IUCN management categories fail to represent new, multiple-use protected areas in Madagascar

Abstract

The IUCN protected area management category system provides an internationally-recognized, unifying framework for the description and classification of the world's diverse protected areas. It includes six main categories, of which category V has attracted debate because of its emphasis on the role of harmonious people-nature interactions in maintaining biodiversity within cultural landscapes. Madagascar's new generation of protected areas comprises sites mainly proposed as category V, with the joint management objectives of biodiversity conservation and the promotion of natural resource use for rural development. Here, I use a categorization decision tool to investigate the categorization of 10 new protected areas proposed as category V, and find that these sites fail to meet the criteria for any management category. I argue that category V is inappropriate for these new protected areas because their associated people-nature interactions are largely negative for biodiversity. I further argue that management of these new protected areas differs fundamentally from management of category V protected areas in Europe, and recommend the modification of the management category system to account for such distinctions.

Social learning and the researcher–practitioner divide

“…Although conservation science has facilitated the design of an optimal protected area portfolio to ensure maximum representation of biodiversity, it has told us little about how individual protected areas can be effectively managed. Experimenting with new protected area categories and governance models while attempting to balance the needs of multiple stakeholders (Gardner, 2011), the need of the Malagasy government and its NGO partners for managementrelevant research far outstrips available research capacity. The protected area expansion programme is time-limited (an 'emergency conservation context'; Marie et al, 2009) and promoters of protected areas, largely NGOs, have therefore rushed to begin the establishment process, sometimes in landscapes for which they have limited prior understanding of either the biodiversity or the complex local socio-ecological systems.…”

Aye-aye population genomic analyses highlight an important center of endemism in northern Madagascar

“…Because of their extensive individual home-range sizes and low population densities, conservation efforts relevant to aye-ayes will need to prioritize the preservation of large and contiguous forests. Although such protected areas do exist in Madagascar [albeit many of them currently under stress (23)], prior to this study we have not been able to assess whether current protected areas and conservation strategies maximize the preservation of distinct aye-aye populations and overall genetic diversity, because the genetic relationships among aye-aye populations have been unknown. The analysis of population-level genome sequence data offers potentially powerful insights into both demographic and evolutionary processes.…”

The impact of natural resource use on bird and reptile communities within multiple-use protected areas: evidence from sub-arid Southern Madagascar

“…As a result, only 45 % of the world's protected areas are assigned to 77 The simultaneous achievement of these goals is particularly complex because most forms of 141 traditional land and resource use in Madagascar have negative impacts on biodiversity 142 (Gardner 2009(Gardner , 2011Irwin et al 2010). Planning the management of new multiple-use 143 protected areas requires an understanding of species and community responses to habitat 144 degradation arising from permitted resource use, yet our knowledge of the influence this has 145 on biodiversity is patchy for the country as a whole, and particularly for the globally-146 important spiny forest ecoregion (Irwin et al 2010).…”