Don’t think local! Scale in conservation, parochialism, dogmatic bureaucracy and the implementing of the European Directives

Battisti, Corrado; Fanelli, Giuliano

doi:10.1016/j.jnc.2015.01.005

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The importance of the scale has been widely recognised as it concerns all types of ecological data and is a fundamental aspect of the environmental heterogeneity, whose interpretation depends on the level of observation established when studying an ecological system (Battisti & Fanelli, 2015;Levin, 1992;O'Neill et al, 1991O'Neill et al, , 1996.…”

Section: Discussion: Lessons Learned and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Gigante

Foggi

Venanzoni

et al. 2016

Journal for Nature Conservation

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a b s t r a c tBesides species Red Lists, recently, a variety of frameworks have been proposed for assessing higher levels of biological organisation, i.e. ecosystems, habitats, plant communities. Most of these protocols refer to 'plant species assemblages' or 'vegetation types' as proxies for ecosystems or habitats. Indeed, the habitat concept based on plant communities has acquired a central role as a key approach for biodiversity conservation above the species level. Plant communities, like every complex biological system, hold scaledependent 'emergent' properties which vary as a function of the scale of observation. With reference to red-listing, these scale-dependent properties have far-reaching consequences for both identification and classification, as well as for representation and evaluation, and become particularly challenging when dealing with criteria regarding decline in distribution or restricted distribution. The recent discussion on the red-listing protocols has evidenced several aspects that claim special efforts for a suitable use. In the present paper, starting with the analysis of some recently proposed protocols for the red-listing of habitats and ecosystems, we discuss and test some 'emergent' properties of species assemblages, providing cues for reflection. Based on a variety of theoretical models and scientific outcomes in literature from the last decades, we theorise that plant communities own some intrinsic, ecologically based and scale-dependent spatial features, which give rise to different types of pattern of spatial occupancy. We discuss a model where, in natural conditions, the possible patterns of spatial occupancy are referred to 3 basic types: areal, linear and point. This approach is here proposed as a tool to discriminate among different broad categories of plant community-based habitat types and optimise their assessment in the red-listing process. Starting from a homogeneous data set, the proposed case studies prove that the choice of the scale affects the comprehension of the habitats' occurrence, with a substantial relapse on the estimates of their distribution size. In particular, habitats with linear and point distribution, often naturally small in size and dispersed, are more susceptible to biased evaluation of their actual distribution and consequently of their threat status. The intrinsic spatial attributes of plant communities should not be neglected in a red-listing process and claim for a 'habitat-tailored' approach. The use of different gridcell sizes and thresholds for the three main patterns of spatial occupancy here proposed, might certainly avoid inaccurate statements.

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Section: Discussion: Lessons Learned and Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Gigante

Foggi

Venanzoni

et al. 2016

Journal for Nature Conservation

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“…Research prioritising should be fine-tuned at the country levels (or other adequate operational levels) in order to effectively contribute to research strategy development. Considering the multi-scale nature of ecological processes, it is even more important to support EU conservation strategies by implementing a country-based research strategy, which recognizes the importance of historic/geographic context and can be embedded in a multi-scale design of conservation priorities (Battisti & Fanelli, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the research-practice gap: Conservation research priorities in a Central and Eastern European country

Mihók

Kovács

Balázs

et al. 2015

Journal for Nature Conservation

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Halting biodiversity loss is a critical aim for the forthcoming decades, but is hindered by the gap between research and practice. Bridging this gap is a significant challenge in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, where, compared to Western European countries, biodiversity is higher but the research budget is lower. Approaches to address bridging this gap include participatory research prioritizing exercises. These demand-driven collaborative ranking processes have proven to be a useful tool in providing a research agenda derived from a review of critical challenges based on stakeholder engagement. However, for research agendas to be effectively realized, they are best developed and implemented at the operative level of research financing and implementation. This paper shows the process and the outcome of an exercise conducted in Hungary aiming to compile the most important conservation research questions at the country-level and outlines a set of further measures and tools required for dissemination and advocacy for the research agenda. During the process 792 research questions were collated from conservation practitioners and natural resource managers based on interviews and via an online questionnaire; the final 50 most important questions were identified by practitioners and policy makers during an expert workshop. Questions are embedded in global and EU biodiversity targets and imply a pragmatic approach with the aim of identifying research that supports policy-and decision-making regarding habitat management, landuse and regional development, while also focussing on conflicting issues. The outcome of the process includes the potential for lobbying, therefore post-publication activities and dissemination strategies are outlined as an integrated part of the exercise.

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“…These two indicators here applied at higher hierarchical level (from species to community) might be used in assessment in environmental quality of specific habitat types of conservation concern or management interest (e.g., Special Areas of Conservation; Habitat 92/43/CEE). The main strength of this approach is its ease in use due to common species involved, which are easily detectable with a quick method and often better indicate the state of an ecosystem when compared to rarest ones (Gregory et al 2003, Battisti and Fanelli 2015b, Koch et al 2011.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing habitat-related disturbance in bird communities: Applying hemeroby and generalism as indicators

Battisti¹,

Fanelli

Pavel

et al. 2017

Community Ecology

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Abstract:We tested the application of the concept of hemeroby and generalism at community level, on a set of birds occurring in various habitats of central Italy characterized by different level of disturbance. In each habitat-related bird community, we applied the recently published species-specific score in hemeroby (a proxy of habitat-related disturbance; HS i ) and hemerobiotic diversity (a proxy of generalism; H'H i ) to local species frequency, obtaining weighted values at community level (HS tot and H'H tot ). The relationship between HS tot vs. H'H tot showed an increasing trend moving from reed beds through forests and mosaan increasing trend moving from reed beds through forests and mosaics to urban communities. Quadratic model (best fit) evidenced a significant correlation between these variables and a tendency toward a hump-shaped curve, corroborating results already observed at species level (intermediate generalism hypothesis). The co-inertia analysis discriminated four groups of habitat-related communities, characterized by species with different levels of disturbance-sensitivity (expressed by HS i ) and generalism (expressed by hemerobiotic diversity; H'H i ): (i) forest type-related, where mature wood communities were separated from a coppiced wood one; (ii) communities of moderately disturbed agricultural habitats; (iii) communities embedded in highly disturbed mosaics, and (iv) a group including either a highly disturbed urban habitat or a low disturbed wetland reed bed, with highly specialized species (respectively, synanthropic species and water-related species). Total scores in hemeroby and hemerobiotic diversity, expressing the composition in species with different disturbance preference and generalism, might act as good community-based indicators of degree of naturalness, especially for forest habitat types.

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Don’t think local! Scale in conservation, parochialism, dogmatic bureaucracy and the implementing of the European Directives

Cited by 27 publications

References 63 publications

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Habitats on the grid: The spatial dimension does matter for red-listing

Bridging the research-practice gap: Conservation research priorities in a Central and Eastern European country

Assessing habitat-related disturbance in bird communities: Applying hemeroby and generalism as indicators

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