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UPDATES FROM SECTIONS, WORKING GROUPS, AND CHAPTERS
AUSTRAL AND NEOTROPICAL AMERICA New Board Members. We welcome our four newly elected board members: Director of Communication Sandra Pompa (Mexico), Director of Finances Leslie Sánchez (Costa Rica), Director of Conservation Felipe Melo (Brazil), and President Elect Mariana Vale (Brazil). Policy Paper in Conservation Biology. The August issue of Conservation Biology has papers from all of SCB's Regional Sections on priorities for policy-relevant conservation research. We conducted a survey of our members to identify the most pressing conservation challenges for the region, and discussed the top four issues identified by those members in the paper. We thank the 115 members who contributed to the paper by answering the survey. Section Meeting in Beijing. Our Section held a members meeting during SCB's 2009 annual meeting. The meeting was well attended despite the distance that separates China from Latin America and the Caribbean. We had 33 attendees from seven different Latin American countries, plus the four board members who were in Beijing (Mariana Vale, Rurik List, Nora Bynum, and Sandra Pompa). The attendees expressed interest in having (1) a regional meeting, emphasizing the language deterrent to Section attendees at SCB's global meetings, (2) more resources available on the Section's webpage, and (3) a Facebook page to enhance communication within the Section. The new Director of Communication, Sandra Pompa, will put together the Facebook page. Items 1 and 2 are addressed below. Possible Joint Meeting with the North America Section. Members of the North America and Austral and Neotropical sections discussed the possibility of a joint regional meeting in 2012. The idea is to have a bilingual meeting (English and Spanish), in a Latin American country in a central location, which would engage SCB members working in the whole Americas. We are looking forward to this opportunity. Volunteers Needed for Section Webpage. Members expressed interest in having more resources available on our webpage, such as up-to-date lists of graduate programs, sources of funding, and events in the region. We are looking for volunteers to put together these lists. The lists would be compiled with consultation of the Section's membership, which has representation in almost every country in the region. The webpage already has a list of graduate programs that just need to be updated, while the lists of funding sources and events would have to start from scratch. If you would like to volunteer, please contact Mariana Vale (mvale.eco@gmail.com). Mariana M. Vale Just weeks after SCB's successful annual meeting, the Europe Section is heading into the final weeks before the second European Congress of Conservation Biology, which will be held on the campus of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague from 1-5 September. Three years after our first congress in Eger, Hungary, we are facing the exciting challenge of ensuring that the meeting of more than 1500 scientists, policy makers, and conservation practitioners runs smoothly and delivers the exciting and stimulating meeting that the diverse abstracts promise. The congress has drawn participants from all over Europe and around the world as well as from all across the broad spectrum of roles and disciplines that conservation biology encompasses. We are confident that the scientific program and social and networking opportunities will serve the theme, Conservation Biology and Beyond: From Science to Practice. In addition to the organization of the congress it has been a busy season for the Section. The Education Committee organized another conservation field school in Papingo, Greece for 10-18 October. Registration is open and details are available at www.cbcd.eu/gss. The Communications Committee is playing a major role in distributing general information about the congress and coordinating press releases during the meeting. The committee also has been enhancing the Section's Web profile through the Board of Directors' blog (euroconbio.blogspot.com), updates to SCB's website, and development of a Wikipedia entry. Further, the Communications Committee supported the Policy Committee in preparing posters, flyers, and other advertising materials for their booth at the Green Week in Brussels in June. The Policy Committee met in Ewersbalde, Germany in May. At its booth at Green Week in June, the committee promoted SCB and the congress, communicated current scientific knowledge about conservation in a changing climate, and highlighted the value of roadless areas for conservation. The roadless areas initiative has led to preparation of a manuscript on roadless areas as conservation targets in Europe. Further, the committee has launched a survey of scientific opinion on improving implementation of Natura 2000 across the European Union. The survey will be launched at the congress; details will be available at www.eccb2009.org. Once again the board encourages all Section members to become active participants in the activities of the Section-getting involved in one of our committees is a good place