Conservation Assessment of the Insular Caribbean Using The Caribbean Decision Support System Technical Report Summary Report Also Available 1 Principal Author: Annette Huggins Co - Authors: Anthony Chatwin Richard Jeo Shirley Keel Phillip Kramer Francisco Núñez Steve Schill Contributors: Matthew McPherson Kim Thurlow Michelle Libby Rick Tingey Michael Palmer Raquel Seybert Publication Information This report forms part of the Caribbean Decision Support System DVD. A summary version of this technical report is also available on the DVD, in addition to: The Caribbean Decision Support System, which includes a geospatial database, tools, userguide, tutorial and presentation; ArcReader; MARXAN tutorials with user guides and tutorial data. Both this report and the summary report can also be found online at: http://www.conserveonline.org/ workspaces/ Caribbean.conservation Citation: Huggins, A.E., S. Keel, P. Kramer, F. Núñez, S. Schill, R. Jeo, A. Chatwin, K. Thurlow, M. McPherson, M. Libby, R. Tingey, M. Palmer and R. Seybert 2007. Biodiversity Conservation Assessment of the Insular Caribbean Using the Caribbean Decision Support System, Technical Report, The Nature Conservancy. This publication can be partially reproduced for educational purposes whenever the source is cited. The material and maps presented in this publication do not imply opinions of the authors or publishers concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or in relation to the boundary of their borders. The national and international boundaries on the maps of this publication are referential in nature. 2 Acknowledgements We would like to thank everyone who participated in this assessment. We are very grateful to all those who attended workshops, donated data, information and knowledge, including: Academy for Educational Development (AED) Metropolitan University Bahamas National Trust Municipality of Carolina Bristol-Myers Squibb Company NASA - Marshall Space Flight Center (SERVIR British Virgin Islands National Trust Project) Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) (CDERA) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) Centre for Geospatial Studies, University of the West National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS-NOAA) Indies National Resource Conservation Service (USDA- Centro del Agua del Trópico Húmedo para América NRCS) Latina y el Caribe (CATHALAC) NatureServe Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) Network of Caribbean Marine Protected Areas Colorado State University Managers (CaMPAM) Conservation International Organization of American States (OAS) Consultores Educativos Ambientales Puerto Rico Ornithological Society, Puerto Rico Ciudadanos del Karso, Puerto Rico Round River Conservation Studies Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico Ruralis Inc. CSA Group Inc. Sociedad Espeleológica de Puerto Rico Duke University Society for the Conservation of Caribbean Birds Environmental Defense The World Bank Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Envirosurvey Inc. U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Florida International University United Nations Environmental Programme – Caribbean Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Environment Programme Fundación Biosférica, Puerto Rico University of Alabama Fundación Puertorriqueña de Conservación, Puerto Rico University of British Columbia Geographic Mapping Technologies University of Maryland Government of Grenada University of Miami Government of Haiti University of Puerto Rico Government of Jamaica University of South Carolina Government of Puerto Rico University of South Florida Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines University of Southern Mississippi Government of the Bahamas University of the West Indies Government of the British Virgin Islands United States Agency for International Development Government of the Dominican Republic (USAID) Government of the US Virgin Islands United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Gregory L. Morris Associates United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute US Environmental Protection Agency Iniciativa Herpetológica, Puerto Rico US Forest Service – International Institute of Tropical Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia (IPGH) Forestry Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network USGS EROS Data Center - International Program (IABIN) Utah State University Inter-American University of Puerto Rico Widecast Jamaica Protected Areas Trust World Conservation Monitoring Centre Jardín Botánico de Puerto Rico World Resources Institute Leica-Geosystems, Inc. World Wildlife Fund US Mesoamerican and Caribbean Geospatial Alliance (MACGA) i ii TABLE of CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Table of Contents