Constantine Alexander's blog

Black vulture returns to East Balkans

A black vulture (Aegypius monachus) has been spotted in the Eastern Balkan Mountains for the first time for more than 30 years. A photo-trap set up at the vulture supplementary feeding site in the area of the Sinite Kamani Nature Park captured a young black vulture in April, together with a group of foraging griffons. The pictured bird was released as part of the LIFE project, 'Vultures Return in Bulgaria'.

The vulture probably originated from Serbia and was recorded along with several wild, non-tagged young and sub-adult griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus).

Black vulture was once widely distributed across the country, mostly in the plain areas but also in hilly areas and the broad-leaved forest belt – namely, the Dobrudzha, Ludogorie, Shumen and Provadija plateaus, the Danube plain, the slopes of Sakar, Vitosha, the mountains surrounding Sofia, the Rhodopes and south-eastern Bulgaria.

However, the use of poison, traps and poachers led to the complete extinction of the black vulcan as a nesting species. The last confirmed nest of the species was found by the Green Balkans team in the area of the Studen Kladenets Reservoir in 1997 and since then no nesting has been confirmed.

But the country is often visited by black vultures, which still nest in the Dadia Reserve in northern Greece and cross the border in search of food. They often use the supplementary feeding sites that have been maintained by Green Balkans and the BSPB for the past 25 years.

The siting of the black vulture at the supplementary feeding site represents a huge success for the project. Griffon vulture is an indicator species, which it is hoped confirms the improved conditions of the Balkan Mountains.

November date for global event on natural capital

A revolution is taking place in how businesses and governments account for natural capital.

Against a backdrop of increasing international interest in how we value the economic benefits we derive from our natural environment, business leaders, policy makers and sustainability leaders from around the world will come together in Edinburgh in November for the inaugural World Forum on Natural Capital.

Since the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio last June, there has been a groundswell of private sector interest in the concept of natural capital accounting. As the first major global conference devoted to turning the emerging debate into action, the World Forum on Natural Capital aims to widen understanding of the implications for businesses and the risks of ignoring ‘invisible’ assets.

Delegates from throughout the world are expected to attend the event, which is supported by major business and environmental organisations including the United Nations Environment Programme; World Business Council for Sustainable Development; International Union for Conservation of Nature; TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) for Business Coalition; and The Wildlife Trusts. The event organiser is the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

The World Forum on Natural Capital will take place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on 21-22 November 2013. 

 

New Red List developed for threatened ecosystems

Scientists have developed a new Red List system for identifying ecosystems at high risk of degradation, similar to the influential Red List for the world's threatened species.

The team carrying out the research was convened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and led by Professor David Keith, of the University of New South Wales and the NSW Office of Environment.

The study, which illustrates how the framework for risk assessment applies to 20 ecosystems around the world, including eight in Australia, is published today in the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS ONE.

Professor Keith, of UNSW's Australian Wetlands, Rivers and Landscapes Centre, AWRLC, said that ecosystems around the globe are facing unprecedented threats. This affects biodiversity and - increasingly - the services that living organisms provide to people, including clean water, and agricultural and fisheries production.

"This is one of the world's most significant conservation challenges and we really need a better system for understanding the risks to the world's ecosystems, so that we can make more informed decisions about sustainable environmental management.

"Now, for the first time, we have a consistent method for identifying the most threatened ecosystems across land, freshwater and ocean environments," said Professor Keith.

One of the authors, Professor Richard Kingsford, Director of the AWRLC said: "The most encouraging thing about this initiative is that it focuses attention on the habitats of our biodiversity. We can see it applying to the hundreds, or even thousands, of species that might live in an ecosystem".

The method evaluates multiple symptoms of risk produced by different processes of ecosystem degradation.

"Changes in the distribution of an ecosystem, its physical environment and its component species can each tell us something different about the severity of risks, and these symptoms can now be assessed in standard ways across different types of ecosystems," said Professor Keith.

The new system is flexible, enabling it to handle a range of different sources of information, depending on the specific processes driving degradation of each ecosystem.

The PLoS study illustrates the implementation of the framework using 20 case studies encompassing rainforests, wetlands, coral reefs and other major global ecosystems.

"This is a major breakthrough for the challenge of managing ecosystems more sustainably. We will be able to apply it across global, national and state boundaries for consistent state of environment reporting," said Dr Emily Nicholson, of the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Decisions at the University of Melbourne, a co-author of the study.

Dr Jon Paul Rodriguez, at Centro de Ecología, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Venezuela, joint leader of the project for IUCN, organised an extensive international consultation process to build a strong conceptual framework for risk assessment that is well grounded in the practicalities of different ecosystems around the world.

