Protected areas in South Asia: Status and prospects

Chowdhury, Shawan; Alam, Shofiul; Labi, Mahzabin Muzahid; Khan, Nahla; Rokonuzzaman, Md.; Biswas, Dipto; Tahea, Tasmia; Mukul, Sharif A.; Fuller, Richard A.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152316

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…South Asia today is one of the main centers of anthropogenic activities. Its complex biogeography creates zonation in regional biotic patterns and threatens species' existence (Hughes, 2017;Chowdhury et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of species distribution models to study habitat suitability for sustainable management and conservation in the Indian subcontinent: A decade's retrospective

Roy¹,

Suman²,

Ray³

et al. 2022

Front. Sustain. Resour. Manag.

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Loss of native habitat has been identified as one of the crucial drivers of the growing biodiversity crisis, acting toward the deleterious effects on individual fitness, functional diversity, changes in species richness and community structure. The objective of the study was to review the species distribution modeling works done in the Indian subcontinent throughout the last decade (2012–2021) to highlight the urgent issues of biodiversity conservation and sustainable management. Species distribution model (SDM), ecological niche model (ENM), and habitat suitability model (HSM) are, in general, used to predict the niche of a species. The Scopus search engine result was used for conducting the literature search of peer-reviewed articles. Topics examined included estimation of species' potential distribution area, spread of introduced species, deadly diseases or pests, habitat loss or future range shift of species due to anthropogenic alterations and climate change. The analysis showed that the majority of the works were focused on predicting native species distribution patterns (n = 119, 82%) rather than the invasion of alien species in the native ecosystem (n = 26, 18%) indicating the further scope of research in these areas. The scientific articles highlighted that the modeling results could be utilized efficiently to design conservation areas if not biased toward charismatic species. A coordinating institute at the inter-ministerial level can help to undertake policy-related planning for sustainable management and execution of decisions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of species distribution models to study habitat suitability for sustainable management and conservation in the Indian subcontinent: A decade's retrospective

Roy¹,

Suman²,

Ray³

et al. 2022

Front. Sustain. Resour. Manag.

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“…The scale of space-use by large mammals is mismatched with the scale of PAs, a challenge that is not limited to migratory species or large carnivores 50 – 52 . This is especially true in Asia, where PAs are orders of magnitude smaller than counterparts on other continents 19 , 53 . Because space-use is dictated by life history, we examined how these attributes might affect PA-use among Asian elephants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Space use varies among species, habitats, and regions 16 , 17 , as well as between life history stages and throughout the annual cycle 18 . PAs in Asia tend to be small, with 80% of those in South Asia 19 being < 100 km 2 , but they can be very important for wildlife when managed in conjunction with surrounding landscapes 20 , 21 . Unfortunately, they often have low connectivity 22 , 23 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies of protected area use by Asian elephants in relation to motivational state and social affiliations

Madsen

Minge

Pushpakumara

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Animals’ space requirements may vary according to life-history and social considerations. We observed 516 wild adult Asian elephants from both sexes, over 9 years, to investigate how life-history traits and social behavior influence protected-area (PA) use at Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka. Male PA-use, quantified in terms of average between-sightings-interval (BSI), was significantly influenced by the interaction of age class and motivational state (i.e. reproduction vs. foraging). Musth lengthened with age, with a median of 24.5 days for ages 21–30, 32.5 days for ages 31–40, and 45 days for those > 40. A minority (11%) used it exclusively during musth, while others used it exclusively for foraging (44%) or both (45%). Males using it in both states and older musth-only males were more likely to be seen across years. There were 16 social communities containing between 2–22 adult females. Females’ BSI was significantly influenced by social ties, but this relationship was weak, because members of social communities do not necessarily disperse together, resulting in high individual variation in space-use. Inter-annual variability in sightings among individuals of both sexes indicates that around ¾ of the population is likely non-residential across years, challenging the prevailing fortress-conservation paradigm of wildlife management.

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“…The wdpar R package has several applications for conservation research. For example, it has been used to assess the performance of existing protected areas in Colombia, Greece, and South Asia (Chowdhury et al, 2021;Gonzalez et al, 2022;Kougioumoutzis et al, 2021;. It has also been used to examine the potential implications of climate change on conservation efforts (Kougioumoutzis et al, 2022;Mothes et al, 2020).…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

wdpar: Interface to the World Database on Protected Areas

Hanson¹

2022

JOSS

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The wdpar R package provides an interface to data available on Protected Planet (https://www.protectedplanet.net). It can be used to access the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) and the World Database on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (WDOECM). Additionally, it provides data cleaning procedures to prepare these databases for analysis. These data cleaning procedures are essential for ensuring correct results when using the databases. As a software package for the R statistical computing environment, it can easily be integrated into workflows and spatial analyses. The package has applications for conservation research. It has been used to assess performance of existing protected areas and account for such areas when identifying priority areas for conservation efforts.

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Protected areas in South Asia: Status and prospects

Cited by 22 publications

References 87 publications

Use of species distribution models to study habitat suitability for sustainable management and conservation in the Indian subcontinent: A decade's retrospective

Use of species distribution models to study habitat suitability for sustainable management and conservation in the Indian subcontinent: A decade's retrospective

Strategies of protected area use by Asian elephants in relation to motivational state and social affiliations

wdpar: Interface to the World Database on Protected Areas

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