to start! We look forward to meeting many of you at the congress, and hope you will use the event as an opportunity to meet with the committee members and chairs and explore how you might participate. Please contact the board with any questions or comments (europe@conservationbiology.org). Owen Nevin From 17 to 24 May, the Marine Section held the first International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. In total the IMCC attracted more than 1200 registrants and participants from all over the world. The event featured up to 15 simultaneous sessions, a three-day training course on marine protected areas, and more than 20 side events and meetings, and incorporated the second International Marine Protected Area Congress. Given the attendance and number of sessions and meetings, the IMCC is believed to be the largest marine conservation conference yet. The IMCC was intended to be an interdisciplinary meeting engaging natural and social scientists, managers, policy-makers, and the public. Major themes that were addressed at the IMCC included global climate change, the land-sea interface, ecosystem-based management, and poverty and globalization. Cross-cutting issues encompassing topics of global relevance and importance to marine conservation also included marine protected areas, education and outreach, governance arrangements, fisheries and aquaculture, and economics. Travel Awards An initial goal of the IMCC organizing committee was to encourage diversity of attendance at the meeting. Fundraising for the IMCC allocated almost $45,000 toward travel expenses for 24 individuals from 22 countries (out of 278 applications for travel grants). Awardees traveled from locations as diverse as Bangladesh, Eritrea, Uruguay and Reunion Island. A grant from the World Bank supported all travel costs of five individuals; all other awards were supported by general conference funds. Meeting Program The meeting began on 17 May with a three-day set of training courses for Marine Protected Area (MPA) managers and marine conservation practitioners. On 19 May additional events were held, including a meeting on High Seas governance, a workshop on using the arts as a marine conservation outreach tool, and a visit to congressional staffers in Washington, D.C. A full-day event at the National Museum of Natural History on 20 May highlighted marine conservation success stories and was followed by a talk by Daniel Pauly, Toward a conservation ethic for the sea: steps in a personal and intellectual odyssey, and a reception. An impressive array of marine conservationists presented plenary addresses. Ratana Cheunpagdee (Memorial University, Canada) discussed Chain analysis of poverty and globalization: conservation challenges and governance implications. Rod Fujita (Environmental Defense Fund) presented Creating markets to protect and value marine ecosystem goods and services. Two speakers from the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, Dorothy Childers and Muriel Morse, addressed Climate change in the Bering Sea: protecting ecological and cultural values as fisheries move north. No blue, no green: why caring for the ocean matters to everything that matters to you was presented by Sylvia Earle (National Geographic Society). Callum Roberts (University of York, UK) gave the Dr. Ransom A. Myers Memorial Lecture, Sustaining ocean life through the next 100 years. Roberts was introduced by Dr. Myers' daughters, Rosemary and Emily. We offer the following sampling of events. The Communications Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS) held a "Meet the Press" event that attracted key journalists from journals and magazines such as Science and newspapers such as The Washington Post. A Film Night at the George Mason University Cinema featured the winners from Ocean Film Festivals across the United States. Many side meetings were held each day. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showcased their new strategy for conserving coral reefs. The World Ocean Council convened a meeting on corporate ocean responsibility and a case study on environmental status and institutional neglect in the Mediterranean. Symposia and workshops covered subjects including marine diseases, MPA economics, tools for projecting climate change, fisheries financing, manatee and dugong conservation, underwater noise pollution, and historical documentation (via photographs) of changes in fish communities. In addition to the symposia, workshops, meetings, and events there was a traditional program with oral and speed presentations and posters. Sustainability We made a major effort to maximize the sustainability of the meeting. Participants received detailed information on local public transportation and were requested to pay a carbon offset fee. Meals, utensils, and packing included ingredients that were as sustainable, organic, and locally grown as possible. These measures were so successful that the host university will be utilizing IMCC's menus and types of products for other events. Chris Parsons Canada Subsection The North America Section will launch a Canada subsection at SCB's 2010 annual meeting in Edmonton. The goals of the subsection are to increase the networking capacity of Canadian conservation biologists and to increase their ability to comment on conservation issues with a unified voice. The concept of the subsection emerged from a workshop in April on developing a multidisciplinary network of conservation professionals in Canada. The aim of the workshop was to increase the provision of evidence-based natural and social conservation science to managers and policy makers in Canada. Hosted in Ottawa by Carleton University and the North America Section, the event brought together more than 40 conservation professionals from academia, government, and non-governmental organizations. