2011 Conference - Talk abstracts
For PowerPoint copies of the talk presentations, please contact the presenter directly.
Download the entire 2011 Book of Abstracts here.
Recovery of forest amphibian communities after logging
Adum Gilbert Baase
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dept of Wildlife and Range Management, FRNR, KNUST, Kumasi-Ghana Email: adum2010@yahoo.co.in
In forests of varying age since logging, we assessed abundance, species richness and diversity of amphibian communities, and how composition varies with respect to species characteristic of intact forests and disturbed sites. A total of 8,408 amphibians were collected from 24 species. Species characteristic of disturbed habitats increased following logging then declined by 10 years. Forest-dependent species recover more slowly, but by 20 years amphibian communities had returned to a state indistinguishable from that of undisturbed forest. The data provide an encouraging indication that amphibian communities, though sensitive to disturbance, are able to recover if forests are left undisturbed.
Conserving large marine ecosystems through private sector engagement
Rico Ancog
School of Environmental Science and Management, University of the Philippines Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines Email: rico.uplb@gmail.com
Conservation of large marine ecosystems requires particular attention owing to its wider geographical scope and biological characteristics, diversity of stakeholders involved and the challenge in implementing suitable institutional arrangements. Focusing on Verde Island Passage (VIP) in the Philippines--considered as the “center of the center of global marine biodiversity,” this study explores how private sector’s environmental performance systems and CSR initiatives be geared towards conservation to reduce resource extraction and pollution. Given resource limitation among developing countries, these can be maximized by the government sector and the non-governmental organizations’ catalytic role in bridging such gap is found necessary.
Water needs and the likely response to hydrological change of fynbos plants
James Ayuk Ayuk
Climate Change & BioAdaptation Division, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Kirstenbosch Research Centre, Private Bag X7, Claremont. 7735. South Africa. Email: jaayuk@gmail.com
This study aims to provide quantitative, scientific basis for incorporating ecohydrology in the management of Fynbos habitats potentially threatened by water abstraction and climate change in the Cape Floral Region. Niche overlaps computed on Restionaceae from ten fynbos communities in the CFR showed segregation along fine-scale hydrological gradients on axes of tolerance to aeration or drying stress. Understanding the response of these species to changes in soil hydrological conditions in response to water abstraction and climate change is thus important to prescribe management intervention. This was made possible through hydrological and species distribution modelling to down-scaled climate change scenarios.
Isolation of individuals in a gregarious tree species
Akomian Fortuné Azihou
Laboratory of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey-Calavi, 03 BP 1974 Cotonou, Benin. Email: fazihou@gmail.com
We focus on the case of Isoberlinia doka, to investigate how the analyses of spatial patterns can help to set up sustainable management strategies for valuable wood species under high anthropogenic pressure. The study was conducted in woodlands where the spatial distribution of I. doka trees was analyzed and isolated individuals were identified. Their nurse plant effect was assessed. I. doka trees showed an aggregative distribution. Isolated trees in rock outcrops experience low human pressure but had limited germination under mother trees and suckering. Sustainable management and restoration strategies must enhance their ability to maintain a viable population.
Land, lions and livestock: a conservation enigma from Greater Gir, India
Kausik Banerjee
Wildlife Institute of India, Post Box# 18, Chandrabani, Dehra Dun- 248 001, Uttarakhand, India. Email: pantheraleopersica@gmail.com
Range extension of Asiatic lions outside the Gir forest makes it imperative to develop strategies ensuring species’ long-term survival and we evaluate mechanisms permitting human-lion coexistence in agro-pastoral landscapes. We studied ranging and demography through telemetry, lion abundance through mark-recapture and food habits through predation events, scats and telemetry. Many lions outside Gir were long-ranging, exhibited regular movement between Gir and satellite populations. We propose landscape-level conservation of critical lion habitat-refuges outside Gir through legislations and restorations. Despite lion use of human-dominated landscapes, their utilization of productive livestock is minimal highlighting real versus perceived conflict; probable mechanisms permitting human-lion coexistence.
Ecosystem services and Important bird Areas: a case study from Nepal
Menuka Basnyat
Bird Conservation Nepal, PO Box: 12465, Kathmandu, Nepal. Email: menuka@birdlifenepal.org
In recent years a wealth of research has been conducted on ecosystem services (ES). However, there is still a lack of accessible and practical tools for assessing ES at a site-level so as to inform development and conservation planning. Our research at Shivapuri-Nagarjun National Park (SNNP) piloted a simple yet robust ‘toolkit’ to assess ES. We measured multiple services provided by the Park compared to services delivered by the surrounding (degraded) area, and thereby identified the added value that SNNP provides for livelihoods. We also considered the greater ‘intrinsic value’ of SNNP, especially as an important site for cultural services.
