Mapping birds, biodiversity and business: the role of GIS in conservation

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BirdLife International uses GIS to manage enormous quantities of data on birds, biodiversity, and protected areas to inform conservation efforts. They have digitized over 10,000 Important Bird Areas and range maps for 10,064 bird species. This data is disseminated through various online portals and web services and is used both internally for analysis and externally by students, academics, and commercial groups. BirdLife is working to improve their GIS capabilities and expand data-driven conservation projects focused on marine sites, soaring birds, and collaboration in Europe.

Technology

Mapping birds, biodiversity and
business: the role of GIS in
conservation

Mark Balman - GIS Support Analyst
BirdLife International

Who are BirdLife International
What we do
How do we use GIS

BirdLife Partners operate in over one hundred
countries and territories worldwide
More than 4,000 staff working for conservation
Over 2,500,000 members worldwide
10,000,000 worldwide supporters
Over 2 million children involved annually
Over 1,000,000 hectares owned or managed

BirdLife Partners collaborate on regional work
programmes in every continent.
BirdLife's aims are to:

Prevent the extinction of any bird species
Maintain and where possible improve the conservation status of all bird species
Conserve and where appropriate improve and enlarge sites and habitats
important for birds
Help, through birds, to conserve biodiversity and to improve the quality of
people's lives
Integrate bird conservation into sustaining people's livelihoods

Why Conserve Birds?

Birds are part of biodiversity of immense value
Societies value birds for economic, cultural, ethical and spiritual reasons
The birdwatching industry is a growing economic force
Birds are excellent indicators of the state of the environment.

Knowledge Management

Enormous quantities of high quality, up-to-date, synthesised
data are needed to prioritise species, sites and habitats correctly.

Managing data, information and knowledge within BirdLife is a
task in itself and GIS plays an ever increasing and important role.

A brief history of GIS at BirdLife

Pre 2000, Atlas GIS, MapInfo
2000 – 2005, MapInfo
2006 – present, ArcGIS, Google Earth,Postresql, Geoserver +
others..

A brief background of geospatial data at BirdLife

Endemic Bird Areas - 218 regions identified using species point
localities and then delineated into polygons
Important Bird Areas – programme began in the mid 80s, have
now identified over 10,000 sites
Species range maps – In 2000, 1,200 maps digitised, now have
maps for 10,064 species

Other data collected

All site based information collected within a bespoke web based
database – World Biodiversity Database. Mysql based (limited
spatial capabilities)
All species information now switched to the Species Information
Service (SIS)
Species occurrence data stored within an Access database and a
file geodatabase

External data we use

Global landcover data - GLC 2000, Joint Research Centre (1km),
Globcover 2009, ESA (300m)
GTOPO, Globe, ETOPO, SRTM elevation data (1km, 90m)
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA)
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) occurrence data

Processing information

ArcGIS models and scripts aid in creating analyses and
maintenance e.g.

Simple modelling of species range within habitats at specific
elevations likely to become more complex

Subset data into various products (species range maps) or
national level IBA datasets

Dissemination of data

Data has various uses ranging from internal analyses for
cartographic output for inclusion into reports

Species range maps now served dynamically to each species
factsheet on the Datazone section of the BirdLife website

Species maps are also available to the wider public via registration
on the BirdLife website

Since November 2011, we have had over 600 requests for species
range maps (mostly from students and academics but some from
commercial enterprises such as GIS consultancies, petrochemical
and mineral extraction companies)

Species maps are also provided to the EuroGEOSS project via web
services (WMS, WFS)

Current / Future projects

Handbook Birds of the World (splitting taxa to ~13,000spp)

Develop two web based mapping portals for Marine IBAs
Soaring Birds

Birds In Europe 3 collaboration with European Topic Centre on Biological
Diversity (European Environment Agency)

The document summarizes a study that evaluated the performance of protected areas in conserving lions and their prey across Africa. The study found that 65.2% of protected areas failed to adequately conserve lion populations, with half of areas maintaining lion numbers below 25% of the areas' carrying capacity. The study concluded that with improved management, including increased funding, fencing, reducing threats like poaching and human encroachment, protected areas could increase lion populations by 261% by restocking to carrying capacity levels. The document calls for prioritizing conservation efforts and investments in protected areas and management actions that can most efficiently increase lion and prey populations across Africa.

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This document discusses the need for an alliance between farmers and environmentalists in the EU and proposes reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It argues that the CAP needs to shift its focus from supporting agricultural production to paying farmers for environmental services and delivering public goods. Specifically, it recommends (1) paying farmers for sustainable land management practices, (2) establishing a mandatory baseline for environmental protection, and (3) providing grants for green technologies and sustainable farming practices while limiting support for unsustainable production.

