Raphaël Mathevet

Agent-based simulations of interactions between duck population, farming decisions and leasing of hunting rights in the Camargue (Southern France)

Understanding and predicting how bird populations and land cover respond to natural and anthropogenic changes is a major challenge for environmental planning. Multi-agent modelling enables horizontal relationships (spatial configurations) and vertical relationships (socio-economic organisation) to be integrated. GEMACE is a multi-agent model for simulating farming-hunting-duck interactions in the Camargue (Southern France). For an archetypal region, we simulated land-use conversion and ecological change in space and time resulting from the interaction between environment and human drivers. A wintering duck population is simulated and distributed heterogeneously in its habitats. The duck population is affected by various environmental factors such as land-use changes, wetland management, hunting harvest, and disturbance. Land-use decisions are made at farmland level by farmers and hunting managers. Important biophysical drivers are water and salt through land relief, land-use history, infrastructure, spatial neighbourhood, and current land use. Important human drivers are the economic conditions of the world agricultural market and land-use strategy. Through three scenario runs, we discuss the implications that can be drawn from this modelling application with regard to the viability of a spatial conservation management alternative and multi-field research on sustainable development.

Understanding protected area resilience: a multi‐scale, social‐ecological approach

Protected areas (PAs) remain central to the conservation of biodiversity. Classical PAs were conceived as areas that would be set aside to maintain a natural state with minimal human influence. However, global environmental change and growing cross-scale anthropogenic influences mean that PAs can no longer be thought of as ecological islands that function independently of the broader social-ecological system in which they are located. For PAs to be resilient (and to contribute to broader social-ecological resilience), they must be able to adapt to changing social and ecological conditions over time in a way that supports the long-term persistence of populations, communities, and ecosystems of conservation concern. We extend Ostroms social-ecological systems framework to consider the long-term persistence of PAs, as a form of land use embedded in social-ecological systems, with important cross-scale feedbacks. Most notably, we highlight the cross-scale influences and feedbacks on PAs that exist from the local to the global scale, contextualizing PAs within multi-scale social-ecological functional landscapes. Such functional landscapes are integral to understand and manage individual PAs for long-term sustainability. We illustrate our conceptual contribution with three case studies that highlight cross-scale feedbacks and social-ecological interactions in the functioning of PAs and in relation to regional resilience. Our analysis suggests that while ecological, economic, and social processes are often directly relevant to PAs at finer scales, at broader scales, the dominant processes that shape and alter PA resilience are primarily social and economic.

Water Management in the Camargue Biosphere Reserve: Insights from Comparative Mental Models Analysis

Mental models are the cognitive representations of the world that frame how people interact with the world. Learning implies changing these mental models. The successful management of complex social-ecological systems requires the coordination of actions to achieve shared goals. The coordination of actions requires a level of shared understanding of the system or situation; a shared or common mental model. We first describe the elicitation and analysis of mental models of different stakeholder groups associated with water management in the Camargue Biosphere Reserve in the Rhone River delta on the French Mediterranean coast. We use cultural consensus analysis to explore the degree to which different groups shared mental models of the whole system, of stakeholders, of resources, of processes, and of interactions among these last three. The analysis of the elicited data from this group structure enabled us to tentatively explore the evidence for learning in the nonstatute Water Board; comprising important stakeholders related to the management of the central Rhone delta. The results indicate that learning does occur and results in richer mental models that are more likely to be shared among group members. However, the results also show lower than expected levels of agreement with these consensual mental models. Based on this result, we argue that a careful process and facilitation design can greatly enhance the functioning of the participatory process in the Water Board. We conclude that this methodology holds promise for eliciting and comparing mental models. It enriches group-model building and participatory approaches with a broader view of social learning and knowledge-sharing issues.

