Biodiversity Institute Symposium - Biodiversity conservation beyond protected areas

Held on the 21st and 22nd of September, 2011 in the Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS                        Presentations can be accessed by in the programme below.

The Biodiversity Institute’s research theme on Biodiversity Beyond Protected Areas aims to enhance our understanding of the increasing pressures on biodiversity and the conservation practices which will need to take place beyond the reserves to enable the persistence of biodiversity within these landscapes.

Regions outside of reserves account for 88% of the earth’s terrestrial surface and 98% of marine areas. The conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas faces additional challenges; the region covers large areas with undefined boundaries, are multiple use landscapes where human activities directly and indirectly come in conflict with wild nature. The purpose of this symposium was to bring together the latest science and evidence for conserving biodiversity beyond protected areas and to explore pragmatic solutions to specific challenges faced in biodiversity conservation beyond protected areas.

Topics include modelling complexity, fragmented landscapes, restoration of ecological processes, marine conservation, cultural landscapes, conservation governance, and business and community connections in conservation.

Symposium presentations

Presentations can be accessed by clicking on the titles in the programme below.

1. How should we measure biodiversity outside protected areas? Dr Mike Bonsall

• Dr Laura Prugh (University of California, Berkley) – Habitat patches are not islands: a global meta-analysis of fragmented animal populations
• Dr Derek Tittensor (UNEP-WCMC) – Global range modelling and human impacts
• Dr Ben Collen (Institute of Zoology, ZSL) – Investing in evolutionary history: implementing a phylogenetic approach for species conservation
• Dr Rich Grenyer (SoGE, University of Oxford) – Does conservation beyond reserves entail a shift in global priorities?

2. What role do fragmented landscapes play in biodiversity protection and ecosystem service provision? Dr Jake Snaddon

• Prof Teja Tscharnke (Georg-August-University, Gottingen) – Landscape perspectives on biodiversity persistence in agro-ecosystems
• Dr Roosa Leimu (Plant Sciences, University of Oxford) – Plants and herbivores in fragmented landscapes
• Dr David Boshier (Plant Sciences, University of Oxford) – Sustaining tree species in fragmented landscapes
• Dr Ben Palan (Conservation Science Group, University of Cambridge) - Evaluating conservation trade-offs in a modified landscape

3. How can the private sector play an effective role in conservation? Heather Ducharme, Proforest

• Duncan Pollard (Nestle) – Natural Capital: A Business Perspective
• Peter Gardiner (Mondi plc) – Sustainable plantations and ecological networks
• Prof Jon Hutton (UNEP-WCMC) – Business Impacts on Biodiversity and approaches to Mitigation
• Rod Taylor (WWF Intl.) – Can we stop forest loss and meet global demand for food, fuel and fibre 

4. How can we think beyond established conservation governance approaches to conserve large animal populations outside protected areas? Dr Paul Jepson & Dr Claudio Sillero

• Prof Luigi Boitani (University of Rome) – Large carnivores in Europe: the challenge of maintaining viable populations in human-dominated landscapes
• Maan Barua (SoGE, University of Oxford) – People's Land, Government's Animals: Challenges for Landscape-scale Conservation of Asian Elephants
• Prof E.J. Milner-Gulland (Imperial College, London) – Conserving a migratory species in the context of socio-political upheaval: the case of the saiga antelope
• Prof Carlos Peres (University of East Anglia) – Pervasive defaunation of forest remnants in a tropical biodiversity hotspot

5. How do we restore ecological processes to degraded landscapes? Prof Kathy Willis

• Dr Franz Vera (Staatsbosbeheer) – Restoring ecological processes, a key to restore in situ biodiversity
• Prof Jeremy Thomas (Department of Zoology, University of Oxford) – Using the Large blue butterfly as an umbrella to restore threatened communities to degraded European landscapes
• Dr Chris Sandom (Aarhus University) – Rooting for Rewilding: Quantifying the impact of wild boar, an ecosystem engineer
• Dr Christine Griffiths (University of Bristol) – The wrong tortoises on the right islands

6. Should biodiversity conservation be a priority in cultural landscapes? Dr Shonil Bhagwat

• Prof Erle Ellis (University of Maryland) – Anthropogenic biomes and conservation beyond protected areas [part one / part two]
• Prof Heather Viles (SoGE, University of Oxford) – Conservation of natural and cultural heritage
• Prof Stuart Harrop (DICE, University of Kent) – Religion and conservation in cultural landscapes

7. How should we assess biodiversity and decide on conservation priorities in the high seas? Prof Alex Rogers

• Dr Andrew Davies (Bangor University) – Locating vulnerable marine ecosystems in the greatest wilderness on earth [part one / part two]
• Dr David Barnes (British Antarctic Survey) – Studying diversity in marine ecosystems
• Dr Keith Hiscock (Marine Biological Association) – Using science more effectively for marine biodiversity conservation: marine is different
• Dr Mark J. Costello (University of Auckland) – Can we discover most marine species before they go extinct?