The UK great bustard reintroduction trial
Robert John Burnside
Department of Biology & Biochemistry, Biodiversity Lab, University of Bath, Claverton Downs, Bath, BA2 7AY. Email: rjb39@bath.ac.uk
The Great Bustard became extinct in the UK circa 1832. From the first five years of the UK reintroduction trial, I assess the viability of reintroduction as a tool for conserving this species. Eighty-nine Great Bustards were reintroduced to Salisbury Plain between 2004-2009. Following IUCN guidelines, success indicators were set to measure progress. The project achieved every qualitative indicator; however, quantitatively post-release mortality is higher than expected increasing the projected time needed to establish a founder population. Pre and post-release monitoring have provided important information to guide future reintroductions of this flagship species and other threatened bustards.
Subsistence hunting at saltlicks
Jaime Cabrera
Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, Marlowe Building, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR. Email: jac56@kent.ac.uk
Aiming to set up culturally and biologically acceptable management practices that help to conserve lowland tapir and other wildlife in the Colombian Amazon, this project takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines research on ecology of wildlife that use natural-licks with an understanding of the indigenous people who use licks for bush meat hunting. The results aim to develop community-based conservation actions by means of: Understand the relationship between the local indigenous people and licks, develop a classification of the natural licks, understand how wildlife uses the licks and the ecological processes taking place in the licks and determine the social role of licks both for animal and human users.
Assessing the impact of climate change on Madagascar's endemic baobabs
Aida Cuni Sanchez
Centre for Underutilised Crops, School of Civil Engineering and the Environment, Southampton University, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ. Email: aidacuni@hotmail.com
Despite baobabs’ nutritive, economic, social and environmental importance it seems that several baobab species density and distribution are reducing. Fire, overgrazing, drought, deforestation and increasing human pressure and even climate change are negatively affecting these species, to an unknown extend. Species distribution modelling (Maxent) together with a small set of observations and bioclimatic variables were used to generate present and future species distributions. While future projections for the three less threatened species were quite favorable, future projections for the most threatened species were pessimistic. Conservation action is urgently needed to ensure the persistence of the remaining populations of these species.
Can education influence children’s knowledge and attitudes to the guiña?
Peter Damerell
Fauna Australis, Pontifica Universidad Catolica De Chile, Casilla 306, Correo 22, Santiago, Chile. Email: peterdamerell@hotmail.co.uk
Retribution poaching is considered one of the main threats to the kodkod cat (Leopardus guigna). Post education based outreach the attendees of classroom workshops showed improved factual knowledge whilst students who had interactive experiences with captive kodkod had better knowledge and more positive attitudes. The education treatment received by students; perceptions of prevailing social norms concerning L. guigna and the domestic animals at the students home were all significant predictors of student knowledge and attitude. The results support increased interactive contact with the highly cryptic L. guigna as an effective method of removing the social stigmas associated with the species.
Can REDD programmes be a tool for conservation? The jaguar on the spot
Alan Eduardo de Barros
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL. Email: alanbiology@gmail.com
Deforestation is a major cause of global warming and biodiversity extinction, and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) programs are increasedly being proposed as strategies for protection and sustainable management of forests, as well as to potentially deliver benefits to biodiversity conservation in tropical countries. We developed a weight-based ranking system at the level of Brazilian municipalities to identify places where REDD+ projects might yield a combination of effective conservation of carbon stocks, protection against deforestation, enhance conservation of an endangered species (the jaguar) and contribute to overall biodiversity conservation. Preliminary results suggest that REDD+ strategies could be an efficient tool for conservation in identified key locations.
Spatial ecology and conservation of an arboreal marsupial
Francisco E. Fonturbel
Departamento de Ciencias Ecologicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, PO Box # 653, Santiago, Chile. Email: fonturbel@gmail.com
Habitat loss and fragmentation compromise long-term survival of the arboreal marsupial Dromiciops gliroides, which depends on the forest structure for its persistence. We have estimated its abundances, and 14 individuals were radio-collared to study their spatial ecology. Dromiciops gliroides was abundant in old- and second-growth forest habitats (90% of core areas were located in old-growth stands), but it was rare or undetected in forest strips; tracked individuals did not move across open habitats. Dromiciops gliroides is a key seed disperser of temperate rainforests, and given that individuals avoid crossing open habitats, habitat loss and fragmentation could disrupt its ecological role.
