Comparing static versus dynamic protected areas in the Québec boreal forest

Conservation planning is often based on static mapping of species’ ranges or habitat distributions. Succession and disturbance alter, however, habitat quality and quantity through time especially under global climate and land use change scenarios; hence, static protected areas may not ensure habitat persistence and species survival. Here, we examined the relative merits of static and dynamic (floating) protected areas for the conservation of American marten (Martes americana) habitat in a dynamic boreal forest of Québec (Canada). Forest dynamics were modeled using a spatially-explicit landscape disturbance model and protected areas were selected based on the quality and compactness of marten home ranges using MARXAN. Static protected areas were fixed in space during 200 year simulations of boreal forest dynamics, while dynamic protected areas were re-located every 50 years to track dynamic habitat. Dynamic protected areas supported more high quality home ranges through time than static protected areas. The locations of dynamic protected areas were constrained, however, by the highly fragmented forest patterns created through logging and fire in unprotected areas. Our findings emphasize the often-overlooked point that if dynamic conservation planning is to be successful in the long term, the landscape matrix quality surrounding protected areas must be managed in such a way that options remain when it comes to re-planning.     

Prospects for biodiversity conservation in the Atlantic Forest: Lessons from aging human-modified landscapes

Recent global assessments have shown the limited coverage of protected areas across tropical biotas, fuelling a growing interest in the potential conservation services provided by anthropogenic landscapes. Here we examine the geographic distribution of biological diversity in the Atlantic Forest of South America, synthesize the most conspicuous forest biodiversity responses to human disturbances, propose further conservation initiatives for this biota, and offer a range of general insights into the prospects of forest species persistence in human-modified tropical forest landscapes worldwide. At the biome scale, the most extensive pre-Columbian habitats across the Atlantic Forest ranged across elevations below 800 masl, which still concentrate most areas within the major centers of species endemism. Unfortunately, up to 88% of the original forest habitat has been lost, mainly across these low to intermediate elevations, whereas protected areas are clearly skewed towards high elevations above 1200 masl. At the landscape scale, most remaining Atlantic Forest cover is embedded within dynamic agro-mosaics including elements such as small forest fragments, early-to-late secondary forest patches and exotic tree monocultures. In this sort of aging or long-term modified landscapes, habitat fragmentation appears to effectively drive edge-dominated portions of forest fragments towards an early-successional system, greatly limiting the long-term persistence of forest-obligate and forest-dependent species. However, the extent to which forest habitats approach early-successional systems, thereby threatening the bulk of the Atlantic Forest biodiversity, depends on both past and present landscape configuration. Many elements of human-modified landscapes (e.g. patches of early-secondary forests and tree monocultures) may offer excellent conservation opportunities, but they cannot replace the conservation value of protected areas and hitherto unprotected large patches of old-growth forests. Finally, the biodiversity conservation services provided by anthropogenic landscapes across Atlantic Forest and other tropical forest regions can be significantly augmented by coupling biodiversity corridor initiatives with biota-scale attempts to plug existing gaps in the representativeness of protected areas.     

Habitat suitability, threats and conservation of isolated populations of the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) in the southern Iberian Peninsula

During the Pleistocene, climatic fluctuations due to glacial and interglacial periods greatly modified the distribution of boreal organisms. One direct effect of these distribution shifts is that, along the southern edge of the range of some boreal species, populations persist only in isolated patches of suitable habitats, surrounded by less suitable areas. Isolated populations in marginal habitat are vulnerable to several threats, including climate change, anthropogenic threats, and stochastic events. We developed habitat-suitability models using Ecological Niche Factor Analysis for populations of the smooth snake, Coronella austriaca, at the southernmost limit of the species range. These models were based on historical and current records of occurrence, coupled with remote sensing data including elevation, slope, and climatic variables. Our results indicated that C. austriaca in the Iberian Peninsula occurred in areas associated with high slope and precipitation, low temperatures, and low variation in seasonal temperature and precipitation compared to areas of non-occurrence. At a broad scale, the areas classified as highly suitable for the species in the southern Iberian Peninsula were small and fragmented. At a local scale, extensive field work demonstrated that C. austriaca occurs in low densities in these areas. In addition, we detected several human-induced threats like habitat loss, favoured by temperature increase and rainfall reduction. Several life-history traits, such as dietary specialization and low frequency reproduction, also may contribute to the vulnerability of these populations to local extinctions. Although the most suitable southernmost areas are included in protected reserves, specific guidelines for management are needed to assess conservation needs.     

