Martin Dieterich

EU agricultural reform fails on biodiversity

Extra steps by Member States are needed to protect farmed and grassland ecosystems In December 2013, the European Union (EU) enacted the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2014–2020, allocating almost 40% of the EUs budget and influencing management of half of its terrestrial area. Many EU politicians are announcing the new CAP as “greener,” but the new environmental prescriptions are so diluted that they are unlikely to benefit biodiversity. Individual Member States (MSs), however, can still use flexibility granted by the new CAP to design national plans to protect farmland habitats and species and to ensure long-term provision of ecosystem services.

Conservation Focus on Europe: Major Conservation Policy Issues That Need to Be Informed by Conservation Science

Europe is one of the worlds most densely populated continents and has a long history of human-dominated land- and seascapes. Europe is also at the forefront of developing and implementing multinational conservation efforts. In this contribution, we describe some top policy issues in Europe that need to be informed by high-quality conservation science. These include evaluation of the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network of protected sites, implications of rapid economic and subsequent land-use change in Central and Eastern Europe, conservation of marine biodiversity and sustainability of fisheries, the effect of climate change on movement of species in highly fragmented landscapes, and attempts to assess the economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Broad policy issues such as those identified are not easily amenable to scientific experiment. A key challenge at the science-policy interface is to identify the research questions underlying these problem areas so that conservation science can provide evidence to underpin future policy development.

The challenge of implementing the European network of protected areas Natura 2000.

Established under the European Union (EU) Birds and Habitats Directives, Natura 2000 is one of the largest international networks of protected areas. With the spatial designation of sites by the EU member states almost finalized, the biggest challenge still lying ahead is the appropriate management of the sites. To evaluate the cross-scale functioning of Natura 2000 implementation, we analyzed 242 questionnaires completed by conservation scientists involved in the implementation of Natura 2000 in 24 EU member states. Respondents identified 7 key drivers of the quality of Natura 2000 implementation. Ordered in decreasing evaluation score, these drivers included: network design, use of external resources, legal frame, scientific input, procedural frame, social input, and national or local policy. Overall, conservation scientists were moderately satisfied with the implementation of Natura 2000. Tree modeling revealed that poor application of results of environmental impact assessments (EIA) was considered a major constraint. The main strengths of the network included the substantial increase of scientific knowledge of the sites, the contribution of nongovernmental organizations, the adequate network design in terms of area and representativeness, and the adequacy of the EU legal frame. The main weaknesses of Natura 2000 were the lack of political will from local and national governments toward effective implementation; the negative attitude of local stakeholders; the lack of background knowledge of local stakeholders, which prevented well-informed policy decisions; and the understaffing of Natura 2000 management authorities. Top suggestions to improve Natura 2000 implementation were increase public awareness, provide environmental education to local communities, involve high-quality conservation experts, strengthen quality control of EIA studies, and establish a specific Natura 2000 fund.

Dynamics of abiotic parameters, solute removal and sediment retention in summer-dry headwater streams of western Oregon

Summer-dry headwater streams provide an important interface between aquatic and terrestrial environments. Six summer-dry streams differing in flow duration and exposure were studied in western Oregon. On a temporal and a spatial scale, nitrate patterns in such systems reflect the close connection to subsurface flow and nitrification/denitrification processes in the soil. Retention efficiency for sediment generated from a forest road was high. In ephemeral streams, 60–80% of suspended sediment (1.6 μm < suspended sediment < 53 μm) was removed from the water column over a 75 m stretch at moderate input levels. During injection trials solute removal was largely due to groundwater exchange. Exchange rates between stream water and subsurface flow were estimated at 0.75 and 0.8% per meter of channel. Particularly high removal of nitrate in a meadow stream indicated biological uptake.

