Research on ecosystem services has grown markedly in recent years. However, few studies are embedded in a social process designed to ensure effective management of ecosystem services. Most research has focused only on biophysical and valuation assessments of putative services. As a mission-oriented discipline, ecosystem service research should be user-inspired and user-useful, which will require that researchers respond to stakeholder needs from the outset and collaborate with them in strategy development and implementation. Here we provide a pragmatic operational model for achieving the safeguarding of ecosystem services. The model comprises three phases: assessment, planning, and management. Outcomes of social, biophysical, and valuation assessments are used to identify opportunities and constraints for implementation. The latter then are transformed into user-friendly products to identify, with stakeholders, strategic objectives for implementation (the planning phase). The management phase undertakes and coordinates actions that achieve the protection of ecosystem services and ensure the flow of these services to beneficiaries. This outcome is achieved via mainstreaming, or incorporating the safeguarding of ecosystem services into the policies and practices of sectors that deal with land- and water-use planning. Management needs to be adaptive and should be institutionalized in a suite of learning organizations that are representative of the sectors that are concerned with decision-making and planning. By following the phases of our operational model, projects for safeguarding ecosystem services are likely to empower stakeholders to implement effective on-the-ground management that will achieve resilience of the corresponding social-ecological systems.
This thesis contains seven chapters that deals with the intergration of ecosystem services into conservation planning in South Africa. It starts with a review on the inclusion of ecosystem services in conservation plans, through the mapping of key ecosystem services in South Africa, to the tradeoffs and cost of safeguarding ecosystem services and biodiversity in some parts of South Africa.
Mainstreaming ecosystem services in EU decision making processes requires a solid conceptual and
methodological framework for mapping and assessing ecosystem services that serve the multiple
objectives addressed by policies. The PRESS-2 study (PEER Research on EcoSystem Services – Phase
2) provides such an analytical framework which enables the operationalization of the present scientific
knowledge base of environmental data and models for application by the EU and Member States for
mapping and assessment of ecosystem services. This study is structured along three strands of work:
policy and scenario analysis, mapping and valuation. Linking maps of ecosystem services supply to
monetary valuation allows an analysis of the expected impact of policy measures on benefits derived
from ecosystem services.
In this study we investigate whether the increasing investment in smallholder oil palm plantations that contributes to deforestation is motivated by financial gains or other factors. We evaluate the financial viability of smallholder farmers selling fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) to intermediaries or agro-industrial companies with mills, or processing the FFBs in artisanal mills to produce palm oil. We use data collected in four oil palm production basins in Cameroon and carried out a life cycle assessment of oil palm cultivation and CPO production to understand financial gains. We use payback period (PBP), internal rate of return (IRR), benefit cost ratio (BCR) and net present value (NPV) for 1 ha of oil palm plantation over 28 years at a base discount rate of 8% to asses viability. Our results show that smallholders make more money processing their FFBs in artisanal mills to produce CPO than selling FFBs to intermediaries or agro-industrial companies with mills. The sensitivity analysis show that land ownership is the single most important parameter in the profitability of investment in palm oil cultivation and trade. In addition to land cost, smallholders suffer from borrowing at high interest rates, high field management costs, while recording low on-farm FFB/processing yields. To improve the financial viability of smallholders investing in oil palm cultivation, measures are needed to encourage them to access land, get loans at reduced interest rates, reduce the cost of field management, adopt good agricultural practices to improve on-farm FFB/processing yields, as well as to generate additional revenue from the sale of other products.
