Nelson is a senior community development officer responsible for implementing initiatives in sustainable livelihoods programs, conservation and infrastructure projects such as community conservancies and clean energy technologies. But Nelson is witnessing growing pressure in his rural, savanna woodland landscape from seemingly every conceivable interest both afoot and afar. Local pastoralists are stocking ever more head of cattle in an attempt to buffer their livelihoods against the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns. Lions and elephants seem to emulate the vicissitudes of the weather and ‘wander’ onto farming settlements in search of a meal. A newly discovered oil field by a foreign prospecting company has gotten wealthy urban investors buying off land in the middle of nowhere from desperate pastoral communities. While Nelson is fictional, this scenario isn’t farfetched.  Many rural communities occupy areas rich in biodiversity and mineral resources, but are themselves short on capital and institutional planning capacity.

Red areas represent Marxan solutions for meeting habitat needs of suite of conservation targets under current climate.

Based on years of experience in the landscape, Nelson has an understanding of how individual portions of the landscape are used by stakeholders and contribute to maintaining the diversity of species and ecosystems.  The montane forest provides a source of freshwater, habitat for wildlife, non-timber forest products, and nature tourism; the small plots of farmland propping up modest households with extra income and sustenance, while the vast grasslands both fatten cattle and support iconic wildlife. But what to make of the oil discovery and potential windfall of revenues, infrastructure development, and land speculation skyrocketing? Change can bring significant benefits to some but not without consequences both socially and ecologically. Many of the negative consequences can be avoided, however, if the development is well-planned, through a structured and inclusive decision process.

In this age of hyper globalization, rapid industrialization, and climate change it is not an option to make land-use decisions in isolation, particularly on land and its attributes as a finite resource. Yet it is no easy task to lay all the cards on the table and readily pick a path best for all. This is why a systematic and objective based approach is critical to making informed decisions about the future of the landscape. It becomes imperative to invite all the actors to the table and set objectives, values and conditions for solutions. A ship cannot build and haul its cargo by itself, likewise, ensuring thriving human and ecological communities, requires coordinated planning that considers the interlinked facets of the system and explicitly acknowledges the trade-offs involved in decision making.  

Marxan is one tool in a shop of potential options for organizing several aspects of Nelson’s complex challenge, including where development should be encouraged and what areas are critical to conserve.  Marxan helps Nelson elucidate trade-offs required between stakeholders, and navigate those trade-offs to help actors identify acceptable tradeoffs and outcomes. Marxan is a spatial optimization tool, not to be confused with a land change modeling tool, that aides decision makers in spatially allocating resources or prioritizing locations for conservation or development given an explicit set of objectives, eg. conserve 50% of wetlands while minimizing opportunity cost to pastoralists. Marxan works by aggregating spatial information on the values and activities that are important to stakeholders, including species, ecosystems, mineral resources and water. Then using stakeholder specified objectives it identifies alternative landscape configurations that achieve those objectives and can be mapped out and presented to stakeholders to promote thoughtful discussion and facilitate informed and efficient decision making.

On 19–20^th June, ABCG partners, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) and Widlife Conservation Society (WCS) held a second Marxan learning workshop at AWF headquarters in Nairobi to review findings of a systematic conservation planning analysis using Maxan in the Kilimanjaro-Amboseli landscape of Kenya and Tanzania. David Williams AWF’s Program Director for Conservation Geography kicked off the event by presenting recently collected and synthesized data on wildlife distribution and related threats that served as inputs for the Marxan-generated scenarios. Participants were then briefed on of the guiding principles of systematic conservation planning, including the fundamental importance of setting quantifiable objectives upon which conservation progress can be measured within a transparent and accountable process. Dan Segan, Conservation Planner, Climate Adaptation Team at WCS, facilitated the review of how the Marxan methodology, based on those fundamental principles, was applied in the Kilimanjaro-Amboseli landscape.  The workshop guided participants through how the information was incorporated into the landscape analysis and how the results of the analysis can be used to highlight critical conservation focus areas.