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's Strategic Workshop Grant program, Carthy Foundation, and Wilburforce Foundation provided financial support. Graduate students from the Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology helped to facilitate the workshop. Through structured brainstorming and discussion in plenary and breakout sessions, workshop participants explored the ecological, social, and political attributes of Canada that create challenges and opportunities for conservation partnerships and problem solving. Participants also explored the existing motivations for and mechanisms by which Canadian conservation professionals network, and whether additional structures would enhance capacity. Proposed objectives of the national collaborative network of conservation professionals are 1. To create a strong network of conservation professionals -- researchers, managers, and policy makers -- who communicate regularly and openly in an effort to improve conservation science in Canada
Members of the steering committee were affiliated with universities and governmental agencies in Canada, the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, and SCB's Social Science Working Group and North America Section. The Canada subsection is open to all interested members of the North America Section. For more information or to share your ideas, please contact Colleen Cassady St. Clair (cstclair@ualberta.ca), Mark Boyce (mark.boyce@ualberta.ca), and Steven Cooke (steven.cooke@carleton.ca). Steve Cooke and Colleen St. Clair Help Make a Difference on U.S. Roadless Areas Policy Protecting biological diversity in a network of reserves has been a major goal of conservationists for more than a century (Noss 1996). However, most scientists agree that it will take far more land than is currently protected to achieve a reserve system that is representative of a broader array of land-cover types and species distributions. While the United States is considered a leader among nations in conservation, it has protected just 5% of its land base in strict reserves (DellaSala et al. 2001). Chief among the priorities of many of the nation's conservation professionals is a network of unroaded areas. Roadless areas can act as refugia for species that decline in response to fragmentation (e.g., DeVelice and Martin 2001, Strittholt and DellaSala 2001, Loucks et al. 2003). These areas take on even greater importance in the face of climate change by providing pathways for dispersal and migration. Roadless areas are often at the headwaters of local drinking water supplies, which is important for regions with increasing aridity, and many contain large blocks of old-growth forests and undisturbed ecosystems that absorb and store large amounts of carbon. Both the ecological effects of roads and the role of roadless areas in conservation have been addressed in Conservation Biology (see Special Section on roads in volume 14, issue 1 [February 2000], Trombulak and Frissell 2000, Strittholt and DellaSala 2001). Given this scientific evidence, and the fact that policy on federal roadless areas in the United States is currently in flux, conservation of roadless areas is of strategic importance to SCB's policy program in North America. Interest in conservation of roadless areas in the United States dates back to the 1970s, during which the Forest Service was directed by Congress to develop a national inventory of those areas larger than 2000 ha that lacked roads. Since then, approximately one third of the nation's 78 million ha of national forests have been categorized as roadless areas. In contrast, some 608,000 km currently are mapped as forest roads, enough to circumnavigate the globe 16 times. In 2001, President Clinton enacted the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a landmark initiative designed to conserve all 24 million ha of inventoried roadless areas on national forests. Shortly after, the Bush administration issued a revised and weaker rule that enabled state governors to propose locally supported regulations for roadless areas. Two states, Idaho and Colorado, submitted petitions to the Forest Service that would reduce roadless area protections. The Bush rule was later overturned in the courts with an exception for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which contains one of the world's most intact temperate rainforests. However, the legal status of the conservation rule remains uncertain with conflicting appellate court decisions in two different federal