He said the framework was a critical step towards the development of a world view of our environment and all its ecosystems, which IUCN is aiming to complete by 2025.

Contact: Deborah Smith
deborah.smith@unsw.edu.au
61-293-857-307
University of New South Wales

STAGES Project to Host its First MSFD Workshop

The STAGES (Science and Technology Advancing Governance on Good Environmental Status) project will host a Workshop on Needs for Further Research to Support Improved and More Efficient Monitoring Programmes Under the MSFD, from 13-15 May 2013 in Brussels, Belgium.

STAGES is an EC FP7-funded project that is directly responding to a request from DG Environment to put a support action in place to facilitate the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Under the MSFD, EU Member States are expected to assess the overall status of their respective marine environments and to put in place the necessary measures to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) by 2020.

The workshop is organised by the STAGES partner the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in close collaboration with the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES ); l’Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER); the European Marine Board; the Joint Research Centre (JRC); and the Centro Tecnológico del Mar (CETMAR).

The workshop report will form the basis of the STAGES science-policy reports on needs for further research for the implementation of the MSFD. Participants have been invited from a wide range of interested parties: Regional Seas Commissions (OSPAR, HELCOM and BALTIC); DG RTD; DG Environment; related MSFD projects and initiatives; ICES; JRC-ICES task groups; and relevant Member State competent authorities.

A consultation process is underway prior to the workshop that will help to identify research needs regarding monitoring programmes for the 11 Good Environmental Status (GES) descriptors. This consultation will inform the workshop focus of the five Thematic Group discussions: the Biodiversity Group; the Contaminants & Nutrients Group; the Disturbances Group; the Commercially Exploited Fish Group; and the Hydrographical Conditions Group. 

"This is the first in a series of three STAGES workshops that will investigate the needs for further research to support the implementation of the MSFD. We expect that it will lead to greater understanding of current knowledge gaps and associated uncertainties in relation to monitoring programmes. The outputs from the workshop will help us to assess what is required to adapt and upgrade monitoring programmes, and to produce a list of needs for further research and methodological development to inform future research programmes, as well as managers and decision makers," explained Marisa Fernández of CETMAR, the STAGES coordinating partner.

Two more STAGES workshops, The Identification of Research Needs with Regard to the Pressures and their Impacts on Marine Ecosystems and The Identification of Research Needs with Regard to Socio-Economic Analysis will be held later this year (provisionally scheduled for September and October).

In other STAGES-related news, a Steering Committee meeting was held on 13 March at CETMAR's headquarters in Vigo, Spain. The committee reviewed the project's first period of activity and planned for the next phase. Several significant milestones have already been achieved across the project's work packages, including:

• The development of a MFSD-related stakeholder database containing more than 400 organisations and 550 contact persons across Europe.
• Identification (through a desktop study) of more than 1,500 European-funded projects and 2,000 Member State projects  that might have a potential relevance to the MSFD which are currently being asked to complete a survey to elaborate on their objectives and expected results.
• Engagement with more than 100 institutions across Member States to request assistance in identifying nationally-funded projects with a relevance to the MSFD.
• The launch of a project website, brochure and factsheet to introduce the project to marine stakeholders and wider society.
• The preparation for an expert workshop on research gaps related to the MSFD monitoring programmes.

The STAGES project is being carried out by a consortium of eight partners in seven countries and is being coordinated by the Centro Tecnológico del Mar (CETMAR) in Spain. STAGES has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme.

Contact: Marisa Fernández Cañamero, STAGES Coordinator.

IUCN says EU countries must do more to protect biodiversity

European Union countries should step up their conservation efforts and fully implement the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 to prevent species from going extinct, according to a recent analysis of the European Red List coordinated by IUCN.  

European Mink (Mustela lutreola). Critically Endangered. Photo by: Nicolai Meyer (CC)

The analysis presents a detailed overview of species threatened at the European level in all 27 EU Member States. It shows that the highest share of species threatened in the European Union can be found in the Mediterranean region which hosts most of Europe’s biodiversity.

“Thanks to its bioclimatic conditions, the Mediterranean region is a recognized global hotspot for biodiversity, hosting a large number and extraordinary variety of species,” says Antonio Troya, Director of IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation. “The survival of many of these species is at risk as their habitats are being negatively impacted by human activities. This is a major challenge that European policy-makers shall address. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ can be an important tool to analyse species population trends to guide effective policy and action at different levels”.

