AgriPop Friday talks

Friday's Agripop Talks

  15 February 2013 - 11:30 - Salle Ragondin

Assessing the effectiveness of different  approaches to species conservation

AndreaSantangeli

Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Finland

from: Milky Way Scientists facebook page

OK, don't worry, that's not Andrea, it's some other unlucky bloke. And the talk will also not be directly about eagles.

Actually, Andrea's talk will not be taxon specific, as it addresses an important question of general concern, i.e. how to assess the effectiveness of alternative approaches to conserve species. Especially given the high prevalence of highly altered, human-dominated landscapes, it is not trivial to understand how to conserve the biodiversity that persists in these areas.

Now, to make sure that I stop writing silly things, let's use Andrea's own words -- though I may continue inserting random pics :-)

Humans have used natural resources for thousands of years, and created and maintained extensive traditional landscapes that nowadays support important biodiversity in forested and open-land biomes. However, these landscapes have undergone massive changes during recent decades owing to the intensification of extraction regimes in forests and farmlands across large regions of the globe. As a consequence, most species that have adapted and thrived for centuries or millennia in traditionally managed landscapes are showing signs of population decline and regional extinctions. 

To revert the negative impacts of modern intensive practices, large sums of money and various conservation approaches have been implemented. Unfortunately, such large efforts have not always been based on solid and updated scientific evidence, and therefore they have achieved only mixed successes. In order to maximise the impact of limited conservation resources, it is crucial that evaluation studies are carried out. These would ultimately allow learning from past actions and take better decisions in the future. 

 from: http://bit.ly/Z9NPmk

Here I evaluate the effectiveness of species-specific conservation measures implemented in contrasting landscapes (from forest to farmland) and with different underlying approaches, from a voluntary inexpensive approach (only based on self-motivation of landowners), a voluntary market-based approach (where landowners are compensated), to a compulsory approach (where landowners have no choice; achieved through land reservation or legislation).

After evaluation of their benefit to wildlife, I show that some expensive and coercive management interventions may result unnecessary; some, like legislation, may not be effective at achieving their goal while others, such as inexpensive voluntary approaches, can achieve important results with very limited resources. 

Overall, the case studies presented here lead to a general conclusion that evaluating conservation interventions can reveal relevant and sometimes unexpected outcomes that have important implications for improving the cost-effectiveness of conservation efforts.

Interesting, isn't it? So, see you all Friday am!