Transcript Species and connectivity cont`d

Session 4: Species Conservation and
Connectivity and the IUCN category system
Dr. Holly Dublin – May 10, 2007
CHARGE: How can the Category system be used
as a more effective tool to enhance species
conservation and better conservation at a
landscape level? (covering: role of zoning, role of
different categories within the landscape mosaic,
areas outside protected area networks, corridors,
etc.)
SPECIES
As conservation
Targets, per se
As tools for achieving
other conservation
objectives –
e.g.connectivity
Protected
Areas
SPECIES
Need for more attention to species;
1. Commissioned paper for input to this task force
2. Need for strategy that integrates Pas and species in an
integrated framework – perhaps a new principle
3. Species conservation need to be captured in ‘rationale’
of the WCPA
Central Concern: The emphasis on PAs
has confused a tool for an outcome. The
species focus (and other elements of
biodiversity) has gotten lost and needs to
be stressed as an outcome of PA
establishment and management.
Key Areas for Interaction between WCPA and SSC:
1. Site selection of new PAs needs to consider covering
areas holding threatened species
2. Management effectiveness needs to include species
persistence/conservation – especially for
threatened/vulnerable species “Condition” is not
enough.
3. This “management effectiveness” needs to include
individual PAs, the full range of categories, PA
systems within a nation; PA systems across the range
of a species
4. Need for technical guidance
across both groups
(e.g. climate change and invasives)
Key Areas for Interaction between WCPA
and SSC …cont’d…..
5. There should be special rules for
invasive species i.d. and management that
allow special consideration of
management in categories?
6. Need to make sure PA systems are
cover all elements of biodiversity
7. Governance may also be key in
understanding what types of management
(including PAs) are most effective in
species conservation (particularly for
species that migrate or move well outside
PA boundaries or just ARE outside the
PA).
Key Areas for Interaction between WCPA and SSC …cont’d…..
8. It is critical for species conservation efforts to include
protected areas as one part of a strategy, but there
must be a consideration of strategies beyond
protected areas. In fact, there are real dangers in
looking at protected areas as refugia for vulnerable
species – islands in a barren sea of McDonalds,
Carre Fours and development.
Key Areas for Interaction between WCPA and SSC …cont’d…..
9. Stress that PAs will not always be an effective tool
for achieving conservation of species (e.g. things that
area-based planning won’t solve : disease and climate
change)
Species and Connectivity …
1. PAs are fundamental to species
survival but not sufficient, you
need connectivity between them
2. But, the connectivity should not
require PAs, but must entail
other land use types and
incentive systems between PAs
3. Species conservation may make
more general conservation
possible by being better
understood as an entry point.
Species and connectivity cont’d …
4. Connectivity should not be
pursued just for its own sake,
but when it is justified for
specific conservation outcomes
(because it has costs:
opportunity and direct).
5. Papallacta Declaration has good
details on this topic relevant to
mountain systems (see Harvey
and colleagues)
6. We should strive to maximize
altitudinal and ecological
diversity within as well as
across PAs.
Species and connectivity cont’d …
7. The nature of connectivity in
freshwater and marine
systems needs to be taken into
consideration – especially the
limits of geographical
designation of areas due to
temporal and spatial variation
in currents/upwellings and
one-way movement etc.. Just
new PA establishment won’t
solve many species
conservation problems in
freshwater and marine
systems
Species and connectivity cont’d …
8. Concern that PAs (even in
the fulsomeness of their
categories) are not enough to
achieve conservation. Interest
in opening to consideration of
large scale, systematic
conservation; perhaps even the
Ecosystem Approach. Interest
in linking the species concern
with that of the groups looking
at marine, freshwater, forests,
etc.
Species and connectivity cont’d …
9. Concern that connectivity may
not always be the appropriate
concept – but that permeability
may be the critical concern for
things like migratory bats and
birds
Other issues:
1. Possible utility of case studies where successful
conservation has been shown of species across broader
landscapes
2. Greater possible investment by conservation community
in landuse planning/governance types outside PAs (e.g.
private lands and indigenous/community lands)
4. Different political/social/ecological settings may require
different approaches to achieving species conservation
5. Successfully addressing species conservation requires a
“One IUCN - One Program” concept that draws upon
skills of all commissions
Humans must learn to live together
with the rest of the world’s species.
Thank you!
Photo by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images