Thousands of the wild species which were alive in the 1950s and 1960s no longer exist. We cannot bring them back, but we can learn from their deaths. While debate continues on how to make human development more sustainable, an immediate task is to protect the diversity that remains against known hazards. These hazards are potent, and ideas on how to resist them are still evolving. There is an urgent need for measures which are practical and effective, and which can be duplicated within existing political, administrative, and economic systems. This book advises on the design of conservation projects which meet these criteria, yet are more complete, more inclusive and more durable than those designed in the recent past.

The book is mainly about conserving wild species, and the life styles and cultures which depend upon them. Most of these species occur in the tropics, and cannot survive outside the natural ecosystems to which they are adapted. Very few can be kept alive for long or at reasonable cost in captivity or in artificial habitats. The book therefore emphasizes conserving natural ecosystems in the tropics, especially those that occur in areas where it seems feasible to protect them. These areas are called nature reserves, and are defined as places containing viable samples of natural ecosystems which are, or might be, or should be, set aside by law or custom mainly for conservation. A conservation project, then, is a planned undertaking which aims to protect a nature reserve.

Nature reserves would not exist and would not be necessary if the shortterm needs of people did not conflict with those of wild species and natural ecosystems.

Introduction

Although wild species and people all have needs, only people are voters, investors, stakeholders, planners, and decision makers, and they may not feel inclined to care about wild species or to spend time and effort in conserving them. If so, then little is gained by studying the needs of wild species and ‘speaking for the birds’, or by advocating change in people's lives. Thus, conservation cannot only be about choosing where to put nature reserves, or how big they should be, or how many fish should be taken from rivers or deer from forests. Instead, it must involve changing people's minds.

The aim of doing so is to create a durable consensus in favour of conservation, expressed through choices in voting, spending, and consuming far into the future. Such a consensus would mean an overwhelming majority of people actively avoiding damaging nature and preventing others from doing so. This cannot be achieved against people's will, and nor can it be achieved quickly in any place where people are not already willing and able to conserve. It can be achieved eventually, however, and conservation projects should be designed with this aim in mind. They should therefore use procedures which help people make decisions about which they feel positive, and which are also ecologically sound. Some of these procedures are described below.

Tenure and incentives

Observations in Chapters 2–7 showed that the projects which had most local support, and which were most able to achieve conservation aims, were those which improved local people's security of tenure.

Introduction

Project areas are clearly bounded regions within countries, or at least have to be defined and mapped as such in project documents. Each project area will contain a number of actual or potential zones, based on features of terrain, ecology, or human use of resources. Conservation projects must address the needs both of wild species and of people, so when they are designed the focus will switch back and forth between the most important zone for biodiversity (the nature reserve), and the most important area for solving problems (the surrounding area where people live). This chapter reviews some of the options for managing the various zones which comprise nature reserves themselves. The next chapter complements this by focussing on the options for managing the rest of the project area.

Choosing nature reserves

There is no single objective way to measure the importance of the various components of biodiversity, or to choose priorities for managing them, since these actions depend on the aims of those doing the measuring and choosing. The aim of preserving genetic variability among crop plants, for example, yields different priorities from the aim of preserving wildlife for viewing by tourists. For the purposes of this book, however, it is assumed that the primary aim of a conservation project is to preserve as many species as possible in the short to medium term, while seeking ways to resolve threats to them in the long term. People who propose or design such projects should therefore be guided by the distribution of native and particularly endemic species, and should emphasize protection of areas which are rich in species and endemics.

Conservation issues

Land, sea, and people

Indonesia embraces about 17 000 islands with a land area of nearly 2 million km2 spread over 5100 km between mainland Asia and Australia (RePPProT, 1990). They have some 81 000 km of coastline among them, or 14% of the world's total, and are set in 3 million km2 of territorial sea which links the Indian Ocean to the Pacific (Whitten & Whitten, 1992; Fig. 4.1). Western Indonesia includes lands rising from the Asian (Sunda) continental shelf, including the islands of Sumatra (475 000 km2), Java (133 000 km2) and Borneo (740 000 km2), of which 536 000 km2 is in Indonesian Kalimantan. Eastern Indonesia includes lands rising from the Australian (Sahul) continental shelf, including the islands of Kai, Aru, and New Guinea (867 000 km2), of which 415 000 km2 is in the Indonesian territory of Irian Jay a (Chapter 7). These shelves are covered by seas often less than 200 m deep, but between them depths may exceed 8000 m. The central islands are thus separate from both continental shelves, and include Sulawesi (186 000 km2), Nusa Tenggara (81 000 km2, including East Timor), and Maluku (78 000 km2).

Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world. In 1993, its total population was about 188 million and each year was growing at about 1.7% and expected to increase by some 90 million within 35 years (Dompka, 1994). Nearly two-thirds of all Indonesians live on Java and on the nearby islands of Madura and Bali. This is because of their long history of advanced civilization, supported by irrigated farming on their fertile volcanic soils.

Introduction

This is a chapter about myths and magic. The myth is that the uplands of Britain are well managed and self-perpetuating with a beauty and wildlife fashioned by the kinder elements of nature and humans! The magic is that in just a few regions – amongst some of the hills and on just a few estates – there are heaths and bogs, woodlands and grasslands, abounding in plants and animals that bring the meaning of ‘sustainable biodiversity’ alive. For the good keeper of an estate, manager of a National Nature Reserve or the inspired visitor the distinction is strikingly obvious. How then do we spread this magic across the uplands?

The uplands are defined here as the third of Britain's land surface lying above the upper reaches of enclosed farmland (Ratcliffe & Thompson, 1988). They may appear to be the product of millennia of deforestation and wilful burning which has produced a distinctively open, apparently stunted range of habitats managed principally for forestry, sheep, Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus and Red Deer Cervus elaphus. But, they still retain much of natural interest and conservation value, and a sense of wildness not found elsewhere.

As a land manager one has to ask four questions:

1. What am I to manage the land for?

2. How do I achieve these goals?

3. Where do I begin?

4. Over what timescale should I measure my success?

Introduction

Rivers, canals and dykes are probably the most accessible of all habitats to man due to their intricate, vein-like distribution throughout the land. They are also taken for granted, despite their historical and ecological interest.

The retreating glaciers of 12 000 years ago left a network of rivers which have played a major part in moulding the wildlife and landscape character of Britain. During the early settlements of man rivers were often obstacles to expanding territories; later this changed and they became the highways for population movements and trading. The deep and large rivers formed an arterial system of transportation for centuries until the end of the eighteenth century, when the first artificial canals were built to link the natural highways together. The industrial revolution was built on the traffic coursing through the waterways of Britain, a shared role between rivers and canals. Today it is a very different story, with navigation on rivers and canals being primarily by pleasure craft.

Although there are vast ecological differences between mountain rivers and lowland Systems, plant and animal communities of many lowland rivers, canals and dykes may have much in common. A few plants and animals are almost exclusively found in fast-flowing rivers (e.g. stoneflies such as Perla spp., mosses such as Hygrohypnum spp.), but the majority also occur on wave-washed rocky lake shores. Dykes and canals also have few species occurring in them exclusively; however, grazing marsh dykes are known to support some invertebrates which have been recorded from no other habitats.

Introduction

The existence of virtually all grasslands in Britain is dependent on some process that prevents their succession to scrub and woodland. Before the influence of people, grasslands would largely have been restricted to areas where woody plants could not grow: on thin or infertile soils (e.g. sugar limestone in Upper Teesdale), where environmental conditions were harsh (as on high ground, cliffs or in very dry conditions such as in Breckland) or in some heavily disturbed areas. From neolithic times (4000–5000 years BP) onwards, clearance of woodland for farming would have allowed plants and animals from the existing grasslands to extend their range. Grazing, cutting and burning of the newly created agricultural grasslands arrested succession and in doing so, maintained suitable conditions for naturally occurring grassland plants and animals and a number of introduced species.

From the nineteenth century onwards, large losses of permanent grassland occurred as a result of the Enclosure Acts and agricultural development which allowed easier establishment of temporary grasslands. Since the 1940s agricultural intensification has accelerated this process. Most old grasslands have now either been ploughed up and converted to arable, or re-seeded with more agriculturally productive species. Of those remaining, the majority have been agriculturally improved using inorganic fertilizers and herbicides with the resultant loss of much of their wildlife interest. To be effective, most inorganic fertilisers have to be applied to free-draining and neutral soils. Drainage and neutralising of acidic soils using lime or marl has therefore usually accompanied their application and these have also usually proved deleterious to wildlife. More vigorous grass growth has allowed earlier mowing which, together with the increased cutting speed of modern mowing machines, has been particularly detrimental to ground-nesting birds.

Introduction

In recent years there has been a growing interest in outdoor recreation, ‘green’ tourism and wildlife conservation. This has resulted, in turn, in an increase in the number of people visiting the countryside in general and reserves in particular, and a growing awareness among conservation organisations of the need to accommodate these interests by providing easy access to reserves. There is no better way to excite and interest people in wildlife and the countryside than through first-hand experience. Reserves provide invaluable opportunities to educate and inform the public concerning nature and nature conservation. However, visitors to reserves are also a potential cause of considerable habitat damage and disturbance and the provision and management of access to sites requires careful planning.

