Knowing but not doing: selecting priority conservation areas and the research-implementation gap

Conservation assessment is a rapidly evolving discipline whose stated goal is the design of networks of protected areas that represent and ensure the persistence of nature (i.e., species, habitats, and environmental processes) by separating priority areas from the activities that degrade or destroy them. Nevertheless, despite a burgeoning scientific literature that ever refines these techniques for allocating conservation resources, it is widely believed that conservation assessments are rarely translated into actions that actually conserve nature. We reviewed the conservation assessment literature in peer-reviewed journals and conducted survey questionnaires of the authors of these studies. Two-thirds of conservation assessments published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature do not deliver conservation action, primarily because most researchers never plan for implementation. This research-implementation gap between conservation science and real-world action is a genuine phenomenon and is a specific example of the "knowing-doing gap" that is widely recognized in management science. Given the woefully inadequate resources allocated for conservation, our findings raise questions over the utility of conservation assessment science, as currently practiced, to provide useful, pragmatic solutions to conservation planning problems. A reevaluation of the conceptual and operational basis of conservation planning research is urgently required. We recommend the following actions for beginning a process for bridging the research-implementation gap in conservation planning: (1) acknowledge the research-implementation gap is real, (2) source research questions from practitioners, (3) situate research within a broader conservation planning model, (4) expand the social dimension of conservation assessments, (5) support conservation plans with transdisciplinary social learning institutions, (6) reward academics for societal engagement and implementation, and (7) train students in skills for "doing" conservation.

Pelagic protected areas: the missing dimension in ocean conservation

Fewer protected areas exist in the pelagic ocean than any other ecosystem on Earth. Although there is increasing support for marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool for pelagic conservation, there have also been numerous criticisms of the ecological, logistical and economic feasibility of place-based management in the dynamic pelagic environment. Here we argue that recent advances across conservation, oceanography and fisheries science provide the evidence, tools and information to address these criticisms and confirm MPAs as defensible and feasible instruments for pelagic conservation. Debate over the efficacy of protected areas relative to other conservation measures cannot be resolved without further implementation of MPAs in the pelagic ocean.

Designing large-scale conservation corridors for pattern and process

A major challenge for conservation assessments is to identify priority areas that incorporate biological patterns and processes. Because large-scale processes are mostly oriented along environmental gradients, we propose to accommodate them by designing regional-scale corridors to capture these gradients. Based on systematic conservation planning principles such as representation and persistence, we identified large tracts of untransformed land (i.e., conservation corridors) for conservation that would achieve biodiversity targets for pattern and process in the Subtropical Thicket Biome of South Africa. We combined least-cost path analysis with a target-driven algorithm to identify the best option for capturing key environmental gradients while considering biodiversity targets and conservation opportunities and constraints. We identified seven conservation corridors on the basis of subtropical thicket representation, habitat transformation and degradation, wildlife suitability, irreplaceability of vegetation types, protected area networks, and future land-use pressures. These conservation corridors covered 21.1% of the planning region (ranging from 600 to 5200 km2) and successfully achieved targets for biological processes and to a lesser extent for vegetation types. The corridors we identified are intended to promote the persistence of ecological processes (gradients and fixed processes) and fulfill half of the biodiversity pattern target. We compared the conservation corridors with a simplified corridor design consisting of a fixed-width buffer along major rivers. Conservation corridors outperformed river buffers in seven out of eight criteria. Our corridor design can provide a tool for quantifying trade-offs between various criteria (biodiversity pattern and process, implementation constraints and opportunities). A land-use management model was developed to facilitate implementation of conservation actions within these corridors.

International consensus principles for ethical wildlife control

Human-wildlife conflicts are commonly addressed by excluding, relocating, or lethally controlling animals with the goal of preserving public health and safety, protecting property, or conserving other valued wildlife. However, declining wildlife populations, a lack of efficacy of control methods in achieving desired outcomes, and changes in how people value animals have triggered widespread acknowledgment of the need for ethical and evidence-based approaches to managing such conflicts. We explored international perspectives on and experiences with human-wildlife conflicts to develop principles for ethical wildlife control. A diverse panel of 20 experts convened at a 2-day workshop and developed the principles through a facilitated engagement process and discussion. They determined that efforts to control wildlife should begin wherever possible by altering the human practices that cause human-wildlife conflict and by developing a culture of coexistence; be justified by evidence that significant harms are being caused to people, property, livelihoods, ecosystems, and/or other animals; have measurable outcome-based objectives that are clear, achievable, monitored, and adaptive; predictably minimize animal welfare harms to the fewest number of animals; be informed by community values as well as scientific, technical, and practical information; be integrated into plans for systematic long-term management; and be based on the specifics of the situation rather than negative labels (pest, overabundant) applied to the target species. We recommend that these principles guide development of international, national, and local standards and control decisions and implementation.

