Mixed‐method study on medicinal herb collection in relation to wildlife conservation: the case of giant pandas in China

Medicinal herb collection has historical and cultural roots in many rural communities in developing countries. Areas where herb collection occurs may overlap with biodiversity hotspots and crucial habitat of endangered and threatened species. However, impacts of such practices on wildlife are unknown and possibly underestimated, perhaps due to the elusive nature of such activities. We examined this phenomenon in Wolong Nature Reserve, China, a protected area in the South‐Central China biodiversity hotspot that also supports a community of Tibetan, Qiang and Han people who use herb collection as a supplementary source of livelihood. We adopted a participatory approach in which we engaged local people in outlining spatial and temporal dynamics of medicinal herb collection practices. We found that the overall spatial extent of herb collection increased in the past two decades. We then overlaid herb collection maps with localities of giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) feces collected over two time points in the reserve. Using a Bayesian parameter estimation, we found evidence for declined giant panda occurrence in the areas most recently impacted by emerging medicinal herb collection. Our methodology demonstrates the potential power of integrating participatory approaches with quantitative methods for processes like herb collection that may be difficult to examine empirically. We discuss future directions for improving explanatory power and addressing uncertainty in this type of mixed‐method, interdisciplinary research. This work has implications for future attempts to understand whether and how prevalent but subtle human activities may affect wildlife conservation.     

New challenges facing traditional nature reserves: Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) conservation in China

Traditional conservation strategies can effectively preserve biodiversity within nature reserves, but may fail to mitigate the conflicts between rural development and wildlife conservation. This paper discusses the magnitude of the conflict and its development over time, focusing on elephant conservation and land resource management within and around nature reserves. We suggest that regulations alone can satisfy neither the demands to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services nor the demands to achieve human welfare. More innovative tools such as informed land‐use planning and integrated conservation development projects are called for to reduce the agricultural interface with elephant range, and therefore to alleviate the damage caused by the conflict.     

黑龙江大沾河湿地国家级自然保护区鸟类多样性及其保护

为了掌握黑龙江大沾河湿地国家级自然保护区的鸟类多样性和认识保护区目前存在的问题,我们通过查阅资料、鸟类环志和鸟类救护的方法对保护区的鸟类多样性进行了研究。结果表明黑龙江大沾河湿地国家级自然保护区分布有鸟类202种,国家Ⅰ级重点保护鸟类有东方白鹳、白头鹤、丹顶鹤、金雕4种,国家Ⅱ级重点保护鸟类有白枕鹤、苍鹰、鸳鸯等33种,鸟类多样性极其丰富。在鸟类保护工作方面,目前虽然保护区已经开展了大量的保护工作,但仍然存在经济发展与鸟类保护相矛盾、人为干扰严重、自然资源利用过度和环境污染加剧等问题。针对存在的问题,本文通过研究提出了保护区在今后鸟类多样性保护和管理方面的科学意见。     

Wildlife Conservation on the Rangelands of Eastern and Southern Africa: Past,Present, and Future

Our objective was to assess the status of the large native rangeland mammals in the eastern and southern African countries focusing on conservation strategies that will benefit the animals, their rangeland habitats, and the people who live in this region. Eastern and southern African rangelands are renowned for supporting a globally unique diversity and abundance of large mammals. This wildlife legacy is threatened by changing demographics, increased poaching, habitat fragmentation, and global warming, but there are reasons for optimism. After sharp declines from 1970 to 1990 across Africa, wildlife populations in some countries have subsequently increased due to incentives involving sport hunting and ecotourism. National parks and protected areas, which have been critically important in maintaining African wildlife populations, are being increased and better protected. Over the past 50 years, the number of parks has been doubled and the areas of several parks have been expanded. The major problem is that no more than 20% of the national parks and reserves set aside for wildlife are adequately protected from poaching. The southern African countries where wildlife has recently thrived have robust hunting and ecotourism programs, which economically benefit private landowners. Considerable research shows rural communities dependent on rangelands can be incentivized to participate in large mammal conservation programs if they can economically benefit from wildlife tourism, sport hunting, and the legal sale of animal by-products. Community-based wildlife conservation programs can be economically and ecologically effective in sustaining and enhancing African wildlife biodiversity, including rhinos, elephants, and lions. Low-input ranching wild ungulates for meat and hunting may be an economically viable alternative to traditional range livestock production systems in some areas. However, in many situations, common-use grazing of livestock and wildlife will give the most efficient use of rangeland forages and landscapes while diversifying income and lowering risk.     