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CIAT

Tools for spatial conservation prioritization

jlehtoma

Spatial conservation prioritization is about identifying priority areas for biodiversity, as well as the allocation and scheduling of alternative conservation actions to inform decision-making. In other words, spatial conservation prioritization tries to answer the question of where, when, and how we act to efficiently meet conservation goals. Efficiency is an important concept, as possible conservation actions are always limited by available resources. Spatial conservation prioritization can be informative for many different types of conservation action, such as selecting locations most suitable for extending protected area network, targeting restoration and management, or designing broad scale green infrastructure. The term “quantitative” refers to prioritization based on quantitative and spatially explicit data that describes the extent and occurrence of biodiversity features (e.g. species and habitats) and other relevant information (e.g. costs and threats). A prioritization algorithm then does the actual prioritization by ordering the planning units used according to some explicit formulation and the results are usually presented in the form of maps that describe the spatial distribution of priorities over the area of interest. Tools aimed at quantitative spatial conservation prioritization have multiple distinct advantages over non-quantitative approaches. They are able to account for the occurrence of biodiversity over potentially very broad geographical areas. For example, when working with species on local level, it is important to account for the occurrence of that species elsewhere. When designing new protected areas, it is similarly important to know what is already protected. Ecological connectivity is yet another factor that is not easy to account for in conventional planning. Expert-based and quantitative approaches are not, however, mutually exclusive. Expert input is always needed to make use of quantitative spatial conservation planning tools. In this short seminar, we will cover the basics and some available tools for spatial conservation prioritization. We will also go through the most typical stages of a spatial conservation prioritization project using a specific tool, Zonation, as an example. Zonation is a tool for balancing the requirements of many features, such as biodiversity or ecosystem services features, simultaneously in ecologically informed land use planning. In addition to conservation prioritization, Zonation is suited also for general land use planning and resource allocation. We will go through multiple real-life example projects in which Zonation has been used as a decision-support tool. We will also discuss different sources of data needed, as well as typical resources needed to run a prioritization project using Zonation. This seminar should give the attendees a basic understanding what spatial conservation prioritization is useful for.

Presentation1 - Basis of application of Ecogeography in PGR

Mauricio Parra Quijano

This document discusses the application of ecogeography in plant genetic resources. It defines ecogeography as the study of the adaptive scenario of an individual, population or species through analysis of biotic and abiotic factors that affect survival. It describes how geographical information systems (GIS) can be used to characterize plant collecting sites based on ecogeographical variables and identify potential applications of GIS in plant genetic resources, such as optimized germplasm collecting and identification of suitable areas for conservation. Finally, it lists activities that can be performed using GIS, such as determining the representativeness of ex-situ collections and identifying areas with high phenotypic or genotypic diversity.

Presentation1 ecogeographic basis

Mauricio Parra Quijano

U.S. IBA Program 16 Mar2009

johncecil

The Important Bird Areas Program seeks to identify and conserve important bird habitat sites across North America. It uses standardized criteria to identify IBAs of global and continental significance. Once identified, IBAs are assessed to understand bird populations, habitat quality, threats, and conservation actions. Local adoption groups are formed to develop conservation plans and take actions like habitat restoration to protect IBAs. Over 2,300 IBAs have been identified across North America so far, with many prioritized and assessed, and over 800 local groups working on conservation.

Farming insects as food and feed - Arnold van Huis, Wageningen University

Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) / Luonnonvarakeskus (Luke)

The document discusses farming insects as food and feed. It notes that insects are a more sustainable source of protein compared to traditional livestock like cattle due to insects requiring less land and water and producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions. However, harvesting insects from the wild is often unsustainable. The document explores farming insects industrially and using insects to convert organic waste into protein and fat. It also discusses food safety issues regarding bacteria, viruses, heavy metals and allergens that must be addressed for insects to be safely consumed or used as feed.

Wildlife Conservation is the practice of protecting wild plant and animal species and their habitat. Wildlife plays an important role in balancing the environment and provides stability to different natural processes of nature. The goal of wildlife conservation is to ensure that nature will be around for future generations to enjoy and also to recognize the importance of wildlife and wilderness for humans and other species alike. Many nations have government agencies and NGO's dedicated to wildlife conservation, which help to implement policies designed to protect wildlife. Numerous independent non-profit organizations also promote various wildlife conservation causes. Wildlife conservation has become an increasingly important practice due to the negative effects of human activity on wildlife. An endangered species is defined as a population of a living species that is in the danger of becoming extinct because the species has a very low or falling population, or because they are threatened by the varying environmental or prepositional parameters.

Sustainable Pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau

marcfoggin

Plenary Lecture: Sustainable Rangelands, Sustainable Pastoralism in Yak Herding Areas of the Tibetan Plateau & Central Asia. Delivered by Marc Foggin at the "10th International Rangeland Congress: The Future Management of Grazing and Wild Lands in a High-Tech World." Session on Range and Forage of High Latitudes and Altitudes. Conference held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on 16-22 July 2016.