circuits. Recognizing this uncertainty, the Obama administration recently announced that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will review the fate of roadless areas on a case by case basis until a decision is reached on the 2001 rule. Vilsack's first decision was to approve clearcutting of old-growth rainforest in a roadless area on the Tongass National Forest. Other states' proposals for logging, mining, and energy development projects in roadless areas await Vilsack's review. Until 3 October, SCB members can participate in the Colorado Department of Natural Resources' 60-day public comment period on the petition that they propose to send to Secretary Vilsack (visit www.dnr.state.co.us/roadlessrule). While President Obama campaigned in support of the national rule covering all inventoried roadless areas, the administration has yet to make a determination on how to proceed with state petitions and nationally; we anticipate this will be resolved in the coming months. The Section will determine its level of engagement pursuant to SCB's policy approval process for both the Colorado rule and national rule policy. For additional information on how to become involved in public comment on the Colorado petition or requests to the Obama administration to support roadless area conservation, contact me directly (dominick@nccsp.org) or watch for future announcements from SCB. Dominick DellaSala As the newsletter went to press, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled to reinstate the 2001 roadless area conservation rule. The Tongass was not covered by this decision and the Colorado state petition remains unresolved at this time. Your voice still can make a difference. Literature Cited DellaSala, D.A., N.L. Staus, J.R. Strittholt, A. Hackman, and A. Iacobelli. 2001. An updated protected areas database for the United States and Canada. Natural Areas Journal 21:124-135. DeVelice, R.L. and J.R. Martin. 2001. Assessing the extent to which roadless areas complement the conservation of biological diversity. Ecological Applications 11:1008-1018. Loucks, C., N. Brown, A. Loucks, and K. Cesareo. 2003. USDA Forest Service roadless areas: potential biodiversity conservation reserves. Conservation Ecology 7(2): http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol7/iss2/art5/index.cfml. Noss, R.F. 1996. Protected areas: how much is enough? Pages 91-120 in R.G. Wright, editor. National parks and protected areas. Blackwell Science, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Strittholt, J.R., and D.A. DellaSala. 2001. Importance of roadless areas in biodiversity conservation in forested ecosystems: a case study-Klamath-Siskiyou ecoregion, U.S.A. Conservation Biology 15:1742-1754. Trombulak, S.C., and C.A. Frissell. 2000. Review of ecological effects of roads on terrestrial and aquatic communities. Conservation Biology 14:18-30. Meetings We regret that the 2009 Oceania meeting in Hobart has been cancelled. Despite our best efforts, and possibly a reflection on the global economy, we could not find enough sponsorship to make the meeting viable. We apologize for any inconvenience. We are now officially the hosts of SCB's 25th global meeting in 2011. The meeting will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, and may be held jointly with the Marine Section. The timing of the meeting is yet to be determined. The local organizing committee would be pleased to hear suggestions for the meeting theme and major events or activities. Please contact Craig Morley (cmorley@doc.govt.nz). Publication Conservation Biology recently published a focus on policy as viewed by SCB's Regional Sections. The Oceania Section is represented by Kingsford, R.T., J.E.M. Watson, C.J. Lundquist, O. Venter, L. Hughes, E.L. Johnston, J. Atherton, M. Gawel, D.A. Keith, B.G. Mackey, C. Morley, H.P. Possingham, B. Raynor, H.F. Recher, and K.A. Wilson. 2009. Major conservation policy issues for biodiversity in Oceania. Conservation Biology 23:834-840. Nicola Nelson Focus on the Woylie In 1996, the woylie (Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi) was the first Australian vertebrate to be removed from state and national threatened lists in response to a spectacular recovery facilitated by two decades of extensive fox-control and woylie translocations (see Western Shield Project at www.dec.wa.gov.au/programs/western-shield/index.cfml). Unexpectedly, however, the species is now relisted as endangered or critically endangered (depending on jurisdiction) as a result of rapid population collapses that have led to an 80% decline in abundance since 2001. There have not yet been clear signs of a recovery. Since 2002, the Perup population has declined by more than 95% to less than 300 to 500 individuals. The government of Western Australia recently pledged $600,000 to fund an Emergency Conservation Action plan for the woylie. Of this, $500,000 will be used by the Department of Environment and Conservation to establish a 400 ha predator-free enclosure in the Perup Nature Reserve (300 km south of Perth) that is expected to sustain approximately 500 woylies. At least 40 founders of the population will be obtained from the surrounding