A zoological perspective on payments for ecosystem services

The concept of payments for ecosystem services is being developed as an important means of providing a more diverse flow of benefits to people living in and around habitats valuable for conservation. The Kyoto Protocol, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, includes a Clean Development Mechanism to provide for payments for certain forms of carbon sequestration that may benefit animal species (at least as an incidental benefit). Other market‐based approaches for paying for carbon sequestration services outside the Kyoto framework are being promoted in various parts of the world. Another common form of payment for ecosystem services is compensating upstream landowners for managing their land in ways that maintain downstream water quality; this can include habitat management that benefits wild animal species. While biodiversity itself is difficult to value, it can be linked to other markets, such as certification in the case of sustainably‐produced forest products. This paper expands on some of the markets for ecosystem services that also benefit wildlife, identifies relevant sources of information, and highlights some of the initiatives linking such markets to poverty alleviation. Making markets work for ecosystem services requires an appropriate policy framework, government support, operational institutional support, and innovation at scales from the site level to the national level. Zoologists have much to contribute to all of these steps.     

Saving wild tigers: A case study in biodiversity loss and challenges to be met for recovery beyond 2010

Wild tigers are being annihilated. Tiger range countries and their partners met at the 1st Asian Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation in January 2010 to mandate the creation of the Global Tiger Recovery Program to double the number of tigers by 2022. Only 3200–3600 wild adult tigers remain, approximately half of the population estimated a decade ago. Tigers now live in only 13 countries, all of which are experiencing severe environmental challenges and degradation from the effects of human population growth, brisk economic expansion, rapid urbanization, massive infrastructure development and climate change. The overarching challenge of tiger conservation, and the conservation of biodiversity generally, is that there is insufficient demand for the survival of wild tigers living in natural landscapes. This allows the criminal activities of poaching wild tigers and their prey and trafficking in tiger derivatives to flourish and tiger landscapes to be diminished. The Global Tiger Recovery Program will support scaling up of practices already proven effective in one or more tiger range countries that need wider policy support, usually resources, and new transnational actions that enhance the effectiveness of individual country actions. The program is built on robust National Tiger Recovery Priorities that are grouped into themes: (i) strengthening policies that protect tigers; (ii) protecting tiger conservation landscapes; (iii) scientific management and monitoring; (iv) engaging communities; (v) cooperative management of international tiger landscapes; (vi) eliminating transnational illegal wildlife trade; (vii) persuading people to stop consuming tiger; (viii) enhancing professional capacity of policy-makers and practitioners; and (ix) developing sustainable, long-term financing mechanisms for tiger and biodiversity conservation.     

Development of non‐governmental organisation‐academic partnership to tackle rabies in Africa and Asia

Rabies kills approximately 60,000 people each year, mainly in sub‐Saharan Africa and Asia, of which 40% of victims are less than 15 years old. Once clinical signs develop, the disease is almost invariably fatal. Globally, rabies has been estimated to cause 3?7 million disability‐adjusted life years and $8?6B in economic losses annually. The vast majority of human rabies cases are caused by bites from rabies‐infected dogs. Despite this loss of human life and resultant economic and societal costs, rabies can be prevented in both humans and dogs by vaccination. This has been demonstrated in many countries, notably in Central and South America, where large‐scale, high coverage mass dog vaccination programmes have dramatically reduced the incidence of rabies. Even in parts of Africa and Asia, projects have shown that rabies can be eliminated locally. Nevertheless, rabies remains an important cause of mortality in many sub‐Saharan and Asian countries. The reasons why some countries have been able to effectively eliminate rabies whereas others have not are complex and often impossible to definitively identify; commonly cited explanations include political, economic, logistical and societal barriers.     

