Transcript Slide 1

l
MONITORING HIGH VALUE PLANT SPECIES
Lessons from the past &
looking to the future.
Tony Cunningham
OVERVIEW
• Why manage & monitor plant resources?
• Important needs: questions before we start..
• Strategic choices & sustaining harvest: resilience
vs. vulnerability;
• 9 lessons: HVPS monitoring
• Thinking about the future…
WHY MANAGE RESOURCES?
• Livelihoods:avoid undermining local self sufficiency;
• Market reasons: gain market share when the market
cares & back-up to claims of sustainability;
• Ecological & conservation reasons:avoid
population crashes or extinctions & provide an
incentive for maintaining habitat;
• Cultural reasons:maintain “cultural keystone species”
FOCAL “INDICATOR” SPECIES
SUSTAINABLE?: MONITORING IS
NEEDED TO BACK UP CLAIMS….
BEFORE WE START...
• What is the overall objective (eg: biodiversity conservation,
livelihoods, heterogenity within landscapes)?
• What question(s) are we trying to answer?
• How precise do we want to be?
• Who will do the work?
• What training needs before we can start (& how often)?
• What is the control (ie: compared to what)?
• Who will analyse the data?
WE ALSO TO ASK OURSELVES…
• Who will act on the results (& who will translate these into
a suitable format for decision makers)?
• What is the spatial & time scale (rate of change; how big &
where)?
• What other factors are also affecting the same resource?
(& how can these be distinguished from what you are
monitoring)?
• How long will it be before decisions regarding
management options can be made?
WHAT OBJECTIVES FOR BAIKIAEA FOREST?
Regener
-ation
Light and/or
less frequent
fire
Kalahari
woodland
& thicket
Baikiaea
forest
Increased
human activity
(clearing,
logging etc)
Scrub/thick
et
Continuing
fire
Hot and/or
frequent fire
Invasive
trees &
thicket
Continuing
fire
Fire
Grassland
IMPORTANT NEEDS:
• Affordable in terms of time and money;
• Focused on priority species & at the right scale;
• Reliable & sufficiently accurate: no point if not reliable;
• Starts with an initial assessment of existing resource
management practices (if any).
DO THE JOB PROPERLY…or
risk disempowerment
“The results of inadequate monitoring can be
both misleading and dangerous not only because of
their inability to detect ecologically significant
changes, but also because they create the illusion
that something useful has been done”
Legg, C J & L Nagy. 2006. Why most conservation monitoring is, but need not be, a
waste of time. Journal of Environmental Management 78:194–199
LESSON 1: LOCAL PEOPLE ARE KEEN TO
MONITOR THEIR HIGH VALUE PLANTS
….may be too keen…so priority setting is crucial!!
MAKE STRATEGIC CHOICES FOR
MANAGEMENT & MONITORING
High potential for
sustainable harvest
•resilient species
• abundant, high value
• lower input M&M
Low potential for
sustainable harvest
• vulnerable species
• costly & complex M&M
• high precision required
Potential for sustainable use influences how much
input needs to put into management & monitoring.
ECOLOGICAL
KEYSTONE
SPECIES
Do they need special
attention?
PRIORITISE SPECIES BY ABUNDANCE OR
RARITY
1.
Geographic
range
2. Habitat
specificity
LARGE
SMALL
Wide
Narrow
Wide
Narrow
Large &
dominant
somewhere
Locally
abundant,
several habitats
over large
geographic area
Locally abundant
in a specific
habitat over small
geographic area
Locally abundant,
several habitats
over large
geographic area
Locally abundant
in a specific
habitat over small
geographic area
Small, nondominant
Constantly
sparse in several
habitats over a
large geographic
area
Constantly sparse
in a specific
habitat over a
small geographic
area
Constantly sparse
in several habitats
over a large
geographic area
Constantly sparse
in a specific
habitat over a
small geographic
area
3. Local
population size
LESSON 2: THERE ARE SUCCESSES:
Commiphora& linking different scales for
management, monitoring & business
DEVIL’S CLAW & “AFTER SALES SERVICE”
LESSON 3: CRUCIAL TO TAKE AN
INTEGRATED APPROACH TO HVPS
MANGEMENT & MONITORING
HVPS
ELEPHANT
DAMAGE
Focal
areas &
species
FIRE
TIMBER
EXTRACTION
GRAZERS
WHY IS PROTEA GAGUEDI EXTINCT IN
NAMIBIA?
Namibia 1966
•“life on the edge”;
• traditional use for roots;
•Proteceae very suscepitible to fungal infection;
• Possible elephant damage;
• habitat disturbance, high (grass) fuel loads after high rainfall;
• inappropriate management response (cement around roots). (
Zambia 2010
LESSON 4: SEVERAL HVPS NEED A
SERIOUS RETHINK
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1991 – WWF-US/pre-LIFE;
Event books (4 years, Kwando conservancy);
Cybertracker, Mark 1…what about new version?;
Links & lessons from game monitoring.
Local capacity;
National capacity;
Integrating different scales.
BERCHEMIA – a 4-17 year test
Why continue?
LESSON 5: LIMITS TO LOCAL CAPACITY
– EVEN WITH TECHNICAL SUPPORT
But with small modifications, training & cross-checking there is
great potential
REGULAR SUPPORT IS NEEDED TO GET
RELIABLE DATA
When entered into a computer database in Windhoek, it gets its own
reality…or may not yield anything useful at all.
LESSON 6: BENEFITS FROM LEARNING
FROM CONSERVANCY APPROACHES TO
VALUE FROM WILDLIFE.
•Incentives through getting best value are crucial to Game counts linked to Event
Books & quotas;
• Hunting quotas are advertized in an “auction system” to get best value;
• Why should there be a monopoly on commercial timber logging (eg: Kwando CF)?
LESSON 7: NEED TO HARMONIZE
NATIONAL& LOCAL RULES WITH WHAT IS
HAPPENING IN PRACTICE
STAMPS? MGMT PLAN? MONITORING?
What basis for an annual allowable cut (if the objective is sustainable
harvest of a protected species?)
LESSON 8: OPPORTUNITIES TO GET
TIME DEPTH: FIXED POINT PHOTOS
BNP, 1966
Near Popa falls, 1966
KLT, 1966
1950
FIXED POINT PHOTOS
• Cost effective;
1995
• Slow, subtle changes visible;
• Finding historical photos &
relocation can give time depth;
2004
• Scale, measurements & “digital
calipers”
LESSON 9: LONG TIME-LAGS ARE COMMON
…and local “champion’s” & partnerships are crucial.
FUTURE OPTIONS: THERE ARE BENEFITS
FROM BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
Technology: Links to landscapes, links to cost effective data analysis & illegal activity monitoring
Cost effective tool for HVPS with scattered distributions?
CONCLUSIONS
• This is a good time for an assessment of HVPS
monitoring;
• There would be real benefits for linking MET, NGO &
Forestry efforts & common interests;
• Effective links could spread the load;
• Invest in field-based training & regular “refresher
courses & cross-checks” (in 3-4 day courses, not a
few hours).
• Carefully select priority species;
• Think about the benefits of CONINFO.
THANK YOU
THANK YOU