Waypoints on a Journey of Discovery: Mental Models in Human- Environment Interactions

Although the broad concept of mental models is gaining currency as a way to explore the link between how people think and interact with their world, this concept is limited by a theoretical and practical understanding of how it can be applied in the study of human-environment relationships. Tools and processes are needed to be able to elicit and analyze mental models. Because mental models are not directly observable, it is also important to understand how the application of any tools and processes affects what is measured. Equally important are the needs to be clear on the intent of the elicitation and to design the methods and choose the settings accordingly. Through this special edition, we explore how mental models are elicited using two approaches applied in two case-study regions. We analyze two approaches used in the Crocodile River catchment of South Africa: a graphically based approach, i.e., actors, resources, dynamics, and interactions (ARDI); and an interview- or text-based approach, i.e., consensus analysis (CA). A further experiment in the Rhone Delta (Camargue), France, enabled us to test a cross- over between these two methods using ARDI methodology to collect data and CA to analyse it. Here, we compare and explore the limitations and challenges in applying these two methods in context and conclude that they have much to offer when used singly or in combination. We first develop a conceptual framework as a synthesis of key social and cognitive psychology literature. We then use this framework to guide the enquiry into the key lessons emerging from the comparative application of these approaches to eliciting mental models in the two case regions. We identify key gaps in our knowledge and suggest important research questions that remain to be addressed.

BUTORSTAR: a role-playing game for collective awareness of wise reedbed use

A role-playing game (RPG) supported by computer simulations, called BUTORSTAR, has been developed in the context of a LIFE-Nature European Programme (2001-2005) aiming to improve reedbed management for the conservation of a vulnerable heron, the Eurasian Bittern. The agent-based model simulates the impacts of reedbed management resulting from decisions made by farmers, reed harvesters, hunters, and naturalists. The model is based on an archetypal wetland made of a virtual landscape. Different water regimes are proposed, each one adapted to a particular wetland use. Land-use and water-management decisions are made by the players at both estate and management-unit levels. These decisions are entered into the model each year as the results of the negotiation process between the players. This RPG is designed to promote student awareness of (a) biological and hydrological interdependencies and their dynamics on different spatial and temporal scales, (b) the technical and socioeconomic factors involved in the different types of reedbed use, and (c) the usefulness of the negotiation process for establishing collective management rules. It is shown that BUTORSTAR creates a continuum of learning that crosses the traditional boundaries between disciplines and allows players to conduct multipurpose experiments that contribute to their comprehensive understanding of socioecosystems.

The sensitivity of gap analysis to conservation targets

A crucial stage in systematic conservation planning is the definition of explicit conservation targets to be achieved by a network of protected areas. A wide variety of targets have been employed, including overall percentage area, uniform representation of biodiversity features, and variable targets according to conservation interest. Despite the diversity of options, most studies adopt a particular set of targets without further explanation, and few have investigated the effect of target selection on their results. Here, using a data set on the distribution of plants and terrestrial vertebrates in southern France, we investigate how variation in targets can affect both stages of a gap analysis: the assessment of the completeness of an existing reserve network, and the prioritization of areas for its expansion. Target selection had a major impact on the gap analysis results, with uniform targets (50% of each species’ range) emphasizing the representation of common species, and contrasting targets (weighted according to species’ conservation interest) concentrating attention on high conservation interest species and the areas where they occur. Systematic conservation planning exercises should thus pay close attention to the definition and justification of the representation targets employed.

Creation of a nature reserve, its effects on hunting management and waterfowl distribution in the Camargue (southern France)

The eastern portion of the Camargue in southern France is divided into two parts: a natural wetland area of 2800 ha and an agricultural area of 5045 ha. In 1984 and 1989, a new protected area (1000 ha) was created on two contiguous former hunting estates. Analysis of aerial photographs (1968–1998) in conjunction with a field survey revealed, from 1984 to 1998, an increase of management for waterfowl hunting in natural wetlands located on the periphery of the new reserve, and a similar increase in the agricultural area amongst residual wetlands and former rice fields. Based on monthly aerial censuses, the size of the waterfowl population in the winter increased in this part of the delta by a factor of 3.8 following the creation of the reserve. Our results suggest that the creation of a reserve on former hunting estates resulted in greater attractiveness for ducks but also in the development of commercial hunting activity around the edge. This development increased fragmentation and uniformity of natural areas, including the loss of the unique Cladium mariscus habitat in the Camargue and resulted in the spatial expansion of waterfowl hunting areas in agricultural areas. It is associated with an increase in financial profit from waterfowl hunting. Our study highlights unexpected costs for nature conservation associated with the creation of a reserve. It illustrates the need for new models of wetland conservation where protection goals are not restricted to reserves, but also integrate conservation and economic development outside the protected areas.