Understanding South African private landowner decisions to manage rhinoceroses

With increased poaching pressures, rhinoceroses have become a financial liability due to expensive anti-poaching security costs required to protect this species. Nonetheless, approximately one-third of South Africa’s rhinoceros population is protected on private lands. In a time when the future existence of rhinoceroses is uncertain, it is important to determine (a) the considerations included in private sector decisions to participate in rhinoceros conservation and (b) how increased conservation of rhinoceroses on private lands may be attained. We conducted semi-structured interviews with private wildlife ranchers and reserve managers in South Africa to answer these questions. Respondents cataloged financial (e.g., security costs, tourism revenues) and nonfinancial (e.g., psychological stresses, emotional attachment) factors that influence their decisions to keep rhinoceroses on their lands. Despite significant costs of rhinoceros ownership, rhinoceros owners were willing to engage in conservation efforts because of the nonfinancial benefits they derive from protecting rhinoceroses.     

Human–wildlife conflict and attitude of local people towards conservation of wildlife in Chebera Churchura National Park,Ethiopia

Human–wildlife conflict is a serious challenge undermining the integrity of protected areas in developing countries. Developing effective human–wildlife conflict mitigation strategies requires an understanding of the conflict patterns, species involved and attitudes of local people living along protected area boundaries. We hypothesised that (1) there was a high level of human–wildlife conflict and (2) the local people would have less favourable attitudes towards problematic wild animals. We assessed patterns of human–wildlife conflict and attitudes of local people along the boundary of Chebera Churchura National Park, Ethiopia from 2012 to 2014. A total of 354 households were selected randomly for interview. A questionnaire survey, focus group discussions and direct field observations were carried out in the selected villages. The major types of human?wildlife conflict in the area include crop raiding, livestock predation, increased risk of livestock diseases and direct threats to human life. A majority of the respondents (68.1%) faced crop damage and domestic animal loss, 12.3% reported threat to humans and 0.3% reported that the wildlife might cause diseases. Close proximity of the villages to the park and seasons influenced livestock predation intensity with highest predation in the wet season (56.0%). To mitigate these problems, the local people utilised various traditional methods, including guarding. Most respondents had positive attitudes towards the conservation of wildlife. However, as the frequency of conflicts increased in the last five years, the attitudes of local people might change. Active measures are to be implemented to mitigate the problem and safeguard the future of the wildlife around the park. The park has enormous potential to benefit more local people by implementing a participatory management approach to conservation.     

扎龙国家级自然保护区核心区居民经济现状调查分析与社区发展对策

自然保护区与当地社区居民之间具有长期的相互依存关系,二者协调发展是自然保护区管理的核心内容之一。自然保护区农村社区的社会经济发展对保护区的保护工作具有非常重要的影响,扎龙国家级自然保护区核心区内目前有超过5 000人居住,其经济活动与生物多样性保护任务之间互相影响的机制让人深思。本文以扎龙国家级自然保护区核心区居民为研究对象,实地调查并分析了扎龙国家级自然保护区核心区居民的经济现状,阐明了核心区居民经济现状的客观原因,指出存在的几个问题;（1）收入低,经济来源单一;（2）生活条件差,基础设施落后;（3）核心区居民对自然资源利用方式粗放,对保护目标不利。在此基础上提出了进行生态移民和建立社区共管机制的对策建议。     

Species richness and adaptive capacity in animal communities: lessons from China

Climate change is already threatening the long‐term viability of many important protected areas, and as global warming accelerates this will increase. Lowered water tables, melting permafrost, changing vegetation zones, combined with the fragmentary distribution of wilderness areas, will cause a wave of local extinctions as species fail to adapt to changing conditions in time or fail to move as climate zones advance across the face of the continents. Ecologists can predict and even model likely scenarios, but can we do anything to help safeguard valuable biodiversity or must we passively document Earth's changes and accept these losses? Studies of the extraordinary species richness of the Hengduan Mountains and the Qionglai Mountain ranges of South‐West China and of the Changbaishan Mountains in North‐East China give us some optimism. This paper provides an explanation for the high species richness in these ranges and identifies design principles that can be used in the selection of protected areas or in the revision of existing protected area boundaries to enhance their ecological resilience and allow them to maintain higher levels of biological diversity under conditions of climate change or other disturbance.     

