Biodiversity action plans as a way towards local sustainable development

Local action for biodiversity is essential to ensure better conservation status for biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services. In many places the rich biodiversity is still relatively untouched and represents an outstanding asset for local sustainable development. The loss of biodiversity occurs mainly because of rapid changes in land use, urban sprawl, infrastructure development, acidification, eutrophication, desertification, overexploitation, intensification of agriculture, tourism development and climate change. There is a clear need for a more flexible, people-oriented and visionary approach for sustainable use of biodiversity resources. This article concerns “Local Biodiversity Action Plans”, which provide a comprehensive and integrated approach to biodiversity and ecosystem services for the sustainable development of rural municipalities and their local communities. Although biodiversity action planning is not a new concept, bringing a plan to life has significant societal benefits with innovative solutions to help biodiversity conservation while entailing close interaction of science, policy and society. This approach was developed together with project partners and local communities in selected regions of the Western Balkans and it benefits from a range of stakeholders, including social and natural scientists, practitioners, elected representatives of the local communities and end users in the frame of a participatory approach. The conclusion of this article discusses the role of communication and outlines the critical success factors and the challenges ahead for the future.     

Taxonomic,phylogenetic and functional diversity of an urban Amazonian avifauna

Amazonia is undergoing rapid urbanisation, but nothing has been published on the structure and function of urban Amazonian avifaunas. Here we present the results of a year-long survey of the avifauna of an Amazonian city, exploring temporal variation in its taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity. We found urban bird communities to be taxonomically depauperate and dominated by a small subset of common species typical of second growth and river-edge habitats. Broad patterns of phylogenetic community similarity typically resembled those found in other studies on urban Neotropical bird assemblages, with insectivores the dominant guild. There was significant temporal variation in taxonomic and phylogenetic structure owing to the seasonal arrival and departure of a regionally over-represented minority of migratory species. Although the urban avian assemblage is of limited regional conservation value, it may still offer significant biodiversity services and represent one of few points of contact for local people with biodiversity.     

Butterfly diversity,habitat and vegetation usage in Hong Kong urban parks

The conservation value of urban parks for butterfly communities remains poorly understood, particularly for tropical butterflies in Asia. We conducted point count and route transect butterfly surveys, and used them to sample four habitats located within 13 urban parks across Hong Kong. We found 1054 individuals and 58 species of butterflies recorded in 60 survey hours over 6 months. This represents approximately one quarter of the entire known Hong Kong butterfly species list. Over 30 % of the individuals counted were Catospilia sp. but six of the species identified are classified locally as rare or very rare. Tree-covered habitats and grasslands showed higher butterfly diversity than open areas. The most common butterfly behavior was “directed flight,” which we also found to be habitat-dependent and most common in ponds and open areas. We additionally observed the use of vegetation in urban parks, which included 40 species of nectar plant and four records of butterfly oviposition. The high butterfly diversity, presence of rare species and usage of vegetation (especially as a nectar resource) we documented in this study suggests that urban parks have some conservation value for Hong Kong. However, the use of pesticides and heavy vegetation clearing may limit significant butterfly reproduction and population growth. Altogether these results emphasize the diversity of uses of urban parks for butterflies in Hong Kong while also providing possible directions for improvement in habitat and vegetation management that could increase urban park value for biodiversity.     

Ecological lands for conservation of vascular plant diversity in the urban environment

Conservation of biodiversity in urban areas has become crucial to urban green area management. There are several legislative solutions for preservation of species and habitats in cities. One of them is ‘ecological lands’ – a low-restrictive form of protected areas in Poland. We aimed to assess their efficiency in vascular flora biodiversity conservation in the urban environment in Poznań (W Poland; 550,000 inhabitants). We hypothesized that ecological lands which cover <2% of the city area comprise over 50% of taxonomic diversity and over 90% of functional trait-level range of the vascular flora. Analysis of five ecological lands, which covered 1.8% of the whole city area confirmed our hypothesis. In ecological lands studied, we found 564 species of vascular plants, which is 52.9% of the whole city flora. These species belonged to 23 of 29 phytosociological classes represented in the whole city (73.9%). Functional trait distributions in ecological lands studied comprised from 95.8 to 100% of trait distributions in the flora of the whole city. Ecological lands seem to be a good way for conservation of biodiversity in urban areas. The legislative simplicity and low restrictiveness for both land management and recreational utility make ecological lands a much easier form of nature conservation which may be adapted to other cities for more efficient biodiversity management.     

