Are protected areas effective at maintaining large carnivore
populations?

Date:
June 22, 2020
Source:
University of Helsinki
Summary:
A recent study used a novel combination of statistical methods
and an exceptional data set collected by hunters to assess the
role of protected areas for carnivore conservation in Finland.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A recent study, led by the University of Helsinki, used a novel
combination of statistical methods and an exceptional data set
collected by hunters to assess the role of protected areas for carnivore conservation in Finland.


========================================================================== Overall, protected areas do not harbour higher densities of large
carnivore species than unprotected lands. These areas even had declining wolverine densities within their limits while populations outside remained overall stable over a 30-year study period. The study was published in
the journal Nature Communications.

The international group of authors, led by Dr Julien Terraube from
the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University
of Helsinki, proposes that the results do not indicate that protected
areas are unimportant for carnivore conservation, as they may support
seasonal habitats and prey for these highly mobile species. However,
the outcomes highlight complex socio- ecological pressures on carnivore populations that vary in both time and space and affect the conservation outcomes of protected areas. For example, the largest Finnish protected
areas are located in Lapland, and due to their sizes these areas are
most suitable for large carnivores. However, the areas seem unable to
maintain stable wolverine populations, which may be linked to increased conflicts with herders in the reindeer husbandry area.

"Wolverines are only found in three Nordic countries within the European
Union, and therefore Finland plays an important role for the conservation
of this species," explains Dr Terraube. He adds: "The negative trend of wolverine populations inside northern protected areas is alarming and highlights that further research is needed to understand the dynamics of wolverine populations in Lapland, how this species is affected by illegal killing and what protected areas could do to improve this situation."
On a brighter note, the researchers also found lynx densities to be
higher within protected areas located in eastern Finland than those
located in the western part of the country. The ecological factors that
may influence this, such as prey abundance or connectivity to healthy
Russian populations, remain unexplored.

The potential of citizen science for assessing the impact of protected
areas The results show that counterfactual approaches applied to long-term
and large- scale data are powerful analytical tools for evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas in maintaining wildlife populations. A counterfactual approach means comparing protected and unprotected
sites that have similar environmental characteristics or human-caused
threats. The method has been increasingly used to assess the effectiveness
of protected areas in halting deforestation. This allows researchers to
isolate the effect of protection on land cover from other confounding
factors such as elevation. Until now, these types of approaches focused
on matching analyses have been restricted to studies investigating the
effects of protected areas on land-use changes. Finding wildlife time
series with enough temporal and spatial coverage to conduct such robust effectiveness assessments is often difficult.

Dr. Terraube explains: "We were able to use data collected through the
Finnish Wildlife Scheme to conduct this study. Hunters throughout the
country have collected this data set since 1989, offering a fantastic opportunity to apply matching analyses to wildlife data for the first
time and to assess large-scale and long-term patterns of protected
area effectiveness. We chose to focus on large carnivores, as this
species group is particularly prone to rising conflicts with local
communities. Carnivore-human conflicts have increased in Finland following
the recent recovery of most carnivore species. This has resulted in increasingly negative attitudes towards certain species, such as the
wolf, and to increased levels of illegal killing." Mainstreaming
impact evaluation: towards better management of protected areas The
study highlights the need to design robust methodological tools to
strengthen our understanding of conservation outcomes and opens new
avenues for improving protected area impact assessments. This is of the
utmost importance, as the international community is currently turning
to the post-2020 targets drafted by the UN Convention on Biological
Diversity aiming to upgrade protected areas in an attempt to halt global biodiversity loss.

"We argue that this study shows that, despite methodological challenges,
robust assessments of protected area effectiveness for the conservation
of wide- ranging species, such as large carnivores, are possible and
greatly needed as a basis for further research. It also highlights
the extraordinary value of long- term wildlife monitoring activities
conducted by citizens across an entire country," concludes Dr Terraube.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Helsinki. Original
written by Julien Terraube, Marjaana Lindy. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. J. Terraube, J. Van doninck, P. Helle, M. Cabeza. Assessing the
effectiveness of a national protected area network for
carnivore conservation. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41467- 020-16792-7 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200622133051.htm

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