Profitable and Sustainable Cattle Grazing Strategies Support Reptiles in Tropical Savanna Rangeland

Rangelands are areas used primarily for grazing by domestic livestock; however, because they support native vegetation and fauna, their potential role in conservation should not be overlooked. Typically, “off-reserve” conservation in agricultural landscapes assumes a trade-off between maintaining the ecological processes that support biodiversity and successful food production and profitability. To evaluate this potential biodiversity trade-off in rangelands, we need to understand the effect of different livestock grazing strategies on biodiversity, in relation to their performance in terms of profitability and land condition. We monitored reptile community responses to four cattle-grazing strategies (heavy, moderate, and variable stocking rates and a rotational wet season spelling treatment) in a replicated, long-term grazing trial in north Queensland, Australia. Simultaneously, measures of profitability and land condition were collected for the different grazing strategies. Overall, reptile abundance was not negatively impacted by the more sustainably managed treatments (moderate, variable, and rotational) compared with heavy stocking, although the effect of grazing treatment alone was not significant. Profitability and land condition were also higher in these treatments compared with the heavy stocking rate treatment. As drought conditions worsened over the 3 yr, the negative impact of the heavy stocking treatment on both profitability and biodiversity became more pronounced. Heavy stocking negatively impacted reptiles and was also the least profitable grazing strategy over the long term, resulting in the worst land condition. This suggests that in this tropical savanna rangeland there was no trade-off between economic performance and reptile abundance and diversity. Grazing regimes with a moderate stocking rate or flexible management strategies were better able to buffer the effects of climate variability. The consequence was a more resilient reptile community and better economic outcomes in dry years.     

中国建立“冷冻动物园”浅析

生物多样性保护和野生动物保护是目前人类普遍关注的问题。野生动物多样性保护有多种形式,＂冷冻动物园＂是其中的一个重要手段。该手段具有现代化、高容量等优点。目前已有多个国家建立了＂冷冻动物园＂。中国物种资源丰富,有许多特有物种,但很多物种已经濒临灭绝。本文根据我国动物资源的现状,针对建立＂冷冻动物园＂所需的技术条件、物质资源等方面进行了分析,提出了建立国家级的＂冷冻动物园＂的必要性和可行性。     

黄河上游首曲湿地保护区退牧还草效益分析

通过对黄河上游首曲湿地保护区内实施退牧还草项目后的草地生态系统的生产经济价值和生态服务价值的估算,分析了退牧还草项目的实施效益。结果表明,项目实施后,该区内的草地地上生产力提高了13．65％～29．29％,盖度提高了12．06％～22．76％。玛曲境内休牧草地和禁牧草地的生产经济价值分别为0．13亿元和0．10亿元,分别比对照提高了28．84％和21．55％;休牧草地和禁牧草地的生态服务价值分别为83．32亿元和78．62亿元,分别比对照提高了18．64亿元和13．94亿元。退牧还草项目的实施,显著改善了区内草地生态系统的直接经济效益和间接生态效益。     

Equine Farm Operators: An Underserved Target Audience for Conservation Practice Outreach?

Equine farms account for an increasing proportion of land use in many areas of the United States. Despite this, equine farm operators have often been neglected by researchers and resource professionals when land management decisions are concerned and little is understood of this community's awareness and use of conservation practices. This study assessed the prevalence of conservation messages in equine-related trade magazines using content analysis. In-depth interviews were also conducted with equine farm operators to assess their understanding and use of conservation practices. Conservation-related material in equine media is relatively rare when compared with traditional livestock magazines. Equine and stable owners are generally motivated to protect on-farm resources but are not very aware of the off-farm effects of their operations. Several common livestock conservation practices are being used by many facilities, but the motivation for their use is not based on environmental concern, and operators are generally unaware of the environmental benefits of these practices. More outreach and education directed at equine farm operators is needed.     

保护区与本地社区建立伙伴关系的意义和途径

保护区建立的目的在于保护生物多样性,进而维护区域生态安全和本地人民的根本利益,应该说,与本地社区发展的目标和利益并不存在根本的矛盾。但是,矛盾的发生主要在于彼此沟通不够,工作欠细致。本文主要探讨保护区应该如何与本地社区建立密切的伙伴关系,共同完成预期的目标,使之成为实施可持续发展战略与建设和谐社会的基本单元,为生物多样性和文化多样性的保护和持续利用做出应有的贡献。主要注意下列几点：1）保护区应争取地方政府的领导和支持,建立一个领导小组,邀请有关部门和本地社区的代表共同组成;2）遵循可持续发展战略的要求制定区域生态发展规划和行动计划,发挥本地资源优势,把经济建设和环境保护同步发展;3）制定清晰可行的工作条例,让参与者有共同遵守的准则,保持旺盛的战斗力,团结一致,克服各种困难;4）加强与国内外有关部门的合作,广泛与社会各界人士取得密切联系,争取把投资、捐赠、业务合作、观光旅游、休闲度假等工作做好。     

