Conservation biology L32-35

Why do we need conservation?

• Conservation is about trying to halt and reverse biodiversity loss caused by humans, including extinctions

• Extinctions occur slowly

• 2 exceptions: mass extinction events and human-caused extinction

• Human-caused extinction is

  • Different from ‘background’ extinction rates that are part of the evolutionary process

  • Affecting more species at a much faster rate

• Human-caused ecosystem degradation, loss and collapse

How to know whether a species is threatened?

• Declining population (e.g. due to reduced habitat or lower BR than DR)

• Small distribution (making the species at risk from threats like bushfires or development)

• Small population size (making the species vulnerable to demographic stochasticity as well as threats like bushfire or developments)

IPBES Main drivers of biodiversity loss:

1. Land-use change

2. Direct exploitation — hunting, fishing, etc.

3. Pollution

4. Invasive species

5. Climate change

(+ Disease)

These threats often interact

Why conserve biodiversity?

Attitudes towards nature and conservation have changed through time:

1. Wild nature for its own sake

2. A focus on threatened species

3. Utilitarian: focusing on the benefits people get from nature (eg ecosystem services, clean water, clean air, food and medicinal value

4. People and Nature: complex combination of inherent values, managing threats, human
   rights, and both impacts on and benefits from nature

What are we conserving?

Biodiversity: the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

This means conservation might focus on the (3 biodiversity levels):

1. Genetic level – genetic traits that allow species to adapt to environments, resist disease

2. Species level – the number and types of species

3. Ecosystem level – entire communities of species, their physical environment and the
   interactions between them.

Ecosystem approaches can address:

• Maintaining in ecological processes and functions, which support Nature’s contributions to people as well as biodiversity.

• Dependencies/interactions among species and far-reaching changes in common species, not just threatened species.

• Motivates in situ conservation – you can’t put an ecosystem in a zoo

Conserving biodiversity in Australia: Context

Big changes to the Australian environment:

• Colonisation led to sudden and dramatic change

• Disrupted existing management by Indigenous people

• Widespread clearing for settlement, agriculture and grazing

• Introduction of new species into the system

• Extensive persecution of many native species

• Dams, concreted or covered waterways

• Attempts to ‘tame’ the landscape

HAS RESULTED IN

• Less habitat

• Increased mortality

• Reduced breeding success

• Reduced movement

= POPULATION DECLINES AND EXTINCTION

All land in Australia is Indigenous land - never ceded

• 60,000 years of knowledge and active management through Caring for Country

• Cultural and ecological connections still important today

• Native flora and fauna evolved under the management and care of First Nations peoples

• ~22% of Australia is under Indigenous land management

• Restoration of biodiversity and culture

Australia’s extinction record

• ~100 species extinct since colonisation (documented, probably more)

• Worst mammal extinction rate of any country in the world: 35% of all modern mammal extinctions worldwide

Animal species threatened by extinction:

• More than 1800 species on Australia’s federal threatened species list

• Plants are under-assessed — 40%> of these species have been assessed in terms of the risk of extinction

Ecosystem loss poorly documented

• 100 ecological communities listed as threatened under the EPBC Act

• No systematic assessment

Extinction

Key terms

Extinct: no individuals remaining

Locally extinct: Extinct from part of its range, but still exists elsewhere

• E.g. Quolls

Extinct in the wild: Still in captivity but not longer found in its natural habitat

• E.g. Lister’s gecko

Functionally extinct: No longer enough individuals present to fulfill their role in the ecosystem

• E.g. some species of pollinators, Dingoes, Koalas

Co-extinction: When the loss of one species leads to the loss of another

• E.g. Parasites, symbiotic r/s b/w fungi and plants, specific pollinators

Lazarus effect: When a species is thought extinct, but rediscovered

Ecosystem collapse

• Loss of defining features: species, structure, function

• New ecosystem with new defining features. Can be valuable.