Spain, Portugal and Greece host the highest proportion of species threatened with extinction at the European level and should act with the greatest urgency. Of the 2,032 species assessed which occur in Spain, 21% are considered threatened at the European level. Fifteen percent of the 1,215 European species occurring in Portugal are threatened, and the same is true for 14% of the 1,684 European species found in Greece.

Of the species assessed so far, freshwater species – including fishes, molluscs and amphibians – are at the highest risk, with species such as the European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) and the Freshwater Pearl Mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) being particularly threatened. The status of terrestrial molluscs, dragonflies and mammals, such as the European Mink (Mustela lutreola) also raises significant concern. Species are mainly threatened by the loss, fragmentation and degradation of their habitat, due in large part to agricultural and urban expansion, construction of dams and water pollution.

While effective conservation action in the Mediterranean is needed urgently, the study calls on all EU Member States to take adequate measures to reverse the current population declines, in order to avoid species going extinct.

“Species can be saved from extinction, but this requires a combination of sound research and greater coordinated efforts,” says Ana Nieto, Regional Biodiversity Conservation Officer at IUCN. “All EU Heads of State and Government have committed to halting biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services by 2020. Considerable conservation investment is needed from these countries and the EU to achieve this target and assure a long-term improvement in the status of European species.”

EU nature conservation policies are among the most advanced globally. The Birds and Habitats Directives have led to successful recovery of many species.

“Conservation works,” says Simon Stuart, Chair of IUCN Species Survival Commission. “The increase in the population of the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus) in Southern Spain from 94 individuals in 2002 to 312 in 2011 is a case in point. The EU and Member States need to continue to act to protect Europe’s invaluable natural heritage. IUCN stands ready to provide the science and support needed to scale up these efforts.”

About the analysis:

The study is based on the data from the European Red List supported by the European Commission. It presents the proportion of species which are threatened at the European level for each EU Member State. The present analysis does not provide information on the status of the species at the national level (i.e. in each individual country), but rather on the level of threat for species groups at the European level (i.e. across the whole European continent, but excluding the EU overseas entities). National and sub-national Red Lists can be cross-checked to identify the status of species at the national level. More detailed information and all 27 country fact sheets can be found here.

Which EU Member State hosts the highest proportion of species threatened at the European level?

The above graph shows the proportion of species threatened at the European level for each EU Member State, based upon the ten European Red Lists produced so far. See here the results of the assessments conducted until 2011. Overall, the most threatened species groups assessed so far in Europe are freshwater fishes, freshwater molluscs and amphibians.

Related Links:

• All 27 Fact Sheets per EU Member State
• European Red List
• IUCN's work on species
• IUCN's work in Europe
• IUCN's work in the Mediterranean
• IUCN Species Survival Commission
• A new view of The IUCN Red List

Contact: Liza Drius, Communications Officer, IUCN European Union Representative Office, Tel: +32 2 739 0318.

Scale of raptor deaths in Hungary shows need for LIFE 'HELICON' project

MME Birdlife Hungary, the beneficiary of the ongoing LIFE Nature ‘HELICON’ project, took part in an event in Hungary in February that revealed the scale of the problem of illegal raptor deaths in the country.

More than 100 professionals from Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and the UK attended the annual meeting of the Raptor Committee of Birdlife Hungary, which followed the 8th Hungarian Conservation-Biology Meeting (co-organised by MME with the Hungarian Biological Society, Bükk National Park Directorate and the European section of the Society for Conservation Biology).

The aims of the conference were to improve the effectiveness of actions against persecution incidents affecting birds and facilitate exchange of ideas between professionals from various countries. The participants discussed Birdlife’s Anti-poisoning Action Plan which is expected to provide a more efficient way in fighting crime against birds. 

One of the most startling things to emerge from the event was the extent of the problem of persecution of raptors in Hungary. It was announced that, since 2000, a total of 176 eagles have died in the country from poisoning, shooting or intentional damaging of nests (compared to 40 eagle deaths in Austria, 24 in the Czech Republic, 22 in Slovakia, 18 in Serbia and two in Romania).

Indeed, a further three incidents involving birds of prey were reported in the three days following the conference; just some of 21 incidents involving more than 50 protected raptors recorded for the first three months of 2013 in Hungary.

The goal of the LIFE ‘HELICON’ project, which runs until the end of 2016, is to significantly reduce the rate of non-natural mortality amongst Hungary’s imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca) population.

SAMBAH LIFE project reveals extent of Baltic harbour porpoise population

'SAMBAH' (Static Acoustic Monitoring of the Baltic Sea Harbour Porpoise is a five-year LIFE Nature project that targets the conservation of the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) within the Baltic Sea region.