From genetic diversity and structure to conservation: Genetic signature of recent population declines in three mouse lemur species (Microcebus spp.)

The exceptional biodiversity of Madagascar is threatened by anthropogenic landscape changes that took place during the 2000 years of human colonization. This study focuses on the influence of geographic distance and forest fragmentation on genetic diversity and population differentiation of three rare, nocturnal, arboreal lemur species in northwestern Madagascar. Historic declines in population sizes as a consequence of forest fragmentation are quantified and dated. Eighteen sites were visited, and a total of 205 Microcebus ravelobensis, 45 M. bongolavensis and 78 M. danfossi were genotyped with eight microsatellite loci. Genetic differentiation among the sites, as measured by F_ST, ranged from 0.01 to 0.19. These values were significant in almost all cases and indicated genetic structure in the samples. Isolation-by-distance was detected in one species and a STRUCTURE analysis indicated that fragmentation further promoted genetic differentiation. Bayesian methods revealed that populations from all three species underwent a major demographic collapse of around two orders of magnitude. This decrease probably began after the arrival of humans, most likely within the last 500 years. This result suggests that anthropogenic changes may have been limited during the first 1500 years of human colonization in all three ranges. Two of the study species (M. danfossi, M. bongolavensis) lack effectively protected areas in their ranges. Consequently, quick conservation actions are now needed in order to secure the remaining genetic diversity of these species.     

Environmentally biased fragmentation of oak savanna habitat on southeastern Vancouver Island, Canada

Quantifying the degree to which natural or protected areas are representative of a specified baseline provides critical information to conservation prioritization schemes. We report results on southeastern Vancouver Island, Canada, where we compared environmental conditions represented across the entire landscape, in oak savanna habitats prior to European settlement (<1850), and in both protected and unprotected oak savannas in the present-day. In this region, oak savannas represent a rare habitat type, harboring many threatened species. Before European settlement, oak savannas occurred in a distinctly different subset of environmental conditions than they do today. Compared to the entire landscape, oak savannas were historically found predominantly in warm, dry, flat, and low-lying areas, but habitat destruction has left oak savannas in largely the exact opposite set of conditions at present. Thus, the range of conditions in both protected and unprotected oak savannas at present are highly unrepresentative of historical conditions. It appears that fire management by indigenous peoples maintained oak savannas historically across large areas of flat low-lying conditions with deep soils, where succession otherwise produces closed coniferous forest. These areas have since been almost entirely converted to agricultural and urban areas, leaving remnant oak savannas largely on steep, rocky hilltops, where the habitat is maintained by shallow soils. Our results provide quantitative guidance for setting conservation priorities for oak savannas in this region, while highlighting the important general issue of the major role traditional land-use practices can play in shaping landscapes, and therefore in influencing the baselines used to set conservation priorities.     

Uneven regional distribution of protected areas in Finland: Consequences for boreal forest bird populations

The significance of reserves in maintaining forest bird species of conservation concern (N = 36) was studied by large-scale quantitative line transect bird censuses in Finland, which stretches 1100 km through the boreal zone from the hemiboreal to the subarctic. Altogether 12 245 km of line transect was carried out in 1981-2004 in reserves covering 28 910 km². Bird census data in protected areas were combined into 100 km × 100 km squares. As a group the studied bird species were rather evenly distributed throughout the reserve network. The present reserve network is particularly significant for species having their highest densities in northern Finland, because large proportions of the populations of these species occurred in protected areas. However, over half of the studied species were concentrated in protected areas of southern and central Finland, and only small proportions of their populations were included in the present reserve network. In contrast to the whole species pool of conservation concern, the studied individual forest bird species were not distributed evenly throughout the whole reserve network. This suggests that for most individual species a regionally concentrated network is a preferred option, but for the whole species group the reserve network should clearly be regionally complementary and representative even in the boreal zone, where species have rather wide ranges. Thus, only some species and their habitats can be preserved in a spatially uneven reserve network in boreal forests.     

