Conservation of Natural Resources Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Chelsie Romulo...

Description

8/28/2019 ● ●

●

● ●

What is Conservation Biology?

Michael Soule ○ Father of conservation biology Functional Postulates ○ Working propositions based partly on evidence, partly on theory, partly on intuition ○ What we agree is true ■ Many of the species that constitute natural communities are the product of coevolutionary process ● Species are dependent on one another ■ Many, if not all, ecological processes have threshold below and above which they become discontinuous, chaotic, or suspended. ● There are limits to the ability of ecosystems to withstand change ■ Genetic and demographic processes have thresholds below which nonadaptive, random forces begin to prevail over adaptive, deterministic forces within populations ● There are limits to the ability of species to withstand change ■ Nature reserves are inherently disequilibrial for large, rare, organisms ● Large, rare species need more space Normative Postulates ○ Value statements that make up the basis of an ethic of appropriate attitudes toward other forms of life ○ What is good/bad and right/wrong ■ Diversity of organisms is good ● More diversity = ecosystem is better at withstanding change ■ Ecological complexity is good ● ‘Coons, pigeons, opossums, etc ■ Evolution is good ● Allows for biodiversity to adapt ■ Biotic biodiversity has intrinsic value ● Non monetary value Conservation Biology ○ Mission-oriented discipline focused on protecting and restoring biodiversity To preserve biodiversity ○ How is diversity distributed around the planet ○ What threats does biodiversity face ○ What can people do to reduce to eliminate these threats and possibly restore biological diversity

○ Make decisions or recommendations about design and management Precautionary Principle ○ Defines actions to take place on issues considered to be uncertain 9/4/2019 ●

●

●

●

Types of ecosystem services ○ Provisioning ■ Objects or resources extracted from the environment ● Food ○ Regulating ■ Natural process that benefit humans ● Pest control ○ Cultural ■ Non-material benefits to society ○ Supporting ■ Natural processes that support one of the other ecosystem services Total economic value = (use values + non-use values) ○ Use values- direct use values, consumable, consumable forestry drugs, recreation, food ○ Indirect use values- ecosystem services, recreation, flood control, storm protection, pollination, ecotourism ○ Non-use values (existence values)- ethical/moral conviction, religious, cultural, biocentric, ecocentric ○ Option Values- future use: medicine, food, genetics, leisure ○ Other Values- neighbors, future generations, enjoyment Externalities

9/11/2019 ● ●

Adaptive systems: systems that can be influenced by external forces and change over time Theory of Island Biogeography

9/13/2019 ● ●

●

Habitat Destruction

Habitat Destruction

SLOSS debate ○ Single Large Or Several Small reserves The edge effect ○ The smaller your plot of land, the larger % of edge it has, rather than interior forest ○ Circles are the best size ○ Hundred hectare fragments lose half of the forest interior bird species in 15 years Habitat fragmentation ○ Biophysical aspects of landscape change ■ Patterns ■ Processes ○ Effects of landscape change on species ■ Patterns ■ Processes

■ Metapopulations Effects of landscape change on communities ■ Patterns ■ Processes Biophysical aspects of landscape change- 4 main processes ○ Decline in the total area ○ A decrease in the size of many fragments ○ Increases isolated of fragments ○ Shapes become increasingly dominated by straight edges Landscape change is not random Edge effects Deterministic ○ Direct effects ■ Killing species directly by cutting down the tree Isolation ○ Restrictions on migration ■ Some species- birds in particular will not move farther than the edge Stochastic ○ Random forces ■ Weather event Theory of island biogeography ○ A theory regarding how spatial characteristics impact dispersion and species richness ○ Larger and nearer islands have more species ○

●

● ● ●

●

●

●

9/18/2019 ● ● ● ●

●

●

Extinction Debt ○ Due to an action, we are bound to lose species in the future Immigration Lag ○ Lag time of species returning to reclaimed land Ecosystem Function Debt ○ Changes in biomass, dissolved carbon, total nitrogen, total organic carbon Conservation in fragmented landscapes ○ Protect and expand the amount of habitat ○ Enhance the quality of remaining habitat ○ Manage across landscapes ○ Increase landscape connectivity Protect and expand the amount of habitat ○ PADDD ■ Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement ● Degazettement- change in policy Enhance the quality of remaining habitat ○ Restoration ecology