IUCN_INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE.pptx

shikhabharti46

The IUCN is an international organization focused on nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It has over 1,400 member organizations and works through expert commissions and a secretariat on data collection, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. The IUCN's commissions focus on issues like education, environmental policy, environmental law, ecosystem management, and species conservation. The IUCN tracks threatened species on the Red List and works in Asia on issues like species protection, ecosystem restoration, climate change, sustainable development, and more across domains like forests, coasts, water, and protected areas.

GIS for sustainable forest resource management in Ethiopia

IAALD Community

This document discusses how GIS can support sustainable forest resource management in Ethiopia. It provides an overview of GIS and its components, as well as its role in forest resource assessment, management planning, monitoring changes in forest cover, suitability analysis, and modeling forest yield. Two current GIS-based research projects are also summarized, focusing on analyzing forest land conversion and identifying suitable lands for economically important tree species.

Global Information Systems for Plant Genetic Resources (2009)

Dag Endresen

SLOPE 1st workshop - presentation 6

SLOPE Project

This document summarizes a hyperspectral camera and its applications for precision agriculture. It describes the camera as the world's smallest and lightest hyperspectral imaging sensor. The camera provides high resolution spectral and spatial data to help farmers monitor crop health and development, identify issues like diseases or nutrient deficiencies, optimize resource use, and forecast yields. It also helps foresters with tasks like species identification and inventory, detecting diseases or water stress, estimating timber volume, and mapping clear-cut or burned areas. The document outlines the camera's data acquisition and processing methodology, as well as examples of vegetation indices and applications for precision agriculture and forestry management.

Biocommerce powerpoint

Stratega Business Development Services

This document provides information about biotrade including: - Biotrade involves the sustainable collection, production, processing and marketing of goods and services from biodiversity. - The UNCTAD Biotrade Initiative was established in 1996 to promote sustainable trade in biological resources. - There are 7 principles of biotrade related to conservation, sustainable use, fair benefit-sharing, socio-economic sustainability, compliance with legislation, recognition of actor rights, and land tenure. - Examples of biotrade products and services include wild harvesting, farming, and sustainable tourism. Traditional knowledge is also involved in biotrade.

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World Agroforestry (ICRAF)

Ecological Society of America

Vishwas Chavan

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international initiative that aims to provide open access to biodiversity data. It currently has 50 participating countries and 40 international organizations contributing data. GBIF develops standards and tools to help aggregate and publish biodiversity data from various sources. This includes species occurrences, names, taxonomic information, and more. GBIF's data portal allows users to search, browse, and access over 181 million georeferenced records. GBIF is working to integrate biodiversity data on a global scale and support areas like conservation and monitoring of biodiversity trends.

Towards an Integrated Agroforestry Policy Agenda

EcoAgriculture Partners

The document discusses how agroforestry can help address major challenges facing agriculture and the environment in the 21st century by helping to meet growing food demands in a sustainable way. It outlines how agroforestry can help reduce poverty and food insecurity, adapt to and mitigate climate change, restore degraded land, and provide ecosystem services. The document calls for integrating agroforestry into agricultural policies to achieve benefits across food production, environmental protection, and rural development.

Agroforestry Institute in India and Overseas.pptx

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This document provides information on various national and international institutions involved in agroforestry and forestry research. It discusses research centers in India such as IGFRI, CRIDA, CAZRI that started agroforestry research in the 1960s-1970s. It also summarizes several international organizations such as FAO, ICRAF, ITTO, IUCN, IUFRO, UNEP, UNESCO, CGIAR that conduct forest conservation research and support projects around the world. The document provides details on the work and focus areas of these different institutions.

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International Tropical Peatlands Center

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World Resources Institute (WRI)

1. The group discussed prioritizing deforestation alerts from Global Forest Watch by filtering them based on areas of high conservation importance for biodiversity, like key biodiversity areas, intact forests, and sites for endangered species. 2. They proposed three options - filtering by ecoregions, mapping sites of range rarity as a continuous layer, or allowing users to select layers like protected areas, tiger habitats, and ape sites. 3. Integrating biodiversity data into Global Forest Watch could help conservation groups and governments better target responses to deforestation alerts in the most critical areas for nature. However, challenges may include refining models and maps

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The document discusses strategies for conservation of biodiversity, with a focus on a case study from Surrey, Canada. It outlines several key strategies for Surrey's biodiversity conservation plan, including identifying priority areas through habitat suitability mapping to create a green infrastructure network. It discusses implementing biodiversity management policies, ongoing monitoring, and integrating the conservation strategies into city policies. The document also provides several case studies on biodiversity conservation efforts from different regions of the world.

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Mapping birds, biodiversity and business: the role of GIS in conservation

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