The role and contribution of private land in Victoria to biodiversity conservation and the protected area system

The distribution and attributes of properties involved in three major programs for biodiversity protection on private land in Victoria, Australia, was investigated to determine their role in relation to the reserve system. Overlaying of dowsets in a geographic information system, with particular emphasis on property distribution in relation to bioregional and population centres, was undertaken. Land for Wildlife agreements had greater numbers of properties and total area protected in all bioregions throughout the State, yet average protected area sizes were lower than those of conservation covenants and Trust for Nature reserves. A combination of large bioregional area and human population size tended to attract more private conservation properties and, to a lesser extent, the total area they protected. The potential contribution that such properties made to biodiversity conservation varied between bioregions. Inclusion of properties within a national reserve framework is proposed to improve the coordination and effectiveness of conservation measures.

Some recent strategic additions to Victoria`s protected area system 1997-2002

The development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system is an objective of all Australian states and territories. In Victoria, land purchase is one means of increasing the reservation levels of some of the State’s most endangered ecosystems. This article outlines the biological features of some new land purchases for addition to the Victorian protected area system.

Further strategic additions to Victoria`s public protected area system: 2002-2004

The development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative (CAR) reserve system is the key objective of the National Reserve System, and is supported by all Australian States and Territories. In Victoria, purchase of private land for incorporation into the protected area system of parks and
reserves is one of the only means of protecting some of the State’s most endangered ecosystems. This article outlines the ecological attributes of private land purchased for addition to the Victorian protected area system between 2002 and 2004.

Recreational use of a marine protected area: Point Lonsdale, Victoria

This This article reports findings from observational and questionnaire surveys of visitors to a Marine Protected Area (MPA) at Point Lonsdale, Victoria. The MPA was established primarily to protect the biodiversity of intertidal rock platforms, with only limited restrictions being placed on fishing. Visitor surveys were undertaken to identify and quantify recreational uses, assess level of compliance with regulations, identify the uses most likely to have damaging impacts on biota, and to assess awareness of, and support for, this MPA and for MPAs in general. A questionnaire survey of visitors supported observational survey findings concerning recreational use patterns and provided information on awareness about and attitudes towards conservation measures for this location and for Victoria's marine environment. The finding that about half the visitors were not aware that
they were visiting a marine protected area has implications for future management of this area and MPAs in general. Most visitors indicated support for the concept of marine conservation areas and marine protected areas.

Ecological attributes of strategic land acquisitions for addition to Victoria's public protected area estate : 2004-2005

The development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system is the key objective of the National Reserve System, and is supported by all Australian States and Territories. In Victoria, the purchase of private land for incorporation into the parks and reserves system assists in the protection of some of the State’s most endangered ecosystems. This article outlines the ecological attributes of private land purchased for addition to the Victorian public protected area system between 2004 and 2005.

Using community-based monitoring with GIS to create habitat maps for a marine protected area in Australia

In recent years there has been an increase in community-based monitoring programmes developed and implemented worldwide. This paper describes how the data collected from such a programme could be integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create temperate subtidal marine habitat maps. A differential Global Positioning System was utilized to accurately record the location of the trained community-based SCUBA diver data. These georeferenced data sets were then used to classify benthic habitats using an aerial photograph and digitizing techniques. This study demonstrated that trained community-based volunteers can collect data that can be utilized within a GIS to create reliable and cost-effective maps of shallow temperate subtidal rocky reef systems.

Stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area planning

Most of Australia’s coastline and marine waters are crown ‘land’ and can be accessed by the public. As a result, many different users and stakeholder groups have an interest in coastal and marine planning and management decisions. As a way of analysing stakeholder involvement and interplay in coastal zone management and marine protected area (MPA) development in Australia, three case studies are presented to dissect the issues and explore common themes. The three themes are 1) Stakeholder involvement in implementing the oceans policy, 2) Stakeholder involvement in marine protected area network identification and 3) Stakeholder involvement in coastal land issues.

Ecological attributes of strategic land acquisitions for addition to Victoria’s public protected area estate (2006-2007)

The development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative reserve system is the key objective of the National Reserve System, and is supported by all Australian States and Territories. In Victoria, the purchase of private land for incorporation into the parks and reserves system assists in the protection of some of the State’s most endangered ecosystems. This article outlines the ecological attributes of private land purchased for addition to the Victorian public protected area system in 2006 and 2007.

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.

