Ecologists have made tremendous advances in the science of reserve design and biodiversity prioritization, identifying key areas to target for conservation on the basis of population and community ecology. Conservation practitioners, however, are faced with a far more complex challenge: balancing these conservation goals with concerns about feasibility and the perspectives and interests of local human populations. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to explicitly gather and synthesize all information relevant to conservation decisions. Here we present a broad-based ecological and social conservation assessment and planning effort in the Union of the Comoros, a small African island nation.
We focused on Comorian rainforests, a rarely-studied region in a global biodiversity hotspot which completely lacks protected areas. Our objective was to use an integrated conservation assessment approach to protect forest biodiversity and Livingstone’s flying fox Pteropus livingstonii, a critically endangered species of fruit bat. We first identified seven potential forest reserve sites on two islands. Then we combined assessments of the ecology of key species and ecosystems with attitudinal surveys of local village residents and consultation with a wide range of conservation actors. Finally, through an iterative consultation process, we developed detailed conservation plans based on these integrated assessments.
Results/Conclusions
Several important results emerged from the analysis. First, species diversity and the presence of threatened species both varied by forest site. Second, each of these critical sites is highly vulnerable to human impacts; in some cases forest clearing is likely imminent without conservation intervention. Third, local populations varied in receptiveness to conservation interventions, and these attitudes were driven by group membership, village, and island. These results enabled us to classify sites based on conservation value, threat, and feasibility of reserve creation. Our approach yielded proposals specifically tailored to each individual site and village, allowing for experimentation, local adaptation, and local control, while also promoting cooperation and support between villages.
An important difference of this approach with typical reserve design or prioritization research is that we used empirical data on the full range of factors crucial to conservation success – matching analysis of conservation value with evaluation of key threats to forests, awareness of the feasibility of potential conservation interventions, and understanding of locally preferred approaches to reserve design and management. As such, results fed directly into a clear on-the-ground application, increasing opportunities for effective conservation interventions while building a foundation for broad and sustainable local support.