• Theory, data & expert judgement

Population persistance (viability)

The ability of a population to ‘persist’ – to survive through time (Also referred to as persistence)

Population Viability Analysis (PVA)

• Common approach that drives conservation

• Determines the likelihood that a population will go extinct within a certain period of time

• Can compare different scenarios

  • Change in vital rates

  • Effect of threats

  • Effect of conservation actions

2 types of stochasticity:

1. Environmental stochasticity

• Fluctuations in population size due to chance environmental conditions

• E.g. catastrophic events, high rainfall and resources

2. Demographic stochasticity

• fluctuations in population size due to chance events of births and deaths

• i.e. each birth and death is associated with a probability

Both affect population size and therefore extinction risk

2 broad types of conservation actions:

In situ
Conserving the species and ecosystems in their habitat.

• Habitat protection

• Restoration and enhancement

• Removing threats

• Behaviour change

Ex situ
Conserving species away from their habitat

• Captive breeding

• Insurance populations

• Gene banking

• Zoos and botanic gardens

• (can’t do this for ecosystems)

How does science help us conserve species and ecosystems?

• Identify declines

• Diagnose and understand the threats (the reason for the decline)

• Understand the needs of the species or ecosystem (food, habitat, growing conditions)

• Identify actions we can take

• Evaluate the success of actions (And modify if we need)

What makes a threatened species or ecosystem?

IUCN Red Lists: international standards & tools

IUCN = International Union for Conservation of Nature

• World’s oldest (1948) & largest environmental organisation

• Initiated by UNESCO, only environmental org. with official UN Observer status

• Intergovernmental (~1400 governments & NGOs)

• ~16,000 scientists & experts as volunteers

• Develops and maintains global standards

What is a threatened species?

• Red List criteria:

  • Decline in population size

  • Small distribution & ongoing threats

  • Small population size & ongoing threats

  • Very small or restricted population

NE —> DD —> LC —> NT —> VU —> EN —> CR —> EW —> EX

What is a threatened ecosystem?

• Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) criteria:

  • Decline in distribution

  • Small distribution & ongoing threat

  • Decline in abiotic environment

  • Decline in species, interactions, processes

  = Risk of ecosystem collapse

E.g. Mountain Ash forest, VIC — historical loss of old growth, due to fire and logging and also future abundance of hollow-bearing trees, indicates decline

NE —> DD —> LC —> NT —> VU —> EN —> CR —> CO

Global Frameworks for Conservation (GBF)

• The GBF acts as the strategic plan for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992

• Internationally, legally binding, Primary multi-lateral agreement for nature

• Iterative sets of goals for biodiversity conservation

• 4 outcome-oriented goals:

  • safeguard biodiversity

  • maintain nature’s contributions to people,

  • share of benefits from nature

  • resource the GBF’s implementation

• 23 targets for actions to achieve the goals

• Monitoring framework to track progress, including headline indicators

Australia’s Strategy for Nature

1. No new species extinctions

2. Restore degraded ecosystems

3. Expand protected areas to 30% of land and sea

4. Minimise impacts of climate change on biodiversity

5. Eradicate or control invasive species

6. Increase circular economy & reduce pollution & its impacts

1. No new species extinctions

What would it take for no new extinctions?

• Investment matters: Funding threatened-species recovery can contribute to increasing populations and preventing extinction.

• Australia underinvests: Government spending on environmental management has declined.

• Conservation benefits the economy: Healthy ecosystems provide essential services that support industries, livelihoods and economic productivity.

2. Restore degraded ecosystems

Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists produced Blueprint to Repair Australia’s landscapes:

• AU$7.3 billion p.a. for 30 years (3% of GDP)

• Native vegetation restoration cost AU$1.7 billion/year

• ~AU$0.6-1 billion earned in carbon credits (remove 1 billion tons of CO2, offsetting about 18% of Australia's emissions over the next 30 years)

3. Expand protected areas to 30% of land and sea

30-by-30 target: effectively conserve and manage at least 30% of both sea and land by 2030

• Currently 22% of land protected (hasn’t reached protection)

  • Rely heavily on Indigenous Protected Areas

  • Biased towards non-arable land

  • Currently no plan to achieve 30x30

• 52% marine protected areas (has gone beyond the targets)

  • BUT only 1/4 fully protected — the rest still allow some fishing, mining, etc.

