Although site-attached fish can be expected to increase in abundance in marine protected areas (MPAs), there is little known about recruitment effects. The present work reviews concepts and field evidence for enhancement of recruitment of species in MPAs, focusing geographically on the Mediterranean littoral because of its long history of intensive fishery exploitation, but drawing on evidence from studies on recruitment processes in general on MPAs both in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. We considered recruitment as the process of a fish being added to the local population. The general questions of interest are whether the increase in biomass of species protected in MPAs has an effect on recruitment in the MPAs or in neighbouring areas, and, on competition and predation effects on new recruits. A flow diagram of the effects of MPA status on recruitment is developed and employed to identify the relevant processes. The diagram incorporates three levels of factors: (1) characteristics of MPAs (location, size, habitat type, oceanography and level of protection); (2) life stages of species protected in MPAs relevant to recruitment (eggs, larvae, settlers and juveniles); and (3) fundamental processes of dispersal/movement, predation and competition. From this conceptual diagram, the following main components of the recruitment process were identified and used to structure the review: (1) relationship between the ecology of pelagic stages and the design, location and oceanographic regime of MPAs; (2) effects of protection in MPAs from fishery exploitation of nursery habitats on settlement success; and (3) effects of protection on survival of settlers and juveniles from competition and predation. We found an exceptionally low number of studies specifically addressing recruitment processes in MPAs. This was particularly the case in what concerns the relationship between larval ecology and the characteristics and oceanographic regime of MPAs. The effectiveness of MPAs in promoting recruitment mainly depends on the locations and on sizes of the MPAs in relation to the reproductive biology and larval ecology of the species concerned. The locations and sizes of MPAs in turn depend on MPA objectives, whether the purpose is to protect entire life cycles, the juveniles, or to increase egg production and larval export. The assessment of the relationship between the protection of nursery habitats and settlement success indicates that the magnitude of the effects of protection depends on whether the recruitment of the species involved is restricted to a narrowly-defined set of environmental conditions or, on the contrary, can occur in diverse environments, including areas beyond the influence of the MPAs. Thus, the locations of MPAs determine the habitats which are protected and, consequently, the species, the settlement of which will be favoured. For Mediterranean shallow-water species, the near-shore zone encompasses most of the essential nursery habitats for protection. Recruitment studies conducted in MPAs in the north-western Mediterranean have showed no differences in survival of newly-settled littoral fish between MPAs and the areas outside of them. Conversely, for older recruits, mortality was found to be higher inside MPAs, probably due to the increased abundance and size of large predators. This study highlights the almost total absence of studies addressing even the most elementary questions of recruitment in the specific context of MPAs.

Sustainable coastal resource management requires the safeguarding and transmission to future generations of a level and quality of natural resources that will provide an ongoing yield of economic and environmental services. All maritime nations are approaching this goal with different issues in mind. The UK, which has a long history of development and flood protection in coastal areas, has chosen to adopt shoreline management, rather than coastal management, so placing coastal defence above all else as its primary and statutory objective. This paper aims to provide a geomorphological perspective of long-term coastal evolution and seeks to compare the UK approach with wider interpretations of coastal management. Based on a literature review, it is argued that coastal management (CM) and shoreline management, as a subset of CM, should share the same ultimate objectives, which are defined by many authorities as sustainable use. The objectives, both strategic and pragmatic, which follow from such an aim may appear to conflict with a reading of many of the texts for international and national CM or designated area management which emphasizes stability rather than sustainability. The result is that coastal defence is seen not merely as a means to an end but as an end in itself. It is argued within this paper that sustainable use of the coast, however, demands both spatial and temporal flexibility of its component systems, and management for change must therefore be the primary objective. Response of the natural system to independent forcing factors must be encouraged under this objective, whether such forces are natural or anthropogenic. In achieving such an objective the concept of shoreline vulnerability may prove useful. A simple and preliminary Vulnerability Index is proposed, relating disturbance event frequency to relaxation time (the time taken for the coastal feature to recover its form). This index provides a first order approximation of the temporal variability that may be expected in landform components of the shoreline system, so allowing management to provide more realistic objectives for long-term sustainability in response to both natural and artificial forces.