■ ■

●

●

Reduction of impacts Rehabilitation ● Enhanced (but not restored) indigenous habitat ■ Ecological restoration ● Restored local indigenous ecosystems Effects of landscape change on communities ○ Trophic Cascades ■ Transfer of energy across levels in ecosystems ● producers>primary consumers>secondary consumers>tertiary consumers ■ Fewer numbers of consumers further up the level they go ■ Indirect species interactions that originate with predators and spread downward through food webs Keystone species: impact is disproportionate to presence ○ Super critical to habitat

9/20/2019 ● ●

● ●

● ● ● ●

Resource Use

Carrying Capacity: How much of a population that an area can support ○ Overexploitation occurs when harvest exceeds natural replacement R and K selected species ○ R - more offspring ■ Smaller, short lives species ■ No care for offspring ○ K - fewer offspring ■ Larger, long lived ■ Greater care for offspring Natural resources ○ Raw materials used to satisfy human needs that are derived from the earth Perpetual Resources: exist in a relatively constant supply no matter how we exploit them ○ Wind, geothermal, solar, etc Renewable or Flow Resources: can be depleted in the short run, but can replace themselves in the long run Non Renewable resources: exist in finite supply and are not being generated at a significant rate compared to their rate of use Potential resources: not presently resource but may become useful in the future depending on technology, cognitions, economics and the publics decisions. Conservation of natural resources ○ Management options ■ Increase the resource ■ Decrease the resource ■ Maintain the resource ■ Monitor without intervention

● Doing nothing is not management Three decisions need to be made ■ What is the desired goal? ● values? ■ Which management option is appropriate ■ By what action is the management option best achieved Making good resource management decisions ○ Objectives ○ Feasibility ○ Payoff A feasible option is identified by answering: ○ Where do we want to go? ○ Can we get there? ○ Will we know when we have arrived? ○ How do we get there? ○ What disadvantages or cost? ○ What benefits are gained? ○ Will the benefits exceed the costs? Precautionary principle ○ Taking preventive action in the face of uncertainty ○ Shifting the burden of proof to the proponents of an activity ○ Exploring a wide range of alternatives to possibly harmful actions ○ Increasing public participation in decision making ○

●

●

●

9/23/2019 ● ●

●

●

Policy: a set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions What is a natural resource policy? ○ A set of ideas or plans that is used as a basis for making decisions about natural resources the vision or overarching objective regarding natural resource management NEPA: National Environmental Policy Act (1972) ○ The entire Nation State ○ Human Environment- Includes the natural and physical environment and the relationship of people with the environment ○ A bill which has passes through the various legislative steps required to become law What does NEPA do? ○ Declare a national policy to encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment ○ Promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man ○ Enrich the understanding of ecological systems and natural resources important to the nation

○

●

●

Establish a council on environmental quality ■ Must follow state laws and other federal laws Policy goals ○ Non-policy ■ Not clearly defined ● “Protecting intrinsic natural values” ○ Non-feasible policy ■ Literally impossible ● “To provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks… thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry” Natural resource management ○ 1621-1825: none ○ 1825-1885: exploitation/disposal ○ 1885-1920: scientific approach ○ 1920-1960: commodity era ○ 1960-1985: environmental movement, and environmental legislation ○ 1985-today: public involvement, conflict, disagreement, and litigation

9/25/2019 Film: The Wilderness Idea 9/27/2019 9/30/2019 ●

● ● ●

overexploitation

Considerations ○ Private vs public land ○ Developed vs developing nations ○ Subsistence vs sport ○ Legal vs illegal take ○ Depends on “type” of goods: ■ Is the good excludable? ■ Is the good rival? Excludability ○ A person can be prevented from using it Rivalry in consumption ○ One person’s use diminishes Types of goods ○ Private goods ■ Food, cars, parking spaces ■ Excludable ■ rivalrous ○ Common goods

