Overfishing is a mounting threat to marine ecosystems and food security worldwide. Recreational fisheries are poorly understood and pose governance challenges due to the scarcity of monitoring data. The impact of recreational spearfishing on eastern blue groper (Achoerodus viridis) and grey nurse shark (Carcharias taurus) in Australia was analysed by assessing a chronology of spearfishing publications for historical, ecological and social data. Reported captures of blue groper declined by 90% from 1952–1967. Grey nurse shark captures also declined. Interestingly, early warnings of declines for both species emerged from the spearfishing community 17 and 19 years, respectively, before protection. While recreational fishers may have serious impacts on vulnerable fish species, they could also play a vital role in conservation and advocacy. This highlights the importance of reciprocal communication between fishers, scientists and governments for managing and detecting declines in vulnerable species.

This study aimed at developing allometric models from destructive sample field data for estimating both aboveground and belowground tree biomass and assessing changes in root biomass after old-growth Brachystegia-Julbernardia (miombo) woodland clearing in central Zambia. Logarithmic linear models were selected for estimating tree biomass because they gave the most accurate (low mean error) predictions. On average aboveground and belowground biomass in regrowth woodland represented 29% and 41%, respectively, of the biomass in old-growth woodland. The root:shoot ratios were 0.54 and 0.77 in old-growth and regrowth woodland, respectively. Ten years after clear-cutting old-growth woodland, root biomass loss was about 60% of the original biomass. The main cause of post clearing root biomass loss was fire which at the study sites occurred annually or biannually. Control of fire in cleared sites should be encouraged in forest management for carbon storage and sequestration in miombo woodland of southern Africa.

Worldwide, coastal and floodplain wetlands are rapidly urbanizing, making them highly vulnerable to biodiversity loss, biological invasion and climate change. Yet urban wetlands management is an understudied area of global environmental research. Different policy approaches and institutional arrangements in place for urban wetlands governance have to be studied comparatively to obtain a better understanding of the current issues. This paper investigates four urban wetland policy regimes and the application of ecological reference points across four countries. The regimes are discussed within the context of global policy trends, urbanization patterns and environmental change. The analysis illustrates that the four cases deviate substantially in certain characteristics and converge in others. Global trends such as environmental treaties and restructuring of city spaces are common policy drivers for all cases. Conversely, the localized specific problems have yielded specialized policy responses in each case. Declaration of fixed biological reference points for wetlands were not used at any stage of the policy development process. However, the wetland managers formally or informally set up ecosystem-services oriented benchmarks for urban wetland management. Globally-applicable normative policy directives or universal ecological reference points seem bound to fail in urban wetlands governance. However, in designing effective urban wetland policy and institutions at the regional scale, both context-specific and generalized lessons from empirical policy evaluation of multiple case studies need to be jointly considered. Based on the characteristics of the policy regimes analysed in this study, a hypothetical framework for urban wetland policy evaluation is proposed; this has yet to be validated by empirical application to actual cases.

Spatial simulation may be used to model the potential effects of current biodiversity approaches on future habitat modification under differing climate change scenarios. To illustrate the approach, spatial simulation models, including landscape-level forest dynamics, were developed for a semi-natural grassland of conservation concern in a southern Italian protected area, which was exposed to woody vegetation encroachment. A forest landscape dynamics simulator (LANDIS-II) under conditions of climate change, current fire and alternative management regimes was used to develop scenario maps. Landscape pattern metrics provided data on fragmentation and habitat quality degradation, and quantified the spatial spread of different tree species within grassland habitats. The models indicated that approximately one-third of the grassland area would be impacted by loss, fragmentation and degradation in the next 150 years. Differing forest management regimes appear to influence the type of encroaching species and the density of encroaching vegetation. Habitat modifications are likely to affect species distribution and interactions, as well as local ecosystem functioning, leading to changes in estimated conservation value. A site-scale conservation strategy based on feasible integrated fire and forest management options is proposed, considering the debate on the effectiveness of protected areas for the conservation of ecosystem services in a changing climate. This needs to be tested through further modelling and scenario analysis, which would benefit from the enhancement of current modelling capabilities of LANDIS-II and from combination with remote sensing technologies, to provide early signals of environmental shifts both within and outside protected areas.

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reforms agreed by European Union (EU) ministers include a discard ban where fishers will be required to land all fish they catch. The ban is expected to reduce the risk of capturing unwanted and low-value biomass species, and therefore should make fishing more environmentally and economically sustainable. The implications of introducing a discards ban may be gauged by assessing the practical and economic issues surrounding whether discards not destined for human consumption can be used once landed. Interviews with company managers established the attitude of the main commercial outlets towards suitability of, and interest in using discards. Results indicate that opportunities for using discards include reduction to fishmeal and fish oil, ensiling, composting, anaerobic digestion with energy recovery, and freezing (prior to use as bait). In the UK, nine main outlets expressed interest in using discards as raw materials to process into animal, pet and aqua feed; organic fertilizer; frozen bait; and other products, such as renewable energy generation. Estimates of discard quantities from English fleets show that most of the outlets are not located close to the main landing ports where the discards would likely come ashore. However, most outlets have extensive established transport links, which would enable them to cover even the remote ports. Preliminary analysis on cost of discarding shows that a discard ban will lead to increases in annual operating costs for fishers ranging from GB£ 1709–90 959 yr−1 (£1 = US$ 1.52, May 2013). Assuming that discards are processed for fishmeal, fetching c. GB£ 130 t−1, then majority of the fishers will make losses in their fishing operations. Such losses could lead fishers to adopt more selective gears in order to avoid catching unwanted species and thereby help conserve the marine environment. Finding potential uses for discards is important in the context of the proposed land-all catch policy under the reformed CFP, but the primary goal of government should be to prevent the capture of unwanted fish.

