The birds of the Bush Heritage, Cravens Peak Reserve

Bird communities were studied in two subregional areas of Cravens Peak, the Toko Plains and the Simpson-Strzelecki Dunefields, using the point counts method. A total of 42 2ha 20 minute surveys, 46 five-hundred metre radius area surveys and 170 5km drive through area surveys were conducted and observations made. Bird species were identified, counted and recorded. The data were compared in the two subregions and, as a whole, considering species groups according to land system on which the ecosystem occurs, the specific ecosystem and according to their general feeding habits (insectivore, omnivore, frugivore, granivore, nectarivore and carnivore). Species richness and species relative abundance were compared using Simpson’s Diversity Index and the data revealed that species are distributed largely on the basis of habitat. In general, areas with a greater number of vegetation strata recorded greater species diversity. Overall, the Tall Open Acacia georginae Shrubland on alluvial floodplains has a greater diversity of birds in a 2ha area (0.87, Simpson’s Index of Diversity 1-D) compared to the other survey sites.

Bargara Pasturage Reserve : Future Visions

Bargara Pasturage Reserve: Future Visions This exhibition showcases the work of Postgraduate Landscape Architecture and final year Undergraduate Civil and Environmental Engineering students in response to issues of sustainability in a coastal wetland known as the Bargara Pasturage Reserve; an exemplar of the many issues facing sensitive coastal places in Queensland today. The 312ha Pasturage Reserve at Bargara is the only biofilter between the pressures of Bargara’s urban and tourism expansion, surrounding sugarcane farming, and the Great Sandy Marine Park, including the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland. This ephemeral wetland, while struggling to fulfil its coastal biofiltration function, is also in high demand for passive recreation, and the project partners’ priorities were to meet both of these challenges. The students were required to plan and design for the best balance possible amongst, but not limited to: wetland and coastal ecological health, enhancement of cultural heritage and values, sustainable urban development, and local economic health. To understand these challenges, QUT staff and students met with partners, visited and analysed the Pasturage Reserve, spent time in and around Bargara talking to locals and inviting dialogue with Indigenous representatives and the South Sea Islander community. We then went home to Brisbane to undertake theoretical and technical research, and then worked to produce 11 Strategic Plans, 2 Environmental Management Plans and 33 Detailed Designs. One group of students analysed the Bargara coastal landscape as an historical and ongoing series of conversations between ecological systems, cultural heritage, community and stakeholders. Another group identified the landscape as neither ‘urban,’ ‘rural,’ nor ‘natural,’ instead identifying it metaphorically as a series of layered thematic ‘fields’ such as water, conservation, reconciliation, and educational fields. These landscape analyses became the organising mechanisms for strategic planning. An outstanding Strategic Plan was produced by Zhang, Lemberg and Jensen, entitled Metanoia, which means to ‘make a change as the result of reflection on values’. Three implementation phases of “flow”, “flux”, and “flex” span twenty-five years, and present a vision a coastal and marine research and conservation hub, with a focus on coastal wetland function, turtle habitat and coral reef conservation. An Environmental Management Plan by Brand and Stickland focuses on protecting and improving wetland biodiversity and habitat quality, and increasing hydrological and water quality function; vital in a coastal area of such high conservation value. After the planning phase, students individually developed detailed design proposals responsive to their plans. From Metanoia, Zhang concentrated on wetland access and interpretation, proposing four focal places to form the nucleus of a wider pattern of connectivity, and to encourage community engagement with coastal environmental management and education. Jensen tackled the thorny issue of coastal urban development, proposing a sensitive staged eco-village model which maintains both ecological and recreational connectivity between the wetland and the marine environment. This project offered QUT’s partners many innovative options to inform their future planning. BSC, BMRG and Oceanwatch Australia are currently engaged in the investigation of on-ground opportunities drawing on these options.

Changing Lived Worlds of Contemporary Amazonian Native Young People : Manchineri Youths in the Reserve and the City, Brazil-Acre