Dissecting habitat loss and fragmentation effects following logging in boreal forest: Conservation perspectives from landscape simulations

Habitat loss and fragmentation are recognized as major threats to biodiversity. Their respective effects, however, are sometimes not well distinguished, even though habitat loss is recognized as the most important source of variation affecting species abundance and richness at the landscape scale. As ‘habitat’ is a species-specific concept (based on species perception of its environment), habitat loss and fragmentation studies should be conducted on a species-specific basis. We here assessed the influence of habitat loss and fragmentation in the context of a boreal forest considering forest clearcutting as an anthropogenic disturbance inducing mature forest loss and fragmentation that has a potential impact on wildlife. Using 16 simulated patterns of mature forest loss and fragmentation and three natural landscapes as replicates, we assessed the respective influence of forest loss and fragmentation on the abundance of 10 bird species common in the boreal forest of eastern Canada. Species–habitat relationships were modeled through habitat use models that were utilized to predict abundance of the 10 species within each combination of loss and fragmentation patterns (3 landscapes × 16 patterns). We used three-way ANOVAs to assess the effects of mature forest loss, fragmentation and replicates (random effect) on species abundance. Our results indicated that: (1) variation in species abundance mostly depended on mature forest loss, followed by static landscape attributes other than cutovers (e.g. streams, lakes, roads) and finally by fragmentation and (2) responses to mature forest loss and fragmentation differed among species, not necessary in relation to the successional status but in relation to their perception of their environment. Decreasing detrimental effects of mature forest loss through conservation of large continuous patches of forest may be suitable to maintain abundances of mature forest bird species. Our results highlight that studies aiming to quantify effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on wildlife should be conducted on a species-specific basis and use several landscape replicates to avoid potentially biased results.     

Biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in human-dominated landscapes: Forest commons in South Asia

Strict protected areas are a critical component in global biodiversity conservation, but the future of biodiversity conservation may well depend upon the ability to experiment successfully with a range of institutional forms, including those that permit human use. Here, we focus on forest commons in human-dominated landscapes and their role in biodiversity conservation at the same time as they provide livelihood benefits to users. Using a dataset of 59 forest commons located in Bhutan, India, and Nepal, we estimated tree species richness from plot vegetation data collected in each forest, and drew on interview data to calculate a livelihoods index indicating the overall contribution of each forest to villager livelihoods for firewood, fodder, and timber. We found that tree species richness and livelihoods were positively and significantly correlated (rho = .41, p < 0.001, N = 59). This relationship held regardless of forest type or country, though significance varied somewhat across these two factors. Further, both benefits were similarly associated with several drivers of social-ecological change (e.g., occupational diversity of forest users, total number of users, and forest size), suggesting identification of potential synergies and complexes of causal mechanisms for future attention. Our analysis shows that forest commons in South Asia, explicitly managed to provide livelihoods for local populations, also provide biodiversity benefits. More broadly, our findings suggest that although strict protected areas are effective tools for biodiversity conservation, a singular focus on them risks ignoring other resource governance approaches that can fruitfully complement existing conservation regimes.     

Pattern and change of a boreal forest landscape in northeastern China

We have studied the spatial and temporal patterns of a boreal forest landscape in northeastern China using aerial photographs from 1955 (before logging) through 1980. The primary forest landscape is a complex mosaic of four tree species, and three age classes for each tree species, for a total of eighteen patch types. In addition, the complexity of the primary forest landscape shows great variation in the number, size and areal composition of patches. The forest landscape has been fragmented obviously by deforestation. There is an average increase in patch number from 291.6 to 438.0 patches per 10 000 ha, and an average decrease in patch size from 34.3 to 22.8 ha. Most of the logged areas are small in size, an average of 10.9 ha. The areal composition of different patch types has been changed greatly since the 1950s. The hardwood forest areas (especially) have increased significantly (p=0.05); coniferousLarix gmelinii decreased significantly (p=0.05), andPinus sylvestris var.mongolica remained about the same. The area of old-age class in the dominant species,Larix gmelinii, has decreased significantly (p=0.05). In addition, young and middle age classes of all tree species occupy a larger proportion of the area in 1980 than in 1955. Due to deforestation and recovery, therefore, many of these ecosystems are in early succession stages.     

