This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.
Tropical forests support immense biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services for billions of people. Despite this value, tropical deforestation continues at a high rate. Emerging evidence suggests that elections can play an important role in shaping deforestation, for instance by incentivising politicians to allow increased utilisation of tropical forests in return for political support and votes. Nevertheless, the role of elections as a driver of deforestation has not been comprehensively tested at broad geographic scales. Here, we created an annual database from 2001 to 2018 on political elections and forest loss for 55 tropical nations and modelled the effect of elections on deforestation. In total, 1.5 million km2 of forest was lost during this time period, and the rate of deforestation increased in 37 (67%) of the analysed countries. Deforestation was significantly lower in years with presidential or lower chamber elections compared to non-election years, which is in contrast to previous local-scale studies. Moreover, deforestation was significantly higher in presidential or lower chamber elections that are competitive (i.e. when the opposition can participate in elections and has a legitimate chance to gain governmental power) compared to uncompetitive elections. Our results document a pervasive loss of tropical forests and suggest that competitive elections are potential drivers of deforestation. We recommned that organisations monitoring election transparency and fairness should also monitor environmental impacts such as forest loss, habitat destruction and resource exploitation. This would benefit the tracking of potential illegal vote buying with natural resources.
Joeri Morpurgo; W. Daniel Kissling; Peter Tyrrell; Pablo J. Negret; James R. Allan. The role of elections as drivers of tropical deforestation. 2021, 1 .
AMA StyleJoeri Morpurgo, W. Daniel Kissling, Peter Tyrrell, Pablo J. Negret, James R. Allan. The role of elections as drivers of tropical deforestation. . 2021; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJoeri Morpurgo; W. Daniel Kissling; Peter Tyrrell; Pablo J. Negret; James R. Allan. 2021. "The role of elections as drivers of tropical deforestation." , no. : 1.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 illness are driving a global crisis. Governments have responded by restricting human movement, which has reduced economic activity. These changes may benefit biodiversity conservation in some ways, but in Africa, we contend that the net conservation impacts of COVID-19 will be strongly negative. Here, we describe how the crisis creates a perfect storm of reduced funding, restrictions on the operations of conservation agencies, and elevated human threats to nature. We identify the immediate steps necessary to address these challenges and support ongoing conservation efforts. We then highlight systemic flaws in contemporary conservation and identify opportunities to restructure for greater resilience. Finally, we emphasize the critical importance of conserving habitat and regulating unsafe wildlife trade practices to reduce the risk of future pandemics.
Peter Lindsey; James Allan; Peadar Brehony; Amy Dickman; Ashley Robson; Colleen Begg; Hasita Bhammar; Lisa Blanken; Thomas Breuer; Kathleen Fitzgerald; Michael Flyman; Patience Gandiwa; Nicia Giva; Dickson Kaelo; Simon Nampindo; Nyambe Nyambe; Kurt Steiner; Andrew Parker; Dilys Roe; Paul Thomson; Morgan Trimble; Alexandre Caron; Peter Tyrrell. Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Nature Ecology & Evolution 2020, 4, 1300 -1310.
AMA StylePeter Lindsey, James Allan, Peadar Brehony, Amy Dickman, Ashley Robson, Colleen Begg, Hasita Bhammar, Lisa Blanken, Thomas Breuer, Kathleen Fitzgerald, Michael Flyman, Patience Gandiwa, Nicia Giva, Dickson Kaelo, Simon Nampindo, Nyambe Nyambe, Kurt Steiner, Andrew Parker, Dilys Roe, Paul Thomson, Morgan Trimble, Alexandre Caron, Peter Tyrrell. Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 2020; 4 (10):1300-1310.
Chicago/Turabian StylePeter Lindsey; James Allan; Peadar Brehony; Amy Dickman; Ashley Robson; Colleen Begg; Hasita Bhammar; Lisa Blanken; Thomas Breuer; Kathleen Fitzgerald; Michael Flyman; Patience Gandiwa; Nicia Giva; Dickson Kaelo; Simon Nampindo; Nyambe Nyambe; Kurt Steiner; Andrew Parker; Dilys Roe; Paul Thomson; Morgan Trimble; Alexandre Caron; Peter Tyrrell. 2020. "Conserving Africa’s wildlife and wildlands through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond." Nature Ecology & Evolution 4, no. 10: 1300-1310.
