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Beyond Money Metrics: Alternative Approaches to Conceptualising and Assessing Ecosystem Services
Get PDFThe concept and valuation of ecosystem services have emerged as growing and dynamic areas of research over the past few years. The adoption of these ideas and methods into mainstream policy discussions and practice has occurred at a rapid pace. Conventionally, the valuation of ecosystem services has been synonymous with estimating the economic (monetary) value of these services. However, monetisation has limitations that need to be acknowledged before it is adopted in policies. In addition, the socio-political and institutional dimensions of ecosystem services are largely overlooked in the debate. Against this backdrop, the Indian Society for Ecological
Economics (INSEE) has put together this special section to critically review the current thinking and practices surrounding ecosystem services and to present emerging alternative approaches
Water Management in Arkavathy basin: a situation analysis
Get PDFThe Arkavathy sub-basin, which is part of the Cauvery basin, is a highly stressed, rapidly urbanising watershed on the outskirts of the city of Bengaluru. The purpose of this situation analysis document is to summarise the current state of knowledge on water management in the Arkavathy sub-basin and identify critical knowledge gaps to inform future researchers in
the basin.
It is hoped that such an analysis will help those studying or working on water issues in the basin itself, and also provide useful insights for other such urbanising basins.
The Arkavathy sub-basin is located in the state of Karnataka in India (see Figure 1). It covers an area of 4,253 km2, and is part of the inter-state Cauvery River basin. The sub-basin covers parts of eight taluka – Doddaballapur, Nelamangala, Magadi, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Ramanagara, Anekal and Kanakapura within three districts – Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural and Ramanagara. The total population in the sub-basin was 72 lakhs in 2001 and is estimated to be approximately 86 lakhs in 2011. This is distributed approximately 50:50 between urban and rural settlements (although the urban share is growing rapidly), with 33 lakhs from Bengaluru city (more than one-third of Bengaluru’s total population). There are also four major Class II towns: Doddaballapur, Nelamangala, Ramanagara, and Kanakapura with populations ranging from 35,000 to 95,000. In spite of rapid urbanisation, there are still 1,107 revenue villages with populations ranging from less than 10 to 6,0001, and agriculture continues to be the mainstay of a large number of them
Linking kids and conservation: some thoughts on the vacation training programme
Get PDFIn urban areas the most convenient way to relate with nature, especially among urban kids is to watch ‘nature television’ or during the occasional visit to a zoo or
national park. To make kids aware of nature and its conservation, ‘environmental education’ courses are included in the curricula, but the way these are taught
has however been deplorable, with no connection to the real environment. Introducing students to bio-resources
conservation at the secondary school level in a semi-structured but non-formal ambience with activities that promote observations, interactions and learning is needed to excite young minds towards conservation of our natural resources. Non-destructive field-based activities need to be designed and students made to observe nature, ask questions about what they see, discuss with scientists, elders and peers. Such activities also need to focus on the environment that the students are exposed to and provide opportunities for them to engage and relate with it
Interdisciplinary research: way forward for biodiversity conservation
Get PDFIncrease in human population has been responsible for depletion of natural resources and loss of wildlife habitat, both directly and indirectly. It is acknowledged
that interactions between humans and nature are responsible for creating critical and complex conservation challenges in both ecological and social
worlds and these are not resolvable through the knowledge acquired from a single discipline. It is time that a more
holistic approach is adopted to address and understand the socio-economic dimensions of biodiversity conservation 1. Today, the issues and challenges relating
to wildlife and biodiversity conservation are embedded in understanding the human dimension with its social, cultural, political, economic and legal complexities 2. An interdisciplinary approach to challenges like that of human–wildlife conflict, will help scientists to arrive at better solutions that might ensure conservation
of nature in the longer run 3
Playing with the forest: invasive alien plants, policy and protected areas in India
Get PDFProtected areas (PAs) are inviolate and invaluable landscapes that promote the in situ conservation of endangered, threatened and rare species. Accordingly, and in keeping with this definition, PA managers ensure that PAs are free from fire, poaching, grazing, non-timber forest products collection, mining, etc. In India, following the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972), there are today 102 and 515 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries respectively. Many of these have in recent decades been heavily threatened by the spread of invasive alien plant species, notable among them being Lantana and Eupatorium. These species may have usurped as yet unestimated number of native plants and fauna, besides depressing the reproduction of native plant species. In
fact, it is realized that the threat to biodiversity by invasive alien species (IAS) may only be second to that of fragmentation. Yet there seems to be no major attempts to eradicate, contain or manage IAS in PAs. Ironically, the justification for the lack of action lies in the definition of PAs – that they need to be kept inviolate and therefore above any active intervention. In this article we bring home this serious contradiction in the approach to management of PAs in India and discuss the philosophical origins of this practice. We argue that if we are to protect our PAs from the serious scourge
of invasive species, we would have to relook at the policy governing PA management and revise it to be more inclusive than exclusive
Using spatial simulations of habitat modification for adaptive management of protected areas: Mediterranean grassland modification by woody plant encroachment
No full textSpatial simulation may be used to model the potential effects of current biodiversity approaches on future habitat modification under differing climate change scenarios. To illustrate the approach, spatial simulation models, including landscape-level forest dynamics,were developed for a semi-natural grassland of conservation concern in a southern Italian protected area, which was exposed to woody vegetation encroachment. A forest landscape dynamics simulator (LANDIS-II) under conditions of climate change, current fire and alternative management regimes was used to develop scenario maps. Landscape pattern metrics provided data on fragmentation and habitat quality degradation, and quantified the spatial spread of different tree species within grassland habitats. The models indicated that approximately one-third of the grassland area would be impacted by loss,
fragmentation and degradation in the next 150 years.
