Eric Wikramanayake

Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth

T tapestry of life on Earth is unraveling as humans increasingly dominate and transform natural ecosystems. Scarce resources and dwindling time force conservationists to target their actions to stem the loss of biodiversity— a pragmatic approach, given the highly uneven distribution of species and threats (Soulé and Kohm 1989, Olson and Dinerstein 1998, Mace et al. 2000, Myers et al. 2000). Unfortunately, the ability to focus strategically is hindered by the absence of a global biodiversity map with sufficient biogeographic resolution to accurately reflect the complex distribution of the Earth’s natural communities. Without such a map, many distinctive biotas remain unrecognized. In this article, we address the disparity in resolution between maps currently available for global conservation planning and the reality of the Earth’s intricate patterns of life. We have developed a detailed map of the terrestrial ecoregions of the world that is better suited to identify areas of outstanding biodiversity and representative communities (Noss 1992). We define ecoregions as relatively large units of land containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities and species, with boundaries that approximate the original extent of natural communities prior to major land-use change. Our ecoregion map offers features that enhance its utility for conservation planning at global and regional scales: comprehensive coverage, a classification framework that builds on existing biogeographic knowledge, and a detailed level of biogeographic resolution. Ecoregions reflect the distributions of a broad range of fauna and flora across the entire planet, from the vast Sahara Desert to the diminutive Clipperton Island (eastern Pacific Ocean). They are classified within a system familiar to all biologists—biogeographic realms and biomes. Ecoregions, representing distinct biotas (Dasmann 1973, 1974, Udvardy 1975), are nested within the biomes and realms and, together, these provide a framework for comparisons among units and the identification of representative habitats and species assemblages. Although our ecoregions are intended primarily as units for conservation action, they are built on the foundations of classical biogeography and reflect extensive collaboration with over 1000 biogeographers, taxonomists, conservation biologists, and ecologists from around the world. Consequently, ecoregions are likely to reflect the distribution of species and communities more accurately than do units based on global and regional models derived from gross biophysical features, such as rainfall and temperature (Holdridge 1967, Walter and Box 1976, Schulz 1995, Bailey 1998), vegetation structure (UNESCO 1969, deLaubenfels 1975, Schmidthüsen 1976), or

Freshwater Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Biogeographic Units for Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation

ABSTRACT We present a new map depicting the first global biogeographic regionalization of Earths freshwater systems. This map of freshwater ecoregions is based on the distributions and compositions of freshwater fish species and incorporates major ecological and evolutionary patterns. Covering virtually all freshwater habitats on Earth, this ecoregion map, together with associated species data, is a useful tool for underpinning global and regional conservation planning efforts (particularly to identify outstanding and imperiled freshwater systems); for serving as a logical framework for large-scale conservation strategies; and for providing a global-scale knowledge base for increasing freshwater biogeographic literacy. Preliminary data for fish species compiled by ecoregion reveal some previously unrecognized areas of high biodiversity, highlighting the benefit of looking at the worlds freshwaters through a new framework.

Perceptions and Patterns of Human–elephant Conflict in Old and New Settlements in Sri Lanka: Insights for Mitigation and Management

Human–elephant conflict poses a major threat to elephants in many parts of Asia, including Sri Lanka. We studied human–elephant conflict in two areas with contrasting scenarios of landuse and conflict, Kahalle and Yala. Kahalle was developed and settled under the Mahaweli irrigation project and the main agricultural practice was irrigated agriculture, with two annual growing seasons. The area was a mosaic of settlements, agriculture, and small forest patches with ill defined human- and elephant-use areas. Elephants ranged within the habitat mosaic year round, occupying remnant forest patches and raiding adjacent crops at night. In contrast, Yala was dominated by a large protected area complex, and the main agricultural methods were slash-and-burn agriculture and rain-fed paddy cultivation. Human- and elephant-use areas were well defined and segregated. The protected area provided elephants with a refuge and food during the rainy season, when the single annual crop was grown. During the dry season, elephants moved into slash-and-burn areas and utilized leftover crops and pioneer vegetation in fallow fields. The landuse pattern and agricultural practices in Yala facilitated co-existence, whereas that in Kahalle led to year round conflict. We suggest that areas managed according to traditional landuse practices should be part of an elephant conservation strategy, where people and elephants have to share resources.