Designing systematic conservation assessments that promote effective implementation: best practice from South Africa

Systematic conservation assessment and conservation planning are two distinct fields of conservation science often confused as one and the same. Systematic conservation assessment is the technical, often computer-based, identification of priority areas for conservation. Conservation planning is composed of a systematic conservation assessment coupled with processes for development of an implementation strategy and stakeholder collaboration. The peer-reviewed conservation biology literature abounds with studies analyzing the performance of assessments (e.g., area-selection techniques). This information alone, however can never deliver effective conservation action; it informs conservation planning. Examples of how to translate systematic assessment outputs into knowledge and then use them for "doing" conservation are rare. South Africa has received generous international and domestic funding for regional conservation planning since the mid-1990s. We reviewed eight South African conservation planning processes and identified key ingredients of best practice for undertaking systematic conservation assessments in a way that facilitates implementing conservation action. These key ingredients include the design of conservation planning processes, skills for conservation assessment teams, collaboration with stakeholders, and interpretation and mainstreaming of products (e.g., maps) for stakeholders. Social learning institutions are critical to the successful operationalization of assessments within broader conservation planning processes and should include not only conservation planners but also diverse interest groups, including rural landowners, politicians, and government employees.

Accommodating dynamic oceanographic processes and pelagic biodiversity in marine conservation planning

Pelagic ecosystems support a significant and vital component of the ocean's productivity and biodiversity. They are also heavily exploited and, as a result, are the focus of numerous spatial planning initiatives. Over the past decade, there has been increasing enthusiasm for protected areas as a tool for pelagic conservation, however, few have been implemented. Here we demonstrate an approach to plan protected areas that address the physical and biological dynamics typical of the pelagic realm. Specifically, we provide an example of an approach to planning protected areas that integrates pelagic and benthic conservation in the southern Benguela and Agulhas Bank ecosystems off South Africa. Our aim was to represent species of importance to fisheries and species of conservation concern within protected areas. In addition to representation, we ensured that protected areas were designed to consider pelagic dynamics, characterized from time-series data on key oceanographic processes, together with data on the abundance of small pelagic fishes. We found that, to have the highest likelihood of reaching conservation targets, protected area selection should be based on time-specific data rather than data averaged across time. More generally, we argue that innovative methods are needed to conserve ephemeral and dynamic pelagic biodiversity.

Determination of glutamate decarboxylase by high-performance liquid chromatography

An improved method for the determination of glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity is described. The enzyme was evaluated by incubation with glutamic acid (L-Glu) in the presence of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP): the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) formed was derivatized to PTC-GABA; the latter was subsequently separated and assayed by isocratic HPLC (LiChrospher RP-18 column; isocratic elution with pH 5.8 acetate buffer in acetonitrile-water) with UV absorbance detection at 254 nm. The method described is a sensitive, reproducible and specific assay useful for following variations of GAD activity in vitro; this assay was subsequently used for the evaluation of GAD activity variations after irradiation with low doses of He-Ne laser radiation.

Rat brain metabolism enzyme activity variations following He-Ne laser irradiation

In order to gain insight into the metabolic modifications induced in rat brain tissues by helium-neon (He-Ne) laser irradiation, in the research described here, we investigated the variations in the activity of the enzymes aspartate transferase (AST, EC 2.6.1.4), both cytosolic and mitochondrial, glutamate dehydrogenase (GIDH, EC 1.4.1.3), and total superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), in the brain of rats treated with a very small dose (1.08 J) of He-Ne laser radiation. The rats were sacrificed 4 h after the treatment. The enzymes were evaluated spectrophotometrically in brain extracts of irradiated animals and also in untreated rats (controls) and rats that underwent simulated treatment (stressed). The data obtained from 5-10 animals assayed individually showed that, in the in toto brain tissues of the irradiated rats compared to the stressed rats, there was a marked increase of total SOD, together with an appreciable decrease of cytosolic AST, and insignificant variations in mitochondrial AST and GIDH. Stress alone caused a considerable decrease of total SOD and small but statistically significant increases of s-AST, m-AST, and GIDH.

Integrating Climate Change Resilience Features into the Incremental Refinement of an Existing Marine Park

Marine protected area (MPA) designs are likely to require iterative refinement as new knowledge is gained. In particular, there is an increasing need to consider the effects of climate change, especially the ability of ecosystems to resist and/or recover from climate-related disturbances, within the MPA planning process. However, there has been limited research addressing the incorporation of climate change resilience into MPA design. This study used Marxan conservation planning software with fine-scale shallow water (<20 m) bathymetry and habitat maps, models of major benthic communities for deeper water, and comprehensive human use information from Ningaloo Marine Park in Western Australia to identify climate change resilience features to integrate into the incremental refinement of the marine park. The study assessed the representation of benthic habitats within the current marine park zones, identified priority areas of high resilience for inclusion within no-take zones and examined if any iterative refinements to the current no-take zones are necessary. Of the 65 habitat classes, 16 did not meet representation targets within the current no-take zones, most of which were in deeper offshore waters. These deeper areas also demonstrated the highest resilience values and, as such, Marxan outputs suggested minor increases to the current no-take zones in the deeper offshore areas. This work demonstrates that inclusion of fine-scale climate change resilience features within the design process for MPAs is feasible, and can be applied to future marine spatial planning practices globally.

