Use of long-distance migration patterns of an endangered species to inform conservation planning for the world's largest marine protected area

Large marine protected areas (MPAs), each hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, have been set up by governments around the world over the last decade as part of efforts to reduce ocean biodiversity declines, yet their efficacy is hotly debated. The Chagos Archipelago MPA (640,000 km2) (Indian Ocean) lies at the heart of this debate. We conducted the first satellite tracking of a migratory species, the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), within the MPA and assessed the species' use of protected versus unprotected areas. We developed an approach to estimate length of residence within the MPA that may have utility across migratory taxa including tuna and sharks. We recorded the longest ever published migration for an adult cheloniid turtle (3979 km). Seven of 8 tracked individuals migrated to distant foraging grounds, often ≥1000 km outside the MPA. One turtle traveled to foraging grounds within the MPA. Thus, networks of small MPAs, developed synergistically with larger MPAs, may increase the amount of time migrating species spend within protected areas. The MPA will protect turtles during the breeding season and will protect some turtles on their foraging grounds within the MPA and others during the first part of their long-distance postbreeding oceanic migrations. International cooperation will be needed to develop the network of small MPAs needed to supplement the Chagos Archipelago MPA.

A global gap analysis of sea turtle protection coverage

 Although the number and extent of protected areas (PAs) are continuously increasing, their coverage of global biodiversity, as well as criteria and targets that underline their selection, warrants scrutiny. As a case study, we use a global dataset of sea turtle nesting sites (. n=. 2991) to determine the extent to which the existing global PA network encompasses nesting habitats (beaches) that are vital for the persistence of the seven sea turtle species. The majority of nesting sites (87%) are in the tropics, and are mainly hosted by developing countries. Developing countries contain 82% nesting sites, which provide lower protection coverage compared to developed countries. PAs encompass 25% of all nesting sites, of which 78% are in marine PAs. At present, most nesting sites in PAs with IUCN ratification receive high protection. We identified the countries that provide the highest and lowest nesting site protection coverage, and detected gaps in species-level protection effort within countries. No clear trend in protection coverage was found in relation to gross domestic product, the Global Peace Index or sea turtle regional management units; however, countries in crisis (civil unrest, war or natural catastrophes) provided slightly higher protection coverage of all countries. We conclude that global sea turtle resilience against threats spanning temperate to tropical regions require representative PA coverage at the species level within countries. This work is anticipated to function as a first step towards identifying specific countries or regions that should receive higher conservation interest by national and international bodies. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Approaching cultural landscapes in post-settler societies: ideas, policies, practices

This thesis contends that the concept of cultural landscape is a useful tool for dismantling heritage management programs that promote demarcations between natural/settler/indigenous heritage values in protected areas in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Approaching cultural landscapes in post-settler societies: ideas, policies, practices

This thesis contends that the concept of cultural landscape is a useful tool for dismantling heritage management programs that promote demarcations between natural/settler/indigenous heritage values in protected areas in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.

The why, what, and how of global biodiversity indicators beyond the 2010 target

The 2010 biodiversity target agreed by signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity directed the attention of conservation professionals toward the development of indicators with which to measure changes in biological diversity at the global scale. We considered why global biodiversity indicators are needed, what characteristics successful global indicators have, and how existing indicators perform. Because monitoring could absorb a large proportion of funds available for conservation, we believe indicators should be linked explicitly to monitoring objectives and decisions about which monitoring schemes deserve funding should be informed by predictions of the value of such schemes to decision making. We suggest that raising awareness among the public and policy makers, auditing management actions, and informing policy choices are the most important global monitoring objectives. Using four well-developed indicators of biological diversity (extent of forests, coverage of protected areas, Living Planet Index, Red List Index) as examples, we analyzed the characteristics needed for indicators to meet these objectives. We recommend that conservation professionals improve on existing indicators by eliminating spatial biases in data availability, fill gaps in information about ecosystems other than forests, and improve understanding of the way indicators respond to policy changes. Monitoring is not an end in itself, and we believe it is vital that the ultimate objectives of global monitoring of biological diversity inform development of new indicators.