Making better conservation decisions

Structured decision making

• Identifying the decision context, for example, what policies are in play, who are the stakeholders, where will the funding come from

• Identify the key objectives — clear objectives, what we want to achieve

• Think about the management options

• Develop measurable attributes or indicators to track progress — how do we know that the actions are working

• Compare management alternatives — sometimes we need more than one management alternative

• Estimate expected consequences and also uncertainty around the results, and evaluate trade-offs across different dimensions of values

Through implementation and monitoring = analyze the attributes and the results of actions —> review the context —> check if the approach is appropriate considering the current scenario

• Similar decision models now used by the governments in Victorian, New Zealand and elsewhere, to decide what to do where to improve biodiversity

A very early example of decision-making in policy: Wentworth Group

• Australian biodiversity priorities:

  • Ranking continental-scale management options/policy

• Adopted by state and federal governments

  • Land clearance in Queensland and NSW

  • River health, including national water plan

Expert estimates:

E.g. the Wentworth Group used this

1. Current risk to biodiversity of each major threatening process.

2. State the objectives in addressing each risk (national list).

3. In locations where the risk is greatest, list management options to reduce or remove each risk: specific and quantifiable

4. Quantify biodiversity benefit: number of native species at risk due to threatening process in the area : 1 bird = 20 plants, 1 plant = 20 other species

5. Estimate Cost

6. Cost-effectiveness: Calculate species saved per $million spent

7. Collateral benefits (e.g., carbon, erosion control, clean water)

CS: Helmeted Honeyeater

• The problem:

  • Honeyeater population has fallen to critically low numbers, restricted to a single forest patch. Remaining habitat is in poor condition

• Drivers of loss:

  • Land-use change: 95% of its habitat cleared for agriculture, in low condition (drained, overabundant native competitor)

• Invasive species: weeds

• Critically endangered

  • In 1989, only 50 in the wild

  • In 2021, ~240 individuals (~40 breeding pairs)

1. Decision context: how to increase the viability of this critically endangered species in its natural range in Victoria?

2. Objective: increase its population size = increase population growth rate

3. Options:

   1. Nest boxes/protectors to increase fecundity

   2. Supplementary food to increase recruitment and survival

   3. Ecosystem restoration for more habitat

   4. Captive breeding

   5. Removal of bell miners (native competitor but overabundant)

   6. Estimate consequences of options: population model

Actions taken to manage the problem:

1. Monitoring and research on species biology and ecology

2. Captive breeding at Healesville Sanctuary and release

3. Supplementary food to increase recruitment and survival.

4. Ecosystem restoration (planting, hydrological regime).

5. Removal of bell miners (native competitor but overabundant)

Markers of success:

• Extinction averted and the population trend now positive

• Causes of decline identified and being managed

• A cohesive Recovery Team guiding management actions

What is success in conservation?

• Avoiding species extinction or ecosystem collapse

• Reduction in extinction risk or collapse risk

• Keeping areas with high integrity and biodiversity value safe

• Recovery – full or even partial

• Biodiversity is valued

• People who depend on biodiversity are secure and use is sustainable

• Cultural connections are maintained or restored

Conservation strategies

1. Reducing threats – the impacts of drivers of los

   • in situ – improving persistence within an ecosystem or a species’ habitat

2. Increasing population size

   • ex situ – eg. Captive breeding, reintroduction

   • in situ – improving reproductive success by restoration and/or enhancing habitat

3. Raising awareness and funding

   • Communities or governments on board to support conservation

   • Government funding, donations, volunteering, behaviour change

Monitoring is a key part of all of these: to understand how effective the actions are

CS: Leadbeater’s possum & the Mountain Ash Forests of the Victorian Central Highlands

Drivers of loss:

• overexploitation (logging)

• climate change resulting in change in fire

Previous decade (Assessed in 2015):

