Conservation on the Frontier: Understanding and Influencing How Cattle Production Impacts Avian Diversity in the Dry Chaco Forests of Argentina

<p>This thesis combines the identification of land-use strategies that provide high yields and high biodiversity with the identification of the psycho-social drivers of land-use decisions in an agricultural landscape. I visited 116 landholdings in two agricultural landscapes of the Dry Chaco region in Argentina. In 27 landholdings producing beef cattle in production systems of different land-use intensity, I collected empirical information on: (i) cattle yields, (ii) avian diversity, density and composition, and (iii) structural attributes of habitat in the agricultural matrix. The Chaco avifauna responded non-linearly to increasing cattle production intensification as bird species richness was relatively unchanged from forests to intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems and decreased sharply at high-intensity pasture systems. This pattern indicated the presence of a threshold in habitat quality for birds when native tree cover falls below 30%. The concave trade-off function suggests that land-sharing through the integration of native trees and pastures in silvopastoral systems has more potential than land-sparing to simultaneously provide high cattle yields and high bird diversity. Intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems may represent a matrix type of high habitat quality for most bird species due to the lower frequency and intensity of disturbances resulting from agricultural management, compared to high-intensity systems. Bird functional groups responded differently to agricultural intensification and habitat modification. Forest-restricted and fruit-eating bird species occurred at low density in intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems and disappeared from high-intensity pasture systems. Therefore, low-intensity systems and forest fragments (larger than 1000 ha) should be maintained in the landscape to provide habitat for species of high conservation concern and potentially contributing to forest regeneration. In 89 landholdings varying in landholding size and land tenure condition, I interviewed landholders and collected information about their beliefs, values and perceptions regarding conservation of remnant forest fragments. Based on this information, I tested the ability of three social psychological models and nine psycho-social constructs to explain landholders’ conservation intentions. The Theory of Planned behaviour provided a parsimonious and plausible explanatory model of landholders’ intentions to conserve remnant forest fragments in their landholdings. A model integrating self-interest and pro-social motives as proximal predictors and self-identity as the ultimate predictor explained 42% of the variance in landholders’ conservation intentions. The perceived pressure from relevant others to conserve forests (i.e. social norms) and the tendency to value forests favourably or unfavourably (i.e. attitudes) directly and significantly influenced landholders’ willingness to set-aside remnant forests in their landholdings. Landholders’ self-identity and their level of awareness of the scale and consequences of deforestation underlay the effects of social norms and attitudes on conservation intentions. Policy interventions aimed at influencing the behaviour of landholders towards more conservation-oriented outcomes would be more effective if tailored to the characteristics of landholder identity groups. Influencing conservation intentions of high-intensity, productivist landholders may require policy incentives and regulations that link better environmental performance with agricultural production outcomes and can become peer-enforced in the long-term. Conservation and development outcomes can be jointly enhanced for low-intensity, pre-productivist landholders through policies that secure their land tenure and facilitate the implementation of silvopastoral systems.</p>

Conservation on the Frontier: Understanding and Influencing How Cattle Production Impacts Avian Diversity in the Dry Chaco Forests of Argentina

