single to multiple species. We used a structured decision making process and a multi-scale approach to identify a cost-effective conservation strategy for the imperiled aquatic species in the Upper Tennessee River Basin (UTRB), which face a variety of threats. The UTRB, which encompasses a landscape of 22,360 square miles primarily in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, harbors one of the most globally diverse assemblages of freshwater fishes and mussels occurring at temperate latitudes. In developing the strategy, we sought to identify which management actions to emphasize to best achieve recovery of imperiled aquatic species, given costs and uncertainty in management effectiveness. The strategy was developed for conservation implementation over a 20-year period, with periodic review and revision. In this presentation, we describe the ecological significance of the UTRB, the planning process, and the resulting strategy. A strategic emphasis on population management emerged as the optimal approach for achieving conservation of imperiled aquatic species in the UTRB, which aligns well with the goals of existing plans for conserving and recovering imperiled fishes and mussels in the UTRB. The structured planning process and resulting conservation strategy dovetail with the landscape approach to conservation embodied in the USFWS’s strategic habitat conservation approach and network of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.
The recorded webinar is also available for viewing at the following link: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/science/seminars/July2015.html.
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News & Information
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Webinars and Presentations
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Appalachian LCC Primary Investigators Study Conservation Easements in the Appalachians
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Clemson scientists Rob Baldwin and Paul Leonard recently published a research article that examines the existing distribution of conservation easements in the Appalachian Mountains.
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News & Events
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Appalachian LCC Conservation Planning Specialist Earns PhD
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Paul Leonard received a PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University for his dissertation focused on habitat connectivity, mapping gene flow, and using supercomputing to speedup conservation planning.
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News & Events
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Steering Committee Advances Landscape Conservation Planning and Design in the Appalachians
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At the 2015 Appalachian LCC Steering Committee meeting, resource managers and wildlife administrators from throughout the region formally designated priority ecosystems and associated resources to focus the LCC’s landscape conservation efforts.
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News & Events
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Applying ecological criteria to marine reserve design: A case study from the California Channel Islands
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Reference which describes the steps involved in designing a network of marine reserves for conservation and fisheries management.
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Technical Resources
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Marxan Training Resources
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Marxan Training Suggested Readings
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Protected Areas: Goals, Limitations, and Design
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This reference focuses on the functions, design, and limitations of protected areas and the processes of conservation planning.
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Technical Resources
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Marxan Training Resources
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Marxan Training Suggested Readings
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Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy Presentation
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Focus on assembling an ecologically connected network of landscapes and seascapes.
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Cooperative
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Past SC Meetings and Materials
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July 13-15, 2015 Appalachian LCC Steering Committee Meeting