Marsh management, reserve creation, hunting periods and carrying capacity for wintering ducks and coots

Many wild species, like waterbirds, are exploited for their economic interests. At present, the annual western Palearctic duck bag is at least 17 million birds. From a sustainable management perspective, wetland users and managers request predictions of spatial distribution and abundance variations of these bird populations. The objective of this study was to analyze local factors potentially influencing the diurnal distribution and population size of wintering ducks and coots, the main game species, in Camargue (southern France). First, we showed that marshland surface area, salinity and hunting disturbance were the principal variables explaining the duck and coot distribution. Secondly, we tested the hypothesis that hunting disturbance would reduce the carrying capacity of the Camargue with two analyses: the effect of creating a protected area and the change of the hunting closing date. This hypothesis was not validated. Our study therefore led us to reconsider the research orientations on the carrying capacity in this wetland. The surface of protected day roosts seems presently sufficient in the Rhone delta. Consequently, to increase the population size with the same level of hunting disturbance at the scale of the Camargue, alternative strategies should be envisaged, such as the creation of nature reserves on nocturnal feeding ground or the creation of large management units with limited disturbance.

The origins and functioning of the private wildfowling lease system in a major Mediterranean wetland: the Camargue (Rhone river delta, southern France)

All over the world, the demand for high-quality hunting areas has been growing in recent decades and this trend is expected to continue in the future. In the Camargue (southern France), where there are large wintering populations of ducks, the leasing of privately owned estates for wildfowling is becoming an alternative economic activity that can supplement and even exceed the income from other uses of farmland. In this region, several habitats of conservation concern, including Mediterranean seasonally flooded marshes, are managed for this purpose. However, data on wetland management for shooting and on the status of private shooting clubs in relation to local farming, are scarce. We investigated the characteristics of 42 private wildfowling clubs in the Rhone river delta. Aerial surveys were used to collect the data on land use on these sites. In addition, interviews and questionnaires allowed us to identify habitat management practices undertaken by landowners and hunting managers. We describe the origins and functioning of the private wildfowling club system. A multifactorial analysis and an ascending hierarchical classification distinguished three types of club. We evaluated leasing costs and incomes in the Camargue, their determinants, and some consequences of the leasing system on rural development and the conservation of wetlands.

Protected areas and their surrounding territory: socioecological systems in the context of ecological solidarity.

The concept of ecological solidarity (ES) is a major feature of the 2006 law reforming national park policy in France. In the context of biodiversity conservation, the objectives of this study are to outline the historical development of ES, provide a working definition, and present a method for its implementation that combines environmental pragmatism and adaptive management. First, we highlight how ES provides a focus on the interdependencies among humans and nonhuman components of the socioecological system. In doing so, we identify ES within a framework that distinguishes ecological, socioecological, and sociopolitical interdependencies. In making such interdependencies apparent to humans who are not aware of their existence, the concept of ES promotes collective action as an alternative or complementary approach to state- or market-based approaches. By focusing on the awareness, feelings, and acknowledgement of interdependencies between actors and between humans and nonhumans, we present and discuss a learning-based approach (participatory modeling) that allows stakeholders to work together to construct cultural landscapes for present and future generations. Using two case studies, we show how an ES analysis goes beyond the ecosystem management approach to take into account how human interactions with the environment embody cultural, social, and economic values and endorse an ethically integrated science of care and responsibility. ES recognizes the diversity of these values as a practical foundation for socially engaged and accountable actions. Finally, we discuss how ES enhances academic support for a socioecological systems approach to biodiversity conservation and promotes collaboration with decision-makers and stakeholders involved in the adaptive management of protected areas and their surrounding landscapes.