Protected areas fall far short of securing the space needed to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem function at a global scale and in the face of climate change. The prospects of conserving biodiversity in working landscapes help buffer the insularization effects of protected areas and hold great potential for biodiversity conservation on a landscape scale but depend on finding adequate space and a meaningful place in the lives of rural land users. Using a case study in southern Kenya, we show that the conservation of large open landscapes, biodiversity and the coexistence between wildlife and livestock can be achieved indirectly by reinforcing pastoral practices that depend on open space, mobility, social networks and institutional arrangements governing common‐pool resources. Pastoral practices and wildlife both depend on large multiscale interactions within interlinked social and ecological systems, which are threatened by land fragmentation, alienation and degradation. We show that large open spaces can be maintained by using a conservation approach starting from within community aspirations that emphasize the links between livelihoods, productivity, efficiency and resilience in pastoral economies and the secondary benefits of wildlife enterprises. Scaling up from an ecosystem to multi‐scale approach benefits pastoral communities by building resilience and new economic opportunities. In the process, the expanded scale conserves regional biodiversity and large free‐ranging herbivore and carnivore populations underpinning ecosystem function and the nationally important tourism industry centered on the Kenya–Tanzania boundary. The ‘inside‐out’ approach to the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity is place‐based, draws on local knowledge and informal governance arrangements and avoids the stigma of wildlife conservation driven by outside agencies. The human‐centered approach reinforces land health and spatial connectivity and encourages multi‐level and distributed governance arrangements embedded in large regional and national jurisdictions.
David Western; Peter Tyrrell; Peadar Brehony; Samantha Russell; Guy Western; John Kamanga. Conservation from the inside‐out: Winning space and a place for wildlife in working landscapes. People and Nature 2020, 2, 279 -291.
AMA StyleDavid Western, Peter Tyrrell, Peadar Brehony, Samantha Russell, Guy Western, John Kamanga. Conservation from the inside‐out: Winning space and a place for wildlife in working landscapes. People and Nature. 2020; 2 (2):279-291.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDavid Western; Peter Tyrrell; Peadar Brehony; Samantha Russell; Guy Western; John Kamanga. 2020. "Conservation from the inside‐out: Winning space and a place for wildlife in working landscapes." People and Nature 2, no. 2: 279-291.
In savannas, mapping grazing resources and indicators of land degradation is important for assessing ecosystem conditions and informing grazing and land management decisions. We investigated the effects of classifiers and used time series imagery—images acquired within and across seasons—on the accuracy of plant species maps. The study site was a grazed savanna in southern Kenya. We used Sentinel-2 multi-spectral imagery due to its high spatial (10–20 m) and temporal (five days) resolution with support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF) classifiers. The species mapped were important for grazing livestock and wildlife (three grass species), indicators of land degradation (one tree genus and one invasive shrub), and a fig tree species. The results show that increasing the number of images, including dry season imagery, results in improved classification accuracy regardless of the classifier (average increase in overall accuracy (OA) = 0.1632). SVM consistently outperformed RF, and the most accurate model and was SVM with a radial kernel using imagery from both wet and dry seasons (OA = 0.8217). Maps showed that seasonal grazing areas provide functionally different grazing opportunities and have different vegetation characteristics that are critical to a landscape’s ability to support large populations of both livestock and wildlife. This study highlights the potential of multi-spectral satellite imagery for species-level mapping of savannas.
Frederick D.L. Hunter; Edward T.A. Mitchard; Peter Tyrrell; Samantha Russell. Inter-Seasonal Time Series Imagery Enhances Classification Accuracy of Grazing Resource and Land Degradation Maps in a Savanna Ecosystem. Remote Sensing 2020, 12, 198 .
AMA StyleFrederick D.L. Hunter, Edward T.A. Mitchard, Peter Tyrrell, Samantha Russell. Inter-Seasonal Time Series Imagery Enhances Classification Accuracy of Grazing Resource and Land Degradation Maps in a Savanna Ecosystem. Remote Sensing. 2020; 12 (1):198.
Chicago/Turabian StyleFrederick D.L. Hunter; Edward T.A. Mitchard; Peter Tyrrell; Samantha Russell. 2020. "Inter-Seasonal Time Series Imagery Enhances Classification Accuracy of Grazing Resource and Land Degradation Maps in a Savanna Ecosystem." Remote Sensing 12, no. 1: 198.