Building Nature’s Safety Net 2014 : A decade of protected area achievements in Australia

The single most important asset for the conservation of Australia’s unique and globally significant biodiversity is the National Reserve System, a mosaic of over 10,000 discrete protected areas on land on all tenures: government, Indigenous and private,including on-farm covenants, as well as state, territory and Commonwealth marine parks and reserves.THE NATIONAL RESERVE SYSTEMIn this report, we cover major National Reserve System initiatives that have occurred in the period 2002 to the present and highlight issues affecting progress toward agreed national objectives. We define a minimum standard for the National Reserve System to comprehensively, adequately and representatively protect Australia’s ecosystem and species diversity on sea and land. Using government protected area, species and other relevant spatial data, we quantify gaps: those areas needing to move from the current National Reserve System to one which meets this standard. We also provide new estimates of financial investments in protected areas and of the benefits that protected areas secure for society. Protected areas primarily serve to secure Australia’s native plants and animals against extinction, and to promote their recovery.BENEFITSProtected areas also secure ecosystem services that provide economic benefits forhuman communities including water, soil and beneficial species conservation, climatemoderation, social, cultural and health benefits. On land, we estimate these benefitsare worth over $38 billion a year, by applying data collated by the Ecosystem ServicesPartnership. A much larger figure is estimated to have been secured by marineprotected areas in the form of moderation of climate and impact of extreme eventsby reef and mangrove ecosystems. While these estimates have not been verified bystudies specific to Australia, they are indicative of a very large economic contributionof protected areas. Visitors to national parks and nature reserves spend over $23.6 billion a year in Australia, generating tax revenue for state and territory governments of $2.36 billion a year. All these economic benefits taken together greatly exceed the aggregate annual protected area expansion and management spending by all Australian governments, estimated to be ~$1.28 billion a year. It is clear that Australian society is benefiting far greater than its governments’ investment into strategic growth and maintenance of the National Reserve System.Government investment and policy settings play a leading role in strategic growth of the National Reserve System in Australia, and provide a critical stimulus fornon-government investment. Unprecedented expansion of the National Reserve System followed an historic boost in Australian Government funding under Caring for Our Country 2008–2013. This expansion was highly economical for the Australian Government, costing an average of only $44.40 per hectare to buy and protect land forever. State governments have contributed about six times this amount toward the expansion of the National Reserve System, after including in-perpetuity protected area management costs. The growth of Indigenous Protected Areas by the Australian Government has cost ~$26 per hectare on average, including management costs capitalised in-perpetuity, while also delivering Indigenous social and economic outcomes. The aggregate annual investment by all Australian governments has been ~$72.6 million per year on protected area growth and ~$1.21 billion per year on recurrent management costs. For the first time in almost two decades, however, the Australian Government’s National Reserve System Program, comprising a specialist administrative unit and funding allocation, was terminated in late 2012. This program was fundamental in driving significant strategic growth in Australia’s protected area estate. It is highly unlikely that Australia can achieve its long-standing commitments to an ecologically representative National Reserve System, and prevent major biodiversity loss, without this dedicated funding pool. The Australian Government has budgeted ~$400 million per year over the next five years (2013-2018) under the National Landcare and related programs. This funding program should give high priority to delivery of national protected area commitments by providing a distinct National Reserve System funding allocation. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Australia has committed to bringing at least 17 percent of terrestrial and at least 10 per cent of marine areas into ecologically representative, well-connected systems of protected areas by 2020 (Aichi Target 11).BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATIONAustralia also has an agreed intergovernmental Strategy for developing a comprehensive, adequate and representative National Reserve System on land andsea that, if implemented, would deliver on this CBD target. Due to dramatic recent growth, the National Reserve System covers 16.5 per cent of Australia’s land area, with highly protected areas, such as national parks, covering 8.3 per cent. The marine National Reserve System extends over one-third of Australian waters with highly protected areas such as marine national parks, no-take or green zones covering 13.5 per cent. Growth has been uneven however, and the National Reserve System is still far from meeting Aichi Target 11, which requires that it also be ecologically representative and well-connected. On land, 1,655 of 5,815 ecosystems and habitats for 138 of 1,613 threatened species remain unprotected. Nonetheless, 436 terrestrial ecosystems and 176 threatened terrestrial species attained minimum standards of protection due to growth of the National Reserve System on land between 2002 and 2012. The gap for ecosystem protection on land – the area needed to bring all ecosystems to the minimum standard of protection – closed by a very substantial 20 million hectares (from 77 down to 57 million hectares) between 2002 and 2012, not including threatened species protection gaps. Threatened species attaining a minimum standard for habitat protection increased from 27 per cent to 38 per cent over the decade 2002–2012. A low proportion of critically endangered species meeting the standard (29 per cent) and the high proportion with no protection at all (20 per cent) are cause for concern, but one which should be relatively easy to amend, as the distributions of these species tend to be small and localised. Protected area connectivity has increased modestly for terrestrial protected areas in terms of the median distance between neighbouring protected areas, but this progress has been undermined by increasing land use intensity in landscapes between protected areas.A comprehensive, adequate and representative marine reserve system, which meetsa standard of 15 per cent of each of 2,420 marine ecosystems and 30 per cent of thehabitats of each of 177 marine species of national environmental significance, wouldrequire expansion of marine national parks, no-take or green zones up to nearly 30per cent of state and Australian waters, not substantially different in overall extentfrom that of the current marine reserve system, but different in configuration.Protection of climate change refugia, connectivity and special places for biodiversityis still low and requires high priority attention. FINANCING TO FILL GAPS AND MEET COMMITMENTSIf the ‘comprehensiveness’ and ‘representativeness’ targets in the agreed terrestrial National Reserve System Strategy were met by 2020, Australia would be likely to have met the ‘ecologically representative’ requirement of Aichi Target 11. This would requireexpanding the terrestrial reserve system by at least 25 million hectares. Considering that the terrestrial ecosystem protection gap has closed by 20 million hectares over the past decade, this required expansion would be feasible with a major boost in investment and focus on long-standing priorities. A realistic mix of purchases, Indigenous Protected Areas and private land covenants would require an Australian Government National Reserve System investment of ~$170 million per year over the five years to 2020, representing ~42 per cent of the $400 million per year which the Australian Government has budgeted for landcare and conservation over the next five years. State, territory and local governments, private and Indigenous partners wouldlikewise need to boost financial commitments to both expand and maintain newprotected areas to meet the agreed National Reserve System strategic objectives.The total cost of Australia achieving a comprehensive, adequate and representativemarine reserve system that would satisfy Aichi Target 11 is an estimated $247 million.