Priority Actions for Sustainable Forest Management in the International Year of Forests

DOMINICK A. DELLASALA,∗ JOHN M. FITZGERALD,† BENGT-GUNNAR JONSSON,‡ JEFFREY A. MCNEELY,§ BENJAMIN DELALI DOVIE,∗∗†† MARTIN DIETERICH,‡‡ PATRICIA MAJLUF,§§ SIMON C. NEMTZOV,∗∗∗ OWEN T. NEVIN,††† E. CHRISTIEN M. PARSONS,‡‡‡ AND JAMES E.M. WATSON§§§,∗∗∗∗ ∗Geos Institute, 84–4th St., Ashland, OR 97420, U.S.A., email dominick@geosinstitute.org †Society for Conservation Biology, 1017 O St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20001, U.S.A. ‡Department of Natural Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics, Mid Sweden University, SE-85170 Sundsvall, Sweden §International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 28 Rue Mauverney, 1196 Gland, Switzerland ∗∗School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Wits University, Wits 2050, South Africa ††Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana ‡‡Institute for Landscape and Vegetation Ecology (320), University of Hohenheim, D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany §§Center for Environmental Sustainability, Cayetano Heredia University, Armendáriz 445, Lima 18, Peru ∗∗∗Israel Nature and Parks Authority, 3 Am Ve’Olamo Street, Jerusalem 95463, Israel †††National School of Forestry, University of Cumbria, Penrith, CA11 0AH, United Kingdom ‡‡‡Department of Environmental Science & Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, U.S.A. §§§Global Conservation Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd. Bronx, NY 10460, U.S.A. ∗∗∗∗The University of Queensland, The Ecology Centre, QLD 4072, Australia

New roads generate new traffic

Road traffic accounts for about one-fifth of fossil energy consumption worldwide. It is one of the major causes of global environmental pollution and contributes significantly to the greenhouse effect. There is widespread ignorance concerning the mechanisms which underlie the generation of additional traffic. In particular the construction or improvement of roads is neglected by conservative traffic experts. Travelling time, saved as a result of faster vehicles, is not shifted from transportation to other activities. Rather, average travel time budgets remain constant thus allowing for longer instances to be covered. This results in traffic induced by improved infrastructure. Induced traffic is considered to be one of the main causes of traffic increase in general. (A)

Engaging the conservation community in the IPBES process

There is increasing political and scientific recognition of the value of nature for human well-being (Dı́az et al. 2015). However, trade-offs between human development and the environment continue to harm biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) (Tittensor et al. 2014). The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was established in 2012 as a sciencepolicy platform to catalyze action on environmental issues by producing global and regional assessments that synthesize information on the state of the planet’s biodiversity, its ecosystems, and the essential services they provide to society and to support policy formulation to prevent further declines in BES. The IPBES serves a complementary role to biodiversity-related conventions such as the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) and has a similar synthesizing role to the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change (IPCC). A key novelty of IPBES is that it acknowledges that socioecological relationships are an explicit component of the biodiversity landscape. The IPBES is an international science-policy platform, with the expectation, opportunity, and responsibility for experts from many disciplines globally to engage with it. IPBES offers rigorous and synthesized scientific information on BES that can drive public engagement and policy dialogue (Redford et al. 2012). Prior recommendations to ensure high-quality assessment reports through rigorous and transparent review and participation of a broad range of experts (Pe’er et al. 2013) are being addressed through its stakeholder engagement strategy (SES), work programs, and rules of procedure. Stakeholders are involved in all IPBES functions, including the contribution and integration of knowledge from scientists and indigenous and local knowledge systems (ILKs), integral to the platform’s success. The first IPBES assessments, Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production and Scenario Analysis and Modelling of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, are near completion. The latter assessment provides guidelines for using scenarios and models in policy and decision-making contexts that will support upcoming global and regional assessments and a thematic assessment on land degradation and restoration. Stakeholder Engagement

The calcareous grasslands of the Schwäbische Alb, Germany: cultural and natural heritage

Dry and semi-dry calcareous grasslands are among the species rich habitats in central Europe. One of the main areas of these grasslands is the Schwabische Alb Mountain range in southern Germany. There are about 10,000 ha of calcareous grassland habitat in the Schwabische Alb. Semi-dry calcareous grasslands developed on places originally covered with woodland and over the centuries have been shaped by pastoral use. Calcareous grasslands were mainly grazed with goats and sheep. Only these robust domestic animals are able to grow and produce on low quality fodder, therefore allowing economically viable or at least partly viable use of the land. In contrast with the semi-dry grasslands, xerophilous grasslands, steppic grasslands and sub-mediterranean Bromus associations are natural vegetation types. They only occur on small and extremely dry patches where brush and forest cannot grow. Some of the plants that characterize calcareous grassland communities include Pulsatilla vulgaris and Gentiana lutea.Keywords: dry calcareous grasslands; Schwabische Alb Mountain range; semi-dry calcareous grasslands; southern Germany