This thesis discusses the contemporary construction of the lived worlds of indigenous Amazonian youths. Today’s native peoples are considerably affected by the processes of globalization and urbanization, which have led to new ways of relating to their cultural traditions. This work presents a case study of Manchineri youngsters aged between 14 and 24 years old living in Acre state in Brazilian Amazonia. The Arawak-speaking Manchineri number some 1,000 people; their legally demarcated reserve is situated next to the River Yaco. The research is based on ethnographic material collected in the Mamoadate reserve and in the state capital, Rio Branco. By comparing the youth in different physical and social environments (the reserve and the city), my attempt has been to search for the most typical elements maintained, altered and created in the current lived worlds of Manchineri youths. Fieldwork methods included interviews, participant observation, photographs, video recordings, and drawings. The material was analyzed within the multidisciplinary framework of the social and cultural construction of knowledge. The study applies the concepts of social field, symbolic capital, and habitus as they have been used by Pierre Bourdieu; perspective as developed recently in Amazonian ethnology; the sacred as a cultural category as understood in the study of religion; and individual and person as concepts central to anthropology and sociology. Additionally, the study can be contextualized within youth studies, Latin American studies, and urban studies. The results of the study show that the everyday lives of young Amazonian native people are formed by a complex mixture of ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’, fragmentation, and transitions between different conceptual frameworks. Part II discusses the ethnographic material in depth and shows that indigenous adolescents act from a variety of social perspectives: the native youth’s own ethnic group, divided into sub-groups, especially into urban residents and those living in the reserve; ancestors, super-human agents and spirits; other indigenous groups and non-natives. Consequently, besides the traditional initiation ritual, we find various contemporary rites of passage to adulthood: state-education, learning traditional practices, shamanism, matrimony, and transitions between the reserve and urban areas. According to these results, new social roles, political organization, responsibilities, and in general the desire to be respected, require both ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ abilities. In Part III, the study shows that the current power relations constituted by new social contacts, ethnic recognition, and cooperation with different institutions have resulted in the formation of new social fields: youth cultures, the ethnic group, shamanic practices, the ethnopolitical movement, and indigenous students. The capacity of young Amazonian Indians to act in contemporary social fields produces them as full persons. The study also argues that the elements of the lived worlds can be divided into these social fields. When focusing on these fields, it became evident that these comprise the strategies adopted by young Indians to break through social and cultural barriers.

Models of reserve manpower

Absenteeism is one of the major problems of Indian industries. It necessitates the employment of more manpower than the jobs require, resulting in the increase of manpower costs, and lowers the efficiency of plant operation through lowered performance and higher rejects. It also causes machine idleness, if extra manpower is not hired, resulting in disrupted work schedules and assignments. Several studies have investigated the causes of absenteeism (Vaid 1967) for example and their remedy and relationship between absenteeism and turnover with a suggested model for diagnosis and treatment (Hawk 1976) However, the production foremen and supervisor will face the operating task of determining how many extra operatives are to be hired in order to stave off the adverse effects of absenteeism on the man-machine system. This paper deals with a class of reserve manpower models based on the reject allowance model familiar in quality control literature. The present study considers, in addition to absenteeism, machine failures and the graded nature of manpower met within production systems and seeks to find optimal reserve manpower through computer simulation.

Herman Sommerfeld (center) with other reserve soldiers in military uniform Portraits Men

Digital Image

Where and how to conserve: Extending the scope of spatial reserve network design

Ongoing habitat loss and fragmentation threaten much of the biodiversity that we know today. As such, conservation efforts are required if we want to protect biodiversity. Conservation budgets are typically tight, making the cost-effective selection of protected areas difficult. Therefore, reserve design methods have been developed to identify sets of sites, that together represent the species of conservation interest in a cost-effective manner. To be able to select reserve networks, data on species distributions is needed. Such data is often incomplete, but species habitat distribution models (SHDMs) can be used to link the occurrence of the species at the surveyed sites to the environmental conditions at these locations (e.g. climatic, vegetation and soil conditions). The probability of the species occurring at unvisited location is next predicted by the model, based on the environmental conditions of those sites. The spatial configuration of reserve networks is important, because habitat loss around reserves can influence the persistence of species inside the network. Since species differ in their requirements for network configuration, the spatial cohesion of networks needs to be species-specific. A way to account for species-specific requirements is to use spatial variables in SHDMs. Spatial SHDMs allow the evaluation of the effect of reserve network configuration on the probability of occurrence of the species inside the network. Even though reserves are important for conservation, they are not the only option available to conservation planners. To enhance or maintain habitat quality, restoration or maintenance measures are sometimes required. As a result, the number of conservation options per site increases. Currently available reserve selection tools do however not offer the ability to handle multiple, alternative options per site. This thesis extends the existing methodology for reserve design, by offering methods to identify cost-effective conservation planning solutions when multiple, alternative conservation options are available per site. Although restoration and maintenance measures are beneficial to certain species, they can be harmful to other species with different requirements. This introduces trade-offs between species when identifying which conservation action is best applied to which site. The thesis describes how the strength of such trade-offs can be identified, which is useful for assessing consequences of conservation decisions regarding species priorities and budget. Furthermore, the results of the thesis indicate that spatial SHDMs can be successfully used to account for species-specific requirements for spatial cohesion - in the reserve selection (single-option) context as well as in the multi-option context. Accounting for the spatial requirements of multiple species and allowing for several conservation options is however complicated, due to trade-offs in species requirements. It is also shown that spatial SHDMs can be successfully used for gaining information on factors that drive a species spatial distribution. Such information is valuable to conservation planning, as better knowledge on species requirements facilitates the design of networks for species persistence. This methods and results described in this thesis aim to improve species probabilities of persistence, by taking better account of species habitat and spatial requirements. Many real-world conservation planning problems are characterised by a variety of conservation options related to protection, restoration and maintenance of habitat. Planning tools therefore need to be able to incorporate multiple conservation options per site, in order to continue the search for cost-effective conservation planning solutions. Simultaneously, the spatial requirements of species need to be considered. The methods described in this thesis offer a starting point for combining these two relevant aspects of conservation planning.