An ecoregion-based approach to protecting half the terrestrial realm

Abstract We assess progress toward the protection of 50% of the terrestrial biosphere to address the species-extinction crisis and conserve a global ecological heritage for future generations. Using a map of Earths 846 terrestrial ecoregions, we show that 98 ecoregions (12%) exceed Half Protected; 313 ecoregions (37%) fall short of Half Protected but have sufficient unaltered habitat remaining to reach the target; and 207 ecoregions (24%) are in peril, where an average of only 4% of natural habitat remains. We propose a Global Deal for Nature—a companion to the Paris Climate Deal—to promote increased habitat protection and restoration, national- and ecoregion-scale conservation strategies, and the empowerment of indigenous peoples to protect their sovereign lands. The goal of such an accord would be to protect half the terrestrial realm by 2050 to halt the extinction crisis while sustaining human livelihoods.

Enhancing Conservation, Ecosystem Services, and Local Livelihoods through a Wildlife Premium Mechanism

We propose the wildlife premium mechanism as an innovation to conserve endangered large vertebrates. The performance-based payment scheme would allow stakeholders in lower-income countries to generate revenue by recovering and maintaining threatened fauna that can also serve as umbrella species (i.e., species whose protection benefits other species with which they co-occur). There are 3 possible options for applying the premium: option 1, embed premiums in a carbon payment; option 2, link premiums to a related carbon payment, but as independent and legally separate transactions; option 3, link premiums to noncarbon payments for conserving ecosystem services (PES). Each option presents advantages, such as incentive payments to improve livelihoods of rural poor who reside in or near areas harboring umbrella species, and challenges, such as the establishment of a subnational carbon credit scheme. In Kenya, Peru, and Nepal pilot premium projects are now underway or being finalized that largely follow option 1. The Kasigau (Kenya) project is the first voluntary carbon credit project to win approval from the 2 leading groups sanctioning such protocols and has already sold carbon credits totaling over

Setting Priorities for Tiger Conservation: 2005–2015

1.2 million since June 2011. A portion of the earnings is divided among community landowners and projects that support community members and has added over 350 jobs to the local economy. All 3 projects involve extensive community management because they occur on lands where locals hold the title or have a long-term lease from the government. The monitoring, reporting, and verification required to make premium payments credible to investors include transparent methods for collecting data on key indices by trained community members and verification of their reporting by a biologist. A wildlife premium readiness fund would enable expansion of pilot programs needed to test options beyond those presented here.

Landscape-scale spatial planning at WWF: a variety of approaches

Publisher Summary Tigers are increasingly disappearing from the ecosystems where they evolved and the nation states in which they live. Their vast range in Asia has been reduced to a small number of isolated populations, they are hunted intensively for the trade in tiger parts, and the prey on which they depend is reduced throughout much of their range. Many different people and organizations are striving to reverse these trends. Species conservation planning is the science and art of allocating conservation efforts to those priority places and actions that will provide the greatest returns for species survival and ecological function in the wild. It requires clearly stated goals, an assessment of the current status of the species, a directed process for selecting where to work, and a mechanism to measure success. The field of species conservation planning as a whole has changed over the past decade. Species conservation planning has also changed in terms of the data and methods available. This chapter outlines the datasets and methods used, presents the essential results, and sets measurable conservation goals against which future efforts—successful or otherwise—can be measured.Publisher Summary Tigers are increasingly disappearing from the ecosystems where they evolved and the nation states in which they live. Their vast range in Asia has been reduced to a small number of isolated populations, they are hunted intensively for the trade in tiger parts, and the prey on which they depend is reduced throughout much of their range. Many different people and organizations are striving to reverse these trends. Species conservation planning is the science and art of allocating conservation efforts to those priority places and actions that will provide the greatest returns for species survival and ecological function in the wild. It requires clearly stated goals, an assessment of the current status of the species, a directed process for selecting where to work, and a mechanism to measure success. The field of species conservation planning as a whole has changed over the past decade. Species conservation planning has also changed in terms of the data and methods available. This chapter outlines the datasets and methods used, presents the essential results, and sets measurable conservation goals against which future efforts—successful or otherwise—can be measured.

Past, present and future conservation of the greater one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis in Nepal

WWFs spatial landscape planning methods are diverse, reflecting WWFs global, decentralized organizational structure. Over the past decade WWFs spatial planning methods have varied from expert-only workshops to systematic conservation planning using decision support software, and combinations of both. We provide four case studies from the Asia-Pacific region to illustrate the variety of approaches that have been used, emphasizing assessment directed at implementation. The method appropriate to each situation was chosen based on data availability, timing, costs, available range of stakeholders, and the technical facility and interest of the stakeholders themselves. In all cases, methods were chosen to balance staff technical capacity, technical rigour, and political buy-in, hoping to ensure that the resulting plan would actually be implemented.