Led by Kolmardens Djurpark (Kolmarden Wildlife Park) in Sweden, this international project has revealed initial results from two years of monitoring using 300 passive acoustic porpoise click loggers (CPODs) at a meeting with marine stakeholders and sea-management authorities from the countries around the Baltic that was held in Gothenburg on 15 April.

The purpose of the monitoring, which concludes next month, and which covers an area from the Darss and Limhamn ridges in the south-west to the northern border of the Åland archipelago in the north, is to estimate the densities and total abundance of the Baltic Sea harbour porpoise population. Analysis of the data generated during the study period will be used to produce distribution maps of harbour porpoises and identify possible hotspots, habitat preferences and areas of higher risk of conflict with anthropogenic activities. These results will be disseminated amongst policy-makers, marine area managers, stakeholders and the public, to enable more effective management of the species based on sound knowledge about its size and distribution.

The meeting in Gothenberg earlier this month aimed to initiate a dialogue with these groups and bodies, with the ultimate goal of finding good ways for porpoises to co-exist with fishing, shipping, leisure boats, oil and gas exploration, wind farm developments and other human marine activities.

Initial results from the click monitoring indicate that there are harbour porpoises in most areas of the Baltic, with individuals detected most frequently in its southern waters and the shallow banks south of Gotland, but also as far north as Finnish waters.

The data also show a clear seasonal variation in porpoise presence in the waters around Kriegers Flak, where large wind farms are currently being planned. This knowledge could be used to ensure construction work is scheduled at times when few porpoises are in the area.

Natura 2000 networks: Improving current methods in biodiversity conservation

The world's biodiversity is currently in rapid decline, with human-mediated global change being a principal cause. Europe is no exception, and the Natura 2000 network provides an important conservation tool for biodiversity on a European level. It forms a network of natural and semi-natural sites within the region with high heritage values due to the exceptional flora and fauna they contain. The goal of the Natura 2000 network is to maintain the biological diversity of environments, while taking into account economic, social, cultural and regional logic of sustainable development. A new study published in the open access journal Nature Conservation provides an evaluation of the effectiveness of Natura 2000 and sets objectives and recommendations for the future.

The analysis in the paper is based on a coverage ratio between the Natura 2000 sites and distribution maps of 300 threatened IUCN red listed European species. The study shows that the distributions of a large proportion of threatened species of mammals, birds and reptiles are highly covered (above 90%), demonstrating the effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network. However, results also confirm that a large proportion of threatened species, especially fishes, are currently still poorly covered. Of the 124 fish species considered, 22 species had a range coverage of less than 10 %. The coverage of species also seems to be highly related to national demographic factors, as the proportion of the national urban population. Further analysis suggests that the designation of sites depends too strongly on governmental politics, economic and cultural criteria, and interactions between society and the environment.

In order to improve the management of sites, a common and standardized management of the Natura 2000 sites with a uniform framework among member states needs to be established. The study suggests that sites should be under continuous observation and evaluation, to determine their importance for the conservation of biodiversity in a biogeographical region. Such an approach would improve efficiency and determine high priority Natura 2000 sites, as well as provide a basis on which to determine appropriate resource allocation. These approaches will help with the selection process, and may decrease the impact of the political agenda, as current observed.

 

"Our results recommend increasing the number of Natura 2000 sites, in order to overlay a large proportion of the distribution map of considered species. We further recommend developing public awareness and participation to increase the ecological conscience. The involvement of local people in conservation strategies has been shown to be highly efficient.", comment the authors of the study Dr Trochet, Station d'Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS а Moulis and Dr Schmeller, UFZ - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research. "Our recommendations should increase the efficiency of Natura 2000 network by avoiding the establishment of ineffective sites (with a low number of protected species), as observed in several member states with a high Natura 2000 surface coverage but with a low number of protected species."

Citation: Trochet A, Schmeller DS (2013) Effectiveness of the Natura 2000 network to cover threatened species. Nature Conservation 4: 35. doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.4.3626

North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve (NVBR)

European Commission must innovate to get value from €70 billion science funding program

The European Commission needs to make some key innovations in its science funding programme if Europe is to enjoy the full benefits of the €70 billion to be spent on science research as part of the Horizon 2020 programme kicking off in 2014, according to an academic paper published by SAGE in the Journal of Health Services Research & Policy today.