Distribution and habitat occupancy of slender lorises
Saman Naliya Gamage
Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Colombo 3, Sri Lanka.
Email: samangam2004@yahoo.com
Lorises (Primates: lorisidae) in Sri Lanka are selected as endangered yet limited data are available for applied management needs. To fulfil these concerns, a hypothesis driven research model was designed, following a meeting of experts and interested parties in 2009. A total of 120 forest sites were surveyed in the Wet, Intermediate and Dry Zones in South Western Sri Lanka. Occupancy of lorises was 0.68 and probability of detection was 0.49. A species conservation strategic plan is currently being developed which will include activities such a habitat restoration via the establishment of corridors and complete a detailed taxonomic review.
Cascading effects of hunting on fruit-frugivore networks
Joseph Hawes
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ. Email: j.hawes@uea.ac.uk
Hunting in neotropical forests focuses on larger bodied vertebrates, which influences the seed dispersal services available to tree species: larger seeded tree species may depend more heavily on those frugivore species most depleted by hunting. I used a range of techniques to record fruit phenology and productivity, frugivore densities, and fruit-frugivore feeding interactions from both flooded and non-flooded forests of the Jurua region of Brazilian Amazonia. On a wider scale I present a similar network of feeding observations, compiled from the literature, for primates across the neotropics and examine the potential impacts on seed dispersal of depleted frugivore communities.
The effect of canopy fragmentation on grizzled giant squirrels
Ipsita Raveendra Herlekar
Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program, National Centre for Biological Sciences,Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, G.K.V.K. Campus, Bellary Road, Bangalore-560060 Karnataka, India. Email: iherlekar@gmail.com
This study examines the influence of canopy fragmentation on habitat use and nest site selection of grizzled giant squirrels in a fragmented riparian habitat in southern India. A multi-scale approach was used to identify factors influencing intensity of area used at a smaller scale and habitat selection at a larger scale. Sightings and signs of squirrels, habitat structure, food availability and human disturbance were measured. Results highlighted the importance of canopy connectivity particularly when human disturbance was high: canopy connectivity influenced habitat use together with human disturbance at smaller scales and together with food abundance at larger scales.
Blackbuck social behaviour influences dispersal of an invasive plant
Shivani Jadeja
Wildlife Conservation Society - India Programme, National Centre for Biological Sciences, GKVK Campus, Bangalore 560 065, India Email: shivanivj@gmail.com
Interaction between grassland dependent native antelope, blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) and woody invasive, mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), threatens grasslands. The study examines how the intra-specific differences in blackbuck ranging and territorial behaviour differentially affect mesquite seed dispersal. Seed dispersal stages were sampled using camera trapping, scan sampling, quadrat plots and germination experiment. Results show that seed deposition and seedling recruitment were high on territories used mainly by territorial blackbuck males. Directed seed dispersal due to blackbuck male territorial behaviour facilitates mesquite spread in grasslands. The study helps predict pattern of spread of mesquite and device better management practices for its control.
Assessing the potential for community-based protected areas in India
Arun Kanagavel
Center for Research in Global Change and Sustainability, St. Albert’s College, Banerji Road, Kochi, Kerala, India. Email: arun_100002003@yahoo.com
The potential for community and conservation serves (new reserves in India which integrate local communities and private organisations into protected area (PA) management) was evaluated at 25 reserve forests and private forest fragments of the human-dominated landscape of the southern Western Ghats. Data was collected at each site through questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions on issues based upon the local community participation, resource-use and biodiversity conservation. On omitting sites where local communities were unwilling to participate in PA management, the remaining were prioritised though ranking. Sixteen potential, community/conservation reserves were identified subsequently. The study also explored the perceptions of forest department officials and conservation researchers towards the establishment of such reserves. They were largely preservationist in attitude and unsure whether community-based reserves would be beneficial for conserving biodiversity.
Conservation of the Chinese white dolphin
Lijun Liu
Peking University Chongzuo Biodiversity Research Institute, Chongzuo Eco-Park, Banli County, Jiangzhou Dist., Chongzuo City 532209, Guangxi, CHINA. Email: lijunliu.06@gmail.com
“Big Industry, Big Port, Big Tourism”, the local government’s blueprint shows the ambitions as well as the ignorance to the nature conservation. Through the past seven years’ study, the population size of the Chinese White Dolphin, Sousa chinensis, in the water of Sanniangwan has been roughly estimated to around 130. This small but healthy population is threatened by the booming industry development, port construction, overharvesting and the wild crazy extension of oyster farms. We are searching for the win-win possibility to balance the development and the nature.