ii List of Figures iii List of Tables iii Executive Summary 1 Introduction 2 The Caribbean Decision Support System 2 The Caribbean Region 3 Marine 3 Terrestrial 5 Freshwater 7 Vulnerability and Threats 11 Methods 12 Conservation Targets and Data Sources 12 Marine 12 Terrestrial 15 Freshwater 22 Conservation Goals 23 Marine 23 Terrestrial 23 Freshwater 24 Stratification of Targets and Candidate Planning Units 24 Suitability Maps 25 Selecting Conservation Areas 26 Results 28 Delineation of Conservation Areas 28 Marine Portfolio Selection 28 Terrestrial Portfolio Selection 29 Freshwater Portfolio Selection 29 Discussion 30 Marine 30 Terrestrial 33 Freshwater 33 Maps 35 42 References 52 Appendix A: Target and Target Mapping Details 52 Appendix B: Goals 73 Appendix C : Planning Units and Stratifying Units 76 Appendix D: Suitability Maps 80 Appendix E: MARXAN Software 87 ii Appendix F: Portfolio Analysis 89 Appendix G: Conservation Areas 96 Appendix H: CDSS Spatial Database 103 Figures Figure 1: Marine Environmental Risk Surface used as a Suitability Map 36 Figure 2: Terrestrial Environmental Risk Surface used as a Suitability Map 37 Figure 3: Freshwater Environmental Risk Surface used as a Suitability Map 38 Figure 4: Optimal Marine Portfolio 39 Figure 5: Optimal Terrestrial Portfolio 40 Figure 6: Optimal Freshwater Portfolio 41 Figure 7: Planning Units 76 Figure 8: Marine Stratification Units 77 Figure 9: Terrestrial Stratification Units 78 Figure 10: Freshwater Stratification Units 79 Figure 11: Distance Decay Methodology for Environmental Risk Surfaces 81 Figure 12: Flow Accumulation Model 84 Tables Table 1: Human Activity Intensities and Distances of Influence Used to Create Terrestrial 83 Environmental Risk Map Table 2: Regional and Country Projections used in the Caribbean Region 105 ©Annette Huggins iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Stretching across three million square kilometers of shimmering turquoise seas, and including more than five thousand islands and cays, the Caribbean is home to some of the world’s biologically richest freshwater, land and marine environments, which are home to thousands of plants and animals, hundreds of which are unique endemics found nowhere else on Earth. These ecosystems are closely interlinked with the communities of twenty three culturally diverse nations and territories. It is also, however, one of the World’s most imperiled regions. Human activities in the region are often intense, which can have disastrous effects on the region’s species and habitats. Conservation is consequentially challenging in this threatened, diverse, and globally important area. The Nature Conservancy is addressing this challenge through country programs that employ science-based conservation strategies with local partners. To facilitate this approach, a regional biodiversity assessment was initiated that built a framework of data and tools to aid systematic conservation planning and decision making and to guide conservation strategy development. This framework has been developed into the Caribbean Decision Support System (CDSS). The CDSS encompasses two primary components: the first is a detailed database housing vast geospatial information layers about a) habitats (e.g. turtle breeding grounds, mangroves, and coral reefs); b) threats to habitats (e.g. tourism, pollution and road construction); and c) protected areas; and the second component is a suite of tools designed to a) create “environmental risk surfaces” that indicate the level of threat to a particular habitat or species and are used to identify and assess protected area networks and conservation measures; b) identify critical areas of rare habitats across a landscape, and; c) facilitate the use of the software MARXAN (Ball & Possingham, 2000; www.ecology.uq.edu.au/marxan) to create optimal protected area scenarios based on quantitative conservation goals while minimizing impending threats to habitats. Using the CDSS and working with local experts, the Caribbean assessment identified a portfolio of priority areas that represent the region’s biodiversity to achieve regional goals and objectives. The process involved steps to; identify and map biodiversity elements known as targets; identify quantitative goals for the amount of each target to be represented; identify and map factors, such as threats, that may affect the suitability of candidate sites for inclusion in the portfolio of conservation areas; and analyze these data to identify a portfolio of priority conservation areas. Ecosystem, landscape and species level biodiversity elements, known as targets, that represent a full spectrum of terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity were identified and mapped using combinations of biophysical factors such as climate, geology, land elevation