Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 A plea for quantitative targets in biodiversity conservation
- 2 Setting conservation targets: past and present approaches
- 3 Designing studies to develop conservation targets: a review of the challenges
- 4 Testing the efficiency of global-scale conservation planning by using data on Andean amphibians
- 5 Selecting biodiversity indicators to set conservation targets: species, structures, or processes?
- 6 Selecting species to be used as tools in the development of forest conservation targets
- 7 Bridging ecosystem and multiple species approaches for setting conservation targets in managed boreal landscapes
- 8 Thresholds, incidence functions, and species-specific cues: responses of woodland birds to landscape structure in south-eastern Australia
- 9 Landscape thresholds in species occurrence as quantitative targets in forest management: generality in space and time?
- 10 The temporal and spatial challenges of target setting for dynamic habitats: the case of dead wood and saproxylic species in boreal forests
- 11 Opportunities and constraints of using understory plants to set forest restoration and conservation priorities
- 12 Setting conservation targets for freshwater ecosystems in forested catchments
- 13 Setting quantitative targets for recovery of threatened species
- 14 Allocation of conservation efforts over the landscape: the TRIAD approach
- 15 Forest landscape modeling as a tool to develop conservation targets
- 16 Setting targets: tradeoffs between ecology and economics
- 17 Setting, implementing, and monitoring targets as a basis for adaptive management: a Canadian forestry case study
- 18 Putting conservation target science to work
- Index
- References
2 - Setting conservation targets: past and present approaches
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 A plea for quantitative targets in biodiversity conservation
- 2 Setting conservation targets: past and present approaches
- 3 Designing studies to develop conservation targets: a review of the challenges
- 4 Testing the efficiency of global-scale conservation planning by using data on Andean amphibians
- 5 Selecting biodiversity indicators to set conservation targets: species, structures, or processes?
- 6 Selecting species to be used as tools in the development of forest conservation targets
- 7 Bridging ecosystem and multiple species approaches for setting conservation targets in managed boreal landscapes
- 8 Thresholds, incidence functions, and species-specific cues: responses of woodland birds to landscape structure in south-eastern Australia
- 9 Landscape thresholds in species occurrence as quantitative targets in forest management: generality in space and time?
- 10 The temporal and spatial challenges of target setting for dynamic habitats: the case of dead wood and saproxylic species in boreal forests
- 11 Opportunities and constraints of using understory plants to set forest restoration and conservation priorities
- 12 Setting conservation targets for freshwater ecosystems in forested catchments
- 13 Setting quantitative targets for recovery of threatened species
- 14 Allocation of conservation efforts over the landscape: the TRIAD approach
- 15 Forest landscape modeling as a tool to develop conservation targets
- 16 Setting targets: tradeoffs between ecology and economics
- 17 Setting, implementing, and monitoring targets as a basis for adaptive management: a Canadian forestry case study
- 18 Putting conservation target science to work
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Biodiversity is a term now commonly used in the political arena. However, it has a fairly strict definition that is widely recognized in ecology. In essence, biodiversity refers to genes, species, and ecosystems as levels of organization, and it includes ecosystem structure and function (Noss 1990). These different aspects of biodiversity must also be the starting point for setting conservation goals for forest landscapes. However, when applied to forest management, biodiversity objectives must be broken down into measurable targets based on clear and, preferably, functional links to the overall goals.
Around the world, relatively pristine forest ecosystems have been preserved through the foresight of a few individuals, have been restored at great cost, or they simply persisted by default owing to slow economic development. In regions that are still undeveloped (e.g. portions of the boreal forest or the Amazon basin), targets may be set as proactive measures to limit impacts of foreseeable economic development (see also Chapter 4, this volume). In regions where conservation planning has maintained an intermediate level of ecological integrity, targets must still be set to protect sensitive species or critical ecological processes (see Chapters 8, 9, and 10, this volume). Finally, conservation targets may also represent useful tools to monitor the success of ecological restoration (see Chapter 11, this volume) in regions where major habitat loss and conversion have taken place.
Any specific target is relevant to a temporal and spatial domain. In addition, it may relate to different levels of conservation ambition.
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- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009