area, which previously constituted the largest of three indigenous populations that persisted after pan-continental declines of the species in the 1800s and 1900s. The remaining $100,000 will be directed towards a collaborative captive breeding program at the Perth Zoo. The program will focus on genetic conservation of the Batalling woylie population (150 km south of Perth), which declined in abundance by more than 97%. The cause of the recent declines remains to be verified, but both predators and disease have been implicated (see www.dec.wa.gov.au/programs/saving-our-species/woylie-conservation-research-project.cfml). Both of these initiatives will present valuable research opportunities to improve understanding of the species and its declines. Adrian Wayne, Department of Environment and Conservation, Western Australia, adrian.wayne@dec.wa.gov.au Global Conservation Assessment of Freshwater Biodiversity A workshop on the first day of SCB's 2009 annual meeting was attended by some 30 participants. There is much interest in undertaking an assessment of freshwater biodiversity at a global scale to feed into many processes of nongovernmental organizations. Eren Turak, the project leader, gave an overview of the purpose of the study, how it will differ from existing approaches by following a systematic approach to the assessment, and alignment with existing initiatives. David Dudgeon gave a short presentation describing how the GWSP-DIVERSITAS Global Threat Analysis for River Systems could contribute to this project. The initial plan is to develop and publish a conceptual foundation for conducting these analyses, exploring the data available on biodiversity and threats, and what techniques are necessary. If you are interested in participating in please contact Eren (eren.turak@environment.nsw.gov.au). 2009 Annual Meeting Eren Turak and Jeanne Nel chaired a session each in a symposium on integrated protection and restoration of wetlands, rivers and subterranean aquatic ecosystems. The presentations in each of the sessions were followed by discussions. The focus of one discussion was how the different types of freshwater ecosystems can be linked together, while the second discussion explored linkages with terrestrial, marine, and estuarine conservation planning. Our annual members' meeting drew approximately 10 participants. The online educational module Freshwater Ecosystems and Biodiversity that our dedicated Education Committee has been developing for the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (http://ncep.amnh.org) has passed another hurdle of external reviews and hopefully will be available to teachers and students before long. Congratulations Than, Lisa, Michael, and Jayan for your success to date. Freshwater in the 100 Global Questions Five freshwater questions were included in "100 Questions of Importance to the Conservation of Global Biodiversity" by Sutherland et al. (2009. Conservation Biology 23:557-567). 54. How can freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem service values best be incorporated in the design of water-provisioning schemes for direct human use and food production? 55. Which aquatic species and communities are most vulnerable to human impacts, and how would their degradation affect the provision of ecosystem services? 56. Where will the impacts of global climate change on hydrology be most extreme, and how might they affect freshwater species and the ability of wetlands and inland waters to deliver ecosystem services? 57. Which multinational governance, cross-sector cooperation arrangements, and finance mechanisms will make freshwater ecosystem management more effective and reduce international conflicts over water? 58. How does investment in restoration of wetlands and riparian areas compare with construction of dams and flood defenses in providing cost-effective improvements in flood management and the storage and retention of water for domestic, industrial, and agricultural use? The Working Group's strategic plan is available at www.conbio.org/workinggroups/freshwater/ We encourage you to post freshwater conservation issues, publications, jobs, and resources to the freshwater listserv, freshwater@list.conbio.org. You may subscribe to the list at http://list.conbio.org/mailman/listinfo/freshwater/. If you cannot access this, please forward your information to Aventino Kasangaki (aventinok@yahoo.com), our list moderator. Aventino Kasangaki and Jeanne Nel The Social Science Working Group held elections several months ago for five board seats: representatives of anthropology, geography, psychology, and two at-large positions. Please welcome the following new board members, whose terms run until the end of SCB's 2011 global meeting: Ashwini Chhatre, At Large Representative, faculty member in the Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Robin Roth, Geography Representative, faculty member in the Department of Geography, York University. Congratulations also to the following individuals who were reelected for another term on the board: Rich Wallace, At Large Representative and Working Group Vice President, Chair of the Environmental Studies Program, Ursinus