Global biodiversity indicators reflect the modeled impacts of protected area policy change

Global biodiversity indicators can be used to measure the status and trends of biodiversity relating to Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) targets. Whether such indicators can support decision makers by distinguishing among policy options remains poorly evaluated. We tested the ability of two CBD indicators, the Living Planet Index and the Red List Index, to reflect projected changes in mammalian populations in sub-Saharan Africa in response to potential policies related to CBD targets for protected areas (PAs). We compared policy scenarios to expand the PA network, improve management effectiveness of the existing network, and combinations of the two, against business as usual. Both indicators showed that more effective management would provide greater benefits to biodiversity than expanding PAs alone. The indicators were able to communicate outcomes of modeled scenarios in a simple quantitative manner, but behaved differently. This work highlights both the considerable potential of indicators in supporting decisions, and the need to understand how indicators will respond as biodiversity changes.

Exposure to rabies virus in a population of free-ranging capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella nigritus) in a fragmented, environmentally protected area in southeastern Brazil

The aim of this study is to assess the frequency of rabies antibodies in free-ranging capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella nigritus) in a fragmented, environmentally protected, rural area of southeastern Brazil. Thirty-six free-ranging monkeys were tested by the rapid fluorescent focus inhibition test for detection of antibodies against rabies virus. Four individuals (11.11 %) had neutralizing antibody titers a parts per thousand yen0.25 IU/mL, demonstrating rabies virus exposure.

Population size and survivorship for juvenile lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) on their nursery grounds at a marine protected area in Brazil

Os tubarões enfrentam muitos obstáculos para sobreviver nos primeiros anos de vida e muitas espécies ocupam áreas de berçário. Embora estimativas de sobrevivência, particularmente para jovens, sejam essenciais para acessar, monitorar e manejar efetivamente populações animais, existem poucos cálculos destas estimativas para populações de tubarões e poucas estimativas baseadas em métodos diretos para estes animais em suas áreas de berçário. Métodos de marcação e recaptura foram utilizados no presente estudo para estimar o tamanho populacional e a sobrevivência de jovens tubarões-limão (Negaprion brevirostris) em uma área de berçário na Reserva Biológica do Atol das Rocas, Brasil. Os indivíduos foram amostrados entre 1999 e 2003 e as estimativas de tamanho populacional variaram entre 12 a 100 indivíduos jovens e a taxa de sobrevivência entre 24 e 54%, com média de 44,6% durante o período de amostragem mais robusto. A população destes tubarões jovens diminuiu ao longo de nosso estudo, ainda que as taxas de sobrevivência tenham aumentado durante o mesmo período. Mesmo um nível moderado de pesca e a remoção de fêmeas maduras em áreas adjacentes podem afetar dramaticamente pequenas populações de tubarões num berçário pequeno e isolado como o Atol das Rocas. As taxas de sobrevivência e tamanho populacional relativamente mais baixos em Rocas podem ser resultado das diferenças nas características físicas deste berçário, comparadas a outros utilizados pela espécie no Atlântico norte-ocidental. Tais parâmetros comparativamente mais baixos no Atol das Rocas sugerem a fragilidade da população jovem de tubarões-limão neste berçário.

Reproductive biology and recruitment of Xiphopenaeus kroyeri in a marine protected area in the Western Atlantic: implications for resource management

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)