Assessing the socio-ecological resilience of Marine Protected Areas
Lopez Angarita
Universidad de Los Andes, Carrera 1E No 18A - 10 (J 409) Bogotá, Colombia. Email: julianalop14@gmail.com
Many Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) of the Caribbean are under-resourced, lack evidence based management plans and, rarely achieve their conservation goals. Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to evaluate MPA effectiveness in order to improve management. In this study we use a set of biophysical and socioeconomic indicators to estimate resilience and human intervention in coral reefs, and to evaluate management effectiveness of two Colombian MPAs. Results show that these MPAs are in risk of shifting to lower resilience states and, system’s reorganization is the best action to mitigate threats. This research contributes to undestand socioecological systems dynamics towards the conservation of coral reefs.
Conservation status and needs of the world’s most threatened tortoise
Angelo Ramy Mandimbihasina
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Lot II Y 49 J Ampasanimalo BP 3715 101 Antananarivo, Madagascar. Email: angelo.ramy@durrell.org
The ploughshare tortoise is known as the most threatened tortoise on earth and classified Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Remaining representatives were estimated to be about 600 individuals in four natural populations, still affected by smuggling. To have an accurate population size, we undertook a study of the density using “distance sampling”. Captive-born individuals also have been reintroduced into the wild to create new population in an abandoned habitat and were followed daily to see their evolution. Results show that density of wild ploughshare is extremely low and captive Angonoka can adapt to natural conditions and survive.
When wolves show up for dinner uninvited
Sérgio Milheiras
SOCIUS, ISEG, Technical University of Lisbon, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1249-078 Lisbon, Portugal. Email: smilheiras@gmail.com
This study analysed a particular county in Portugal where the conflict between humans and wolves is an important issue. It aimed to assess the attitudes of inhabitants towards that conflict, as well as towards the compensation scheme set by the government to pay for damages caused by wolves, and the eventual acceptability of a different type of compensation scheme. The results showed that people, especially farmers, are not happy with the current situation. Possible measures to improve it were suggested based on what is already being done to attenuate the conflict in different European countries and throughout the world.
Private conservation initiatives in Amazonian countries
Bruno Monteferri
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge & Peruvian Society for Environmental Law - SPDA, Department of Geography,Downing Place,Cambridge, CB2 3EN. Email: bm399@cam.ac.uk
What is the status of private conservation initiatives in Amazonian countries? What financial and legal policies are being developed to foster such initiatives? A group of experts conducted national analyses, through reviews of grey literature and the legal framework of each country. This study represents the first broad overview on the status of private conservation initiatives in Amazonian countries, where more than 2000 initiatives are being implemented across a surface of 2.5 million hectares. Our comparative analysis highlights trends and incentives, and the new strategies necessary to promote such efforts.
Experimental foodwebs under habitat fragmentation and climate change
Giselle Perdomo
Australian Centre for Biodiversity, School of Biological Sciences, Building 17, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Email: giselle.perdomo@monash.edu
The large scales at which habitat fragmentation and climate change operate have limited our understanding of their effects. Here we outline our research into the individual and interactive effects of fragmentation and climate change using the moss-microarthropod model microecosystem. While previous experiments have provided valuable inferences about the effects of habitat fragmentation on species assemblages, little is known about how food-webs are affected. This limitation has constrained the interpretation of experimental results by failing to address the effects on longer-term persistence of communities that could occur through non-random loss of species with respect to feeding guild.
A critical analysis of Ireland’s national biodiversity awareness campaign
Paola Pisa
Trinity College Dublin, Department of Geography, Dublin 2, Ireland. Email: pisap@tcd.ie
The following study investigates the effectiveness of Notice Nature, a public awareness campaign on biodiversity issues among Irish people initiated in 2006. Specifically, it examines the degree of public participation in the campaign’s decision-making process, development and content, and knowledge and attitudes of the general public towards biodiversity and their awareness on the campaign itself through the use of interviews and questionnaire. This analysis demonstrates how more collaborative public participation can lead to a stronger impact on public perceptions, attitudes and ultimately, behaviour. Future biodiversity awareness campaigns should involve the public from initiation to implementation in order to avoid the practical and financial failings of Notice Nature campaign.