Assessing landscapes: a case study of tree and shrub diversity in the seasonally dry tropical forests of Oaxaca, Mexico and southern Honduras

Tropical dry forests, with their distinct and economically important diversity, are acknowledged conservation priorities because of alarming rates of forest conversion. Whilst it is realised that terrestrial conservation requires an understanding of landscape level patterns of diversity, forests are rarely assessed accordingly. Here we demonstrate that, in the case of the seasonally dry tropical forests of the Pacific watershed of Mesoamerica, landscape level assessment of woody diversity can inform decision making relevant to both between-landscape and within-landscape prioritisation. We report floristic surveys of dry forest landscapes in Oaxaca, Mexico and southern Honduras. It is noted that these forests are floristically similar to other seasonally dry tropical forests in the neotropics. By calculation of Genetic Heat Indices, a relative measure of the concentration of restricted range species in a sample, we determine that the conservation of the tree diversity of the coastal lowlands of Oaxaca should be prioritised over that of southern Honduras. The current conservation status of forested areas in Oaxaca is briefly described. We suggest that the greater degree of anthropogenic disturbance in southern Honduras may explain the relative lack of restricted range species there. We argue that some forest fallows can act as analogues of mature forest and therefore landscape elements other than mature forest need to be included in forest conservation assessments. We conclude that diversity sampling of any forest type should not be limited to mature forests, but extended to other elements of forested landscapes.     

Processing of 13C glucose in mineral soil from aspen,spruce and novel ecosystems in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region

Microbial composition is known, on similar soil types, to vary based on differing organic matter inputs, or stand composition. Fine-textured luvisolic soils, which dominate the upland boreal forests of Western Canada, support a canopy cover of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) or a mixture of the two. These soils then reflect different belowground biogeochemical processing of organic matter. Novel, anthropogenic soils formed from a combination of peat litter and fine textured mineral soil, are now also a part of the landscape in the western boreal. This study set out to determine if a simple labeled compound (¹³C glucose) was processed differently by soils from the two dominant stand types (aspen and spruce) and from an anthropogenic (newly reclaimed) site. Results indicate that while all three soils rapidly incorporated and respired the labeled carbon, each maintained a distinct microbial community structure (as evidenced by phospholipid fatty acid analysis) throughout the 300 hour experiment. Therefore soils with different microbial communities from varied organic matter inputs decompose organic carbon by different processes, even in the case of simple labile compounds.     

Dynamic performance assessment of protected areas

Recognizing the importance of preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services, human society has established extensive protected area networks to conserve these resources in recent decades. Are protected areas working as expected? Empirical coarse-scale assessments of this question across large regions, or even globally, tend to answer “yes”, while fine-scale studies of individual protected areas often and repeatedly answer “no”. We conducted a first fine-scale analysis of Brazil’s extensive Amazonian protected area network (1.8 million km²) and have quantitatively estimated conservation effectiveness in light of changing human development pressures in the surrounding landscape. The overall network maintained intact forest cover for 98.6% of protected forest lands, largely agreeing with previous coarse-scale studies. However, detailed examination of 474 individual protected areas unveils a broad range of efficacy. Many protected areas (544,800 km²) experience default protection simply due to their remoteness. Many others (396,100 km²) have provided highly effective protection in the face of substantial human development pressure. Conversely, 12% (38) of protected areas have failed to protect the 27,300 km² that they encompass, and another 7% (23) provide only marginal protection of 37,500 km². Comprehensive landscape assessments of protected area networks, with frequent monitoring at scales matching the patterns of human-caused disturbances, are necessary to ensure the conservation effectiveness and long term survival of protected areas in rapidly changing landscapes. The methods presented here are globally adaptable to all forested protected areas.     

A tropical perspective on conserving the boreal ‘lung of the planet’

Navjot Sodhi is best known for his advancement of tropical ecology and conservation science; however, his research origins were in fact based in the boreal forest ecosystem of Canada. Ironically, the less-studied ecosystems of the tropics have recently received much more conservation attention than northern biomes, despite the boreal forest (i) representing about one third of all remaining forest on the planet (and about 50% of the world’s remaining tracts of large, intact forest), (ii) sequestering about 30% of the Earth’s stored terrestrial carbon, and (iii) becoming increasingly fragmented with ecologically contiguous patches constituting only 44% of its entire area. These heightened threats of fragmentation and increasing fire frequency associated with expanding human industry in the boreal zone, along with climate change, mean that more international focus on the plight of the boreal ecosystem is warranted. Prior to his death, Navjot Sodhi had accepted a position at the University of Toronto where he planned to apply his keen, transdisciplinary approaches to boreal conservation science in an attempt to prevent the future destruction of planet Earth’s second ‘lung’. Although he never realised this dream, here we provide an overview and examples of how appropriate boreal forest management can be achieved.     

Range fidelity: The missing link between caribou decline and habitat alteration?