Tropical forests are both important stores of carbon and among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) schemes are designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change, by conserving tropical forests threatened by deforestation or degradation. REDD schemes also have the potential to contribute significantly to biodiversity conservation efforts within tropical forests, however biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration need to be aligned more closely for this potential to be realized. This paper analyses the relationship between tree species diversity and above-ground biomass (AGB) derived from 1-ha tree plots in Central African rainforests. There was a weakly significant correlation between tree biomass and tree species diversity (r = 0.21, p = 0.03), and a significantly higher mean species diversity in plots with larger AGB estimates (M = 44.38 species in the top eight plots, compared to M = 35.22 in the lower eight plots). In these Central African plots, the relationship between tree species diversity and AGB appeared to be highly variable; nonetheless, high species diversity may often be related to higher biomass and, in such cases, REDD schemes may enhance biodiversity by targeting species diverse forests.

Understanding the local socioeconomic context is important for the design of appropriate conservation initiatives and associated monitoring strategies, especially in areas with high degrees of inequality, to ensure conservation interventions do not inadvertently further disadvantage vulnerable people. Typical assessments of wealth inequality in remote rural areas are constrained by limited engagement with a cash economy, complex family and tribal ties, and an absence of basic infrastructure. This paper presents a simple participatory approach to measure wealth inequality that does not predefine indicators, such as income or assets, but allows the local people choose the most appropriate indicators. A case study from the Solomon Islands revealed poor households in Kahua were characterized by fewer members, fewer members of working age, and fewer male members than wealthier households. The poor also owned fewer of the locally defined indicators of wealth that were collectively correlated with limited land tenure, and, consequently, conservation or development initiatives that are tied to land in Kahua will be less likely to assist the poorest. Adopting this participatory approach could improve the effectiveness of community-based conservation, through facilitating opportunities to explore local poverty and routes for alleviation.

Transport infrastructures are a major driver of global landscape change. In many areas, highways were built before environmental impact assessments required the implementation of wildlife crossing structures. A fundamental task in the development of ecological networks is identifying areas where dispersal pathways of vulnerable populations may be blocked or affected by high volume roads. Financial considerations may limit investment, thus it is vital to establish the relative contribution of each road defragmentation location to upholding habitat connectivity and availability. In this paper, recent methodological developments in habitat network analysis, derived from the probability of connectivity index, were refined and used to evaluate the role of each highway defragmentation location in restoring landscape connectivity. The forest protected area network in the Basque country (northern Spain) was selected as an illustrative case study. The proposed approach was able to quantify and effectively account for a combination of factors determining the contribution of each highway defragmentation location to upholding connectivity, which are rarely jointly considered in analyses oriented to support restoration decisions in landscapes affected by the barrier effect of transport infrastructures. The contribution to connectivity of each defragmentation location depended on its topological position in the landscape, on the relative decrease in the effective distance among habitat areas that results from the permeability restoration at that location, on the distance from the defragmentation location to other alternative wildlife crossing structures already existing in the landscape, on the amount of habitat in the areas connected by the linkages that run through the defragmentation location and on the dispersal abilities of the focal species.

In developing countries, the landscape surrounding agricultural land is important for maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. Forests provide a full suite of goods and services to subsistence farmers in the Himalayan agro-ecological system. The effects of biomass outtake on woody species richness and composition were analysed in forests under communal and government management. Interviews on forest use and perception of forest condition and ecosystem service delivery were conducted in farmer households bordering the forests. Significantly more woody species were found in the community managed forests. Species richness was negatively correlated with walking distance from the nearest village and increasing levels of anthropogenic disturbance. Community forests were generally less degraded than government managed forests, giving support to common pool resource management. Woody vegetation represented a crucial source of fuelwood, timber, fodder, and edible, aromatic and medicinal plants. Using a multidisciplinary framework to analyse ecosystem integrity and ecosystem service delivery enabled a finer understanding of these complex agro-ecological systems, giving support to evidence-based management and conservation planning for the future.