REDD and the indigenous question: a case study from Ecuador
Pablo Reed
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, 195 Prospect St.Yale FES, New Haven, CT 06511 United States. Email: pablo.reed@yale.edu
Various indigenous organizations continue to be ardently opposed to REDD+. In Ecuador, this opposition represents a considerable obstacle in the creation of a national strategy since 60% of the country’s remaining forests are on indigenous land. Thus, a critical challenge will be the construction of a strong legal, financial, and institutional framework - one that the greater indigenous community might be willing to accept. Lack of information, political considerations, and the dissimilar organizational capacity levels of communities make carrying out REDD+ on these lands extremely complex. However, the biggest obstacle may be ideological. Indigenous people are only willing to consider such projects if they clearly see preconditions that safeguard their cultures, territories, and autonomy.
Modelling range boundaries to assess climate-induced range shifts
Uri Roll
Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel. Email: uroll@post.tau.ac.il
Many studies demonstrate poleward shifts of species ranges due to global warming, but fail to incorporate the probabilistic nature of species’ distributions. Here, we model edges of spatial distributions, based on presence/absence grid-cell data along a north-south axis. We use the bounded Beta distribution and estimate its parameters with an optimization procedure. Likelihood ratios were used to test significance of shifts in ranges between two time frames. We used our framework to test range shifts in British birds. Contrary to previous works, which are not statistically rigorous, our analysis does not find effects of climate change on British bird distributions.
Are butterflies expanding their altitudinal ranges in Papua New Guinea?
Legi Sam
New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, PO Box 604, Madang, Papua New Guinea. Email: lsam@binatang.org.pg
The composition of butterfly communities was monitored along 300m long transects in primary and secondary forests along a complete rainforest altitudinal gradient. The study sites were located at intervals of 500 altitudinal meters from the lowland forest at 200m asl to the timberline at 3700m asl on the slopes of Mt. Wilhelm, the highest peak of Papua New Guinea. I report trends in species composition, richness and abundance of butterflies along altitudinal and successional gradients, as well as specific preferences of individual species. Further, I test relationships between altitudinal range, habitat specificity and geographic range for common species of butterflies.
Retribution killings of predators in South Africa
Freya St. John
School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Deiniol Road, Bangor, LL57 2UW. Email: afp647@bangor.ac.uk
The randomised response technique (RRT) was used to estimate the proportion of ranchers persecuting five species. RRT question sensitivity, attitudes towards species, and social projection were recorded and modelled to investigate the relationship of farmers’ attitudes and perceptions with reported behaviour (RRT response). Few farmers persecute brown hyaena and leopard. Farmers reporting questions as not-sensitive, holding the attitude that species should be killed, and estimating a high prevalence of persecutors (social projection) were more likely to have killed species. The latter finding supports the false-consensus-effect whereby, for sensitive behaviours, individuals over-estimate the degree to which others behave as they do.
Impacts of post-Soviet and current changes in agriculture on grassland birds
Ruslan Urazaliyev
Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK), Beybitshylik Street, 18, office 406, Astana, 010000, Republic of Kazakhstan. Email: uruslankamenka@inbox.ru
The collapse of the intensive Soviet farming system in 1991 meant that steppe bird populations could partly recover from earlier declines. However, new trends are observed that could lead to population crashes again, namely reclamation of abandoned land, intensification in arable farming and changes in livestock grazing patterns. Changes in agriculture will have large-scale implications for threatened (e.g. Sociable Lapwing) and near-endemic (e.g. Black Lark) species. A network of protected areas and lobbying at political level (e.g. to introduce Agro-environment schemes) is needed.
Conservation status of an endangered frankincense tree
Abeje Eshete Wassie
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research - Forestry Research Centre, P.O. Box 30708 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Email: abejeeshete@yahoo.com
Boswellia papyrifera is a key dry forest tree species of Africa valued for its commercial produce, frankincense. The tree has been over-exploited (tapping, grazing, fire, clearing for agriculture) and currently regeneration is lacking. We studied the dynamics of the tree population in 12 two-ha permanent plots at Metema, Ethiopia. Our analyses of the population dynamics (using matrix modelling) showed that the population growth rate was <1 in all studied populations indicating these are all declining. Apart from regeneration also the high mortality rates of adult trees (>10 cm diameter) hamper the populations and thereby threaten future frankincense production.
Tibetan sacred sites and conservation
Emily Woodhouse
Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY Email: emily.woodhouse@imperial.ac.uk
Using a case study of one valley in Tibet, the research aimed to study the role of religion in shaping actions toward forest in the context of new development and environmental policies in China. Data were obtained through household surveys, interviews, participatory mapping and observation. Sanctity plays a role in conservation through norms of non-extraction, but boundaries are dynamic, norms vary between sites, and land governance is politically rather than religiously orientated. This suggests that sacred sites cannot be simply translated into protected areas; a more nuanced understanding of changing cultural connections with the landscape by conservation practitioners is needed.