Sheep farming intensification and utilization of natural resources in a Mediterranean pastoral agro-ecosystem

The research was carried out in the “Sierra y Cañones de Guara” Natural Park, a protected mountain area located in the Central Pyrenees (Huesca, Spain). In this territory, a notorious recession of agricultural activities has been observed in recent decades, which has originated changes in the type and intensity of land utilization and, simultaneously, led to environmental and landscape degradation.The main goal of this research was to analyse what characteristics of the current sheep farming systems could explain different patterns of utilization of the grazing resources. Information was obtained through direct interviews with all sheep farmers that used the grazing resources of the Park in 2000 (n = 53). Specific information on grazing management (grazing areas, grazing periods, number and type of grazing animals) was collected together with data on family characteristics, labour, flock management, land use, continuity, recent changes in farming and farmers opinions. Principal Components Analysis was used to examine relationships among original variables. Farming systems were then characterized in four homogeneous groups using Cluster Analysis. Finally, a Logistic Regression allowed determining relationships between the level of intensification of management and several social and technical features.Intensification of farm management was linked to the type and intensity of land utilization: the higher the intensification of the reproduction system the shorter the grazing period and the lower number of grazing animals. Besides, chances of continuity were critical in some groups of farms, especially in some of the most extensive ones, while many farms with good chances of permanence showed more intensive management strategies but lower utilization of grazing resources. In this type of agro-ecosystems, rural development policies with conservation purposes should focus on farming systems with more environmentally desirable management strategies, and consequently enhance their chances of continuity.     

Economic evaluation for conservation of farm animal genetic resources

The decline in biodiversity of farm animal genetic resources (AnGR) has come to the forefront of concern in the discussion of animal conservation and breeding programmes. To improve decision‐making regarding conservation and breeding programmes, a number of evaluation techniques of farm AnGR are available. This paper presents an overview of the different values associated to AnGR and of the techniques for their measurement being employed in the economic literature. Those include linear programming and farm simulation models, dynamic models estimating the value of research and development and econometric models estimating the demand for breed characteristics. While farm programming and simulation models are fairly well developed, they do have large data requirements. Alternatively, contingent valuation methods are available, in particular when the goal is to capture non‐market values embedded in breeds.     

How economic are the farming units of Leliefontein,Namaqualand?

Nomadic pastoralism has been practised in Leliefontein for centuries. In 1984, the area was formally divided into 47 so‐called ‘economic units’ on the assumption that this agricultural approach would (a) promote development in the region and (b) introduce conservation management to these areas. The communal land tenure system was effectively abolished. We relate potential income from livestock farming in the region to costs of production and show that most of the 47 farming units of Leliefontein are, in fact, not economic farming units. Furthermore, there is little evidence to indicate that it has been the communal system per se that has been responsible for land degradation in the area. We point out that the change in land tenure, was based on technical considerations only, that the hidden costs were not adequately investigated and that the social ramifications were ignored.     

祁连山国家级自然保护区土地利用时空变化及与气候因子关系研究

土地利用类型变化是植被变化最直接的表现形式。祁连山是我国西部地区重要的水源涵养区,生态环境比较脆弱,研究区域内土地利用时空变化对区域生态环境保护具有重要意义。本文基于2000—2018年土地利用类型数据,分析祁连山土地利用时空变化特征及影响因子。结果表明：草地、林地、未利用地是研究区主要的土地利用类型,耕地、城乡、工矿居民用地、水域面积较小;2000—2018年间祁连山范围内草地、林地、水域面积增加,未利用地面积减少,且2005—2010年期间土地利用类型变化最为明显;2000—2018年期间祁连山区域草地覆盖度增加,中、高覆盖草地面积增加,低覆盖草地面积较少;2000—2018年土地利用类型变化主要发生在祁连山西部地区,主要为草地与未利用地之间的相互转化。草地变化受降水、相对湿度的影响较大。