The Tonle Sap is the largest wetland in South-east Asia and the heart of the largest inland fishery in the world. Its unique flood pulse system and annual flow reversal is a hotspot for biodiversity and productivity, as well as an essential habitat for many endangered fishes and birds. Despite predicted changes to the wetland's hydrology due to climate change and hydropower development in the Mekong, the consequent impacts on the fauna of the lake are poorly understood. A spatial modelling framework was developed to simulate the impact of potential scenarios of change using relationships between fauna and biophysical characteristics. Potential impacts on 61 animal species with documented nutritional, conservation or ecological value were examined. A large number of species rely on gallery forest to provide important habitats for their life history, yet this area is likely to be highly impacted by permanent inundation. There is a strong synchronicity between life histories and the flood pulse; consequently continued hydrological disruptions will have a significant impact on ecosystem dynamics, imposing further challenges to conservation. Protecting areas that may become suitable for gallery forests and shrublands under a modified flood regime will be crucial to management planning and the maintenance of a diverse and healthy ecosystem.

Ecotourism has been promoted to reconcile seemingly conflicting goals of tourism development and nature conservation. Given its importance, how has ecotourism fared in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) and how resilient was it to the Maoist insurgency in Nepal (1996–2006)? Drawing upon more than 10 months of field research, participant observation, semi-structured surveys and content analysis of 21 annual reports, ecotourism was evaluated by organizing ACA's programmes and activities under the four major emerging themes, namely local capacity building, waste management, education and infrastructure development; the most prominent theme was local capacity building. Annual visitor numbers declined during the insurgency, but ecotourism managed to survive, mainly due to self-organization of local tourism entrepreneurs. Local tourism entrepreneurs facilitated self-organization through capacity building and diversification of livelihoods. In the aftermath of the insurgency, visitor numbers rebounded and ecotourism continued to develop and evolve; ecotourism was thus resilient to the insurgency. Building local capacity, facilitating self-organization and diversifying livelihoods can enhance the resilience of ecotourism, sustaining stability and helping to deal with uncertainty.

The ngwayir (western ringtail possum Pseudocheirus occidentalis) is an arboreal species endemic to south-western Australia. The range and population of this species have been significantly reduced through multiple anthropogenic impacts. Classified as vulnerable, the ngwayir is highly susceptible to extremes of temperature and reduced water intake. Ngwayir distribution was determined using three different species distribution models using ngwayir presence records related to a set of 19 bioclimatic variables derived from historical climate data, overlaid with 2050 climate change scenarios. MaxEnt was used to identify core habitat and demonstrate how this habitat may be impacted. A supplementary modelling exercise was also conducted to ascertain potential impacts on the tree species that are core habitat for ngwayir. All models predicted a reduction of up to 60% in the range of the ngwayir and its habitat, as a result of global warming towards the south-west of the project area, with a mean potential distribution of 10.3% of the total modelled area of 561 059 km2. All three tree species modelled (jarrah, marri and peppermint) were predicted to experience similar contractions in range throughout most of the predicted ngwayir range, although their distributions differed. Populations of ngwayir persisting outside core habitat may indicate potential conservation opportunities.

The availability of spatial data sourced from either field-derived or satellite-based systems has created new opportunities to estimate and/or monitor changes in carbon sequestration rates, climate change impacts or the potential habitat alterations occurring across large landscapes. However, an effort to create models is not standardized, in part, due to different needs and data sources available for the models. For example, data may have different spatial resolutions with varying degrees of complexity in regards to inputs and statistical methods. This study determines effects of 20, 15, 10, five and one km sampling resolutions on detection of changes in net primary productivity (NPP), occupancy selection criteria for areas to be included in the sample and identification of significant variables impacting NPP in Indonesia forests. Production forest designated for selective harvest was used to define the sampling areas. Variances explained by predictive models were similar across cell sizes although relative importance of variables was different. Partial dependence plots were used to search for potential thresholds or tipping points of NPP change as affected by an independent variable such as minimum daytime temperature. Applying different cell occupancy selection rules significantly changed the overall distribution of NPP values. The magnitude of those changes within a cell size varied with changes in cell size. The mean estimated NPP for production forests across Indonesia differed significantly at every sampling resolution and occupancy selection criteria. Lows ranged from 1.107 to 1.121 kg C m−2 yr−1 for the 1-km cell size for the three occupancy selection criteria with highs ranging from 1.245 to 1.189 kg C m−2 yr−1 for the 20-km cell size. The difference in NPP values between these two cell sizes for the three occupancy selection criteria extrapolates to a range in annual biomass of 132 × 106 to 66 × 106 t for the total area of production forests in Indonesia.

The fundamental goal of conservation planning is biodiversity persistence, yet most reserve selection methods prioritize sites using occurrence data. Numerous empirical studies support the notion that defining and measuring objectives in terms of species richness (where the value of a site is equal to the number of species it contains, or contributes to an existing reserve network) can be inadequate for maintaining biodiversity in the long-term. An existing site-assessment framework that implicitly maximized the persistence probability of multiple species was integrated with a dynamic optimization model. The problem of sequential reserve selection as a Markov decision process was combined with stochastic dynamic programming to find the optimal solution. The approach represents a compromise between representation-based approaches (maximizing occurrences) and more complex tools, like spatially-explicit population models. The method, the inherent problems and interesting conclusions are illustrated with a land acquisition case study on the central Platte River.