Possums are Critically endangered

• Declines in population size — rate of decline is >50%

• Declines in suitable habitat — 45% was burned in 2009 fires

• Fragmented populations

Red List of Ecosystems criteria:

• Decline in distribution (Least Concern)

• Small distribution (Endangered)

• Decline in abiotic environment (Vulnerable)

• Decline in species, interactions, processes (Critically Endangered)

  • Loss of old growth trees & patches(<5% left)

  • Loss of habitat for many species

  • these trees can only regenerate through seeds, they don't have resprout — takes hundreds of years for trees to grow and to form the suitable hollows that sustain animals

Because of logging, fires, climate change

Conservation success?

• One of Australia’s longest ecological studies

• Sustained pressure from conservationists and scientists

  • Ecological research, accounts, lobbying

  • Federal court cases (successful)

  • Bunnings will no longer sell VicForests timber, 2020

• Understanding importance:

  • Mountain ash forests are vital for the water catchments — very deep soils, and these act as natural sponges to absorb and filter rain (provides majority of Melbourne's high quality drinking drinking water)

• Vic government proposed to end logging by 2030

  • Brought it forward to end to native forest harvesting from 1st Jan 2024 (announced May 2023)

• Will this be enough?

  • There are still ongoing threats from climate change, fire, legacy of small populations, time-lags and capacity for recovery (takes hundred years to regrow)

CS: Lord Howe Island Phasmid (stick insect)

• Drivers of loss: invasive species

• Critically endangered – very small population size

• The world’s most endangered insect

A shipwreck introduced black rats to the island – the phasmid was quickly sent extinct…

… or so we thought (Lazerus effect)

• Rediscovered in the 1960s and then more individuals found over the following decades

• Estimated <40 animals left in 2002

• Main focus of conservation efforts has been captive breeding and predator removal

Ex situ action: Captive breeding

• It all started with two adult pairs

  • Rocky start — One female died and the other deteriorated

  • Luckily, 30 eggs were laid

• Now >19,000 hatched, thousands in many captive populations worldwide

• Still not yet released into the ‘wild’ because of existing threats

In situ action: Taking care of habitat

• Weed control

  • Invasive plantsrisk choking out food source and habitat

  • Extensive weeding program

  • Reduced weeds by 95%

• Food sources

  • Phasmid originally thought to only eat one plant

  • Diet studies — realised it has a more flexible diet

  • Suitable plants are widely distributed on island

• Rodent control

  • Widescale eradication program initiated

  • Tentative success

Lessons:

• Fast action by NSW government, Lord Howe Island Board and Melbourne Zoo to start a captive breeding program prevented the ‘second extinction’

• BUT captive breeding is only part of the equation – must control threats in situ before we can have a thriving wild population

• Big effort into communication and public outreach was a key driver of success of a species that is not necessarily charismatic

CS: Wollemi pine

• ‘Dinosaur plant’ its family lineage dates back to roughly 200 million years ago, meaning that they evolved alongside the dinosaurs

• Lazarus species

• Large conifer

• Part of 200 myo Araucariaceae family

• Only known to science since 1994

• Critically endangered

  • Became rare through natural factors (not humans)

Threats:

• Small population size

• Catastrophic fire (environmental stochasticity)

• Pathogens — causes root rot

Actions:

• Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, NSW Parks and Wildlife Service

  • Recovery Teams, Recovery Plans, World Heritage Listing

• Extensive research into the species

  • Including University of Melbourne

• Protecting the existing sites of species

  • Secret locations

  • Restricted access

• Huge in-situ efforts and ex-situ efforts

• Establishing a new wild population

  • Secret mission in 2012 to plant more pines in secret locations

  • Experimental approach — Trees planted at sites with varying light conditions

  • 85% plants survived after 2 years

  • Found that trees grow faster in more light

• Another very important part of the conservationist strategy of this plant was to make it available for commercial sale