A systematic review of the relationship between urban agriculture and biodiversity

Urban agriculture is a unique form of agriculture that can provide fresh, local produce for urban residents, and may benefit biodiversity by decreasing the need to expand agriculture into natural areas as well as enhancing biodiversity in urban areas. However, although urban agriculture is also often cited as promoting biodiversity in urban areas, the extent of empirical evidence for such claims has not been studied. Here we systematically review the relationship between urban agriculture and biodiversity in the scientific literature. We strictly define urban agriculture as areas in cities that grow produce specifically for human consumption. We examined 148 papers from 2000 to 2017, of which only 24 studies fit our definition of urban agriculture, and of those, only 18 both involved urban agriculture and measured biodiversity. Of the studies that did measure biodiversity, some showed increases in diversity compared to urban vacant lots, but other showed no difference. Moreover, these studies were mostly focused on plants and invertebrates and were conducted almost exclusively in North America. In order to use the generalization that urban agriculture will have a positive influence on urban biodiversity, more studies will need to be conducted across a wider geographic range worldwide (particularly in developing countries in the tropics) and on a greater diversity of species and taxa (e.g., herpetiles, birds and small mammals). Such studies will likely increase in conservation importance as urban expansion and agricultural demands increase globally.     

Classes of protection in urban forest fragments are effectiveless in structuring butterfly assemblages: landscape and forest structure are far better predictors

Urbanization is a major cause of biodiversity loss and disconnection between people and nature. For this reason, the creation and maintenance of green areas as part of the urban landscape is a common practice in cities around the world. These green areas are generally a result of particular public policies regarding how these areas can be accessed, maintained, and how they are connected to other natural fragments in the city. In an effort to investigate aspects of the ecology of such green areas of the city of Curitiba, southern Brazil, the present study measured distinct parameters of the structure of butterfly assemblages from 19 forest fragments of distinct classes of protection, testing the influence of different policies (protection category) on butterfly assemblages. Comparatively, we also tested the predictive power of landscape variables (at distinct scales) and fragment quality (e.g. diameter at breast height, density of vegetation) using Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). Overall, 14,596 individuals belonging to 412 butterfly species were recorded, but values of species diversity and composition are very heterogeneous, indicating that the protection categories do not significantly interfere with the structure of the butterfly assemblages. More important than the protection category is the forest fragment quality and landscape connectivity. Our models showed that degraded fragments tend to present a specific butterfly composition, whereas the more urbanized landscape have poor butterfly species richness. These results reinforce the importance of implementing public policies that prioritize the conservation of the quality of forest fragments in every class of protection, as well as the conservation of forest fragments throughout the urban landscape.

     

Pluralism and Universality of Environmental Discourse: The Dilemma Between Damage Caused by the Japanese Macaque and its Protection

Abstract:  The subject of this paper is to describe the complexity of relations between man and wild monkeys, which causes difficulties in forming a social consensus related to their conservation and management. To present how the relations are in everyday life, and how they are simplified in universal discursive spaces, interviews and a questionnaire survey have been conducted. As a result, it is clarified that there are three kinds of discursive spaces, that of politics, natural science, and residents. People who share the land with wild monkeys have various terms and stories about their relations with monkeys. The monkeys have various values in the discourse of residents, including many troubles. The existence of monkeys is vivid and close, and can be described as "accessible" nature. However, in discussion of politics or natural sciences, there is less diversity in monkeys' values. In these discursive spaces, monkeys are described simply in the framework of "distant" nature, and wild monkey issues are constructed as a "pest animal issue". The simplified protocol between accessible and distant nature makes the wild monkey issues simple. And the attitudes of residents are shown as controversial through the contradiction between simple-complex issues. In conclusion, this contradiction cannot be solved only by filling the gap between accessible and distant nature with social consensus, but also by connecting the two and enhancing the dynamism of society as a whole.     