The Commission has already taken important steps to reduce administration costs and stimulate the participation of small business in research, but there are still significant gaps, say the authors of Europe's 'Horizon 2020' science funding programme: How is it shaping up? Dr Michael Galsworthy, UCL Department of Applied Research and Professor Martin McKee, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, argue that reforms are necessary in four key areas –reduction of red tape at the interface between academia and small business, better mapping and linking of the research funded, taking a bold lead in the open data drive, and ending inegalitarian salary policies that block Eastern European competitiveness.

Over the last 15 years, the EU has spent around €80 billion on science research via its three 'framework programmes', FP5, FP6 and FP7, and Horizon 2020 will nearly match that sum over the next six years. While past programmes were intended to ease the path of European researchers to funding and support, the bureaucracy involved was cumbersome and hard to negotiate; the paper highlights the thousands of researchers who relocated to the US, in part to escape such constraints. The paper recommends reform in four key areas:

• Red tape: While the EC has taken welcome steps to reduce administration costs and other bureaucratic burdens, the paper calls on it to remove compulsory tendering, thus allowing research projects and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to interact with each other dynamically and choose each other freely;
• Funding: The paper commends the Commission's increasing recognition of the benefit of mapping research and calls them to improve their central categorisation, informatics, and transparency so that the analysis and debate is open to all;
• Informatics: The paper calls for the EU to demand databases as a deliverable from data-collecting projects, then themselves check the data for re-usability by others and deposit the data in searchable archives. Currently, funders are increasingly encouraging scientists to make data-sharing plans, but a model of the funder themselves mandating, checking and archiving the core databases with unique citable reference codes would set a new gold standard;
• Eastern European underinvestment: the original 15 member states have received a staggering 34 times more health research funding under FP7 than the 12 newest member states (EU-12), representing dramatic underfunding of science in the EU-12, even allowing for GDP and population differences. The paper recommends paying researchers in new member states the same salary as in Western Europe, enabling Eastern Europe to use its competitive advantage of marginally lower living costs to retain and even attract top researchers;

Dr Galsworthy says: "After many years of often painful and bureaucratic development, the EU science model of international collaboration and researcher mobility is clearly starting to work. Science is now increasingly viewed as a cornerstone of Europe's future as an integral part of quality of life, sustainability and business innovation. In preparation for Horizon 2020, some solid steps have been made on levels of both practicality and vision, but a few key innovative changes at the central administration level would revolutionise the dynamism and productivity of European science."

Contact: Katie Steels
press@lshtm.ac.uk
44-207-929-2802
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

• Founded in 1826, University College London (UCL) was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. We are among the world's top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. UCL currently has 24,000 students from almost 140 countries, and more than 9,500 employees. Our annual income is over £800 million.
• The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health, with 3,500 students and more than 1,000 staff working in over 100 countries. The School is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK, and was recently cited as one of the world's top universities for collaborative research. The School's mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. 

 

Momentum for nature’s ‘blue carbon’ solution to climate change

Pelican in mangrove, El Guamache, Margarita island.

Efforts to restore marine ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon have received a boost with the launch of a new website that provides the latest blue carbon science and policy.

Coastal ecosystems are some of the most productive on Earth. They provide essential services such as protection from storms and nursery grounds for fish. By storing ‘blue’ carbon from the atmosphere and oceans, they are an essential part of the solution to climate change.

“Our knowledge and action to maintain and restore coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrasses have increased significantly in the last two years,” says Dorothée Herr, IUCN's Coordinator of the International Blue Carbon Initiative, of which IUCN is a partner.

“Several efforts are under way to further improve the management responses we can take to make costal ecosystems one of the solutions to reducing climate change,” she adds.

This week sees the launch of the International Blue Carbon Initiative’s new website. The initiative, which focuses on mitigating climate change through the conservation and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems, is a collaboration between IUCN, Conservation International and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization. www.thebluecarboninitiative.org.

The website provides up-to-date information on the Initiative’s scientific and policy working groups, a general overview of blue carbon science and policy, as well as a compilation of existing field projects led by many partner organisations around the world. It will also foster greater collaboration and coordination within the global blue carbon community.

As part of wider climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is organizing a workshop later this year on the technical and scientific aspects of ecosystems with high-carbon reservoirs such as coastal marine ecosystems.

“This is an encouraging step on the international policy front to ensure coastal ‘blue carbon’ ecosystems are appropriately integrated into global mitigation activities,” says Dorothée.

In parallel to international discussions, many field projects are continuously gathering new information from the ground and have started to stimulate management responses. A new report Profiles in Blue Carbon Field Work shows that a global community of scientists, policy makers and stakeholders is rallying around the concept of blue carbon as a nature-based tool to help mitigate global climate change.