Stakeholder perceptions of a coastal marine protected area

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly utilised marine and coastal management tool, designation rising steeply over the last twenty years. MPAs are most commonly designated for conservation objectives and the management is thus focused primarily on meeting conservation associated monitoring programs gathering data on a narrow suite of biological indicators. However, a wide range of potential social and economic impacts and the ability to meet the goals of an influenced by the often unmonitored perceptions and buy-in of local stakeholders. Here we examine stakeholder perceptions concerning a coastal MPA in South Australia. We conducted semi-structured interviews individuals engaged in the MPA' s planning and designation process, as well as those involved with management. We explored their understanding of the purpose of the MPA, whether they thought successful and the future management challenges the MPA might face. In particular, we focused on stakeholders indicators they thought should be used to monitor the ongoing performance of the MPA. varied between stakeholder groups, however, the majority of respondents highlighted the importance economic factors in the ongoing performance of the MPA. The vast majority of them suggested both biological socio-economic indicators that should be incorporated into monitoring programs. Our findings highlight MPA planning and management, when defining goals and developing monitoring programs, to incorporate social and economic, as well as, biological indicators.

Sustainable development and environmental accounting: the challenge to the economics and accounting profession

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of natural resources accounting in sustainable development. Natural resource accounting is important because the welfare of a nation measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) has several weaknesses. Design/methodology/approach – This paper achieves this objective by identifying the present status, the constraints and the challenges for the economics and accounting professions. Findings – The main weakness of GDP as a measure of development is that it does not take into account damages to environmental resources. However, the improvement of the concept to include environmental resource use is made difficult because of the difficulties of measuring environmental damage. The challenge to the economics and accounting profession is to ensure interdisciplinary collaboration, development of a framework to explicitly include the environment, development of credible valuation procedures for the environment, and inclusion of the various ethical positions advanced by various groups on the value of the environment. Practical implications – Some headway has been made on these issues during the last decade but a major challenge still lies ahead in further improving these approaches so that sustainable development becomes an achievable goal. Originality/value – This paper brings together diverse views and fusing them together providing a future path for research in environmental accounting to achieve sustainable development.

Wetland reservation on Victoria's northern plains and riverine forests

The depletion and reservation levels of wetlands varied significantly both across the Murray Fans and Victorian Riverina bioregions and in the study area of the Victorian Environmental Assessments Council's River Red Gum Forests Investigation. The proportion of Freshwater Meadows in protected areas was substantially lower than for other wetland types. Furthermore, of the wetlands that are reserved, many were only partially within a protected area. A variety of reserve categories are used to protect wetlands across the three regions, ranging from reserves with high legal protection and a strong focus on biodiversity conservation to reserves with a lower level of protection and emphasis on biodiversity
conservation. The findings highlight that many wetlands are incompletely reserved in Victoria's northern plains and riverine forests. The current review of public land use in the River Red Gum Forests, which includes Barmah Forest, should recognise these issues to ensure the effective reservation of wetland ecosystems.

The role of communication in meeting MPA objectives

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) play an important role in conserving the marine environment. An integral part of managing MPAs is communicating to its users and the broader community the existence of the park and its regulations. In two studies looking at the Victorian Marine National Parks and Sanctuaries it was found that there was a low level of awareness of the parks existence [1]. Television news was found in both studies to account for the majority of respondents awareness yet television advertisements were the main media used to inform the community, along with signage at parks and sanctuaries [2].

Education and communication are the main ways that management agencies inform the broader community about the parks and the regulations governing their management. They are generally directed at two main groups: formal education within schools and universities and communication towards the wider community. Communicating to the broader community the existence of an MPA is achieved through signs, brochures, self guided or ranger walks. These are developed by education experts within management agencies. Yet little is known of the public’s level of knowledge about MPAs or the marine environment. Therefore, our research aims to discover the communities existing knowledge of MPAs and the marine environment and how this can help create effective communication strategies. This research focuses on the public who use MPAs and the wider community in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

Role of multi-tenure reserve networks in improving reserve design and connectivity

Multi-tenure reserve networks aim to connect areas managed for biodiversity conservation across public and private land. This paper seeks to determine to what extent multi-tenure reserve networks improve the reserve design and connectivity of the public protected area estate, using three networks in southeastern Australia as case studies. Network configuration varied considerably and those networks with generally larger parcels tended to be better connected. On average, public land components were larger than private land components in all networks. Two networks had 18 components physically adjoining other network components while another had only 6 components adjoining. Importantly for two of the networks, the average distance between the nearest neighbouring component was significantly less than average distances between public protected areas in the subregion. Thus these multi-tenure reserve networks acted to enhance the existing public protected area estate by increasing the potential linkages in the landscape and therefore the viability of individual public protected areas.