  • Aimed to increase awareness and prevent illegal collection

  • Online guides for growing at home

  • In gardens worldwide

• 2019 and 2020 NSW bushfires was catastrophic

  • but efforts were put in to protect this prehistorical plant

  • helicopters, water bombers, flame retardant firefighters on the ground with buckets just wetting the edge of the stands to avoid the fire from coming in

  • showed that people have the capacity to go above and beyond to save species

Lessons:

• Species that only occur in a single, small population are at higher risk (hence Red List criteria)

• Sometimes a species location needs to be kept secret to protect it

• But you can engage people by story telling, and by letting them have a little piece at home… and spread the risk

• Story of hope – we can go to extraordinary lengths to protect species

CS: Trout cod

• Endangered for a decade (EPBC act) —> now Vulnerable

• Endemic to the Murray-Darling river system

• Locally extinct from all rivers except the Murray by 1990

Major drivers of loss:

• Land-use change (water use and regulation)

• Invasive species

• Over-exploitation

Actions for conservation:

• Make the rivers better for trout cod

  • Reduce fishing pressure:

    • closures for 5 years from Yarrawonga to Cobram

    • Angler education programs and partnerships

  • Improve habitat

    • water quality, environmental flows, revegetation of riparian habitats, re-snagging programs

    • reintroduce cods

    • supported a self-sustaining population

• Make more trout cod!

  • 1985: Captive breeding & translocation

  • Monitoring to evaluate effectiveness and update strategy for better outcomes: more fish, wider age/size range

Markers of success:

1. Extinction was averted

2. Decline reversed and large parts of its former range re-occupied

3. Recovery Plan developed and is being implemented under the guidance of a skilled and committed Recovery Team.

4. Angler community involved and providing ongoing support.

5. Shift in behaviour

Reasons for success:

1. Accumulation of ecological knowledge and its use in recovery.

2. Development and use of a population model to improve reintroduction outcomes

3. Re-establishment of populations

4. A coordinated long-term approach to recovery

Cultural awareness in conservation

• Listen to Indigenous voices

• Upskill – cultural awareness training

• Know where you are – learn about the Country you’re on

• Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners

• Ethical engagement and intellectual property

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

• Weaving Traditional Knowledge systems and cultural values into biodiversity conservation

• Not just traditional ecological knowledge, but whole systems, relationships and biocultural connections

• Working with Traditional Owners on cultural harvests and protected areas

• Indigenous ranger programs and Caring for Country principles

• Developing respectful and appropriate ways of engaging and learning together

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act

• Indigenous cultural principles must be prioritized

• Cultural and intellectual property rights protected

  • conservation needs to consider how the land has been managed and was managed in the past as well

  • have to acknowledge that landscapes in Australia have been managed by humans for > 60,000 years, and colonization disrupted these processes

• Respect that these are different ways of knowing that often overlap, but both must be respected in their own right

Cultural burning

A fundamental management action practiced for millennia in Australia

• Strategic application of fire

  • to manage the environment and cultural connections

  • ‘cool’ burns at the right time of year (when animals are not breeding), promote seed germination, change vegetation structure

• Shaped the Australian landscape for millennia, species & ecosystem adapted

• Colonisation disrupted this process (widespread dispossession, forced removal, and relocation of First Nations peoples from their traditional country)

  • major consequences for Australia’s flora and fauna

• Cultural burns are being reinstated across the country

  • many ecosystems that actually need fire for the key biological processes

  • long-term fire exclusion and suppression led to increased fuel loads

• This practice is relevant to all kinds of landscapes

CS: Monsoon vine thickets on the coastal sand dunes of Dampier Peninsula, Western Aus

• Endangered ecological community

• Dampier Peninsula, Kimberly region

  • only a small are ~0.01% of the peninsula, but they contain around 25% of the region's plant species

  • highly fragmented

• Threats:

  • Altered fire regimes

  • Weeds

  • Grazing and feral animals

  • Erosion and changed water quality

• Traditional Owner groups: Bardi and Jawi, Jabirr Jabirr / Ngumbarl, Nyul Nyul, Nimanburr, Yawur