In the literature of contingent valuation, a rights-based system of environmental ethics claiming that natural objects have absolute rights, has frequently been regarded as the main reason for incommensurability, i.e. for citizens’ inability to find a common measure according to which all values could be ranked. In a study of 2400 Finns aged between 18 and 70, we tested whether a respondent's commitment to guaranteeing private property rights could be a reason for incommensurability beyond the respondent's possible commitment to absolute nature rights. It was found that incommensurability, modelled with lexicographic preferences, was attributable more often to private property rights than to nature rights. However, Finnish respondents who had lexicographic preferences for nature rights based their choice more often on an ethical judgement, whereas lexicographic preferences for property rights could rather be explained with an ambivalent preference construction. Lexicographic preferences for nature rights increased the willingness to pay for conservation, while lexicographic preferences for property rights decreased it. The result, which was predicted by the theory, supported the validity of incommensurability measurement. The study therefore indicates that several reasons for incommensurable preferences may exist and that it is possible to measure these reasons in contingent valuation surveys in order to judge the validity of the welfare measures in environmental policy decision-making.

Conflicts between local people and protected area managers are a common problem in developing countries, but in many cases there has been little attempt to comprehensively characterize the underlying problems. Resource uses, management practices, economy and people's perceptions of problems and likely solutions were analysed in two villages near and two villages away from the core zone of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in the Indian Himalaya. Agriculture, although practised on less than 1% of the area, was the primary occupation of local people. Six annual crops of a total of 22 and all four horticultural crops on private farms were damaged by wildlife, but Reserve management provided compensation only for livestock killing by wildlife and compensation amounted to only 4–10% of the total assessed monetary value of killed livestock. A variety of wild plant products were used locally but 27 were marketed by more than 50% of surveyed families; income from wild products was substantially lower than that from crops and livestock. A sociocultural change from a subsistence to a market economy, together with changes in traditional land/resource rights and institutions, has led to a number of changes in land-use and management practices. The livestock population has declined, agricultural area has remained the same and people have started cultivating medicinal species in the last 20 years. These changes seem complementary to the goal of conservation. However, changes such as abandonment of some traditional food crops and stress on cash crops lacking fodder value, requiring substantial manure inputs derived from forest litter and livestock excreta, and causing severe soil erosion, seem to counter the goal of environmental conservation. Some government-managed Reserve Forest sites were similar to the Community Forests in terms of species richness, basal area and soil physico-chemical properties. Two Reserve Forest sites showed basal areas of 160.5–191.5 m2/ha, exceeding the highest values reported so far from the region. The formal institutional framework of resource management seems to be not as effective as the traditional informal system. The Reserve Management Plan lays more emphasis on legal protection than on the sustainable livelihood of local communities and has led to conflicts between local people and reserve managers. Plantation of fodder and medicinal species in degraded forest lands, suppression of economic exploitation of local people in the market, enhancement of local knowledge of the economic potential of biodiversity, incentives for cultivation of crops with comparative advantages and lesser risks of damage by wildlife, and rejuvenation of the traditional involvement of the whole village community in decison-making, could be the options for resolving conflicts between people and protected areas in this case.

Although monetary valuation of natural ecosystems is difficult, such valuation helps to draw attention to their importance, and highlight conservation needs, especially in developing countries. The recreational value of Khecheopalri, a lake situated in the West District of Sikkim State, India, which has recreational, biodiversity and sacredness values, was assessed. The demand curve function for recreation increased with decreases in travel cost and distance for Sikkimese visitors. The recreational value of the lake was similar to other protected sites in India; however, all these sites had very low values compared to sites elsewhere in the world. Willingness to pay for maintenance and preservation of the lake by all types of visitors ranged from US$ 0.88 for members of the local community to US$ 7.19 for international tourists. The lake showed high recreational/sacredness values that were attributed to conservation of the site for biodiversity and pilgrimage. A large number of lakes in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region, if properly managed and marketed for ecotourism, can bring economic development that can be linked with conservation.