Three categories of urban green areas and the effect of their different management on the communities of ants,spiders and harvestmen

Urban green areas have become an important tool for biodiversity conservation in cities. However, land use and the different management practices applied to these areas determine their effectiveness as biodiversity refuges within cities. In our study, we compare the biodiversity of three bioindicator groups of arthropods (ants, spiders and harvestmen) found in eleven urban green sites in Warsaw (Poland). The studied sites represent three categories of management: botanical gardens, public parks and urban woodlands. Our aim was to determine the effect of the type of management (as urban green categories) on arthropod communities in urban areas.

     

Understanding preferences for tree attributes: the relative effects of socio-economic and local environmental factors

Urban plant biodiversity is influenced by both the physical environment and attitudes and preferences of urban residents for specific plant types. Urban residents are assumed to be disconnected from their immediate environment, and cultural and societal factors have been emphasized over environmental factors in studies of landscaping choices. However, we postulate that local climatic and environmental factors can also affect preferences for plant attributes. Therefore, spatial and temporal patterns in urban tree biodiversity may be driven not only by the direct effect of environmental variables on plant function, but also by the effect of environmental variables on attitudes toward trees and associated choices about which types of trees to plant. Here, we tested the relative effects of socio-economic and local environmental factors on preferences toward tree attributes in five counties in southern California in and surrounding Los Angeles, based on 1,029 household surveys. We found that local environmental factors have as strong an effect on preferences for tree attributes as socio-economic factors. Specifically, people located in hotter climates (average maximum temperature 25.1 °C) were more likely to value shade trees than those located in cooler regions (23.1 °C). Additionally, people located in desert areas were less likely to consider trees to be important in their city compared with people located in naturally forested areas. Overall, our research demonstrates the inherent connections between local environmental factors and perceptions of nature, even in large modern cities. Accounting for these factors can contribute to the growing interest in understanding patterns of urban biodiversity.     

Biodiversity conservation in the Brazilian social sciences: an analysis of epistemological paths and conditions of possibility

This article aims to present the analysis of a carefully chosen literature in social sciences on the subject of biodiversity conservation. The purpose was to recognize some of the methods and epistemological conceptions which underlie the arguments published in the main academic journals of Sociology, Anthropology and Political Sciences. The analysis is based on a confrontation of Foucault’s concept of “conditions of possibility” with the discursive practices present in the survey. This exercise enabled us to demonstrate that even though we specifically targeted the social sciences, it is possible to recognize the presence of different conditions possibility that are not necessarily compatible and can be critic of each other. These criticisms arise in a context in which the objectivist view was widely accessed in order to corroborate restrictive and punitive actions on biodiversity conservation. This mapping can thus contribute to problematize the dialogue between disciplines in a scenario where each science has a particular political weight.     

Urban biodiversity hotspots are not related to the structure of green spaces: a case study of tenebrionid beetles from Rome,Italy

At global and regional scales, area prioritisation is frequently done by the identification of hotspots based on species extinction risk. The logic of the hotspot identification has never been used in urban contexts. In this paper, the tenebrionid beetles (Coleoptera Tenebrionidae) of urban Rome were studied as an exercise to show how the hotspot approach can be profitably used in an urban area to identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation. For this, tenebrionid species from 16 green spaces were scored according to their vulnerability on the basis of their geographical distribution, habitat specificity and abundance. Species vulnerability scores were then used to calculate two indices of area prioritisation (the Biodiversity Conservation Concern and the Biodiversity Conservation Weight) for each green space. Values of these indices were correlated with site characteristics and compared with those obtained from other, more natural contexts. Except for distance to other sites, no significant correlation was found between conservation values and site characteristics, which indicates that the conservation importance of green spaces cannot be predicted on the basis of their geographical characteristics, but must be established on the basis of the species that they actually host. The importance of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation may be questioned because of the large presence of ubiquitous and alien species in urban areas. Conservation values obtained for tenebrionids of green spaces in Rome are similar to those of various animal groups in more natural contexts and hence highlight the actual importance of green areas for insect biodiversity conservation.     

