Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamen... more Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamental in achieving global conservation goals. Despite this objective, wildlife abundance changes in PAs are patchily documented and poorly understood. Here, we use linear mixed effect models to explore correlates of population change in 1,902 populations of birds and mammals from 447 PAs globally. On an average, we find PAs are maintaining populations of monitored birds and mammals within their boundaries. Wildlife population trends are more positive in PAs located in countries with higher development scores, and for larger-bodied species. These results suggest that active management can consistently overcome disadvantages of lower reproductive rates and more severe threats experienced by larger species of birds and mammals. The link between wildlife trends and national development shows that the social and economic conditions supporting PAs are critical for the successful maintenance of their wildlife populations.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 2, 2016
Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features ... more Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features to meet global biodiversity conservation goals. However, PAs have had variable success, with many failing to fully maintain their biodiversity features. The current literature concerning what drives variability in PA performance is rapidly expanding but unclear, sometimes contradictory, and spread across multiple disciplines. A clear understanding of the drivers of successful biodiversity conservation in PAs is necessary to make them fully effective. Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge concerning the drivers of biological outcomes within PAs, focusing on those that can be addressed at local scales. We evaluate evidence in support of potential drivers to identify those that enable more successful outcomes and those that impede success and provide a synthetic review. Interactions are discussed where they are known, and we highlight gaps in understa...
Conservation practice reportedly suffers from
low use of technical information. Understanding of ... more Conservation practice reportedly suffers from low use of technical information. Understanding of factors that affect the influence of technical information on management decision-making is limited. We sought to identify leverage points for improved technical information dissemination in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors affecting the influence of different information types on management decisions. Results indicate that managers have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given they operate in an information poor environment. The most influential types of information were those that enabled interaction between information provider and recipient (e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the concordance in individuals’ responses for different information types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational expectation of use was aligned with influence on decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or increasing access to particular types of information is therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on management decision-making. Rather than focussing on matching accessibility and expected use of particular information types, our results indicate that technical information uptake is best supported through existing peer networks tailored to specific work areas.
Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephan... more Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. We studied the nature and extent of human–elephant interactions in the buffer zones of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, through household questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews, site observations, and analysis of the reported cases of damage during January 2008–December 2012. During this 5-year period 290 incidents of damage by elephants were reported, with a high concentration of incidents in a few locations. Property damage (53%) was the most common type of damage reported. Crop damage was reported less often but household surveys revealed it to be the most frequent form of conflict. There were also human casualties, including 21 deaths and four serious injuries. More than 90% of the human casualties occurred during 2010–2012. More than two thirds of the respondents (70%) perceived that human–elephant conflict had increased substantially during the previous 5 years. Despite the increase in incidents of human–elephant conflict in the area, 37% of respondents had positive attitudes towards elephant conservation. Our findings suggest that public awareness and compensation for losses could reduce conflict and contribute to ensuring coexistence of people and elephants in this human-dominated landscape.
10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation ... more 10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation and livelihoods in Latin America
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2015
Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable ... more Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive man...
Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its rep... more Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its reputation as the best shallow-water reef in Thailand attracted more than 30000 visitors per year to the 8km2 of fringing reef. Visitor management included fees, permits, specific activities management, a zoning plan and an information centre. Zoning plan exclusion areas included the area of highest
Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected... more Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected to achieve an increasingly diverse set of conservation, social and economic objectives. The amount of land and sea designated as formally protected has markedly increased over the past century, but there is still a major shortfall in political commitments to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of protected areas. Financial support for protected areas is dwarfed by the benefits that they provide, but these returns depend on effective management. A step change involving increased recognition, funding, planning and enforcement is urgently needed if protected areas are going to fulfil their potential.
With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of t... more With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of the continental land mass, it is essential that these areas are managed in a sustainable manner so that they can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. Protected areas in Australia and elsewhere are being subject to increasing visitor numbers leading to escalating concerns regarding the impacts that visitors may have on the natural resources of these areas. Protected area managers have the dual obligation of ensuring the ...
Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamen... more Ensuring that protected areas (PAs) maintain the biodiversity within their boundaries is fundamental in achieving global conservation goals. Despite this objective, wildlife abundance changes in PAs are patchily documented and poorly understood. Here, we use linear mixed effect models to explore correlates of population change in 1,902 populations of birds and mammals from 447 PAs globally. On an average, we find PAs are maintaining populations of monitored birds and mammals within their boundaries. Wildlife population trends are more positive in PAs located in countries with higher development scores, and for larger-bodied species. These results suggest that active management can consistently overcome disadvantages of lower reproductive rates and more severe threats experienced by larger species of birds and mammals. The link between wildlife trends and national development shows that the social and economic conditions supporting PAs are critical for the successful maintenance of their wildlife populations.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Jan 2, 2016
Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features ... more Conservation relies heavily on protected areas (PAs) maintaining their key biodiversity features to meet global biodiversity conservation goals. However, PAs have had variable success, with many failing to fully maintain their biodiversity features. The current literature concerning what drives variability in PA performance is rapidly expanding but unclear, sometimes contradictory, and spread across multiple disciplines. A clear understanding of the drivers of successful biodiversity conservation in PAs is necessary to make them fully effective. Here, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current state of knowledge concerning the drivers of biological outcomes within PAs, focusing on those that can be addressed at local scales. We evaluate evidence in support of potential drivers to identify those that enable more successful outcomes and those that impede success and provide a synthetic review. Interactions are discussed where they are known, and we highlight gaps in understa...
Conservation practice reportedly suffers from
low use of technical information. Understanding of ... more Conservation practice reportedly suffers from low use of technical information. Understanding of factors that affect the influence of technical information on management decision-making is limited. We sought to identify leverage points for improved technical information dissemination in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors affecting the influence of different information types on management decisions. Results indicate that managers have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given they operate in an information poor environment. The most influential types of information were those that enabled interaction between information provider and recipient (e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the concordance in individuals’ responses for different information types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational expectation of use was aligned with influence on decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or increasing access to particular types of information is therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on management decision-making. Rather than focussing on matching accessibility and expected use of particular information types, our results indicate that technical information uptake is best supported through existing peer networks tailored to specific work areas.
Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephan... more Human–elephant conflict is one of the main threats to the long-term survival of the Asian elephant Elephas maximus. We studied the nature and extent of human–elephant interactions in the buffer zones of Chitwan National Park and Parsa Wildlife Reserve in Nepal, through household questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews, site observations, and analysis of the reported cases of damage during January 2008–December 2012. During this 5-year period 290 incidents of damage by elephants were reported, with a high concentration of incidents in a few locations. Property damage (53%) was the most common type of damage reported. Crop damage was reported less often but household surveys revealed it to be the most frequent form of conflict. There were also human casualties, including 21 deaths and four serious injuries. More than 90% of the human casualties occurred during 2010–2012. More than two thirds of the respondents (70%) perceived that human–elephant conflict had increased substantially during the previous 5 years. Despite the increase in incidents of human–elephant conflict in the area, 37% of respondents had positive attitudes towards elephant conservation. Our findings suggest that public awareness and compensation for losses could reduce conflict and contribute to ensuring coexistence of people and elephants in this human-dominated landscape.
10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation ... more 10 field studies (parks and biosphere reserves) on the links between participation, conservation and livelihoods in Latin America
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jan 5, 2015
Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable ... more Protected areas (PAs) are at the forefront of conservation efforts, and yet despite considerable progress towards the global target of having 17% of the world's land area within protected areas by 2020, biodiversity continues to decline. The discrepancy between increasing PA coverage and negative biodiversity trends has resulted in renewed efforts to enhance PA effectiveness. The global conservation community has conducted thousands of assessments of protected area management effectiveness (PAME), and interest in the use of these data to help measure the conservation impact of PA management interventions is high. Here, we summarize the status of PAME assessment, review the published evidence for a link between PAME assessment results and the conservation impacts of PAs, and discuss the limitations and future use of PAME data in measuring the impact of PA management interventions on conservation outcomes. We conclude that PAME data, while designed as a tool for local adaptive man...
Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its rep... more Surin Marine National Park lies northwest of Phuket. Before the 26 December 2004 tsunami, its reputation as the best shallow-water reef in Thailand attracted more than 30000 visitors per year to the 8km2 of fringing reef. Visitor management included fees, permits, specific activities management, a zoning plan and an information centre. Zoning plan exclusion areas included the area of highest
Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected... more Originally conceived to conserve iconic landscapes and wildlife, protected areas are now expected to achieve an increasingly diverse set of conservation, social and economic objectives. The amount of land and sea designated as formally protected has markedly increased over the past century, but there is still a major shortfall in political commitments to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of protected areas. Financial support for protected areas is dwarfed by the benefits that they provide, but these returns depend on effective management. A step change involving increased recognition, funding, planning and enforcement is urgently needed if protected areas are going to fulfil their potential.
With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of t... more With protected areas in Australia receiving over 80 million visitors a year and covering 10% of the continental land mass, it is essential that these areas are managed in a sustainable manner so that they can continue to be enjoyed by future generations. Protected areas in Australia and elsewhere are being subject to increasing visitor numbers leading to escalating concerns regarding the impacts that visitors may have on the natural resources of these areas. Protected area managers have the dual obligation of ensuring the ...
In this editorial essay, members of the Editorial Board of PARKS review the status of conservatio... more In this editorial essay, members of the Editorial Board of PARKS review the status of conservation literature. Three problems are identified: 1) the growing gap between the formal conservation literature and the so-called ‘grey literature’ of project reports, studies and working papers;; 2) the effectiveness of the majority of conservation literature in promoting good conservation; and 3) the lack of open access to much of the conservation literature currently available. The article sets out the vision of this journal: PARKS, the International Journal of Protected Areas and Conservation, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) expert World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). PARKS aims to encourage new writers, including younger researchers, conservation professionals who do not generally write for peer-reviewed publications and people from developing countries, including indigenous and local people, to share their best practices in protected area management. PARKS is published twice a year as an online, open-access and peer reviewed journal and welcomes submissions of papers from all protected area professionals worldwide.
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Papers by Marc Hockings
low use of technical information. Understanding of factors
that affect the influence of technical information on management
decision-making is limited. We sought to identify
leverage points for improved technical information dissemination
in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife
Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments
in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did
so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors
affecting the influence of different information types on
management decisions. Results indicate that managers
have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given
they operate in an information poor environment. The most
influential types of information were those that enabled
interaction between information provider and recipient
(e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the
concordance in individuals’ responses for different information
types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational
expectation of use was aligned with influence on
decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or
increasing access to particular types of information is
therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on
management decision-making. Rather than focussing on
matching accessibility and expected use of particular
information types, our results indicate that technical
information uptake is best supported through existing peer
networks tailored to specific work areas.
low use of technical information. Understanding of factors
that affect the influence of technical information on management
decision-making is limited. We sought to identify
leverage points for improved technical information dissemination
in the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife
Service, Australia, given the significant recent investments
in monitoring and evaluation that had been made. We did
so by exploring the inter-relationships between factors
affecting the influence of different information types on
management decisions. Results indicate that managers
have a high inclination toward adaptive behavior, given
they operate in an information poor environment. The most
influential types of information were those that enabled
interaction between information provider and recipient
(e.g., staff experience and expertise). An analysis of the
concordance in individuals’ responses for different information
types showed that neither accessibility nor organizational
expectation of use was aligned with influence on
decision-making. Alignment of responses also varied by work area. Raising expectations of information use or
increasing access to particular types of information is
therefore unlikely to result in an increase in influence on
management decision-making. Rather than focussing on
matching accessibility and expected use of particular
information types, our results indicate that technical
information uptake is best supported through existing peer
networks tailored to specific work areas.