Biodiversity and Conservation Science News

28 December 2017

Women Spearhead Fight to Protect Nature in Rual Indonesia

"This past July, some 50 environmental defenders, most of them women, from across Indonesia’s rural areas gathered for a discussion at an Islamic boarding school in West Java. The event highlighted women’s increasingly leading role in the grassroots movement to protect the country’s indigenous cultures, its natural resources and its long-held, but now threatened, traditional wisdoms and customs that champion sustainable development. Researchers say these women are at the leading edge of a new wave to defend and protect their homeland."

23 December 2017

‘Revolutionary’ New Biodiversity Maps Reveal Big Gaps in Conservation

Detailed maps of forest biodiversity from a new study in Peru could pinpoint the most important areas for conservation. The research employs technology that, if deployed in a satellite, would provide a global picture of biodiversity. The research uses the chemical signals of tree communities to reveal their different survival strategies and identify priority areas for protection. Currently, the Carnegie Airborne Observatory’s airplane provides the only way to create these biodiversity maps. But the team is working to install the technology in an Earth-orbiting satellite. Once launched, the $200 million satellite would provide worldwide biodiversity mapping updated every month.

21 December 2017

Indonesian Pangolin Faces Extinction Due to Trafficking

Pangolins in Indonesia are at risk of extinction because of an illicit trade that sees thousands of the critically endangered animals trafficked each year, a study showed Thursday. More than 35,000 pangolins -- docile, ant-eating mammals with a thick armour -- were seized by Indonesian authorities between 2010 and 2015, exposing the scale of the illegal business, the study by wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic said.

Successful Conservation of Global Waterbird Populations Depends on Effective Governance

Abstract: "Understanding global patterns of biodiversity change is crucial for conservation research, policies and practices. However, for most ecosystems, the lack of systematically collected data at a global level limits our understanding of biodiversity changes and their local-scale drivers. Here we address this challenge by focusing on wetlands, which are among the most biodiverse and productive of any environments^1,2 and which provide essential ecosystem services^3,4, but are also amongst the most seriously threatened ecosystems^3,5. Using birds as an indicator taxon of wetland biodiversity, we model time-series abundance data for 461 waterbird species at 25,769 survey sites across the globe. We show that the strongest predictor of changes in waterbird abundance, and of conservation efforts having beneficial effects, is the effective governance of a country. In areas in which governance is on average less effective, such as western and central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and South America, waterbird declines are particularly pronounced; a higher protected area coverage of wetland environments facilitates waterbird increases, but only in countries with more effective governance. Our findings highlight that sociopolitical instability can lead to biodiversity loss and undermine the benefit of existing conservation efforts, such as the expansion of protected area coverage. Furthermore, data deficiencies in areas with less effective governance could lead to underestimations of the extent of the current biodiversity crisis."

16 December 2017

Bees for Trees: testing a potential tool for reducing human-elephant conflict

Testing treatments to discourage elephants: beehive and wire netting

"A study in South Africa’s Kruger National Park found that hanging pairs of beehives—one active, the other inactive—from tree branches was more effective than wrapping trunks with wire netting at protecting the trees from damage by hungry elephants. Elephants damaged 2% of 50 bee-protected trees, 28% of wire-netted trees, and 54% of unprotected “control” trees, but even bees did not keep elephants from impacting neighboring trees. Installing and maintaining beehives in tree branches is far more expensive than installing wire netting and requires more maintenance, but it offers reserves with sufficient resources an effective way to protect large, valuable trees from elephant impact."

‘A Vicious Cycle Towards Extinction:’ Hunting and trade can push even abundant wildlife populations to the brink

"Researchers at the University of Queensland looked at something called the anthropogenic Allee effect (AAE), a theory that proposes a critical population level threshold below which the likelihood of a species going extinct increases substantially due to rising prices for rare animals incentivizing more hunting. Using mathematical models to determine how quickly wildlife populations can decrease as prices for animal products rise in response to animal scarcity, the researchers found that the population thresholds proposed by AAE theory can drastically underestimate extinction risks. While these findings would appear to call into question the biological sustainability of trophy hunting, the debate over trophy hunting is typically centered on social and economic outcomes."

For Papuan Villagers Practicing Conservation is About Formalizing the Familiar

"Indigenous Papuans of Saubeba village last month gave their support for a government-backed program to designate Tambrauw district, rich in biodiversity, a conservation zone. The villagers already practice sustainable management of the district’s lush forests and its resources, on which their lives depend. The discussion also sought to find solutions for land conflicts that often put legally vulnerable ethnic groups in peril as Tambrauw district pushes for the passage of an indigenous rights bill. One anticipated outcome of all this is the prospect of developing an ecotourism industry centered on the region’s natural riches, including its birds-of-paradise."