The first stage in considering ‘access management’ on a reserve is to decide whether access should be encouraged at all and if so to what extent? This will be determined by the degree to which the nature conservation value of the site may be put at risk by increasing levels of human disturbance. The major concern is physical damage to plant communities and disturbance to breeding or feeding birds or mammals. For birds, human-induced disturbance during the breeding season may lead to nest desertion and increased predation or, outside the breeding season, to a reduction in the level of foraging activity and ultimately the use of a site. The need to prevent access completely to a site is unusual except perhaps in the case of fragile plant communities such as raised peatland bogs where a footprint on the Sphagnum surface may take 20–30 months to disappear. In practice it is almost always possible, through careful site layout and design, to provide for access without damaging the conservation value of a site.

Introduction

Farmland, for the purposes of this book, refers entirely to tillage or tillage and livestock (mixed) Systems in the lowlands, largely below an altitude of 300 m. Upland pastures and reseeded leys, dominated by livestock rather than tillage are considered in Chapter 11. Farmland which is devoted to cereals, other crops and horticulture accounts for 19.6% of the total land surface of Britain, with cereals alone accounting for 14.9%. This area is sixteen times the combined area given over to all Nature Reserves with statutory protection in the UK (Potts, 1991). For the context of management farmland comprises both cropped land and non-cropped land. The non-cropped habitats are generally remnants of those types discussed in other chapters but their management on the farm is fundamental to improving a farm for wildlife. Furthermore, their management is best considered as an integral part of the farmland landscape in a pragmatic and practical manner if the land manager or farmer is to undertake the work within the farm economy.

The ability to drain and till large areas of land with reduced labour, and the parallel increase in chemical fertilisers and pesticide treatments, followed by crop specialization and associated monoculture, has led to the greatest detrimental impact on wildlife diversity (Table 9.1). Such ‘intensification’ is defined as the exclusion of non-crop organisms (pests and competitors) leading to the maximum use of land for food production. Intensification has resulted in fragmentation and direct habitat loss such as hedgerow removal, pond infilling, woodland fragmentation, drainage of wet meadows and saltmarsh.

Introduction

This chapter encompasses a range of habitats including the open sea, rocky shores, shingle, estuaries, sea cliffs, dunes and saltmarshes. There are 19 336km of coastline in the UK. Within mainland Britain, the coastal habitats contain many of the most important areas for conservation and are of international importance. For many of these habitats, the opportunities for management may be restricted. Coastal areas are popular for a wide range of human activities including sailing, fishing, shooting, diving, and the study of natural history, such that minimising the conflict between access and conservation is one of the major issues.

Land ownership may be complex. Legislation, conventions and site declarations vary in the extent to which they cover the intertidal area. Below the low water mark the seabed in UK territorial waters is the responsibility of the Crown Estate Commissioners, while passage through the overlying sea for the purpose of peaceful navigation is guaranteed by international convention. Many organisations and international conventions operate in coastal waters, including estuaries and intertidal areas.

The manager of a coastal habitat which includes any area below the high water mark is immediately faced with a range of legal and traditional rights to take into account in the management plan. Voluntary marine nature reserves can work, in spite of the wide range of organisations with jurisdiction or interest in the coastal zone, but their establishment can be an extremely slow process (Gubbay, 1986).

Introduction

This book was born out of the frustration caused by the lack of readily accessible information on habitat management. Our aim in this book is to collate the available information to produce a practical guide to what needs to be done rather than exactly how to do it. Thus, for example, we will describe the conditions in which coppicing or building a boardwalk is a good idea but not actually how to coppice or construct a boardwalk. (A good source for advice on such techniques is the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers; see end of book for address.) The authors of each chapter were asked to imagine someone who has become responsible for managing an area and to provide the sort of information that that person would require to make the necessary management decisions. This book is directed towards conservationists in the United Kingdom but we expect it will be of relevance elsewhere, particularly in Western Europe. After the chapters on the general issues of planning and access, each chapter describes a different habitat. Most sites will include many habitats, for example, a wetland site may include open water, fen, reeds, woods and heaths and could even be an urban site.

The need for such a book is clear from the fact that we have seen the rapid local extinction of numerous species not only due to direct habitat loss, persecution and pollution but also from habitat deterioration through lack of appropriate management. Butterflies are particularly sensitive and many species have shown dramatic declines. For example, High Brown Fritillary Argynnis adippe has disappeared from 94% of its previous locations, the Heath Fritillary Mellicta athalia from 92% and the Marsh Fritillary Euphydryas aurinia from about 63%. Thomas (1991) points out that a number of explanations have been put forward for such extinctions including over-collecting, insecticides, habitat fragmentation, climatic cooling and, nowadays, air pollution.