Thermoregulatory influences on the ecology of two sympatric varanids in Sri Lanka

Until the early 1980s the only surviving population of the greater one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis in Nepal was in Chitwan National Park. Between 1986 and 2003 87 rhinoceroses from Chitwan were translocated into Bardia National Park and Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve in the western terai region to establish founder populations and reduce the threat of local extinction from natural catastrophic events, disease and/or poaching. The founder populations increased in number through births but a rise in poaching during the period of civil strife in Nepal during 1996–2006 resulted in a dramatic decline in the populations, including in Chitwan. In 2001 the Terai Arc Landscape programme was initiated to connect 11 protected areas in Nepal and north-west India and facilitate dispersal of megafauna and manage them as metapopulations. Corridors that were restored under the programme and that connect Bardia and Suklaphanta with protected areas in India are now used by the greater one-horned rhinoceros. The successes and failures of the last 2 decades indicate that new paradigms for protecting rhinoceroses within and outside protected areas are needed, especially with reference to managing this species at a landscape scale.

Tracking changes and preventing loss in critical tiger habitat.

We studied the interaction between thermoregulatory behavior and ecology of two species of sympatric varanids, Varanus salvator and Varanus bengalensis, in south Sri Lanka. V. salvator was active by early morning but sought shade in the afternoon; any afternoon activity was in an aquatic environment. Although the regression of V. salvator cloacal temperatures on daytime ambient temperatures is significant (P = 0.02) and indicate thermoconformity, they maintain a relatively stable body temperature behaviorally by selecting appropriate thermal microhabitats. During the night they sought stable thermal microhabitats under dense bushes, thickets, and even in water (which is warmer than the night air temperature). This presumably enabled them to be active early the following morning. V. bengalensis commenced activity later in the day and tend to elevate body temperatures (P < 0.01) by basking. They also forage in the open thus thermoregulating while feeding. By evening they retreat into burrows and other refugia where body temperatures drop below air temperatures. Thus, both species tend to thermoregulate behaviorally by selecting appropriate thermal microhabitats and exhibit temporal partitioning of activity times. THERMOREGULATION IN LIZARDS has been extensively studied and documented (see reviews by Avery 1982 and Huey 1982); however, the varanids, despite being the largest lizards, have received comparatively little attention (Avery 1982). Although some studies have documented varanid body temperatures and, to some extent, thermal behavior (Anderson 1963, Stebbins & Barwick 1968, Pianka 1969, Pianka & Pianka 1970, McNab & Auffenberg 1976, King 1980), they have concentrated on allopatric situations or on the autecology of species. However, thermoregulatory behavior is known to be influenced by competitors and predators (DeWitt 1967, Regal & Connolly 1980), food (Swingland & Frazier 1979), time of day (Regal 1967), and climatic conditions (Licht et al. 1966). Thus, interspecific differences in thermoregulatory behavior of sympatric lizards can be related to activity times, foraging behavior, habitat and microhabitat choice, and other ecological factors (Pianka & Pianka 1970, Lee 1980). Varanus salvator is a large, semiaquatic lizard commonly found in close proximity to water. It is a good swimmer (Smith 1932), and Auffenberg (1981) states that a major factor determining their distribution is availability of aquatic habitat. The smaller Varanus bengalensis is primarily terrestrial and rarely takes to water. It is also the more active of the two species (Dryden et al., pers. comm.). Both species are fairly common and are sympatric throughout most of their range in Sri Lanka. In this study we compare the thermal biology of these two species of varanids and relate it to their activity patterns, foraging strategies, and habitat and microhabitat choice. STUDY AREA AND METHODS The study was conducted at Ambalantota on the south coast of Sri Lanka, and the study area consisted of the peninsular strip formed by the sans serif L bend in the Walawe River and the mainland bordering the river (Fig. 1). The peninsula is a flat meadow with mangroves and Pandanus bushes along most of the river bank and dense scrub thickets adjacent to dunes on the sea side. The adjacent mainland is a mosaic of small villages, paddy fields, cocoanut plantations, scrub jungle, and meadows. The study area is in the dry zone (Fig. 1) where the climate is hot and arid with little rainfall throughout the year. Observations of lizards took place during March, April, May, and August of 1986. Some observations and temperatures were of lizards outfitted with radio transmitters to facilitate recaptures for a study on metabolic rates of free-ranging varanids. This helped in obtaining behavioral and temperature data on lizards that had sought shelter and were otherwise difficult to locate. Animals were captured and cloacal and ambient air temperature (in the open) were taken immediately with a Schultheis thermometer. When animals were found on the ground, ambient temperatures were taken at ground level, and when found above ground, ambient temperatures were measured approximately 1 m above ground level. Weights were taken to the nearest 10 g, and snoutvent lengths (SVL) were recorded. I Received 16 March 1987, revision accepted 31 May 1987. 74 BIOTROPICA 21(1): 74-79 1989 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.217 on Mon, 18 Apr 2016 07:36:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms