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15.30 - 15.45 15.45 - 16.00 STRAND, HOLLY, Eric Dinerstein, Curt Freese, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St., NW, Washington DC, USA 20037 <strand@wwfus.org> World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St., NW, Washington DC, USA 20037, World Wildlife Fund, 1250 24th St., NW, Washington DC, USA 20037 IDENTIFYING AREAS FOR RESTORATION IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS OF NORTH AMERICA This paper highlights World Wildlife Fund’s ecoregion conservation strategy in the Northern Prairies of North America. First, we explain how WWF’s method of prioritization based on biological distinctiveness underscored the global importance of this region. Next, specific areas of high biological interest within the ecoregion were identified according to levels of species richness and endemism as well as the degree of ecological integrity. Finally, locations for broad scale conservation action were targeted in areas of both high biological value and areas where human economic activities present the least conflict or may coincide with conservation goals. These considerations include the absence of roads, human depopulation, and various economic indicators, as well as specific patterns of land ownership. Four distinct landscapes were identified; these areas have become the core restoration and conservation areas of the ecoregion. Within these landscapes, the biological needs of focal species and ecosystems as well as the socioeconomic concerns of local communities contribute to the design conservation landscapes and shape strategies for their implementation. 16.00 - 16.15 MBORA, DAVID N. M., and Douglas B Meikle. Department of Zoology, Miami University, Oxford OH, 45056, USA, <Mboradn1@muohio.edu>. EFFECTIVENESS OF PARKS AND RESERVES IN PROTECTING ENDANGERED BIODIVERSITY: A CASE STUDY OF THE TANA RIVER PRIMATE NATIONAL RESERVE, KENYA Parks and reserves are the tool of choice in protecting and conserving biodiversity. Yet, there is controversy on how effective parks and reserves are in protecting biodiversity, especially, the roles played by security presence, law enforcement, border demarcation, number of compensation programmes for people living in the surrounding areas and levels of funding for management activities. To determine if the Tana reserve is effective in conserving the endangered Tana red colobus, we surveyed forest habitat and colobus demographic characteristics inside and outside the reserve. We found forests outside had a significantly higher basal area of trees and larger colobus group size, but a significantly higher number food trees were found inside. We found no difference between forests inside and outside, with respect to all other characteristics analyzed (forest area, number of colobus groups, colobus individuals per hectare, basal area of cut stems, density of all trees and density of food trees). Our findings show that forests outside the reserve offer as good a habitat as those inside for the conservation of red colobus and highlight the need for conservation incentives directed at local communities living in the vicinity of these forest to enhance the conservation of this critically endangered primate. 16.15 - 16.30 REGAN, HELEN M., Frank W. Davis and Sandy J. Andelman. National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara, 735 State St., Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA, <regan@nceas.ucsb.edu> (HMR, SJA), Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5131, USA (FWD). THE USE OF DECISION-MAKING TOOLS IN SYSTEMATIC CONSERVATION PLANNING The California Legacy Project aims to develop systematic strategies for setting statewide conservation priorities for future investment in resource protection and habitat acquisition. These priorities are intended to address issues related to parkland for California residents, habitat preservation, agricultural, ranch and forest land preservation, and maintenance of wetlands in the face of urban expansion. We demonstrate how a decision-making tool, known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), can be utilised to identify high priority land for protection and stewardship of terrestrial biodiversity. The AHP involves specifying a set of weighted criteria required to meet a specific goal, in this case identification of lands of statewide significance for conserving terrestrial native species, communities and habitats and the ecological processes that maintain them. A panel of experts listed criteria deemed to be important in identifying high priority land for terrestrial biodiversity and also identified criteria regarded as most important in reaching this goal. Results show that current biological value outweighs both threats and fully restored biological value in importance and that the biotic condition is considered to be more important than its composition. We show how assessing planning units against each of the criteria can guide allocation of resources in conservation planning. 