TY - JOUR
T1 - Planning from scratch
T2 - A new modelling approach for designing protected areas in remote, data-poor regions
AU - Ducros, Delphine
AU - Devillers, Rodolphe
AU - Messager, Antoine
AU - Suet, Marie
AU - Wachoum, Abakar Saleh
AU - Deschamps, Clémence
AU - Breme, Babakar Matar
AU - Petersen, Ib Krag
AU - Kayser, Yves
AU - Vincent-Martin, Nicolas
AU - Djimasngar, M’Baïti Narcisse
AU - Portier, Bruno
AU - Champagnon, Jocelyn
AU - Mondain-Monval, Jean Yves
AU - Defos du Rau, Pierre
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - Human pressure on ecosystems has strongly increased over the last decades and now impacts even the most remote regions. To help mitigate these impacts, it is crucial to designate protected areas in regions that retain a high level of ecological integrity. However, ecological data remain scarce for many such areas, making the systematic design of new protected zones challenging. Following a request from local managers, we developed an original methodological approach to help design new zoning for a pre-existing protected area in a remote, data-poor Sahelian wetland of southern Chad, a vast area rich in biodiversity and exploited by diverse human activities. The method involved first collecting extensive aerial survey data (6252 records) on birds and mammals and then analysing this through a combination of distance sampling and density surface modelling. The biodiversity data, combined with ecological predictors, helped model species distribution layers that were then incorporated with socio-economic constraints into the systematic conservation planning tool Marxan. This approach produced an array of protected zoning options that met three levels of conservation objectives set by experts, corresponding to proportions of individuals from given species to protect in the proposed protected area. Frequent exchanges with local managers allowed the analyses to be refined, resulting in seven potential scenarios to be considered for conservation purposes. Synthesis and applications. In a context of high data scarcity, lack of access and short-term conservation objectives, this combined approach that optimizes newly obtained data via a suite of modelling tools can facilitate identifying and protecting natural areas in regions most in need of urgent conservation policy.
AB - Human pressure on ecosystems has strongly increased over the last decades and now impacts even the most remote regions. To help mitigate these impacts, it is crucial to designate protected areas in regions that retain a high level of ecological integrity. However, ecological data remain scarce for many such areas, making the systematic design of new protected zones challenging. Following a request from local managers, we developed an original methodological approach to help design new zoning for a pre-existing protected area in a remote, data-poor Sahelian wetland of southern Chad, a vast area rich in biodiversity and exploited by diverse human activities. The method involved first collecting extensive aerial survey data (6252 records) on birds and mammals and then analysing this through a combination of distance sampling and density surface modelling. The biodiversity data, combined with ecological predictors, helped model species distribution layers that were then incorporated with socio-economic constraints into the systematic conservation planning tool Marxan. This approach produced an array of protected zoning options that met three levels of conservation objectives set by experts, corresponding to proportions of individuals from given species to protect in the proposed protected area. Frequent exchanges with local managers allowed the analyses to be refined, resulting in seven potential scenarios to be considered for conservation purposes. Synthesis and applications. In a context of high data scarcity, lack of access and short-term conservation objectives, this combined approach that optimizes newly obtained data via a suite of modelling tools can facilitate identifying and protecting natural areas in regions most in need of urgent conservation policy.
KW - aerial survey
KW - birds
KW - density surface modelling
KW - distance sampling
KW - Marxan
KW - protected area zoning
KW - wetlands
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85166286303&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1365-2664.14470
DO - 10.1111/1365-2664.14470
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85166286303
SN - 0021-8901
VL - 60
SP - 2018
EP - 2030
JO - Journal of Applied Ecology
JF - Journal of Applied Ecology
IS - 9
ER -