Managing fire to aid recovery

• Fire is a key threat;

  • Increasing frequency and severity in recent decades

  • More than 70% of patches burnt every three years

  • Opposite to traditional fire management

  • Hampers regeneration, damages rainforest microclimates

• Indigenous-led ecosystem recovery (Yawuru Country Managers, Bardi Jawi Rangers, Nyul Nyul Rangers) include:

  • Seasonal burns in line with traditional knowledge

  • Revegetation to reduce weed invasion

  • Reduced land clearing

  • Seed collection and propagation

  • Improved data on location and status of patches

CS: Greater Bilby

• Once found across 70% of Australia (light brown area in the map)

  • Now just 15%

• Don’t go far from their burrow

• They are culturally important — featured in the songs and stories of First Nations peoples

• Nocturnal, burrowing small marsupial — ecosystem engineer

  • Results in soil turnover, mixing organic matter and bringing minerals that are deep in the soil to the top which influences organic cycles

  • they construct these very deep burrows as well that catches rainfall — slows down the surface runoff = allowing the water to penetrate in these very dry, hard, and desertic soils — soils are loosened and the water penetrates better

  • bilbies dig very complex spiral burrows that provide critical cooling, moisture, and safe havens from predators and wildfires for other species

• Threats:

  • Competition with introduced herbivores (rabbits)

  • Feral predators

  • Altered fire regimes

Birriliburu Traditional Owners, Martu People

• Indigenous ranger program to manage the landscapes of the Western Desert

• Partnership with Martu people, Indigenous ranger groups, Bush Heritage and Melb University to restore habitats and monitor bilby populations

• Mankarr (bilby) restoration and research

  • Traditional tracking techniques

  • Map burrows

  • Track feral predator

Biocultural knowledge and western science: Martu method for monitoring

• Co-developed a new monitoring method with western science and Indigenous knowledge

  • Recorded Martu knowledge of the bilby through interviews with Elders and rangers

  • Built this knowledge into a new ‘fit for purpose’ method

  • Rangers better able to track bilby populations over time - and guide their conservation

• Including Indigenous knowledge in species distribution modeling for increased ecological insights (Skroblin et al, 2021)

  • Compared western science and Martu knowledge (there are gaps in modelling when used alone)

  • Found that a combination of BOTH was best

  • Martu knowledge provided understanding habitat features that would otherwise be overlooked

CS: Short finned eels — Urban landscapes are Indigenous landscape

• Bringing Indigenous stories to the fore – restoring cultural connection in urban landscapes

  • the places we now call Australia cities, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth have always been places of gathering

  • the process of urbanization in these areas covers over the history and disconnects from indigenous culture

• Short fin eels begin their lives in wetlands and waterways

  • can go up to 3 kg and were an important food resource for First Nations peoples

  • And once mature they migrate ~5000 kilometers to the Coral Sea to breed

• The University of Melbourne – an important Wurundjeri place

  • Built on top of a wetland and ‘Bouverie Creek’

  • The eels continue to follow the ancient pathways and still travel through the underground stormwater pipes

• The Living Pavilion art-science event in 2019

  • Foreground Indigenous culture and place

  • Through art, science, and exhibitions, it recreated the Bovary Creek and celebrated its cultural and ecological significance

  • Eels still remember their ancient migration route

  • Brought together many plants like over 40,000 species across the pollination

Conservation affects people

• Conservation should aim to maximise benefits e.g.

  • Connection to nature

  • Health and well-being

  • Ecosystem services

  • Tourism and resources

• And minimise costs e.g.

  • Loss of income or access to land

    • E.g. to conserve trout cod irrigation practices are removed in the rivers for 5 years, um, to allow that completely natural flow and the fish population to rebound

      • if 20 families who live in the river suddenly can’t water their crops, their livelihoods are affected

    • E.g. If an extremely protected area is created for the Wollemi pine

      • losing all walking and biking trails to prevent access would affect people

  • Human-wildlife conflict

  • Loss of a resource

  • Loss of culture and traditions