The cessation or reduction of fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs) should promote an increase in abundance and mean size and age of previously exploited populations. Thus density-dependent changes in life-history characteristics should occur when populations are allowed to recover in MPAs. In this review, we synthesize the existing information on resource limitation in marine ecosystems, density-dependent changes in life-history traits of exploited populations and evidence for biomass export from MPAs. Most evidence for compensatory changes in biological variables has been derived from observations on populations depleted by high fishing mortality or on strong year classes, but these changes are more evident in juveniles than in adults and in freshwater rather than in marine systems. It is unclear if adults of exploited marine populations are resource limited. This may suggest that exploited populations are controlled mainly by density-independent processes, which could be a consequence of the depleted state of most exploited populations. MPAs could be a useful tool for testing these hypotheses. If we assume that resources become limiting inside MPAs, it is plausible that, if suitable habitats exist, mobile species will search for resources outside of the MPAs, leading to export of biomass to areas which are fished. However, it is not possible to establish from the available data whether this export will be a response to resource limitation inside the MPAs, the result of random movements across MPA boundaries or both. We discuss the implications of this process for the use of MPAs as fisheries management tools.

The grass cutting programme (GCP) of Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP) has been very successful in gaining local people's acceptance of RCNP. The GCP is recognized internationally as a model for park-people conflict resolution, but has seemingly become a spent force. The aim of the present study was to assess the extent to which the GCP is a form of ‘community-based conservation’ on the one hand, or ‘nature-based development’ on the other. During the ten days of open access in 1999, almost 50 000 tonnes of biomass were removed from the Park; the total gross economic value of the GCP in 1999 was more than US$ 1 million. Illegal fuelwood was the single most important product extracted from RCNP and accounted for half of the total quantity and economic value of all resources collected. It is argued that the GCP does not, in its present form, comply with the concept of community-based conservation, but is rather an example of nature-based development, where important natural core areas are exploited in the name of development. This study suggests a two-fold approach to reappraise the importance of the GCP in solving park-people conflicts without ignoring nature conservation. Firstly, access should be provided in different areas at different times instead of opening the whole Park at the same time. Secondly, since for the last 10–15 years buffer-zone community forestry has not been able to substitute fuelwood from RCNP, other ways to address local people's energy demand should be considered. It is argued that park-people conflicts in RCNP have not been solved, but only postponed, especially by compromising forest conservation and the possibility of the GCP to supply villagers with essential products in the future.

Human occupation and development of alluvial river floodplains are adversely affected by river channel lateral migration, which may range as high as several hundred metres per year. Reservoirs that reduce the frequency and duration of high flows typically reduce lateral migration rates by factors of 3 to 6. The ecology of riverine corridors is dependent upon the processes of erosion and sedimentation, which lead to lateral migration. Multiple-objective use of floodplains adjacent to active rivers therefore requires tools for assessing the probability and magnitude of channel movements. Existing approaches for predicting river channel movement may be classified as empirical or mechanistic, and are inadequate for widespread application. The Missouri River downstream from Fort Peck Dam in Montana, a major alluvial river with flow highly perturbed by regulation, was selected for case study. Maps and aerial photographs were available before and after dam construction. This imagery was analysed by digitizing channel centrelines at successive coverages under pre-dam and post-dam conditions, and mean migration rates were computed by bend and by reach. The mean rate of channel centreline migration fell from 6.6 m yr-1 to 1.8 m yr-1 after impoundment. Bend-mean channel activity rates were only weakly correlated with variables describing channel form and geometry. Results indicate that flow regulation for flood control and hydropower production typical of the study reach had profound effects on river corridor dynamism, with implications for habitat type distribution and ecosystem integrity.