Human activity affecting the welfare of wild vertebrates, widely accepted to be sentient, and therefore deserving of moral concern, is widespread. A variety of motives lead to the killing of individual wild animals. These include to provide food, to protect stock and other human interests, and also for sport. The acceptability of such killing is widely believed to vary with the motive and method. Individual vertebrates are also killed by conservationists. Whether securing conservation goals is an adequate reason for such killing has recently been challenged. Conventional conservation practice has tended to prioritise ecological collectives, such as populations and species, when their interests conflict with those of individuals. Supporters of the ‘Compassionate Conservation’ movement argue both that conservationists have neglected animal welfare when such conflicts arise and that no killing for conservation is justified. We counter that conservationists increasingly seek to adhere to high standards of welfare, and that the extreme position advocated by some supporters of ‘Compassionate Conservation’, rooted in virtue ethics, would, if widely accepted, lead to considerable negative effects for conservation. Conservation practice cannot afford to neglect consequences. Moreover, the do-no-harm maxim does not always lead to better outcomes for animal welfare.
Paul J. Johnson; Vanessa M. Adams; Doug P. Armstrong; Sandra E. Baker; Duan Biggs; Luigi Boitani; Alayne Cotterill; Emma Dale; Holly O’Donnell; Armstrong Doug; Egil Droge; John G. Ewen; Ruth E. Feber; Piero Genovesi; Clive Hambler; Bart J. Harmsen; Lauren A. Harrington; Amy Hinks; Joelene Hughes; Lydia Katsis; Andrew Loveridge; Axel Moehrenschlager; Christopher O’Kane; Meshach Pierre; Steve Redpath; Lovemore Sibanda; Pritpal Soorae; Mark Stanley Price; Peter Tyrrell; Alexandra Zimmermann; Amy Dickman. Consequences Matter: Compassion in Conservation Means Caring for Individuals, Populations and Species. Animals 2019, 9, 1115 .
AMA StylePaul J. Johnson, Vanessa M. Adams, Doug P. Armstrong, Sandra E. Baker, Duan Biggs, Luigi Boitani, Alayne Cotterill, Emma Dale, Holly O’Donnell, Armstrong Doug, Egil Droge, John G. Ewen, Ruth E. Feber, Piero Genovesi, Clive Hambler, Bart J. Harmsen, Lauren A. Harrington, Amy Hinks, Joelene Hughes, Lydia Katsis, Andrew Loveridge, Axel Moehrenschlager, Christopher O’Kane, Meshach Pierre, Steve Redpath, Lovemore Sibanda, Pritpal Soorae, Mark Stanley Price, Peter Tyrrell, Alexandra Zimmermann, Amy Dickman. Consequences Matter: Compassion in Conservation Means Caring for Individuals, Populations and Species. Animals. 2019; 9 (12):1115.
Chicago/Turabian StylePaul J. Johnson; Vanessa M. Adams; Doug P. Armstrong; Sandra E. Baker; Duan Biggs; Luigi Boitani; Alayne Cotterill; Emma Dale; Holly O’Donnell; Armstrong Doug; Egil Droge; John G. Ewen; Ruth E. Feber; Piero Genovesi; Clive Hambler; Bart J. Harmsen; Lauren A. Harrington; Amy Hinks; Joelene Hughes; Lydia Katsis; Andrew Loveridge; Axel Moehrenschlager; Christopher O’Kane; Meshach Pierre; Steve Redpath; Lovemore Sibanda; Pritpal Soorae; Mark Stanley Price; Peter Tyrrell; Alexandra Zimmermann; Amy Dickman. 2019. "Consequences Matter: Compassion in Conservation Means Caring for Individuals, Populations and Species." Animals 9, no. 12: 1115.
Conservation in eastern and southern Africa has historically centered on megafauna and protected areas (PAs), yet, in the face of rapid change, biodiversity outside of PAs is under threat. With policy changes underway in Kenya, we have performed an analysis that (a) quantifies how inclusive the current PA network is of the country's vertebrate diversity, and (b) identifies wildlife policy areas that need reform to achieve conservation targets. We found that species richness of mammals, birds, and amphibians is highest in areas of intermediate human pressures, whereas Kenya's current wildlife conservation policy focuses on land use (LU) types with the least human pressure. Percentage of range overlap for amphibians, mammals, and birds were all highest in rangelands followed by agricultural (cultivated) areas and then national PAs. Out of 1,535 terrestrial vertebrate species, 80 had no range overlap with national PAs. The current wildlife PA network adequately covers only 16% of amphibians, 45% of birds, and 41% of mammals. In addition, we used a biodiversity importance score which demonstrated the importance of rangelands and agricultural areas for biodiversity conservation. Finally, we observed that the distribution of current PAs, and the focus of Kenya's wildlife policy in general, is in areas of lowest human pressure, often with the highest large mammal densities. However, other biodiversity indicators ‐ such as bird and plant species richness ‐ show that areas under human‐dominated LU currently support substantial biodiversity. Overall, our analysis demonstrates that formal PAs and wildlife policy presently cover only a small fraction of national biodiversity, which resides mainly in human‐dominated landscapes that are undergoing rapid change. These findings echo global calls for a landscape‐based approach to conservation policy and practice that promotes the coexistence of people and wildlife within social‐ecological systems.