The Third African Congress for Conservation Biology (ACCB 2016) (www.accb2016morocco.com), which will take place between the 4th and 8th of September 2016, in El Jadida, Morocco, is aimed at exploring the multiple facets of globalization in the context of conservation in Africa. African Congresses for Conservation Biology (ACCBs) are irregular events of the Africa Section of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB Africa) that are hosted by different institutions in alternating African countries. ACCBs provide the space and platform to share and discuss recent research findings and conservation experiences, to build networks, to form collaborations and to identify strategies for addressing the meeting's theme. They are targeted at students, researchers and practitioners of the many disciplines that contribute to the field of conservation and conservation biology. This year's theme 'Conservation Biology in Africa: Challenges of Globalization' is intended to encourage this community to reflect on the state of the field in Africa and the implications of globalization for conservation objectives on the continent. The Congress is being hosted by the Faculty of Science of the University of Chouaib Doukkali in El Jadida, an old Spanish port town that perfectly symbolizes centuries of fusion of cultures, economies and ideologies, and a stark reminder that globalization has been an ongoing phenomenon in human history. Africa and its people are undergoing profound and rapid change socially, economically and environmentally, a change that is already threatening the long-term conservation of its immense biodiversity and natural heritage. Real concern exists on the continent and worldwide about the cost to the environment of a rising and growing Africa and of the implications of globalization on the well-being of its people and ecosystems (Reed, 2002; Ibrahim, 2013). Leveraging on globalization to expand and improve conservation efforts in Africa, while avoiding its negative consequences, is a crucial skill that the conservation community in Africa needs to hone and perfect. Managing these unprecedented socio-economic changes implied by globalization, while maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services, requires a unified commitment by the African scientific and practitioner community to generate the research and experiences needed to identify appropriate policies and practices for successful long-term conservation (Ruiz, 2003; Egoh et al., 2012; Ibrahim, 2013). Globalization describes the process in which national and regional economies, societies and cultures become increasingly interconnected through a global network of trade, communication, immigration and transportation (Kull, Ibrahim & Meredith, 2007; Ibrahim, 2013). The outcome of globalization is the integration of economies, industries, markets, cultures and policymaking around the world (Global Policy Forum, 2016). Its effects can be desirable and undesirable and can affect different members of society disproportionally in wide-reaching and profound ways. The effects of globalization on natural resource conservation are variable, complex and difficult to disaggregate from the many other processes occurring simultaneously. In Africa, as elsewhere around the world, globalization in the conservation sector manifests itself in numerous ways, notably in the similarity across nations in their strategies and approaches to conservation through the influence of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) (Rodriguez et al., 2007) and in the sensitivity of local conservation actions to shifts in global economies, funding trends and global stakeholder interests (Robinson, 2011). Globalization has made it possible to catalyse funds for the conservation of critical species and ecosystems through concepts such as Biodiversity Hotspots (Myers et al., 2000) and Global 200 Ecoregions (Olson & Dinerstein, 2002). At the same time, it has stunted and overshadowed local conservation efforts and approaches which oftentimes respond more effectively to local contexts and which are usually more appropriate for long-term sustainability of conservation interventions (Ruiz, 2003; Rodriguez et al., 2007; Robinson, 2011). The Theme for ACCB 2016 builds on earlier ACCBs. At the first ACCB in Accra, Ghana, in 2009, a new vision was developed by the Africa Section for how to direct conservation research and priorities (Abrams et al., 2009). In 2011, in Arusha, Tanzania, jointly with the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, the Section pondered the challenges of simultaneously achieving the Millennium Development Goals and conservation objectives. Several special issues were published by symposium organizers at the Arusha Congress. The 2016 Congress is being organized on the premise that the conservation community inside and outside academia is largely ignorant of the extent to which globalization contributes (positively or negatively) to the long- and short-term persistence of their favorite species or ecosystem and is oblivious - for the most part - to the powerful effects of dominant economic ideologies on the development pathways adopted by African Nations. Keynote speakers have been selected not only to inform, but also to challenge the status quo and force this community to think outside the box. Additionally, oral and poster presentations at ACCB 2016 will feature a wide range of traditional conservation themes, but the highlights in El Jadida will be the special sessions and symposia that address the different facets of globalization and their manifestation in Africa's biological conservation arena. We are particularly interested in abstracts about work in Africa related to 'Human Migration and Conservation', 'Global Economies and Conservation', 'Global Culture and Conservation' and 'International Policies and Conservation'. We will continue to receive abstracts on these specific topics beyond the general abstract submission deadline of 30th of May 2016. In the interest of ensuring that the Congress has purpose and impact beyond that experienced by those coming to El Jadida in September, this year's event has a designated committee that will consolidate and synthesize the key messages from the 400+ oral and poster presentations that will make up the main content of the Congress. The 'Consolidation and Synthesis Committee' will share these messages broadly with the conservation community in Africa and globally. A Climate Change Committee will do the same for climate-focused symposia and sessions, specifically to inform the 22nd Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will be held in Marrakesh, Morocco, in November 2016.
In the EU, the mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, abbreviated to MAES, is seen as a key action for the advancement of biodiversity objectives, and also to inform the development and implementation of related policies on water, climate, agriculture, forest, marine and regional planning. In this study, we present the development of an analytical framework which ensures that consistent approaches are used throughout the EU. It is framed by a broad set of key policy questions and structured around a conceptual framework that links human societies and their well-being with the environment. Next, this framework is tested through four thematic pilot studies, including stakeholders and experts working at different scales and governance levels, which contributed indicators to assess the state of ecosystem services. Indicators were scored according to different criteria and assorted per ecosystem type and ecosystem services using the common international classification of ecosystem services (CICES) as typology. We concluded that there is potential to develop a first EU wide ecosystem assessment on the basis of existing data if they are combined in a creative way. However, substantial data gaps remain to be filled before a fully integrated and complete ecosystem assessment can be carried out.
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23001489' d='M0 0v6h9V0z'/%3e%3cpath fill='%23e03c31' d='M0 0v3h9V0z'/%3e%3cg stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='2'%3e%3cpath id='d' d='m0 0 4.5 3L0 6m4.5-3H9'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23b' stroke='%23ffb81c' clip-path='url(%23c)'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' fill='none' stroke='%23007749' stroke-width='1.2'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
