Mammal Diversity, Threats and Knowledge Across Spatial Scales
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Mammal diversity, threats and knowledge across spatial scales A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Natural Resources in the College of Graduate Studies University of Idaho with a Concentration in Management of Conservation of Tropical Forests and Biodiversity in the Graduate School Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza by Gerrit Jan Schipper III May 2010 Major Professors: J. Michael Scott, Ph.D. and Celia Harvey, Ph.D. iii ABSTRACT Spatial scale is a fundamental consideration in planning for biodiversity conservation. Limited resources means that decision and policy makers often take a triage approach to biodiversity conservation, addressing the most pressing issues first and then proceeding as resources allow. At the global scale, where international treaties and multinational planning are necessary – it is important to have access to the best data available and to unbiased and comprehensive analysis. However few conservation actions can be performed at the global scale, and it becomes increasingly important to be able to “zoom in” to priorioty countries or regions to implement policy or other decisions. At regional scales, regulations can be put into place, protected areas can be designated and other broad reaching actions – but still finer scales are necessary to implement effective management of areas or species. From the regional scale we can prioritize sites for specific treatments or actions, and thus scale down even further to be able to manage populations, parks, watersheds or species. Herein we provide a global dataset and analysis framework to address declines in mammal populations and ultimately extinction risk. By making this data freely and publically available we hope that it can bring the best science to bear on decision making globally and nationally. Protected areas are among the most powerful tools available to protect species and populations within and between countries – thus at the regional scale we examine the effectiveness of land stewardship on mammal populations. Because protected areas alone are seldom large enough to retain large mammal populations, we then evaluated the utility of a biological corridor, at the landscape scale, in providing linkage between protected areas. Finally we examine this same landscape in terms of the need to broaden our ecological decision making parameters to include terrestrial, freshwater and marine components – and explore means by which ecological services transcend these biomes and why decision making need take all into consideration. We conclude that spatial scale is a fundamental issue that is often neglected in decision making and that in many cases conservation planning recommendations are either too broad or too specific in the context of the policy tools available. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my committee for providing me with the opportunity, encouragement and support to bring this research project to fruition. Over the past 7 years, my major professor, Mike Scott, has been an unwavering source of ideas, guidance (and reprints) and encouragement. Mike has gone far out of his way on many occasions to not only come to Costa Rica for field visits, but also afterwards while I was struggling to complete the thesis while working full time. I would like to thank Nilsa Bosque-Pérez for encouragement in joining the IGERT program and for taking such a keen interest in keeping me on track. In addition, without the strategic, logistical and statistical guidance from Celia Harvey I would not have been able to pull all the pieces together. I also thank Lisette Waits for her support, attention to detail, and for her many ideas which shaped my thinking in many regards, and finally Thomas Brooks for not only reminding me of the big picture but also for his intellectual and mental stimulations over the course of the project. During the three years of data collection and subsequent analysis, this project drew on support from many sources. Funding for this project was provided by NSF-IGERT grant 0114304. Additional support was provided by a jaguar conservation award from Jaguar Cars/Ford Motor Company, and by Wildlife Conservation Society, ProCAT, Corredor Biológico Talamanca- Caribe (CBTC), the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Mines (MINAE), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the World Wildlife Fund-Central America. I would also like to thank both Conservation International and IUCN for allowing me the flexibility in my work schedule while completing the Global Mammal Assessment to also keep on top of my thesis. I am indebted to Mike Hoffmann, Simon Stuart and many others for their encouragement and support during the trials and tribulations of balancing work and thesis. I am indebted to many people, without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. I would specially like to thank my wife, Beth Polidoro, who not only helped in the field data collection, analysis and on numerous expeditions, but also for the encouragement to keep going when times got tough, and for helping with the final editing and formatting of the thesis. I am also indebted to both Jose Fernando Gonzalez-Maya and Gustavo Salazar for the years of help v both provided throughout the project – both in the field and in the office making sense of the data. In addition, I want to extent my gratitude to Sarah Wyatt for her technical revisions and helpful comments throughout the last several years – and for always being both a friend and editor. A special thank you goes to all the staff of the Corredor Biológico Talamanca-Caribe (CBTC), but especially to Rosa Bustillo for her vision of species conservation in Costa Rica. I only hope that I have done justice to the analysis to make these data useful for on-the- ground management of the corridor. I also want to thank the CBTC for allowing me to use and train their “resource protection” staff: Minor, Santos, Leopoldo, Pepo but especially Eduard Jackson who stuck with me through 3 years of field work across the Talamancas. I am very fortunate to have had such great support and encouragement from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Mines (MINAE) during this research project. For their genuine interest in the project and also for the permits to conduct them, I thank Earl Wade Junior from the Area de Conservación Caribe, Luis Sanchez, Adrian Arias and Marisol Rodriguez from Area de Conservación Pacifico and Nelson Elizondo from Parque Internacional La Amistad. I received support from many international NGO’s based in Costa Rica. I am greatly indebted to all the support from Conservation International – Costa Rica office, especially Jim Barborak, Jaime García-Moreno, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, and Manuel Ramirez. At the Nature Conservancy I would like to thanks Maarten Kappelle for both imparting his great knowledge of the Talamanca Mountains and also for his tireless support in conservation efforts and research targeted at the area. For his unwavering support of jaguar conservation, his vigilance in keeping hunters off his forested lands, and for his financial and moral support to this project I am greatly indebted to Addison Fischer, and to all of the staff at Finca las Alturas for access and assistance to this unique property. vi I would like to thank all of the remaining members of the IGERT “Talamanca Team”. To Chris Lorion I am especially indebted for talking the lead on interdisciplinary multi-scale planning efforts (reflected in Chapter 4). To Ruth Dahlquist and Leigh Winowicki I am grateful to have had the opportunity to spend several years working closely with you and for the inspiration I have drawn from our search together for interdisciplinary integration. I would also like to thank Sandra Candela for her efforts to help me convert some 3000 photographs to useful data – no small feat. Last but not least I would like to thank all of my family and friend’s who have stuck with me through tick and thin, and have supported and encouraged me at every step. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Authorization to submit dissertation ................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Table of contents ............................................................................................................... vii List of tables ....................................................................................................................... ix List of figures ...................................................................................................................... x List of appendices .............................................................................................................. xi Dissertation Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chaper 1: The status of the world’s land and marine mammals: diversity threat and knowledge ........................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ........................................................................................................................