Browsing by Subject "suojelualueet"

Measuring the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) is essential as they are key tools in tackling the ongoing biodiversity loss and there is substantial variation in their effectiveness (the estimated ability of protected areas to prevent unnatural disturbances). In forested PAs, the most common variable in effectiveness estimation is forest loss, but fire can also be used as a proxy for conversion. There is, however, a lack of robust comparisons between different data sets and proxies. This thesis aims to provide more insight into the issue by comparing three satellite-based data sets in protected area effectiveness assessment using Madagascar as a case study. The questions to be answered here are whether the data sets and variables derived from them produce similar PA effectiveness estimates and whether they could be used interchangeably in research and for practical management purposes. The hypotheses are as follows: H1: The three proxies produce similar results with the two fire proxies most likely having a stronger relationship. H2: The data sets can be used interchangeably both for science purposes and in practical management of PAs. The effectiveness of Malagasy protected areas established in or before 2005 (N=42) was examined from 2005 to 2017. Three binary response variables were compared: forest loss, fire incidence, and burned area. In addition, a continuous forest loss variable was examined. Forested areas and the full landscape were studied separately i.e. estimates were produced for both forested areas only and full landscape (forested areas + other areas). 1-kilometre parcels in a uniform grid were sampled using nearest neighbour Mahalanobis distance matching, controlling for the factors affecting conversion pressures with appropriate covariates: altitude, slope, distance to cities, distance to roads, distance to waterways, and rainfall for forested areas and full landscape, and in addition, distance to forest edge for forested areas. Relative effect, pooled relative effect, and network relative effect were calculated for the binary variables, mean effect for the continuous variable. The effects were calculated on country level, biome level (tropical and subtropical moist broadleaved forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaved forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands), and individual PA level. Protected areas appeared to be at least moderately effective, and all variables produced parallel, consistent results on the country and biome level, especially when using pooled relative effect. On average, PAs in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests were most effective in avoiding land-use pressures, the ones in tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests slightly less, and the ones in deserts and xeric shrublands most ineffective. There was substantial variation between and inside individual PAs, and in approximately half of the PAs all variables indicate that the given area is significantly effective (α = 0,05). In a little over half of the PAs the effects were mixed, and in forested areas, no PA was indicated to be ineffective by all variables. In full landscape, this was the case for one PA. There were small differences between forested areas and the full landscape in all levels, but they were statistically significant only in a few cases. This study thus suggests that the data sets could be used interchangeably, at least on country and biome level, when conducting matching to assess PA effectiveness in a tropical setting. They could be utilised on individual PA level, too, with certain precautions and understanding of the nature and behaviour of the data. They are well suited for research; however, in practical management forest loss and fire incidence might be more feasible than burned area, due to its certain characteristics (it for example demands quite a lot of processing depending on the use purpose) and accessibility issues.

Biodiversity is declining across the globe. The IUCN Red List, which is often used to measure species’ risk to go extinct, is showing alarming biodiversity declines both globally and within Finland. The most commonly used tool for biodiversity conservation is the establishment of protected areas. The Conference of Parties (COP) of the international treaty for biodiversity conservation (The Convention on Biological Diversity), has set a target to expand the international protected area network to cover 17% of the terrestrial area of the world. However, the designation of protected areas carries costs in terms of both land-use and money. Relatively little is known about what protected areas can achieve at the species level, and only limited evidence exists that links the establishment of protected areas to an improved conservation status of species. The lack of knowledge is because protected area establishment and its effects are often hard to study due to inadequate data. In this thesis, I created a framework to study the link between the increase in protected areas and protected area investment in relation to the conservation status change of one taxonomic group, the breeding birds in Finland. I first investigated the general trend in conservation status of Finnish birds using the Red List Index 2015. I then studied the effect of increasing the protected area on Finnish bird species’ range and the monetary investment on protected areas on bird species’ range in comparison to change in their IUCN Red List assessments. The timeframe of the study was 1996-2010 for protected area establishment and 2010-2015 for bird species’ conservation status change. My results show that the conservation status of birds in Finland is considerably worse than before, with Red List Index being 0.779. This is approximately 9.2% decline from the Red List Index in 2010. The species that gained more protected area on their range during 1996-2010 did not fare better in terms of conservation status than the birds that gained less protected area on their range on the same period. This is possibly because the threshold where the protected areas would cover the species’ range sufficiently to enable the conservation of the whole population is still not reached even for species with the higher protection levels. Also, the species that had higher estimated monetary investment on the protected areas on their range did not acquire better conservation status development than the species on whose range there was less estimated monetary investment. The expansion of the Finnish protected area network in 1996-2010 did not help to change the negative trend of Finnish birds in 2010-2015. The species that gained more protection in terms of land or monetary investment during this period, were not showing better results than the species that gained less protection. These results hint that the protected areas in Finland are not effective in terms of bird conservation. This does not mean, however, that we can claim that they are ineffective in all aspects, as we don’t know what would have been the situation if there were no protected areas established at all. There are also several other factors that affect the conservation status development of birds in Finland. These include degradation of matrix habitats, hunting and climate change, which might all overrun the possible positive effects of the protected areas and protected area investment.