16.30 - 16.45 TORDOFF, ANDREW, Michael Hedemark, Arlyne Johnson, Khamsene Ounekham and Sipivan Inthapatha. BirdLife International Vietnam Programme, 11 Lane 167 Tay Son, Hanoi, Vietnam, <jack@birdlife.netnam.vn> (AT), Wildlife Conservation Society, Box 6712, Vientiane, Lao PDR (MH, AJ), Forest Inventory and Planning Centre, Vientiane, Lao PDR (KO) and Division of Forest Resource Conservation, Vientiane, Lao PDR (SI). IDENTIFYING IMPORTANT BIODIVERSITY AREAS TO SUPPORT LAND-USE PLANNING IN PROTECTED AREAS IN LAO P.D.R. The government of Lao P.D.R. has established a system of protected areas, representative of the country’s diverse habitats and ecosystems. However, in order that these protected areas can achieve their dual objectives of biodiversity conservation and securing human livelihoods, it will be necessary to zone them into areas of different management regime, including sustainable use areas, human settlement areas and strictly protected ‘core’ areas. During 2001 and 2002, four conservation organisations conducted an analysis of all available data on bird distributions in Lao P.D.R., in order to identify Important Bird Areas (IBAs), following the internationally recognised criteria developed by BirdLife International. Over 40 IBAs were identified and mapped during the analysis, and this information will now be used to support the development of protected area management plans that balance the needs of conservation with those of local communities who depend on the natural resources of the protected area. 16.45 - 17.00 MARTÍN, JOSÉ L. & Isaac Izquierdo. Environmental Planning Centre, Canary Government, Biodiversity Service, 38971 La Laguna, Ctra. La Esperanza, Km. 0,8 Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain <jose-esquivel@wanadoo.es> TAXONOMIC BIODIVERSITY AND TERRITORIAL CONSERVATION PRIORITIES IN TENERIFE (CANARY ISLAND) We outlines a procedure for selecting priority areas of acquisition for public organisations, in accordance with the complementary biota method. It aims to provide a series of criteria to enable the government to identify the most suitable areas to acquire as part of its policy to include at least one sample of all native species in the island’s public land. Based on the results of the study, we can conclude that this objective can be fulfilled by adding 1% of the island’s surface area to the current body of government-own land. This 1% is distributed among a series of areas scattered all over the island. Consequently, the paper analyses the suitability of the proposed solution for places such as Tenerife, where much of the land is intensely exploited by human uses and biodiversity is scattered around in small pockets. Finally we compare the complementary area method with that of identifying hotspots, and conclude that the former is more effective in the specific case of Tenerife. 17.00 - 17.15 MAZE, KRISTAL, Amrei von Hase, Dean Fairbanks and Richard Cowling. Botanical Society of South Africa, Private Bag x10 Claremont, 7735, South Africa <wildflower@gem.co.za> (KE) (AvH), Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology (DF) and Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit (RC). CAPE LOWLANDS PROJECT: A FINE SCALE CONSERVATION PLANNING STUDY IN THE CAPE FLORISTIC REGION, SOUTH AFRICA Lowland fynbos vegetation in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) remains only in the form of remnants in a matrix of land transformed by intensive dryland agriculture. A recent regional conservation planning initiative spanning the CFR, identified Lowland vegetation as top priorities for finer-scale strategic planning. A conservation plan focusing at the patch-level and taking biodiversity pattern, spatially explicit ecological and evolutionary processes and threats into consideration is currently being developed. This plan will guide future land-use decision-making and direct limited conservation resources. Quantifying biodiversity pattern in species-diverse, fragmented and data-sparse systems remains a challenge for deriving finer-scale habitat planning. A spatially explicit systematic framework is required to address the needs of these natural remnants. This paper presents the process of defining ecologically meaningful entities that act as surrogates for biodiversity patterns in the landscape. We adopted a biophysical approach: Biological and abiotic data were integrated by means of principal components analysis and vegetation ordination analysis. Coupling this with clustering and spatial overlay techniques in a geographic information system allowed us to derive a set of fine-scale habitat units that effectively differentiate the remaining vegetation patches. The results are then fed into a systematic selection or prioritisation using C-plan. 17.15 - 17.30 Discussion |