Effect of in vivo He-Ne laser irradiation on biogenic amine levels in rat brain

In order to elucidate the metabolic modifications induced in rat brain by low power He-Ne laser irradiation in vivo, the variations in the biogenic amine levels in cortex, striatum and hippocampus were studied. Noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) were evaluated by HPLC-EC on irradiated rats, untreated rats (controls) and rats which had undergone restraint stress (stressed). The results obtained on groups of four to eight rats assayed individually showed that irradiation caused a strong increase in 5-HT in striatum and hippocampus, a small but significant decrease in NA in cortex, and DA levels were not significantly affected. Restraint stress per se led to a considerable decrease in 5-HT and DA in striatum and hippocampus, but did not significantly alter the NA levels.

WTO must ban harmful fisheries subsidies

[Figure: see text].

Multi-scale multi-level marine spatial planning: A novel methodological approach applied in South Africa

This study proposes and discusses a multi-scale spatial planning method implemented simultaneously at local and national level to prioritize ecosystem management actions across landscapes and seascapes. Mismatches in scale between the occurrence of biodiversity patterns and ecological processes, and the size and nature of the human footprint, and the different levels and scope of governance, are a significant challenge in conservation planning. These scale mismatches are further confounded by data resolution disparities across and amongst the different scales. To address this challenge, we developed a multi-resolution scale-linked marine spatial planning method. We tested this approach in the development of a Conservation Plan for a significant portion of South Africa's exclusive economic zone, adjacent to the east coast province of KwaZulu-Natal (the SeaPlan project). The study's dataset integrated the geographic distribution of 390 biodiversity elements (species, habitats, and oceanographic processes) and 38 human activities. A multi-resolution system of planning unit layers (PUL), with individual PUs ranging in resolution from 0.2 to 10 km, was designed to arrange and analyse these data. Spatial priorities for conservation were selected incrementally at different scales, contributing conservation targets from the fine-, medium- and large-scale analyses, and from the coast to the offshore. Compared to a basic single-resolution scale-unlinked plan, our multi-resolution scale-linked method selects 6% less conservation area to achieve the same targets. Compared to a multi-resolution scale-unlinked plan, our method requires only an additional 5% area. Overall, this method reflects the multi-scale nature of marine social-ecological systems more realistically, is relatively simple and replicable, and serves to better connect fine-scale and large-scale spatial management policies. We discuss the impacts of this study on protected area expansion planning processes in South Africa. This study showcases a methodological advance that has the potential to impact marine spatial planning practices and policies.

Azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from South Africa

Globally, South Africa ranks in the top five countries regarding marine species richness per unit area. Given the high diversity, it is not surprising that many invertebrate taxa in the region are poorly characterised. The South African azooxanthellate Scleractinia (Anthozoa) is one such taxonomic group, and was last reviewed by Boshoff in 1980. Although more recent regional publications have reported on some species, there has not been a faunistic review that accounts for the country's species diversity since then. Moreover, numerous unidentified specimens representing more than three decades of sampling effort have accumulated. In this study the authors update the state of knowledge of South African azooxanthellate coral species. Specimens, particularly those within the extensive collections of the Iziko South African and Smithsonian museums, were morphologically examined and identified. Other data considered included historic data represented as imagery data, associated species data from recent research surveys, and the scientific literature. To date, the study has increased the total number of known species from 77 to 108 across eleven families, 28 new South African records, and three are new species with one new genus.

Relevance of antibiotic prophylaxis in the management of surgical emergency open hand trauma

Surgical site infection after emergency hand surgery can cause considerable morbidity and, in the most severe forms, even toxic shock syndrome. Postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis aims to reduce the number of surgical site infections. However, excessive use of antibiotics induces side-effects for patients and antibiotic resistance for society. Contrary to other orthopedic sites, there is no consensus on postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis in open hand trauma beyond analogic reasoning with no proven scientific validity. Our hypothesis was that absence of postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis after open hand trauma surgery does not affect the rate of surgical site infections. A prospective cohort study included 405 patients, operated on in the emergency hand trauma unit without intra- or post-operative antibiotic prophylaxis. Patients were followed up in consultation at 7, 14 and 30 days. Surgical site infection was defined by need for surgery for detersion and flattening, followed by curative antibiotic therapy. The surgical site infection rate was 2.22%. Four patients were lost to follow-up and counted as surgical site infection as originally planned in the worst-case analysis. There were five surgical revisions followed by antibiotic therapy. These results do not differ from those reported in the literature, and thus confirm our hypothesis that postoperative antibiotic prophylaxis is not indicated in open hand trauma management.