To conserve native habitats effectively, it is important to know how different groups view protected areas. The international team of researchers, also including IVM ecologists Peter Verburg and Federico Riva, interviewed 354 stakeholders from 22 countries across the Mediterranean Basin to identify areas of agreement in the preferences. Stakeholders included scientists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government organisations. The results were published in Conservation Letters.
Intrinsic value
The stakeholders interviewed largely identify the same priorities: promoting regulating ecosystem services, species diversity, and the intrinsic value of nature.
Regulating ecosystem services, such as crop pollination and air quality, were preferred over, for example, the provisioning of wood or water (provisioning ecosystem services) and recreation (cultural ecosystem services). Taxonomic diversity, i.e., a number of different species, was a more popular criterion than the diversity of evolutionary lineages and functional roles of species occurring in a given place. Finally, protecting nature for its intrinsic value was considered more important than for what humans can benefit from it.
Collaborative process
While there was broad agreement on the importance of certain conservation goals, stakeholders differed in their preferences regarding the characteristics of protected areas themselves. No clear consensus emerged on their preference for the size of the protected area, the accessibility from cities, and the degree of wilderness.
In addition, these results therefore also provide an opportunity for scientists to exchange information with other stakeholders. An example of this is the preference for taxonomic diversity. Scientists are increasingly emphasizing the importance of multiple aspects of biodiversity, such as functional and genetic diversity. Hernández-Agüero: “This is a collaborative process, where we learn from the public and also inform them better, helping to bridge the gap between research and implementation.”
Avoiding extinction
Leveraging this consensus can help to effectively protect Mediterranean forest ecosystems and biodiversity, the researchers say. “We were surprised by the agreement between the groups, because previous studies often found a broad variation between individuals. Looking for similarities will improve the effectiveness of local measures,” says Hernández-Agüero.
A recent example of where this has worked is the case of the Iberian lynx in the Iberian Peninsula. All stakeholders, including institutional and non-institutional parties, agreed on conserving the species, and after being considered “critically endangered” for twenty years, its conservation status improved as it is currently ‘vulnerable’. Hernández-Agüero: “There are hundreds of species in a similar situation, such as the Sardinian long-eared bat, the Ponza grayling and the Sicilian fir. We can avoid extinction if we act soon.”
Picture by Juan Antonio Hernández-Agüero