Peter Tyrrell; Johan T du Toit; David W. Macdonald. Conservation beyond protected areas: Using vertebrate species ranges and biodiversity importance scores to inform policy for an east African country in transition. Conservation Science and Practice 2019, 2, 1 .
AMA StylePeter Tyrrell, Johan T du Toit, David W. Macdonald. Conservation beyond protected areas: Using vertebrate species ranges and biodiversity importance scores to inform policy for an east African country in transition. Conservation Science and Practice. 2019; 2 (1):1.
Chicago/Turabian StylePeter Tyrrell; Johan T du Toit; David W. Macdonald. 2019. "Conservation beyond protected areas: Using vertebrate species ranges and biodiversity importance scores to inform policy for an east African country in transition." Conservation Science and Practice 2, no. 1: 1.
Recent increases in ivory poaching have depressed African elephant populations. Successful enforcement has led to ivory being stockpiled. Stockpile destruction is becoming increasingly popular, and most destruction has occurred in the last five years. Ivory destruction is intended to send a strong message against ivory consumption, both in promoting a taboo on ivory use and catalyzing policy change. However, there has been no effort to establish the distribution and extent of media reporting on ivory destruction events globally. We analyze media coverage across eleven important nation states of the largest ivory destruction event in history (Kenya, 30 April 2016). We used a well-accepted online media crawling tool and key language translations to search online and print newspapers. We found most online news on the ivory burn came from the US (81% of articles), while print news was dominated by Kenya (61% of articles). We subjected online articles from five key countries and territories to content analysis and found 86–97% of all online articles reported the burn as a positive conservation action, while between 4–50% discussed ivory burning as having a negative impact on elephant conservation. Most articles discussed law enforcement and trade bans as effective for elephant conservation. There was more relative search interest globally on the 2016 Kenyan ivory burn than any other in five years. Our study is the first attempt to track the spread of media around an ivory burn and is a case study in tracking the effects of a conservation-marketing event. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Alexander Braczkowski; Matthew H. Holden; Christopher O'bryan; Chi-Yeung Choi; Xiaojing Gan; Nicholas Beesley; Yufang Gao; James Allan; Peter Tyrrell; Daniel Stiles; Peadar Brehony; Revocatus Meney; Henry Brink; Nao Takashina; Ming-Ching Lin; Hsien-Yung Lin; Niki Rust; Severino G. Salmo; James E.M. Watson; Paula Kahumbu; Martine Maron; Hugh P. Possingham; Duan Biggs. Reach and messages of the world's largest ivory burn. Conservation Biology 2018, 32, 765 -773.
AMA StyleAlexander Braczkowski, Matthew H. Holden, Christopher O'bryan, Chi-Yeung Choi, Xiaojing Gan, Nicholas Beesley, Yufang Gao, James Allan, Peter Tyrrell, Daniel Stiles, Peadar Brehony, Revocatus Meney, Henry Brink, Nao Takashina, Ming-Ching Lin, Hsien-Yung Lin, Niki Rust, Severino G. Salmo, James E.M. Watson, Paula Kahumbu, Martine Maron, Hugh P. Possingham, Duan Biggs. Reach and messages of the world's largest ivory burn. Conservation Biology. 2018; 32 (4):765-773.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlexander Braczkowski; Matthew H. Holden; Christopher O'bryan; Chi-Yeung Choi; Xiaojing Gan; Nicholas Beesley; Yufang Gao; James Allan; Peter Tyrrell; Daniel Stiles; Peadar Brehony; Revocatus Meney; Henry Brink; Nao Takashina; Ming-Ching Lin; Hsien-Yung Lin; Niki Rust; Severino G. Salmo; James E.M. Watson; Paula Kahumbu; Martine Maron; Hugh P. Possingham; Duan Biggs. 2018. "Reach and messages of the world's largest ivory burn." Conservation Biology 32, no. 4: 765-773.