Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit 1992

United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity

Each party must as far as possible

1. Establish a system of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity

2. Develop where necessary guidelines for the selection, establishment and management of protected areas

Protected areas and reserve design

Overview

Goals and limitations

Gaps in global protected areas

Systematic conservation planning

Surrogates for overall biodiversity

Reserve selection algorithms

Case study: The Cape Floristic Region

terrestrial protected areas

105,000 protected areas18.4 million km2 land

Location of protected areas

12.65% of Earth’s land surface

marine protected areasC

um

ula

tive a

rea

pro

tect

ed (

ha)

but only 1.2% of the whole ocean!!!

Types of Protected Areas

IUCN Category 1 Strict nature reserve or wilderness area2 National Park3 Natural Monument4 Habitat/Species Management Area5 Protected landscape/seascape6 Managed resource protected area

Types of Protected Areas

BC ExamplesStrict nature reserve Wilderness area 1a Triangle Island 1b Campbell River Estuary

Area (km2) covered by protected areas 1-6

Global Canada

630,000 km2

6.3% land

1+2 72%

3-5 10%

6+ 18%

Types of protected area

6. Managed resource protected area

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Goals of Protected areas

Protect particular species

Preserve biodiversity: focus on areas of high species richness/endemism

Preserve large and functioning ecosystems and their services

Do protected areas work?Perc

en

t n

atu

ral veg

eta

tion

Amazon Atlantic coast forest

Congo forest West African forest

Joppa et al PNAS 2008

Do marine protected areas work?

Mosqueira Mosqueira et al. 2000et al. 2000Animal ConservationAnimal Conservation

(236)

Targetspecies

6543210-1

(110)

Non-targetspecies

Overall

(541)

Response ratio

More fishin reserve

More fishout of reserve

Overall effect of 12 reserves around the world

Limitations of protected areas

Land is often protected if it is “worthless”

BC1992 Stated Goal

- have 12% landbase “protected”2006 12.5% landbase is protected

BUTAlpine - over-representedCoastal lowland forest - under-represented

Limitation of protected areas

Protection is revoked if land is valuable”

Tasmania1939-1984 23 protected areas “unprotected”Why?forestry, mining, hydroelectric development

Yosemite National Park1904 Boundaries redrawnLand out - potential mining, logging, grazingLand in - low commercial value

What isn’t protected??

Global Gap Analysis ProjectDataWorld Database on Protected AreasDistributions of 11,633 spp vertebrates

xxx

X - least protected biomes

What isn’t protected??Global Gap Analysis Project

Number of gap speciesAll species All PAs PA>1000ha+IUCN 1-4Mammals 258 (5.5%) 644 (13.5%)Turtles 21 (7.7%) 48 (17.6%)Amphibians 913 (16.7%) 1718 (31.5%)

Threatened sppMammals 149 (14%) 314 (29.6%)

Birds 232 (19.8%) 437 (37.3%)Turtles 12 (10.1%) 32 (26.9%)Amphibians 411 (26.6%) 767 (49.7%)

Where are the Gap Species?

Global Gap Analysis Project

% g

ap

sp

eci

es

The area protected in a country is a poor predictor of conservation needs

Countries with lots of endemics have more gap species

What isn’t protected??

Local Gap Analysis - Hawaii - Essay 14.2 text

GIS parks +

Endangered finch distributions

--> Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge

What should be protected?

How would you prioritize what/where is

Protected given constraints on

$$/current land-use/other pressures

Your criteria

Systematic conservation planning

COMPREHENSIVENESSReserve system contains

Many species Many habitatsMany ecological processes

REPRESENTATIVENESS Reserve contains populations/habitats that cover range of variation in that spp/habitat

9 principal factors to consider

Systematic conservation planning

IRREPLACEABILITYImportance of an area in meeting the objectives of the reserve system

hairy-nosed wombatLocated in one placeEpping Forest National Parkif criteria is a system that retains all mammal species the area is irreplaceable

Systematic conservation planning

ADEQUACYFeatures within reserve will persist

Q. How might this be assessed?

SHAPElarge with low edge:area ratios

Q. why?

Better than

Systematic conservation planning

CONNECTIVITYfor animals

gene flow, greater arearesponse to climate change

for ecosystem processeseg water flow, fire

RISK SPREADING

connectivity vs vulnerability

Systematic conservation planning

EFFICIENCY

least possible cost (purchase,management, economic loss)

FLEXIBILITYoptions/opportunities

Global Gap Analysis Project

if conservation goal is species representation

we should also consider urgency = threat

Global Gap Analysis Project

Priority sites for protected areas based on irreplaceability and threat

Principal of comprehensiveness requires that reserve systems include and sustain all biodiversity and ecosystem processes of the region

But - the knowledge base is limited and

DECISIONS ARE NEEDED NOW

OPTIONS? DISCUSS