Lucy Waruingi, African Conservation Centre.

The workshop also:

• developed landscape storylines constructed around desired outcomes across specific themes (e.g., water resources, wildlife species, land uses)
• discussed a communication strategy involving development of communication materials and storylines tailored to individual audiences such as policy makers and land use sector leaders.

Workshop participants included representatives from the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, AWF Landscapes staff, the School for Field Studies, African Conservation Centre and the Geological Society of Kenya. Many participants offered valuable expertise and feedback on the Marxan generated scenarios, including target suitability, gaps in scenarios and data, and much more. Furthermore, participants identified new opportunities for action such as additional wildlife species that could be added to the analysis to strengthen future Marxan scenarios.

Participants also discussed barriers to change, and how to best communicate findings of the work and engage stakeholders to move the project forward with constructive input, and benefit land and resource managers such as Nelson.

Three of the most important pillars in conservation: drawing on the best minds and institutions to work together and enhance the impact of their pooled resources; engaging the affected community in seeking enduring solutions, and; share scientifically grounded knowledge with the broader conservation and development community—define the essence of the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group.

To this point, ABCG has taken a critical look at the face of our collaboration: our interactive website—ABCG.org—and invested in redesigning its functionality for a more effective user interface including, content searching, interactivity and feedback, streamlined user experience and a presentable layout. ABCG.org has a trove of collectively generated knowledge on conservation matters, from the bushmeat crisis to UAV (drone) technology; freshwater conservation and public health to faith-based conservation; and industrial agriculture and food security to mining and logging. ABCG continues to generate knowledge and it is important that we continue to apply the best accessible approaches to manage it for our visitors.

Seven highly regarded NGO members produce policy reviews, conduct workshop trainings, technology development and transfer, and improve upon conservation practices through collaborative working teams, and open this material to targeted, public consumption and feedback. Chances are you will find the knowledge resource that you need for a program design, or appropriate practices in monitoring and evaluation for a project.

The seven members that make up the coalition, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), Conservation International (CI), the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), have collectively implemented seven million dollars’ worth of conservation activities in the past five years. This amount is not impressive in itself, rather, it is the value added through collaboration at the project planning and design phase that enhances the ultimate output and outcomes of activities. ABCG’s joint effort has enabled broader conservation impact of individual projects across multiple landscapes, rather than a piecemeal approach; It has helped the pitfall of “reinventing the wheel” through outreach and engagement with communities of practice in the field including local NGOs, civil society, private enterprise and government agencies at many levels. Crucially, joining forces plays to the strengths of individuals and institutions, fostering peer learning and tackling multiple conservation challenges that no one organization can accomplish effectively on its own.

ABCG is built around an idea that works much like an organism itself—a body needs specialized organs working in concert, in a system. Similarly, people of all backgrounds and persuasions live together in complex arrangements that require structures and rules to enable a functioning society. However, much of the complex challenges facing biodiversity conservation stem from a dissonance between human society’s relations with nature. Due to these complex, interconnected and multifaceted interactions of conservation and development challenges, it becomes imperative to tackle these challenges in an integrated, multidisciplinary and systematic fashion. This is the strategic advantage of ABCG—a voluntary agreement to work as a team and push ever scarce funding dollars even further together.

The ABCG consortium presents to you our new website! We hope you find ABCG.org most useful as a portal, a forum and resource for biodiversity conservation and development solutions. We encourage you to drop by, download a document, leave a comment or more and share the knowledge with all who are interested in bridging the complex challenges of smart development and biodiversity conservation.

Resources:

Find our printable brochure all about ABCG here.

Read our previous newsletter giving an overview of ABCG’s current and recent thematic charges.

African forest elephants–taxonomically and functionally unique from their savanna cousins that they separated from 5 million years ago–are being poached at accelerating rates. Many central African countries have opened up their forests to selective logging and mining concessions, thus enabling access for poachers. However, there is poor range-wide information on the repercussions. 