Multi-tenure reserve networks as a means to facilitate landscape and sub-continental connectivity?

There has been increased focus on establishing landscape and sub-continental scale linkages and corridors in Australia in recent years. These include the WildCountry, Alps to Atherton, Naturelinks and Gondwana Link initiatives. However, there has been little discussion as to what the underlying tenure, land use and protection mechanisms might look like on the ground. The development of Biosphere Reserves and Conservation Management Networks (collectively ‘multi-tenure reserve networks’) which incorporate public and private conservation lands under a variety of tenures and protection mechanisms provides example of how this might be achieved.

Whilst the rhetoric has been strong the amount of actual research on what multi-tenure reserve networks mean in practice has been limited. This paper reflects on the lessons acquired from research into these networks and discusses with this practical insight the difference between rhetoric and performance in this vital area. In particular we discuss some of the ecological, social, governance and legal aspects of these networks. We will also proceed to hypothesise on what the future challenges are for multi-tenure reserve networks and what will be needed to overcome these challenges.

Durban+5 and beyond : locating and integrating youth perspective

The importance of engaging young people in protected areas and nature conservation has become an undisputed agenda for the international conservation community, but it remains a challenging one.This is an important agenda to assess as we attempt to reflect on the Durban World Park Congress and forsee the next steps. The paper traces the background of youth engagement within the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) It portrays youth as an innovative and diverse constituency with the critical knowledge to advance nature conservation in protected areas (PAs), highlighting the perceptions, visions and key messages of youth to global PA leaders.It identifies the key issuesin the discourse of engaging youth in protected ares and recommends concrete actions for the future

Toward high growth enterprise

The disproportional impact of high growth firms on economies around the world has made them a natural focus of policy attention in New Zealand. That is what is behind New Zealand's ICT taskforce recommendations in 2003 to grow 100 ICT companies each doing over US$ 100 million sales per year by 2012 (a huge accomplishment for a small economy). Those companies could help New Zealand's foreign exchange earnings and jobs, not to mention improved health care, better resourced schools and tertiary institutions, debt reduction and increased savings, and improved standard of living (ICT Taskforce, 2003).

The establishment of large private nature reserves by conservation NGOs : key factors for successful implementation

Private nature reserves created by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are increasing, and their growing number and extent means that they can potentially contribute to biodiversity goals at a global scale. However, the success of these reserves depends on the legal, economic and institutional conditions framing their creation and management. We explored these conditions, and the opportunities and challenges facing conservation organizations in managing private nature reserves, across several countries, with an emphasis on Australia. Results from 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives of private conservation organizations indicated that while private reserves may enhance the conservation estate, challenges remain. Legal frameworks, especially tenure and economic laws, vary across and within countries, presenting conservation organizations with significant opportunities or constraints to owning and/or managing private nature reserves. Many acquired land without strategic acquisition procedures and secured funding for property acquisition but not management, affecting the long-term maintenance of properties. Other typical problems were tied to the institutional capacity of the organizations. Greater planning within organizations, especially financial planning, is required and NGOs must understand opportunities and constraints present in legislative frameworks at the outset. Organizations must establish their expertise gaps and address them. To this end, partnerships between organizations and/or with government can prove critical.

The disappearing mammal fauna of northern Australia : context, cause, and response

This article provides a context to, attempts an explanation for, and proposes a response to the recent demonstration of rapid and severe decline of the native mammal fauna of Kakadu National Park. This decline is consistent with, but might be more accentuated than, declines reported elsewhere in northern Australia; however, such a comparison is constrained by the sparse information base across this region. Disconcertingly, the decline has similarities with the earlier phase of mammal extinctions that occurred elsewhere in Australia. We considered four proximate factors (individually or interactively) that might be driving the observed decline: habitat change, predation (by feral cats), poisoning (by invading cane toads), and novel disease. No single factor readily explains the current decline. The current rapid decline of mammals in Kakadu National Park and northern Australia suggests that the fate of biodiversity globally might be even bleaker than evident in recent reviews, and that the establishment of conservation reserves alone is insufficient to maintain biodiversity. This latter conclusion is not new; but the results reported here further stress the need to manage reserves far more intensively, purposefully, and effectively, and to audit regularly their biodiversity conservation performance.