●

●

● ●

●

●

■ Fish stocks, timber, coal, water ■ Non-excludable ■ rivalrous ○ Club goods ■ Cinemas, private parks, satellite radio ■ Excludable ■ non-rivalrous ○ Public goods ■ Radio, national defense, sunshine, air ■ Non-excludable ■ Non-rivalrous Common resources ○ Tend to be ■ Rival ■ Nonexcludable ● Example ○ Fisheries ○ Water routes ○ The environment ○ Space Free rider ○ A person who receives the benefit of a good but avoids paying for it. Each person hopes others will pay for it. ○ Common resources tend to be used excessively when individuals are not charged for their usage Tragedy of the commons Privatization ○ Requirements ■ Enforced property rights ■ Individual return on investment ■ Assumption of economic self-interest model of human behavior ● Assuming people are maxing their utility with their time and money Prisoner’s dilemma ○ Shows how cooperation breaks down ○ Noncooperation is dominant strategy ○ Premises ■ Narrow view of individuals- one shot game ■ Depends on uncertainty regarding other’s actions Olson’s logic of collective action ○ Premise ■ Free rider ■ Inability to exclude ○ How form groups ■ Individual incentives

●

■ Smaller or medium sized groups have it easier ■ External actor like an entrepreneur ■ Something else Ostrom’s revolutions ○ How explain institutions that exist (informal and formal rules, customs, norms, laws) that govern common pool resources

10/4/2019 ● ●

●

8 keys to a successful commons Define clear group boundaries ○ Match rules governing use of common goods to local needs and conditions ■ Customized property management ○ Ensure that those affected by the rules can participate in modifying the rules ○ Make sure the rulemaking rights of community members are respected by outside authorities ○ Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members’ behavior ○ Use graduated sanctions for rule violators ■ Punishments that fit the crime ● Plant 10 trees for chopping down a tree ○ Provide accessible, low-cost means for dispute resolution ■ Possible role for the government/mediators ■ Invest in institutions ○ Build responsibility for governing the common resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system 3 decisions needed to conserve natural resources ○ What is the desired goal? - value ○ What management option is appropriate? ○ By what action is the management option best achieved? ■ Natural resource management is a decision-making process

10/7/2019

10/9/2019 10/11/2019 10/21/2019 10/25/2019 ●

Maximum sustainable yield

○

●

●

Amount that can be harvested while still allowing the population to thrive ■ Video: conservation strategy fund ○ Individuals > have all profits/costs ○ Groups > resource is shared, impact to population is shared Maximum economic yield ○ As you take more (effort) to extract a natural resource, the marginal benefit decreases after maximum economic yield ○ Is lower than maximum sustainable yield ■ Allows population to grow ○ Maximizing profits can be sustainable Public goods ○ Regulation options ■ Taxes ● Fee ○ Who to tax? (producer or consumer) ○ How much to tax? ■ Too low, people keep doing it, too high impacts livelihood ○ Are we ok with putting a price on impacts to nature? ● Presence of substitutes ○ Will people purchase other things instead? ● Elasticity of demand ○ Will people continue to purchase this product regardless of price? ■ Inelastic if people will buy no matter what ■ Bans ● seasons ■ Limits ● Number able to harvest ■ Permits

10/28/2019 ●

●

CITES ○ Convention on international trade of endangered species flora and fauna ■ 35,000 species are protected under CITES ● 30,000 plant species ● 5,600 animal species Limits and bans ○ Total allowable catch (quota) ○ market-based approaches ■ Permits ■ Catch shares ■ Can and trade

● ●

●

Total allowable catch is divided amongst fishermen each season Fishermen can buy or sell catch shares if they want to fish more or less Social or cultural problems that are difficult to solve because of these issues ○ Incomplete or contradictory knowledge ○ Number of people (opinions) ○ Large economic burden ○ Interconnectedness of these problems with other areas...