Differing forest management regimes appear to influence
the type of encroaching species and the density of encroaching vegetation. Habitat modifications are
likely to affect species distribution and interactions,
as well as local ecosystem functioning, leading to changes in estimated conservation value. A site-scale
conservation strategy based on feasible integrated
fire and forest management options is proposed, considering the debate on the effectiveness of protected
areas for the conservation of ecosystem services in
a changing climate. This needs to be tested through
further modelling and scenario analysis, which would
benefit from the enhancement of current modelling
capabilities of LANDIS-II and from combination with
remote sensing technologies, to provide early signals of
environmental shifts both within and outside protected
area
Knowledge and Use of Wild Edible Plants in Two Communities in Malai Madeshwara Hills, Southern India
Get PDFThe current study aims to explore the local community knowledge on the uses of Wild Edible Plants (WEPs) and assess their aid to the food security; dietry diversity and revenue of households in Malai Madeshawara (MM) Hills reserve forest. A comprehensive inventory of ethno botanical knowledge of the forest dependent communities in MM Hills Reserve Forest has been documented. Data were composed through: (1) A survey of 120 households aimlessly chosen from a total of 355 households in four villages. (2) Focus group discussion and personal observations. Ninety-two plant species were found to be used as source of supplementary food, medicine and beverages. Fourteen of the WEPs were collected by 95% of the households. WEPs are as important as farm produce in the annual food supply. Eighty-nine of the WEPswere collected only for their own consumption. Of the ninety two WEPs, 58 species (62%) are collected from the forest and the remaining is found as weed in agricultural lands. Commuity discerns that use of WEPs is declining due to the intervention of social and food security schemes, driven dietry shift and lifestyle change. The results revealed that WEPs are of high importance to the local commuities in terms of food security, dietry diversity and cultural identity. The findings suggest further investigation of nutritional profiles, cultural values and conservational study of the reported wild edible plant species
Development of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the critically endangered and endemic Indian dipterocarp, Vateria indica L. (Dipterocarpaceae)
No full textVateria indica (Dipterocarpaceae) is an economically
and ecologically important canopy tree endemic
to the Western Ghats, India. The species has undergone
extensive habitat loss and overexploitation and is therefore listed as ‘critically endangered’ on the 2012 IUCN Red List. We developed ten polymorphic microsatellite loci for V. indica. In addition, we confirm cross amplification and variation in two loci isolated from the closely related but geographically disjunct species Vateriopsis seychellarum, previously published by Finger et al. Conserv Genet Resour, 2 (S1):309–311, (2010). The twelve microsatellite primers screened on 48 adult samples of V. indica had 5–11 alleles per locus (mean of 8.5 per locus) with an average polymorphic information content of 0.64 across loci. Expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.44 to 0.84. These markers will enable us to quantify population genetic diversity in habitat fragments and to study fine scale spatial genetic structure and contemporary gene flow
Reshaping Neighbourhood Parks for Biodiversity and People: a study on pocket green spaces in Bangalore, India
Get PDFConservation biologists and ecologists have always focused on conserving pristine large
green habitats. Smaller green spaces have been ignored for a long time. It is only recently
because of human disturbance, they have begun focusing on fragmented habitats and how
they can be connected to achieve the larger goal of conserving biodiversity and the
ecosystem services they provision. Urban habitats have always been neglected because it
was believed that the cities depended on services that forests and other large green spaces
provisioned and hence conserving them was critical even for the human well-being. It is
only lately that the importance of green spaces within the cities has been highlighted.
Although there is some attention by conservation biologists, ecologists and naturalists
towards urban green spaces now, they still seem biased towards large green spaces within
cities, completely neglecting the small pocket green spaces such as neighbourhood parks
(henceforth NPs), which also provision various ecosystem services. With rapid
development, green spaces within cities have been sacrificed and it is only the large
spaces that get protection through protests by citizenry, naturalists, ecologists and other
stakeholders, while the small green spaces are put to alternative use without being
notice