Ecosystem service research has made much progress toward conceptualizing and valuing nature’s benefits to people. People need nature’s benefits to live healthy, fulfilling lives with fresh water, clean air, and nutritious food. Yet until the 1990s, these benefits were often undervalued or completely missing from policy. Natural capital and ecosystem services thinking emerged to remedy … Continue reading Disaggregating ecosystem service values and priorities by wealth, age, and education
New paper: Biologically representative and well connected marine reserves enhance biodiversity persistence in conservation planning
Rafael Magris is lead author on a new paper published in Conservation Letters. The paper offers new insights into the design of marine protected areas. Currently much of the conservation planning literature uses one set of goals: either connectivity, demographic persistence, or representation of species. An analysis combining all three approaches was long overdue, so … Continue reading New paper: Biologically representative and well connected marine reserves enhance biodiversity persistence in conservation planning
Designing connected marine reserves in the face of global warming
Global warming can disrupt ecological connectivity among marine reserves by shortening potential dispersal pathways through changes in larval physiology. These changes can compromise the effectiveness of marine reserve networks, thus requiring adjusting their design to account for warmer oceans. To address this challenge, researchers from the Conservation Planning Group are collaborating with scientists, agencies, NGOs, … Continue reading Designing connected marine reserves in the face of global warming
Demonstrating multiple benefits from periodically harvested fisheries closures
For the last few years, I have been involved with a collaborative research project investigating the effectiveness of periodically harvested fisheries closures (PHCs). Widely implemented by local communities across Melanesia, periodically harvested closures restrict fishing activities for specified periods of time. PHCs evolved primarily to serve social and cultural objectives. For example, in Fiji and … Continue reading Demonstrating multiple benefits from periodically harvested fisheries closures
New paper: Generic formulae for comprehensive estimation of costs to control invasive species, with application to north-western Australia
Our five-year project on decision support for island management, in collaboration with managers in the Pilbara region, is now producing published papers. One of these, led by Amelia Wenger, is now available online. We consulted with managers and suppliers of material and services to estimate, across several hundred islands, costs related to labour, transport, consumables, … Continue reading New paper: Generic formulae for comprehensive estimation of costs to control invasive species, with application to north-western Australia
New paper: ‘Effective Public Participation is Fundamental for Marine Conservation—Lessons from a Large-Scale MPA’
A new paper by Jon Day, published in Coastal Management, outlines the importance of effective public participation to achieve effective marine conservation. The paper cites examples of the lessons learned during the Representative Areas Program (RAP). The RAP was a key component of the widely acclaimed rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and was, at … Continue reading New paper: ‘Effective Public Participation is Fundamental for Marine Conservation—Lessons from a Large-Scale MPA’
New paper: frequent iterative adjustment of regional priorities can benefit implementation
A new paper by Cheok and colleagues has been published in Diversity and Distributions, on the potential benefits that can arise when regional conservation priorities are updated more frequently. Regional conservation assessments are frequently undertaken to guide strategic application of conservation actions. These actions are applied locally by individuals and communities and inevitably deviate, for a … Continue reading New paper: frequent iterative adjustment of regional priorities can benefit implementation
Research priorities for conservation and natural resource management in Oceania’s small-island developing states
For conservation science to effectively inform conservation action, research must focus on creating the scientific knowledge required to solve conservation problems, and researchers must effectively communicate that knowledge to practitioners. In the last decade or so, numerous exercises have been conducted to identify priority research questions or horizon scan for important upcoming research themes (for example: for conservation … Continue reading Research priorities for conservation and natural resource management in Oceania’s small-island developing states
New paper: Redefining community based on place attachment in a connected world
Who cares about the Great Barrier Reef? Many people, and according to a paper published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some of the most passionately connected individuals can come from far away places, across the globe. Effective environmental policy requires public participation in management, typically achieved through engaging community … Continue reading New paper: Redefining community based on place attachment in a connected world