Conservation of forest-dwelling caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) is of great concern across most of its range. Anthropogenic disturbances, primarily logging activities, have been identified as the most important cause of caribou decline, although the mechanisms underlying this decline are not fully understood. Caribou commonly display fidelity to calving sites or seasonal ranges, but the potential role of this life-history trait has been largely overlooked in research and conservation planning. This is surprising because sites and ranges with high inter-annual use should have high conservation value. We investigated the relationship between habitat disturbances and home-range fidelity of forest-dwelling caribou across three study sites in Québec, Canada, using a broad range of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Between 2004 and 2007, we tracked 47 adult female caribou using GPS collars. Home-range fidelity varied between seasons, being higher during calving and summer, and lower during winter. Caribou reduced fidelity following natural and anthropogenic disturbances, the latter having a stronger negative influence. Anthropogenic disturbances had a strong negative impact on home-range fidelity during annual, summer and winter periods, whereas natural disturbance was the dominant factor during calving. Despite this negative influence on fidelity, caribou tended to demonstrate range fidelity even in study sites most impacted by human activities. Habitat disturbances could produce two possible outcomes for caribou conservation: (1) a trend for females to reduce home-range fidelity which could translate into lower calf and female caribou survival through reduced familiarity with food distribution, escape cover and predation risk and (2) a global tendency to maintain range fidelity even in a drastically modified landscape which could turn into an ecological trap, particularly for calves when predation risk increases due to increased black bear density in early successional forests. Taking range fidelity behavior into consideration during forest management planning could direct conservation efforts toward the best available sites and therefore facilitate caribou persistence in managed landscapes.     

Forestry and the boreal forest: Maintaining inherent landscape patterns

The forestry industry in Canada has become sensitive to its image through pressure from environmentalists and the European markets and along with Natural Resource Departments across the country, is working hard to change its image by developing environmentally sound management. The dilemma is how to continue resource extraction from the forest yet ensure that wildlife populations do not become endangered. An important ecosystem process in the boreal forest is forest fire and the forestry industry has traditionally argued that clear cutting simulates forest fire by creating large areas devoid of vegetation that can then grow back either through natural regeneration or by planting. What is neglected in present forestry is the landscape pattern created through cutting which is often large continuous expanses of recently clear-cut land. In ecology we often talk about process and pattern. I will argue that we should emulate the pattern across the landscape. Wildlife (including all life) have evolved in landscapes with inherent patterns. If we can maintain the inherent pattern in a landscape I argue that we can maintain the wildlife. Here I outline a method for describing landscape patterns and maintaining these patterns through forest management.     

Protection from harvesting restores the natural social structure of eastern wolf packs

Legal and illegal killing of animals near park borders can significantly increase the threat of extirpation for populations living within ecological reserves, especially for wide-ranging large carnivores that regularly travel into unprotected areas. While the consequences of human-caused mortality near protected areas generally focus on numerical responses, little attention has been given to impacts on social dynamics. For wolves, pack structure typically constitutes an unrelated breeding pair, their offspring, and close relatives, but intense harvest may increase adoption of unrelated individuals into packs. Concerns that high human-caused mortality outside Algonquin Park, Canada threatened the persistence of eastern wolves, led to implementation of a harvest ban in surrounding townships. We combined ecological and genetic data to show that reducing anthropogenic causes of mortality can restore the natural social structure of kin-based groups despite the absence of a marked change in density. Since implementation of the harvest ban, human-caused mortality has decreased (P = 0.000006) but been largely offset by natural mortality, such that wolf density has remained relatively constant at approximately three wolves/100 km². However, the number of wolf packs with unrelated adopted animals has decreased from 80% to 6% (P = 0.00003). Despite the high kinship within packs, incestuous matings were rare. Our results indicate that even in a relatively large protected area, human harvesting outside park boundaries can affect evolutionarily important social patterns within protected areas. This research demonstrates the need for conservation policy to consider effects of harvesting beyond influences on population size.     