Biodiversity and India's Degraded Lands

''Ecosystem people'' of the world subsist by producing or gathering a diversity of biological resources from their immediate vicinity. Their quality of life is intimately linked to the maintenance of modest levels of biodiversity in their own circumscribed resource catchments. Their resource base has been extensively degraded by pressures created by ''biosphere people''; i.e. the Third World elite and citizens of industrial countries, who can draw resources from all over the world and are thus, indifferent to environmental degradation in the Third World. Because ''ecosystem people'' have a genuine stake in biodiversity maintenance in their immediate surrounding, it is important that conservation efforts include maintenance and restoration of at least modest levels of biodiversity throughout the Third World. In the case of India this may be achieved by (a) dedicating the bulk of reserve forests to production of nontimber forest produce (NTFP), to support rural economy; (b) organizing effective community-based management systems to fulfill subsistence biomass requirements of peasants and tribals; (c) encouraging a switchover from shifting cultivation to horticulture; (d) supporting traditional practices of growing a variety of plant species, including keystone resources like Ficus spp, in rural habitats and on roadsides, farm and canal bunds; and (e) promoting tree farming on private lands to fulfill commercial needs.

Costs and benefits of the presence of leopards to the sport-hunting industry and local communities in Niassa national reserve, mozambique

Sport hunting is often proposed as a tool to support the conservation of large carnivores. However, it is challenging to provide tangible economic benefits from this activity as an incentive for local people to conserve carnivores. We assessed economic gains from sport hunting and poaching of leopards (Panthera pardus), costs of leopard depredation of livestock, and attitudes of people toward leopards in Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique. We sent questionnaires to hunting concessionaires (n = 8) to investigate the economic value of and the relative importance of leopards relative to other key trophy-hunted species. We asked villagers (n = 158) the number of and prices for leopards poached in the reserve and the number of goats depredated by leopard. Leopards were the mainstay of the hunting industry; a single animal was worth approximately U.S.$24,000. Most safari revenues are retained at national and international levels, but poached leopard are illegally traded locally for small amounts ($83). Leopards depredated 11 goats over 2 years in 2 of 4 surveyed villages resulting in losses of $440 to 6 households. People in these households had negative attitudes toward leopards. Although leopard sport hunting generates larger gross revenues than poaching, illegal hunting provides higher economic benefits for households involved in the activity. Sport-hunting revenues did not compensate for the economic losses of livestock at the household level. On the basis of our results, we propose that poaching be reduced by increasing the costs of apprehension and that the economic benefits from leopard sport hunting be used to improve community livelihoods and provide incentives not to poach.

Proposal to permit experimental artificial reefs inside and outside the Big Sycamore Canyon Ecological Reserve

(Document pdf contains 19 pages)

Fishing community issues in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve: a case study

The study focuses on fishing community issues in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR). It provides an overview of the legal framework, and design and implementation of fishing regulations, and documents and analyzes the experiences of local fishing communities. It explores ways in which livelihood concerns can be appropriately balanced with conservation. The report builds upon a study titled ‘Traditional Fishers in the Sundarban Tiger Reserve’ (DISHA 2008) and draws upon secondary review of literature and field visits conducted in September 2008. The report is structured in six parts. The first part provides the legal background and the second sketches the status of fisheries and fishing communities. The third part focuses on livelihood issues within the STR, and community concerns regarding implementation of tiger protection measures. Part four explores the initiatives undertaken in the domain of alternative livelihoods. Part five offers a conclusion. The final sixth part, recognizing the initiatives that have been taken to address alternative livelihood options, lists the study's recommendations. (PDF contains 32 pages)

Ongoing monitoring of Tortugas Ecological Reserve: Assessing the consequences of reserve designation

Over the past five years, a biogeographic characterization of Tortugas Ecological Reserve(TER) has been carried out to measure the post-implementation effects of TER as a refuge for exploited species. Our results demonstrate that there is substantial microalgal biomass at depths between 10 and 30 m in the soft sediments at the coral reef interface, and that this community may play an important role in the food web supporting reef organisms. In addition, preliminary stable isotope data, in conjunction with prior results from the west Florida shelf, suggest that the shallow water benthic habitats surrounding the coral reefs of TER will prove to be an important source of the primary production ultimately fueling fish production throughout TER. The majority of the fish analyzed so far have exhibited a C isotope signature consistent with a food web which relies heavily on benthic primary production. Fish counts indicate a marked increase in the abundance of large fish (>20 cm) within the Reserve relative to the Out and Park strata, across years. Faunal collections from open and protected soft bottom habitat near the northern boundary of Tortugas North strongly suggest that relaxation of trawling pressure has increased benthic biomass and diversity in this area of TER. These data, employing an integrated Before - After Control Impact (BACI) design at multiple spatial scales, will allow us to continue to document and quantify the post-implementation effects of TER. (PDF contains 58 pages)