Quantitative landscape management targets for biodiversity conservation: Method development with an example from the Philippines
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 16:43authored byVillegas, KL, Ambal, RGA, Boyd, C, Thomas BrooksThomas Brooks, Coroza, O, De Silva, N, Duya, M, Lasco, RD, Schroth, G, Villamor, GB
Like many other parts of the tropics, the Philippines are facing a biodiversity crisis, with extensive deforestation driving species extinctions. In many cases, these extinctions can be averted by site level strategies – protecting the key biodiversity areas where threatened species occur. However, some threatened species require large areas of landscape. Here, we develop a method for identifying landscape level conservation targets, and set an example with a case study of an area-demanding threatened species, the Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi). We use the criteria under which the species is evaluated on the IUCN Red List to derive spatially explicit targets. This strategy reveals that land management modifications to allow the recovery of the species’ populations to maximum population density and occupancy throughout suitable habitat in Eastern Mindanao (11,346 km2) or the Sierra Madre (13,786 km2) would be just sufficient for it to be downlisted from the threatened categories of the IUCN Red List. Further work is necessary to develop equivalent methods for targeting other ecological processes on which threatened species depend, for landscape level adaptation to climate change, and for optimizing land use planning to deliver socio-economic benefits without compromising biodiversity. Nevertheless, the techniques developed here should allow explicit, justifiable targeting of landscape management and conservation of biodiversity in the Philippines and beyond.
History
Publication title
Asia Life Sciences
Volume
21
Pagination
565-583
ISSN
0117-3375
Department/School
School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences
Publisher
Rushing Water Publishers Ltd.
Place of publication
81 Gov F T Sam Luis Ave, Laguna 4033, Phillipines
Rights statement
Copyright 2012 Rushing Water Publishers Ltd
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Other environmental management not elsewhere classified