Perspectives on area-based conservation and its meaning for future biodiversity policy.

During 2021, Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are expected to meet in Kunming, China, to agree on a new global biodiversity framework aimed at halting and reversing biodiversity loss, encouraging the sustainable use of biodiversity, and ensuring the equitable sharing of its benefits. As the post-2020 global biodiversity framework evolves, parties to the convention are being exposed to a range of perspectives on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, relating to the future framework as a whole or to aspects of it. Area-based conservation measures are one such aspect, and there are diverse perspectives on how new targets might be framed in relation to these measures. These perspectives represent different outlooks on the relationship between human and nonhuman life on Earth. However, in most cases there is a lack of clarity on how they would be implemented in practice, the implications this would have for biodiversity and human well-being, and how they would contribute to achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity of "living in harmony with nature." We sought to clarify these issues by summarizing some of these perspectives in relation to the future of area-based biodiversity conservation. We identified these perspectives through a review of the literature and expert consultation workshops and compiled them into 4 main groups: Aichi+, ambitious area-based conservation perspectives, new conservation, and whole-earth conservation. We found that although the perspectives Aichi+ and whole earth are in some cases at odds with one another, they also have commonalities, and all perspectives have elements that can contribute to developing and implementing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and achieving the longer term CBD 2050 Vision.

Perspectivas de la Conservación Basada en el Área y su Significado para las Futuras Políticas de Biodiversidad Resumen Durante 2021, se espera que las partes miembro del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CBD) se reúnan en Kunming, China, para acordar un nuevo marco de trabajo global para la biodiversidad enfocado en detener y revertir la pérdida de la biodiversidad, promover el uso sustentable de la biodiversidad y asegurar la repartición equitativa de sus beneficios. Conforme evoluciona el marco de trabajo global para la biodiversidad post-2020, las partes miembro del convenio están conociendo una gama de perspectivas de la conservación y el uso sustentable de la biodiversidad, relacionándolas con el futuro marco de trabajo en su totalidad o sólo con algunos aspectos del marco de trabajo. Las medidas de conservación basadas en el área son uno de dichos aspectos y existen diversas perspectivas sobre cómo los nuevos objetivos podrían estar enmarcados en relación a estas medidas. Estas perspectivas representan diferentes puntos de vista sobre la relación entre la vida humana y no humana en la Tierra. Sin embargo, en la mayoría de los casos existe una falta de claridad sobre cómo se implementarían en la práctica, las implicaciones que ésto tendría para la biodiversidad y el bienestar humano y cómo contribuirían para alcanzar la Visión para la Biodiversidad 2050 de "vivir en armonía con la naturaleza". Buscamos aclarar estos temas al resumir algunas de estas perspectivas en relación al futuro de la conservación de la biodiversidad basada en el área. Identificamos estas perspectivas por medio de una revisión de la literatura y talleres de consulta a expertos y las compilamos en cuatro grupos principales: Aichi+, perspectivas ambiciosas de conservación basada en el área, conservación nueva y conservación del mundo entero. Descubrimos que aunque las perspectivas Aichi+ y conservación del mundo entero entran en conflicto en algunos casos, también tienen puntos comunes, y todas las perspectivas tienen elementos que pueden contribuir al desarrollo e implementación del marco de trabajo global para la biodiversidad post-2020 y para alcanzar la Visión CBD 2050 de mayor plazo.

The distribution of large herbivore hotspots in relation to environmental and anthropogenic correlates in the Mara region of Kenya.

1. The distributions of large herbivores in protected areas and their surroundings are becoming increasingly restricted by changing land use, with adverse consequences for wildlife populations. 2. We analyse changes in distributions of herbivore hotspots to understand their environmental and anthropogenic correlates using 50 aerial surveys conducted at a spatial resolution of 5 × 5 km(2) (n = 289 cells) in the Mara region of Kenya during 1977-2010. We compare the distributions across seasons, land use types (protection, pastoralism and agro-pastoralism) and 10 species with different body sizes and feeding styles. 3. Small herbivores that are the most susceptible to predation and dependent on high-quality forage concentrate in the greenest and wet areas and close to rivers in Masai pastoral ranches in both seasons. Livestock grazing creates conditions favouring small herbivores in these ranches, including high-quality short grasses and better visibility, implying facilitation. But in the reserve, they concentrate in browner, drier and flatter areas and farther from rivers, suggesting facilitation by large grazers in the wet season, or little competition with migratory herbivores occupying the reserve in the dry season. 4. In the wet season, medium herbivores concentrate in similar areas to small herbivores in the ranches and reserve. However, in the dry season, they stay in the reserve, and also concentrate in green and wet areas close to rivers when migrants occur in the reserve. As such areas typically have higher predation risk, this suggests facilitation by the migrants by absorbing most predation pressure or, alternatively, competitive displacement by the migrants from preferred habitats. 5. Large herbivores, which suffer the least predation, depend on bulk forage and are the most likely to engender conflicts with people, concentrate in the reserve all year. This suggests attraction to the taller and denser grass and perceived greater safety in the reserve in both seasons. 6. These results reveal how predation risk, forage quantity and quality, water, competition with and facilitation by livestock interact with individual life-history traits, seasons and land use in shaping the dynamics of herbivore hotspots in protected and human-dominated savannas.

Constitutive immune function responds more slowly to handling stress than corticosterone in a shorebird.

Ecological immunologists are interested in how immune function changes during different seasons and under different environmental conditions. However, an obstacle to answering such questions is discerning the effects of biological factors of interest and investigation artifacts such as handling stress. Here we examined handling stress and its effects on constitutive (noninduced) immune function via two protocols on captive red knots (Calidris canutus). We investigated how constitutive immunity responds to handling stress, how quickly these changes take place, and the practical implications for researchers interested in sampling baseline immune levels. We found that Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans killing increased with handling stress while total leukocyte and lymphocyte concentrations decreased. However, although corticosterone increased significantly and rapidly in response to handling stress, none of the 10 measures of constitutive immunity that we tested differed significantly from baseline within 20 or 30 min of capture. Thus, researchers interested in baseline immune function should sample animals as soon as possible after capture, but studies in species not easily sampled in less than 3 min (such as red knots) could still yield useful results.