Tropical marine protected areas (MPAs) may promote conditions that are attractive to dive tourists, but a systematic basis for assessing their effectiveness in this regard is currently lacking. We therefore interviewed 195 dive tourists in Jamaica to determine which reef attributes they most preferred to see on dives. Attributes relating to fishes and other large animals (‘big fishes’, ‘other large animals’, ‘variety of fishes’, ‘abundance of fishes’, and ‘unusual fishes’) were more appreciated than those relating to reef structure and benthos (‘reef structure e.g., drop-offs’, ‘variety of corals’, ‘large corals’, ‘coral cover’, ‘unusual corals’, ‘sponges’, ‘unusual algae’, ‘lobsters, crabs etc.’). We then surveyed reef condition with regard to those aspects (abundance and variety of fishes, number of ‘unusual’, and number of ‘large’ fish) at four Caribbean MPAs and reference areas. In two cases, Hol Chan Marine Reserve in Belize and Parque Nacional Punta Frances in Cuba, these fish attributes were more pronounced in the MPAs than in the reference areas. Differences between the Montego Bay Marine Park in Jamaica (MBMP) and adjacent reference areas were mainly restricted to shallow sites (<6m), while at Grand Cayman no differences between fully protected and partially protected areas were detected. Management had not been fully effective in the MBMP in the preceding months, while fishing pressure in the partially protected areas on Grand Cayman was very light. We conclude that, if fishing restrictions are well enforced, western Caribbean MPAs can be expected to be effective in ways appreciated by dive tourists.

The capability to detect and predict the responses of marine populations and communities to the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) depends on the ability to distinguish between the influences of management and natural variability due to the effects of factors other than protection. Thus, it is important to understand and quantify the magnitude and range of this natural variability at each scale of observation. Here we review the scale of responses of target populations and communities to protection within Mediterranean MPAs, against their ‘normal’ spatio-temporal heterogeneity, and compare those with documented cases from other temperate and tropical marine ecosystems. Additionally, we approach the problem of the relative importance of habitat structure, considered as a set of biological and physical elements of the seascape hierarchically arranged in space at multiple scales, to drive natural variability. We conclude that much more effort has to be made to characterize heterogeneity in relation to Mediterranean MPAs, and to quantify and explain relationships between target species and their habitats as sources of such variability. These studies should be based on sound sampling designs, which (1) generate long-term data sets, and would ideally (2) be based on a Mediterranean-wide comparison of a number of protected and unprotected localities, (3) be designed from a multi-scaled perspective, and (4) control for factors other than protection, in order to avoid their confounding effects. The need for appropriate spatial and temporal replication, nested designs and power analysis is advocated.

Nationally important wintering populations of up to 2700 Pochard Aythya ferina and 2000 Tufted Duck A. fuligula feed around Salford Docks in the upper reaches of the Manchester Ship Canal. The system is grossly organically polluted and devoid of aquatic macrophytes, but holds high densities of oligochaetes and other pollution-tolerant invertebrates. The species fed together and differences in feeding distributions were more apparent between day and night than they were between species or winter period. We related the spatial patterns of feeding by ducks to water depth, channel width, total organic benthic carbon levels, and invertebrate densities. Separate analyses were performed for each species, during nighttime and daytime, and for different periods of the winter. In only half these analyses could feeding patterns be explained by differences in the microhabitat variables. However, feeding by both species was concentrated in the wider portions of the docks, in areas with high densities of oligochaetes, but particularly in areas of high total benthic organic carbon. These were areas where large amounts of sewage matter are deposited in the benthos. There are plans to improve water quality in the docks by modernizing sewage treatment systems upstream and by oxygenating the water within the docks. These may generally improve the biology of the system , but they may have a serious impact on the numbers of diving ducks by reducing the densities of their invertebrate prey.

While some researchers suggest that higher taxon richness be used for setting conservation priorities, others claim that even data on ‘accepted species’ are inadequate, and that documentation of the finest patterns of differentiation is needed. The significance of taxonomic resolution was assessed using distributional data for 798 Andean bird species, which were recorded in 15′ × 15′ grid cells. This dataset was used because of the fine spatial resolution and the complex biogeographic patterns in this region. The primary database served as a template for creating three new databases, namely for genera, broadly defined biospecies and phylogenetic species. With this spatial resolution, the taxic richness ‘hotspots’ were roughly the same on all taxonomic levels, but the ratio between generic and species richness increased towards the biologically-poor high plateaus. Richness ‘hotspots’ covered only a small fraction of the endangered species. ‘Hotspots of endemism’ provided better guidance, and complementarity was decidedly best, but with generic data neither of these approaches were effective. On the other hand, the recognition of phylogenetic species revealed few new areas of endemism which were not also apparent using ‘accepted’ species. The analyses drew attention to aggregates of endemic species which are often sited in areas immediately adjacent to areas with dense human populations, possibly because traditional human settlements relied on ecoclimatic conditions which also determined the peaks of endemism. Since data are available for some taxonomic groups for detailed analysis of species data, there is little reason to base the conservation planning on coarser surrogates.

