The maintenance of biological diversity is a
precondition for sustainable development. Conversely, sustainable
development is, in many respects, the key to the maintenance of
biological diversity. Hungry people may have no alternative but to
convert ecologically unique habitats into arable land. Thus, the
effective implementation of conventions to conserve wetlands, for
example, is dependent on helping people to raise the productivity
of existing arable land, thereby taking the pressure off these
unique habitats.
A strategy in this area
could be built around two primary
objectives:
(a) Conserving
sufficient inter- and intra-specific diversity to ensure that
mankind has the genetic resources to respond to new pests and
diseases and to potential problems such as deterioration in growing
conditions as a result of climate and other environmental
changes;
(b) Promoting the
utilization of appropriate genetic resources and biodiversity, and
raising the economic and social importance of natural resources in
specific ecosystems for agro- forestry, livestock, fish, and game
cropping in natural savannah areas.
Compared with the magnitude of the problem, the
action being taken so far by Governments and the international
community to promote conservation and sustainable use of biological
diversity is inadequate in the extreme. There is a pressing need
for a comprehensive biodiversity strategy. Crucial issues include
the provision of adequate compensation for the conservation of
genetic resources, use of part of the compensation for more active
conservation, and wider access to these and other genetic resources
in the field and in gene banks, including those produced through
biotechnology.
Conservation management requires linked planning
between the top level of strategy and the ground level of site
operations.
The key connections between the central strategy
group and local site operations are made by a strategic manager,
who carries out an action plan which instructs individuals or
agencies to undertake work to meet the group's strategic
objectives, and demands progress reports for measuring compliance
to its targets.
The action plan, therefore, has to :-
- set out the
strategy group's objectives and its measureable targets
(so-called 'smart objectives') which are to be used by operational
managers;
- provide
summary instructions for particular actions to be carried out to
meet these objectives (i.e. allocates strategic
prescriptions);
- describe
the actions which will address the limiting factors of
management at an operational level;
- establishes
data links with individuals and organisations (perhaps
through lead agencies) that will produce one or more operational
management plans on the ground aimed at the objectives;
- defines an
audit procedure for getting appropriate reports from
operational managers (perhaps through a lead agency) which may be
used to measure compliance with the objectives.
The key to linking strategic planning with
operational planning is the gathering of feedback from
operational projects within each strategic prescription.
Prior information is required that answers the
following questions about the species regarding its population and
its limiting factors, which together define the system that has to
be manipulated by the jobs on site (projects)
Population
trends?
Why is
the species so rare today? What is known of the species
historically, and what trends have there been in the species
abundance during the last 200 or 300 years?
Factors of
Survival?
What
are the environmental conditions most suited to large populations
of the species? Are these conditions available at the present time,
or how can management establish optimal or sub optimal conditions?
In particular, are there any major mortality factors, such as
predation or human.
Factors of
Growth?
What
are the environmental conditions required for the optimal growth of
the species? Are these conditions available at the present time, or
how can management establish optimal or sub- optimal
conditions?
Factors of
Dispersal?
What
are the means of dispersal of the species, and does it use
them?
For
plants: Does the species spread vegetatively, or does it set
fertile seed? What are the characteristics of pollination - is it
self sterile or can it be self-pollinated readily? What conditions
are required for the germination of the seed?
For
animals: What are the breeding characteristics of the species and
what is the intrinsic rate of natural increase? What factors limit
the increase in the population size? Is it confined to one
ecosystem, or does it utilize several adjacent ecosystems for food,
shelter, etc.? Is there any migration?
It is obvious that, to some extent, these
questions overlap, but in them is the information that is needed in
planning a conservation management strategy for the plant
species.