<p>This thesis combines the identification of land-use strategies that provide high yields and high biodiversity with the identification of the psycho-social drivers of land-use decisions in an agricultural landscape. I visited 116 landholdings in two agricultural landscapes of the Dry Chaco region in Argentina. In 27 landholdings producing beef cattle in production systems of different land-use intensity, I collected empirical information on: (i) cattle yields, (ii) avian diversity, density and composition, and (iii) structural attributes of habitat in the agricultural matrix. The Chaco avifauna responded non-linearly to increasing cattle production intensification as bird species richness was relatively unchanged from forests to intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems and decreased sharply at high-intensity pasture systems. This pattern indicated the presence of a threshold in habitat quality for birds when native tree cover falls below 30%. The concave trade-off function suggests that land-sharing through the integration of native trees and pastures in silvopastoral systems has more potential than land-sparing to simultaneously provide high cattle yields and high bird diversity. Intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems may represent a matrix type of high habitat quality for most bird species due to the lower frequency and intensity of disturbances resulting from agricultural management, compared to high-intensity systems. Bird functional groups responded differently to agricultural intensification and habitat modification. Forest-restricted and fruit-eating bird species occurred at low density in intermediate-intensity silvopastoral systems and disappeared from high-intensity pasture systems. Therefore, low-intensity systems and forest fragments (larger than 1000 ha) should be maintained in the landscape to provide habitat for species of high conservation concern and potentially contributing to forest regeneration. In 89 landholdings varying in landholding size and land tenure condition, I interviewed landholders and collected information about their beliefs, values and perceptions regarding conservation of remnant forest fragments. Based on this information, I tested the ability of three social psychological models and nine psycho-social constructs to explain landholders’ conservation intentions. The Theory of Planned behaviour provided a parsimonious and plausible explanatory model of landholders’ intentions to conserve remnant forest fragments in their landholdings. A model integrating self-interest and pro-social motives as proximal predictors and self-identity as the ultimate predictor explained 42% of the variance in landholders’ conservation intentions. The perceived pressure from relevant others to conserve forests (i.e. social norms) and the tendency to value forests favourably or unfavourably (i.e. attitudes) directly and significantly influenced landholders’ willingness to set-aside remnant forests in their landholdings. Landholders’ self-identity and their level of awareness of the scale and consequences of deforestation underlay the effects of social norms and attitudes on conservation intentions. Policy interventions aimed at influencing the behaviour of landholders towards more conservation-oriented outcomes would be more effective if tailored to the characteristics of landholder identity groups. Influencing conservation intentions of high-intensity, productivist landholders may require policy incentives and regulations that link better environmental performance with agricultural production outcomes and can become peer-enforced in the long-term. Conservation and development outcomes can be jointly enhanced for low-intensity, pre-productivist landholders through policies that secure their land tenure and facilitate the implementation of silvopastoral systems.</p>

Vegetation community and species association of Castanopsis spp. at its habitat in the remnant forest of Cibodas Botanical Garden, Indonesia

Nurdiana DR, Buot IE Jr. 2021. Vegetation community and species association of Castanopsis spp. at its habitat in the remnant forest of Cibodas Botanical Garden, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 4799-4807. Castanopsis is one of the genera of Fagaceae with a large distribution in Indonesia. The genus can be found easily in Java, Sumatera and Kalimantan. Several studies have found an association between Castanopsis and environmental factors dealing with the diversity, dispersal and propagation. So far, there has been no agreement on how Castanopsis interacts with other species within the same genus in nature, especially in the remnant forest under a fragmented state. The objectives of the study were to determine the vegetation associated with Castanopsis and whether each species of the genus Castanopsis co-occur within the remnant forest? A total of 60 plots have been studied in 3 different sites of the remnant forest. The nested sampling method was used to identify the trees, saplings and seedlings. Sixty-seven total species of trees, 140 species of saplings and 121 species of seedlings in Cibodas Botanical Garden remnant forest were recorded. The diversity index for tree, sapling and seedling were 3.5, 3.9 and 4.1, respectively, while evenness index for tree, sapling and seedling were 0.81, 0.8 and 0.85 respectively. The interspecific association of the genus Castanopsis was restricted to C. javanica x C. tungurrut. They are associated positively at sapling stage with Jaccard index of 0.2. However, at tree stage, there was no association out of the pair, C. javanica x C. tungurrut. Competition within genus Castanopsis occurred in the same habitat, though at a lesser degree which needs to be studied further. Dominance of many pioneer species (Oreocnide integrifolia (Gaudich.) Miq., Ostodes paniculata Blume, Cestrum aurantiacum Lindl. and others) at tree stage had been evident. This implies that the Cibodas remnant forest is still in the process of succession towards a more stable climax state.