College; David Hoffman, Anthropology Representative, faculty member in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology & Social Work, Mississippi State University; and Tara Teel, Psychology Representative and Working Group President, faculty member in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University. In addition, we thank the following individuals transitioning off the board this year for their commitment and service to the Working Group: Tammy Lewis, outgoing Sociology Representative & Audit Committee Chair; William Forbes, outgoing Geography Representative & Nominations Committee Chair; and Angelika Wilhelm-Rechmann, outgoing At Large Representative and Communications Committee Chair. These individuals have played an important role in advancing the mission and efforts of the Working Group. Activities at the 2009 Annual Meeting SCB's annual meeting featured a variety of conservation social science activities. At least ten symposia, four short courses, four workshops, and numerous oral presentations and posters emphasized the social aspects of conserving biological diversity. Among these was a symposium co-sponsored by the Working Group and the International Association of the Commons, Common Property, Biodiversity Conservation, and Climate Change. The working group also was pleased to co-sponsor a one-day short course with Colorado State University, The Role of the Social Sciences in Conservation Planning, which was directed at building capacity in the social sciences to address today's conservation challenges. In addition to these activities, the Working Group organized its annual members' meeting and a joint social with the Asia Section. Both events were well-attended and provided important opportunities for expanding the network of people interested in conservation social science within the SCB community and beyond. We announce the publication of the first in our Working Paper Series: Putting People on the Map: An Approach to Integrating Social Data into Conservation Planning. The piece, written by Sheri Stephanson and Michael Mascia, is available at http://www.conbio.org/workinggroups/SSWG/ResPapers.cfm. The goal of the Working Paper Series is to provide a forum for conservation social science research, especially successful application of social science tools and approaches to conservation policy and practice. The intent of the series is to promote current research in the final stages of completion. Publication in the series does not preclude publication elsewhere. The series provides an excellent opportunity for rapid and widespread dissemination of research findings, as well as peer review of written work. If you are interested in submitting a paper, please read the instructions at www.conbio.org/workinggroups/SSWG/ResPapers.cfm or contact David Hoffman, Working Paper Series Editor and Education Committee Chair, at sswgwps@conbio.org. The Social Science Working Group is now on Facebook and Twitter! These new networking opportunities were launched in conjunction with SCB's 2009 annual meeting. Members were able to view real-time updates of talks, symposia, and other social science-related events at the meeting. We invite you to keep up-to-date with Working Group activities, meet us, find the latest conservation social science news, and follow events at SCB meetings by becoming a fan of our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/SCBs-Social-Science-Working-Group/107162223336.
Tara Teel and Nejem Raheem
CHAPTERSDuring 2009, SCB's Board of Governors has initiated various activities and changes in governance that affect chapters. Chapters Committee. Since its inception in 2003 by SCB's Executive Director, a Chapters Advisory Group provided assistance to the Executive Office. At the annual meeting, the membership approved a change to SCB's bylaws that created a standing committee on chapters. The Chapters Committee is charged with facilitating the growth of and coordination among chapters globally and assisting chapters in contributing to SCB's mission. Chapter Bylaws. After an 18-month process, all 30 chapters were re-ratified with revised bylaws, legal agreements, and charters. In addition, chapters have been provided with guidance on operations via a handbook developed by the Executive Office and Board (available at SCB's website). The new documentation allows for some much-needed updates, clarity, and uniformity in chapter operations. Many thanks to all the chapters for their assistance and patience in switching to the new documents. New Chapters. Welcome to the five new chapters that joined SCB this year: Grand Junction (Colorado, USA), Northwest Ohio (USA), Sul Ross State University (Texas, USA), Madrean (a transborder chapter covering northern Mexico and southern Arizona and New Mexico), and Central Mexico (Tlaxcala). New chapters are being discussed for Canada, Namibia, South Africa, Mongolia, and southeast Asia. Chapter Activities in Beijing. Two chapter-oriented events were held at the 2009 annual meeting: a mixer with the Board of Governors and a roundtable workshop. Chapters also were emphasized at SCB's information booth.
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