Avian conservation priorities in a top-ranked biodiversity hotspot

Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil has one of the most diverse and most endangered avifaunas in the continental Americas. Many of these endangered birds are endemic to the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot, and some even endemic to Rio de Janeiro itself. As with all other forested hotspots, little original forest remains. Much of that is outside formal protected areas and faces the risk of deforestation. These factors create special circumstances for setting conservation priorities — ones common to hotspots in general — but typically not to many conservation priority setting exercises.We mapped the distribution of the remaining habitat for the 189 birds in Rio de Janeiro state that are officially endangered and/or endemic to the Atlantic Forest. Using those habitat maps, we calculated the amount of habitat currently within protected areas for each species. We then prioritized all non-protected parts of the state for their avian conservation value and their potential contribution to a comprehensive protected area system. This analysis identified 10% of the remaining unprotected part of the state as the highest priority for avian conservation. We further highlight specific locations where conservation actions could create a more comprehensive protected area system for the avifauna of Rio de Janeiro state.     

Conservation of beetles in boreal pine forests: the effects of forest age and naturalness on species assemblages

The effort of boreal forest conservation has emphasised the preservation of old-growth forests while the role of young successional stages in maintaining biodiversity has remained largely unstudied. We compared the richness of beetle species and composition of species assemblages between managed and seminatural forests in five stages of forest succession. The sites were in boreal sub-xeric pine-dominated forests in eastern Finland. Seminatural study sites, especially the recently burned sites, were important habitats for threatened and near-threatened species. We propose that young stages of natural succession should be included in the network of protected forest areas. On the other hand, the composition of saproxylic species assemblages in seminatural forests differed from the assemblages in managed forests, indicating also the need to improve the forest management guidelines so that they better address the requirements of species protection. Regeneration methods applied should resemble or mimic the natural disturbances more closely.     

The abundance of a threatened arboreal marsupial in relation to anthropogenic disturbances at local and landscape scales in Mediterranean-type forests in south-western Australia

This study investigated associations between the relative abundance of the threatened ngwayir (western ringtail possum, Pseudocheirus occidentalis) and anthropogenic disturbances at local and landscape scales within the publicly-managed jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forests of south-western Australia. Logging, fire, fox (Vulpes vulpes) control and forest fragmentation were investigated in relation to the relative abundance of ngwayir at 90 sites within an area of 285,000 ha east of Manjimup; the location of the last remaining substantial population of ngwayir in jarrah forest. Overall, ngwayir abundance was greatest in areas with limited anthropogenic disturbance. At the local-scale, ngwayir abundance was negatively associated with greater fire intensity. At the landscape-scale, it was positively associated with fox control and negatively associated with forest fragmentation and distance from non-remnant vegetation (i.e., agriculture and tree plantations). Abundance was also greatest in predominantly unlogged landscapes and in forests that had been regrowing for an average of 40 years since the landscape was most recently logged, in other words, where logging was historically least intense. Interactions between fox control efforts and forest fragmentation were also important. This study emphasises the importance of conducting research at appropriate spatial scales and to account for the synergistic effects of the causes of decline. An adaptive management approach to the mitigation of the agents of decline is recommended.Indirect evidence indicates that high value habitat for ngwayir has in all likelihood been selectively cleared for agriculture, owing to its fertile and productive nature. Habitat loss is, therefore, also likely to be a major cause of the modern decline of the species. While many jarrah forest areas that support remaining high abundances of the ngwayir have been incorporated into reserves, conservation of ngwayir habitat and populations outside reserves also will be essential for the recovery and long-term viability of the species.     

Beyond parks as monoliths: Spatially differentiating park-people relationships in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in India

Parks represent spatially and socially heterogeneous conservation units, yet are often assessed and managed using spatially homogeneous approaches. This paper represents an effort to focus on the larger social-ecological landscapes within which protected areas are embedded, to understand why conservation succeeds and fails in different parts of the landscape. In a wildlife sanctuary in the central plains of India (Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve), we address: (i) how people living within and immediately outside a park differentially impact its resources and (ii) how the park differentially impacts communities living within. Using forest plots, satellite imagery and interviews, we evaluate park conservation by assessing plant diversity, land cover change, forest fragmentation, and attitudes of local communities towards conservation. We find that interior villages have a negative impact on regeneration, but there is a decline in tree species diversity, and increased forest cover change and fragmentation at the park periphery. Interior villages suffer greatly from crop and livestock depredations by wildlife and consider park rules to be unfairly devised. Yet, they affirm the importance of the park for conservation, and are willing to work with park authorities for stricter protection. Park authorities largely focus on resettlement of interior villages, when they should also pay attention to protecting the peripheral areas of the park from severe degradation by surrounding villages. In summary, we find that different parts of the park landscape face different conservation challenges. Taking into account spatial variations in the factors influencing conservation can greatly benefit the management of protected areas.