The peri-urban leopards of Kathmandu: assessing determinants of presence and predation on domestic animals

The conservation of large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes needs to be reconciled with the safety of humans and domestic animals. This is especially true for the leopard Panthera pardus, which occurs extensively in agricultural landscapes and remnant forest tracts embedded within peri-urban areas such as Kathmandu district in Nepal. We carried out interviews in 321 households in this district to determine the extent of leopard habitat use and predation on domestic animals (dogs and goats) during October 2015–April 2016. We used multi-state occupancy models, and estimated probabilities of leopard habitat use (Ψ1) and predation on domestic animals (Ψ2) as a function of covariates, while accounting for imperfect detection. Our findings indicate that the rapidly urbanizing outskirts of Kathmandu city are used extensively by leopards. The estimated probability of fine-scale habitat use in 2 km2 sample units was 0.96 ± SE 0.05 and the probability of predation on domestic animals was 0.76 ± SE 0.15. Leopard attacks occurred in areas with high vegetation cover and abundant goats. Addressing the problem of leopard attacks on domestic animals will require developing a comprehensive mitigation plan that includes educational activities to raise awareness, measures to address grievances of affected local communities, interventions to prevent attacks on livestock, compensation programmes, and rapid response teams to ensure human and animal welfare in conflict-prone areas. Land-use planning in these peri-urban landscapes needs to facilitate the safe sharing of space between people and leopards.

Forest quality mitigates extinction risk in humid tropical vertebrates

Reducing deforestation underpins efforts to conserve global biodiversity. However, this focus on retaining forest cover overlooks the multitude of anthropogenic pressures that can degrade forest quality in ways that may imperil biodiversity. Here we use the latest remotely-sensed measures of forest structural condition and associated human pressures across the global humid tropics to provide the first estimates of the importance of forest quality, relative to forest cover, in mitigating extinction risk for rainforest vertebrates worldwide. We found tropical rainforests of intact structural condition and minimal human pressures played an outsized role in reducing the odds of species being threatened or having a declining population. Further, the effects of forest quality in mitigating extinction risk were stronger when small amounts of high quality forest remained within species geographic ranges, as opposed to when large extents were forested but of low quality. Our research underscores a critical need to focus global environmental policy and conservation strategies toward the targeted protection of the last remaining undisturbed forest landscapes, in concert with strategies aimed at preserving, restoring and reconnecting remnant forest fragments across the hyperdiverse humid tropics.

QUANTITATIVE and QUALITATIVE TEST of THE FECAL SAMPEL FROM SUMATRAN ELEPHANT (Elephas maximus sumatranus)

Sumatran Elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) is one of the endemic Sumatran fauna that is protected by Indonesia Law. The Remnant Forest of Acacia District Penyabungan in the landscape of Padang Sugihan is one of the elephant’s habitats in South Sumatra. Habitat degradation and fragmentation, poaching and conflicts become the major threats for the elephant population. Genetic study is one of the efforts to establish a conservation policy. It is necessary to test the quantitative and qualitative of DNA, at the extractions stage from fecal samples, in order to get the standard results on DNA concentration which will be analyzed later. The method used is through direct observation as the initial survey to determine the sampling location. Fecal samples were preserved in absolute ethanol at -20°C. The extraction process was carried out using the Quick-DNATM Fecal/Soil Microbe Miniprep Kit. Samples were tested quantitatively using a Nanodrop Thermo Scientific, with the expectation that the concentration results were considered to be 1.6-1.8 and continued with the qualitative test of DNA through electrophoresis gel agarose and UV Transilluminator. Of the 20 samples, only 12 samples showed positive results (there were DNA bands). The results of this quantitative and qualitative test could be used to determine a viable sample to be used as a product in the genetic analysis stage of Sumatran Elephants in the Remnant Forest of Acacia South Sumatra.