Wired science: use of World Wide Web and e-mail in science public relations

To gain visibility and public support, scientists must gain the attention of the mass media. Science public relations practitioners, who represent well-known research universities, private research organizations, government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, non-profit health associations, and public relations firms, help scientists accomplish that goal. The World Wide Web and e-mail have become an integral part of science public relations, according to a 2000 survey. Practitioners find that e-mail is essential in media relations. They believe the Web and e-mail together make it easier to obtain media coverage. Most (86%) practitioners in this highly specialized field believe the Web has improved their public relations work.     

Cultures of care? Animals and science in Britain

It is becoming increasingly common to hear life scientists say that high quality life science research relies upon high quality laboratory animal care. However, the idea that animal care is a crucial part of scientific knowledge production is at odds with previous social science and historical scholarship regarding laboratory animals. How are we to understand this discrepancy? To begin to address this question, this paper seeks to disentangle the values of scientists in identifying animal care as important to the production of high quality scientific research. To do this, we conducted a survey of scientists working in the United Kingdom who use animals in their research. The survey found that being British is associated with thinking that animal care is a crucial part of conducting high quality science. To understand this finding, we draw upon the concept of ‘civic epistemologies’ (Jasanoff 2005; Prainsack 2006) and argue that ‘animals’ and ‘care’ in Britain may converge in taken‐for‐granted assumptions about what constitutes good scientific knowledge. These ideas travel through things like state regulations or the editorial policies of science journals, but do not necessarily carry the embodied civic epistemology of ‘animals’ and ‘science’ from which such modes of regulating laboratory animal welfare comes.     

Ecological integrity in urban forests

Ecological integrity has been an umbrella concept guiding ecosystem management for several decades. Though plenty of definitions of ecological integrity exist, the concept is best understood through related concepts, chiefly, ecosystem health, biodiversity, native species, stressors, resilience and self-maintenance. Discussions on how ecological integrity may be relevant to complex human-nature ecosystems, besides those set aside for conservation, are growing in number. In the case of urban forests, no significant effort has yet been made to address the holistic concept of ecological integrity for the urban forest system. Preliminary connections between goals such as increasing tree health, maintaining canopy cover, and reducing anthropogenic stressors and the general notion of integrity exist. However, other related concepts, such as increasing biodiversity, the planting of native species, and the full meaning of ecosystem health beyond merely tree health have not been addressed profoundly as contributors to urban forest integrity. Meanwhile, other concepts such as resilience to change and self-maintenance are not addressed explicitly. In this paper we reveal two camps of interpretation of ecological integrity for urban forests that in turn rely on a particular definition of the urban forest ecosystem and a set of urban forest values. Convergence and integration of these values is necessary to bring a constructive frame of interpretation of ecological integrity to guide urban forest management into the future.     

Peeking into the past to plan the future: Assessing bird species richness in a neotropical city

Urbanization has been considered as a major threat to biodiversity, making its ecology of increasing interest. Many urban ecology studies have been developed in a short time-scale, measuring real-time patterns. However, long-term studies are imperative to understand the responses of some species to the urbanization process. In this study, we aimed to assess the information provided by a recent one-year citywide bird survey when compared to a published ‘historical’ bird list of a neotropical city (Xalapa, Mexico) that compiles information of the past three decades, mainly from urban greenspaces. Specifically, we contrasted species richness values and assessed differences in species composition between both lists. We recorded 51 species in the one-year citywide survey, representing ~15 % of those reported in the historical list. Nonetheless, the upper-bound confidence interval of the citywide survey richness prediction represented ~66 %. Most of the species recorded in the one-year citywide survey are insectivores and granivores, a pattern that agrees with previous findings that underline the importance of insectivores as part of urban bird communities in the Neotropics. Although we used robust methods to compare our one-year citywide bird list and the historical list for the city of Xalapa, we acknowledge the limitations of comparing them. However, our results shed some light on the kind and type of information that one-year citywide surveys can provide and the importance of long-term studies for comprehending the processes involved in biodiversity changes within urban areas over time. Undoubtedly, establishing long-term citywide surveys sampling birds and other biodiversity groups will allow us to better understand the response of biodiversity to urbanization over time.     