The rate of forest cover loss in the humid tropics of Cameroon is one of the highest in Central Africa. The aim of the large-scale, two-year research project described here was to understand the effect of the country's economic crisis and policy change on small-scale agricultural systems and land-clearing practices. Hypotheses were tested through surveys of more than 5000 households in 125 villages, and through time-series remote sensing analysis at two sites. The principal findings are that: (1) the rate of deforestation increased significantly in the decade after the 1986 onset of the crisis, as compared to the decade prior to the crisis; (2) the main proximate causes of this change were sudden rural population growth and a shift from production of cocoa and coffee to plantain and other food crops; and (3) the main underlying causes were macroeconomic shocks and structural adjustment policies that led to rural population growth and farming system changes. The implication of this study is that it is necessary to understand and anticipate the undesirable consequences of macroeconomic shocks and adjustment policies for forest cover. Such policies, even though they are often not formulated with natural resource consequences in mind, are often of greater relevance to the fate of forests than forest policy.

The East Usambara mountains are globally important for biodiversity conservation. The work reported here aimed to clarify whether plantations of Maesopsis eminii, an introduced pioneer tree, are a source of alien tree invasion or a temporary element in a protected conservation forest ecosystem in these mountains. The natural regeneration dynamics of M. eminii and indigenous primary tree species were assessed in M. eminii plantations which were up to 35 years old, using clustered systematic sampling. A total of 103 and 95 woody species were observed in the sapling and lower canopy layers, respectively. Both layers showed an abundance of Cephalosphaera usambarensis, a local species also used in plantations. M. eminii was virtually absent in the sapling layer, and its frequency decreased in the lower canopy with time. Abundant spontaneous regeneration of native primary forest species occurred under M. eminii. The sapling density of Allanblackia stuhlmannii, Beilschmiedia kweo and Greenwayodendron suaveolens increased, and that of Newtonia buchananii decreased, with time. In the lower canopy, the density of G. suaveolens, Parinari excelsa and Strombosia scheffleri increased in relation to plantation age. Therefore, no active, risky eradication of Maesopsis is needed in the conservation area, but a priority management task should be to avoid canopy gaps.

An important principle of environmental science is that changes in single components of systems are likely to have consequences elsewhere in the same systems. In the sea, food web data are one of the few foundations for predicting such indirect effects, whether of fishery exploitation or following recovery in marine protected areas (MPAs). We review the available literature on one type of indirect interaction in benthic marine ecosystems, namely trophic cascades, which involve three or more trophic levels connected by predation. Because many indirect effects have been revealed through fishery exploitation, in some cases we include humans as trophic levels. Our purpose is to establish how widespread cascades might be, and infer how likely they are to affect the properties of communities following the implementation of MPAs or intensive resource exploitation. We review 39 documented cascades (eight of which include humans as a trophic level) from 21 locations around the world; all but two of the cascades are from shallow systems underlain by hard substrata (kelp forests, rocky subtidal, coral reefs and rocky intertidal). We argue that these systems are well represented because they are accessible and also amenable to the type of work that is necessary. Nineteen examples come from the central-eastern and north-eastern Pacific, while no well-substantiated benthic cascades have been reported from the NE, CE or SW Atlantic, the Southern Oceans, E Indian Ocean or NW Pacific. The absence of examples from those zones is probably due to lack of study. Sea urchins are very prominent in the subtidal examples, and gastropods, especially limpets, in the intertidal examples; we suggest that this may reflect their predation by fewer specialist predators than is the case with fishes, but also their conspicuousness to investigators. The variation in ecological resolution amongst studies, and in intensity of study amongst systems and regions, indicates that more cascades will likely be identified in due course. Broadening the concept of cascades to include pathogenic interactions would immediately increase the number of examples. The existing evidence is that cascade effects are to be expected when hard-substratum systems are subject to artisanal resource exploitation, but that the particular problems of macroalgal overgrowth on Caribbean reefs and the expansion of coralline barrens in the Mediterranean rocky-sublittoral will not be readily reversed in MPAs, probably because factors other than predation-based cascades have contributed to them in the first place. More cascade effects are likely to be found in the soft-substratum systems that are crucial to so many large-scale fisheries, when opportunities such as those of MPAs and fishing gradients become available for study of such systems, and the search is widened to less conspicuous focal organisms such as polychaetes and crustaceans.