Analysis of the largest survey dataset ever assembled for forest elephants (80 foot-surveys; covering 13,000 km; 91,600 person-days of fieldwork) revealed that population size declined by ca. 62% between 2002-2011, and the taxon lost 30% of its geographical range. The population is now less than 10% of its potential size, occupying less than 25% of its potential range. High human population density, hunting intensity, absence of law enforcement, poor governance, and proximity to expanding infrastructure are the strongest predictors of decline. 

To save the remaining African forest elephants, illegal poaching for ivory and encroachment into core elephant habitat must be stopped. In addition, the international demand for ivory, which fuels illegal trade, must be dramatically reduced.

~ Coutesy of the Oxford Megafauna Conference, 2014; and Plos ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059469

Dr. Maisels covered the following topics:

• Current Elephant poaching crisis
• Ancient elephant distribution and elimination from much of the Old World
• Elephant role in the modern ecosystem
• Elephant/ megafauna past role in ecosystems; and repercussions thereof

Find the presentation slides via this link here.

Watch the entire webinar recording by clicking here.

Dr. Fiona Maisels is the Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s wildlife monitoring Programmes in The Congo Basin and one of Central Africa’s most experienced conservationists. Her expertise covers survey methodologies, wildlife abundance and distribution, wildlife ecology and protected area management. She has trained hundreds of wildlife biologists and runs one of the most esteemed training courses in Central Africa. Dr Maisels is on the Scientific Commission of GRASP, is a member of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Stirling.  

Dr Maisels studied the feeding ecology of mouflon in Cyprus for her PhD (Edinburgh University)  and has since worked in Central Africa for over 20 years. 

Although it’s now clear that wildlife and forest trafficking has far reaching national and international security and economic implications, many governments tend to see the problem as just an environmental issue and the global fight against wildlife and forest crime is not giving the expected results.

New and innovative approaches are urgently needed and the global civil society can now play its part with WildLeaks.

WildLeaks is a nonprofit collaborative project created & funded by the Elephant Action League (EAL) and managed in collaboration with a group of very experienced individuals, which includes the directors of environmental investigation NGOs, environmental lawyers, accredited journalists, security professionals and ex-law enforcement officers.

The Mission of WildLeaks is to receive and evaluate anonymous information regarding wildlife and forest crimes and transform them into actionable items. The submission system is entirely based on the use of the Tor technology, which is integrated in the platform and allows the sources to stay anonymous and to submit sensitive information in a very secure way, always encrypted, in respect to data transmission and management.

The priorities of WildLeaks are to prevent wildlife crime and to facilitate the 

identification, arrest and prosecution of criminals, traffickers, businessmen and corrupt governmental officials behind the poaching of endangered species and the trafficking of wildlife and forest products.

Wildlife crimes very often go undetected and unchallenged when people do not speak up about them, and whistleblowers can play a crucial role in fighting back, creating awareness and doing justice. 

The first 3-month pilot phase of WildLeaks, launched in February 2014, offers us the opportunity to evaluate this tool, have a look at its first results, get precious feedbacks and suggestions, and show how it could support the efforts of the international community in fighting wildlife crime.

Andrea Crosta is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the California based Elephant Action League (EAL) and the Founder and Project Leader of WildLeaks.

Since 1989 he has been involved in a variety of conservation and research projects in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe supported by a private Italian foundation.

For over 15 years he has been working also as an international consultant to companies and governmental agencies on high-end security services, homeland security, investigations and risk management, a unique knowledge that he now applies to conservation and wildlife protection. 
As an entrepreneur, in 1998 he founded ‘Think Italy’, one of the very first e-commerce companies in Italy.

In 2010-2012 he was a part of the 2-man team that uncovered the link between the ivory trade and the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab.

Find the full presentation slides and Storify thread via this link here.