Engaging urban nature: improving our understanding of public perceptions of the role of biodiversity in cities

In recognition of the value of biodiversity for cities and citizens, a number of international programs have been designed to help municipal governments sustain, protect, and augment the biodiversity and ecosystem services within their jurisdictions. A key component of these programs is public engagement, where citizens assume a more active role in maintaining urban biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Yet, there are few studies which have as their focus public knowledge of the importance of nature, biodiversity, and ecosystem services in cities. To these ends, this study was conducted to develop a better understanding of how the public understands and interacts with urban biodiversity, particularly in comparison to subject matter experts. Using topics generated from expert interviews and the literature, an interview guide was developed for the general public, structured around the general themes of a definition of urban biodiversity, as well as the perceived benefits, costs, and threats related to urban biodiversity. While there were similarities in the responses of citizens and experts, some differences did emerge in terms of accounting for specific urban ecosystems, acceptable interventions to support and enhance biodiversity, and the character and extent of the cultural services derived from urban nature. Insights from this work can be used to inform education and information efforts for the public, as well as raise awareness among city planners and nature professionals of the array of urban ecosystem services recognized and made use of by the public.

     

The perfect lawn: exploring neighborhood socio-cultural drivers for insect pollinator habitat

In the United States, residential yards are typically overlooked for biodiversity conservation, yet they account for a significant portion of urban green space. Yard vegetation can serve as valuable habitat patches for insect pollinator populations in cities, providing important foraging and nesting resources. Based on long-term native bee sampling data, we investigate the social and cultural drivers shaping front yard vegetation composition and configuration at two study sites with consistently low native bee species diversity and abundance. We employ quantitative remote sensing approaches with analysis of qualitative interview data to examine residential vegetation patterns and analyze the socio-cultural relationships between people and vegetation. Data analyses reveal both study sites have lower levels of vegetation composition and complexity, resulting in reduced habitat resources. We find neighborhood public-facing landscaping is shaped by various socio-cultural influences: aesthetics, norms, reference-group behavior, institutions, socioeconomics, and identity. Front yard land-use and decision-making practices are particularly meaning laden, as these spaces are often perceived as visible representations of longstanding neighborhood identity and contiguous common areas to be managed to a “perfect lawn” ideal. The quantitative and qualitative data are used to characterize the two study sites and inform future urban conservation and development efforts salient to citizen stakeholders.     

Sustainable landscaping programs in the United States and their potential to encourage conservation and support ecosystem services

Sustainable landscaping programs are voluntary initiatives that recommend a set of practices to improve the environmental quality of urban ecosystems by providing landscaping materials, guidelines, and educational resources. Our goal was to examine the recommendations and outcomes of these programs in the United States and their value for encouraging conservation practices in residential ecosystems. We conducted a comprehensive web search and identified 193 sustainable landscaping programs in the United States. Programs aim to increase native species richness, affordably manage stormwater runoff, and offer residents meaningful experiences with nature. Sustainable landscaping programs present many opportunities to engage people with local ecological knowledge and conservation practices, provide accessible spaces for environmental education, cultivate interdisciplinary research collaborations, and advance inclusion in conservation. However, assessments of their ecological value are rare, leaving many questions surrounding the benefits to biodiversity and water quality afforded by participation. Many programs also require investments in landscaping materials and certification fees that might limit participation by some households. Future work should examine how recommended practices influence urban biodiversity, identify and address barriers to participation, and generate social-ecological knowledge that can inform future programs.