Rapidly quantifying reference conditions in modified landscapes

Gibbons, Philip; Briggs, Sue; Ayers, Danielle; Doyle, Stuart; Seddon, Julian; McElhinny, Chris; Jones, Nigel; Sims, Rachel A.; Doody, J. Sean

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2008.07.009

Cited by 78 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The benchmarks represent estimates of the vegetation condition prior to modification since European settlement. This was based on a combination of existing data sets, expert opinion (Gibbons et al 2005), and empirical measurements (Gibbons et al 2008). Each attribute score is ranked on a 4-point, ordinal scale (1-4) according to its relationship to the benchmark value for the vegetation type (Gibbons et al 2009).…”

Section: Attributementioning

confidence: 99%

How accurate is the local ecological knowledge of protected area practitioners?

Cook¹,

Wardell‐Johnson²,

Carter³

et al. 2014

E&S

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ABSTRACT. The scarcity of environmental data means that other sources of information are needed to complement empirical evidence for conservation decisions. By regularly interacting with their local environment, protected area practitioners may generate local ecological knowledge (LEK) that can be used to inform management decisions. However, the accuracy of LEK is generally poorly understood, and no studies have assessed the accuracy of practitioners' personal knowledge, leading to a vital gap in our ability to best use this information to guide management. We measured the accuracy of practitioners' knowledge of the vegetation condition within protected areas, relative to an empirical vegetation condition assessment tool. Despite the vast majority of practitioners having only personal experiences to inform their judgments, we found that almost 60% of practitioners made assessments of vegetation condition that matched the empirical condition estimates. When inaccurate, practitioners tended to be conservative in their estimates of condition. Although underestimating condition in this way may waste resources through unnecessary management actions, this is likely to be preferable to overestimating condition and thus failing to protect biodiversity by prematurely ceasing restoration programs. We found no relationship between the accuracy of practitioners' LEK and their level of experience as a practitioner, their level of education, or their gender. We believe that under many circumstances practitioners can be a valuable and cost-effective source of information about the condition of the protected areas they manage, but that more research is needed to understand the wide range of factors that may contribute to how land managers build LEK and how management agencies can assist practitioners to build a good understanding of the conditions in their reserves.

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Section: Attributementioning

confidence: 99%

How accurate is the local ecological knowledge of protected area practitioners?

Cook¹,

Wardell‐Johnson²,

Carter³

et al. 2014

E&S

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“…Further notable similar concepts include "vegetation condition" [5,6], naturalness [7], hemeroby [8] and ecological integrity [9]. What all these concepts have in common is the requirement for a complex integration of many properties of the ecosystem, producing the output as a weighted sum that takes into account their individual importance.…”

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confidence: 99%

Remote Sensing and GIS for Habitat Quality Monitoring: New Approaches and Future Research

et al. 2015

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Habitat quality is the ability of the environment to provide conditions appropriate for individual and species persistence. Measuring or monitoring habitat quality requires complex integration of many properties of the ecosystem, where traditional terrestrial data collection methods have proven extremely time-demanding. Remote sensing has known potential to map various ecosystem properties, also allowing rigorous checking of accuracy and supporting standardized processing. Our Special Issue presents examples where remote sensing has been successfully used for habitat mapping, quantification of habitat quality parameters, or multi-parameter modelling of habitat quality itself. New frontiers such as bathymetric scanning, grassland vegetation classification and operational use were explored, various new ecological verification methods were introduced and integration with ongoing OPEN ACCESS

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“…The advantages of the reference condition in assessment are well documented (Parkes et al, 2003;Scholes & Biggs, 2005;Gibbons et al, 2008;Carlisle et al, 2010;Certain et al, 2011). The main advantage is that is provides a consistent measure for assessing condition (Gibbons et al, 2008).…”

Section: Developing An Environmental Currencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Developing An Environmental Currencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main advantage is that is provides a consistent measure for assessing condition (Gibbons et al, 2008). For a single ecosystem, managing a system based on reference condition will lead towards a condition similar to what it is adapted to (Gibbons et al, 2008) and therefore increase long-term viability. For managing multiple ecosystems, the reference condition avoids the perverse situation where more diverse ecosystems are considered in better condition or of more value (Gibbons et al, 2008).…”

Section: Developing An Environmental Currencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Accounting for the economic-biodiversity nexus to identify opportunities for better outcomes for biodiversity

McDonald¹

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Biodiversity is in rapid decline and without additional funds or a sacrifice of economic development these trends, many claim, are set to continue. Given the lack of funds and the difficulty of changing economic development pathways, it is imperative that all possible options for improvements within the current constraints are explored and exploited. Opportunity for biodiversity gains occur where there are inefficiencies in the conversion from economic activity to biodiversity change. These inefficiencies mean the negative impacts of economic development on biodiversity could be reduced and the positive impacts of investments could be increased. The aim of this thesis was to identify if opportunities exist within the current political, social and economic context to improve outcomes for biodiversity and to develop methods for quantifying and delivering these improvements across multiple scales. In Chapter 1 and 2 I propose methods and approaches for including the environment and biodiversity more specifically in national accounting, defining biodiversity as an asset rather than just another ecosystem service. I outline the many and varied ways accounting for biodiversity can inform decisions that improve outcomes for biodiversity. At a national scale, there are many opportunities for improving biodiversity outcomes given the current policy and funding levels and in Chapter 3 I outline four improvements to policy implementation that could save more species in an Australian case study. At an industry scale, there is significant biodiversity loss associated with production activities and results from efficiency analyses in Chapter 4 indicate that some industries are more efficient than others in producing profit whilst maintaining biodiversity assets. This suggests there are opportunities for inefficient industries (and individual producers) to enhance biodiversity without reducing profitability. Some individual producers are already involved in payment schemes to improve biodiversity but I find with a game theoretic analysis in Chapter 5 that these improvements could be increased for the same funds by selecting alternative methods of fund allocation. There are improvements to be made across all spatial and institutional scales of the biodiversity-economic nexus and taking advantage of these opportunities will lead to greater biodiversity outcomes now and in the future.

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Rapidly quantifying reference conditions in modified landscapes

Cited by 78 publications

References 38 publications

How accurate is the local ecological knowledge of protected area practitioners?

How accurate is the local ecological knowledge of protected area practitioners?

Remote Sensing and GIS for Habitat Quality Monitoring: New Approaches and Future Research

Accounting for the economic-biodiversity nexus to identify opportunities for better outcomes for biodiversity

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