The world is in the midst of a substantial urban transition, but the impacts of this on the environment and human societies are not fully understood. Very little attention has been paid to urbanization processes in developing countries with smaller populations, despite the evident problems associated with urbanization. There are both biophysical and social vulnerabilities associated with urbanization in the South Pacific and these vulnerabilities affect human security. The biophysical vulnerabilities include the fragile environments of the island nations, limited land resources, shortages of basic resources, and the risks associated with global warming. The ability to respond to these problems is constrained by social vulnerabilities, notably weak economies, difficulties associated with land ownership, and institutional limitations. There is a need for institutional reform, improved planning, better urban resource management, and greater regional cooperation, if Pacific island nations are to respond effectively to rapid urbanization and global change.

The customary tenure of reef areas in many parts of the South Pacific offers an obvious context within which fishery resources might be managed cooperatively between customary-rights owners and fisheries personnel in government, yet the local foundations for such co-management have received little critical attention. Seven customary fishing rights areas (CFRAs) in Fiji were the focus of the present study, the objective being to compare management of CFRAs subject to differing levels of fishing access and ascertain those factors most influential to local management practices. The intensity of access (‘access pressure’) was measured as the number of licences issued per CFRA and per unit area, while management was assessed as an index, based on evidence of five aspects of management (management structure, marshalling of information for management, approach to goodwill payments, management measures and patrolling and enforcement) derived from questionnaires. Management varied amongst the CFRAs, one of the seven being essentially unmanaged because of a breakdown in succession between chiefs. There was little evidence for management responding uniformly to access pressure; rather, two CFRAs evinced a certain management aptitude regardless of this pressure, and two other CFRAs evinced relatively little management although pressure was high. A simple survey technique can indicate useful contrasts amongst CFRAs in functional local management, and thus be useful for guiding decisions about where to make investments in local management or co-management.

In areas where livestock production predominates, a ‘fence-out rule’ as opposed to a ‘fence-in rule’ has been advocated due to perceived economic advantages associated with open-range livestock production; people desiring to have no livestock on their properties need to construct fences. Yet a region's total economy may be enhanced by moving away from established fence-out and cost-sharing rules. With changes in public perceptions of property rights, advances in technology, and the acquisition of new scientific information, fence rules should be expected to evolve. This paper articulates political, economic and scientific considerations in the USA that may be contemplated by citizens and elected officials for altering directives controlling livestock. To promote economic efficiency and social well-being, the paper advocates the scrutiny of existing fence-out and cost-sharing rules in a region to determine whether alternative rules should be preferred. The demise of fence-out rules in some areas in the USA and other countries could help achieve a more sustainable use of range resources.

Which species will be intentionally preserved depends on societal perspectives regarding nature and species, but these have been little studied. In this study, it was hypothesized that in species-specific conservation, aesthetical perspectives, notably the appreciation of species characteristics as embodied in taxa, are important. However, this importance is changing due to variation in ecological (in particular, knowledge of species’ populations) and ethical perspectives (in particular regarding specific human-species relationships). The hypothesis was approached by assessing the relative involvement of different taxa in species-specific legislation on wild animals in the Netherlands over the period 1857–1995. Three objectives in this legislation were defined namely, ‘control’, ‘use’ and ‘protection’, based on purposes and potential levels of legally allowable taking. Over time, the number of species protected increased, whereas the numbers subject to ‘use’ and ‘control’ reached a peak and decreased again. The taxa included birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, insects, crustaceans and asteroids. Persistent differences were found in the relative involvement of taxa in the objectives as well as in the relative extent to which taxa were affected by long-term trends in numbers of species subject to the objectives. The results also show that species of one-and-the-same taxon were not regarded equally over time. It is concluded that the long-term changes in species’ legal status probably resulted from the combined effects of both the appreciation of species characteristics embodied in taxa and, in particular, changes in ethical perspectives regarding human-species relationships.