1. Overview of similarities and differences between terrestrial and marine planning
Mandy Lombard, NMMU and UCT, South Africa

2. Acknowledgements: Richard Cowling and Andrew Knight
(Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)
Mathieu Rouget
(SA National Biodiversity Insitute)
Belinda Reyers (CSIR)
Jan Vlok (Botanist)
Bob Pressey and Hedley Grantham
(University of Queensland)
Lynnath Beckley (Murdoch)
Jean Harris (KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife)
Kerry Sink (SANBI)
George Branch and Barry Clark
(University of Cape Town)
Deon Nel (WWF)

3. Similarities The conservation planning process is the same
2. The basic steps are
the same

4. Conservation Planning Process
Management
Planning
Assessment
Conservation activity
Stakeholder collaboration
Involved
Informed
Empowered
LEARNING INSTITUTIONS
Retention
Representation
Conservation goal
Persistence
IMPLEMENTATION
STAKEHOLDERS
ENABLING
CONSERVATION OPPORTUNITIES
Conservation Planning Process
MAINSTREAMING
CONSERVATION PRIORITIES
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
Fig. legend. Conservation planning processes that deliver effective conservation action on the ground (arrow) achieve a minimum suite of milestones (stages). Although those milestones constituting systematic assessment (bottom left) underpin effective conservation planning processes, they are best undertaken at the regional scale, are completed relatively rapidly, and do little to empower stakeholders and so alone do not directly deliver effective conservation action. In the long term, persistence of nature and effective conservation management (top right) are more closely linked to processes that empower stakeholders: ultimately, the establishment of social learning institutions provide for adaptive management.
The establishment of learning institutions provide for adaptive management.
Assessment
1. Understand the ecosystem (by mapping patterns and processes and working out how they interact)
2. Understand the threats (by mapping their spatial and temporal distribution and their intensity, and working out exactly who is responsible for them, and how they affect marine ecosystems)
 Planning
3. Devise a plan to protect marine ecosystems from these threats – take into account stakeholders and political will
 Implementation
4. Implement this plan (MPAs, catch limits, international agreements, compliance)
5. Manage the plan and monitor ecosystem responses to the plan and provide feedback to number 1 (this forms the research-implementation continuum, see Knight et al paper, Knight, A.T., Cowling, R.M. and Campbell, B.M An operational model for implementing conservation action. Conservation Biology 20(2): 408–419)
CONSERVATION VALUES
DATA
Time scale
Rapid
In perpetuity
Knight et al. 2006a

5. Conservation Planning Steps
1: map biodiversity features (species and habitats)
2: map spatially fixed processes
Southern Right Whale feeding grounds and nursery areas
3: define spatially flexible processes
4: set targets for all patterns & processes
Length
coastline
%of area
Process
5: identify and map the spatial extent
of threats to all patterns and processes
6: identify gaps in current protection of patterns & processes
(assessment: C-Plan, Marxan, etc.)
7: identify spatial/management interventions
to ensure target achievement

6. There are real differences in ecology and scale:
dynamic nature of oceanographic processes
high natural variability
connected water matrix
SST
Chl
extensive movement of organisms in a system
with few discrete boundaries

7. Differences
The diversity of marine habitats and species is comparatively greater (marine)
BUT
The knowledge of this diversity,
and also of the underlying
processes that maintain it,
is disproportionately poor
(data are harder to collect,
way more expensive,
so more use of surrogates)

8. Differences
There has been concern that marine systems may be too open and variable to support area-based conservation approaches
Marine - mostly about
management of extraction
(targets have been fisheries
based - catch limits)
Terrestrial - mainly about
setting aside areas (targets are
area based)

9. Differences
Are real and perceived differences in:
Ownership
Human use
Sustainability
Regulation
Access rights
Marine – GREAT importance of:
local knowledge
extensive stakeholder support
compliance monitoring

10. Differences Threats to marine environment
Extractive marine living resource use
Pollution
Mining
Coastal development
Climate change
Catchment degradation
Non-extractive recreational activities
Alien invasive species
Mariculture
(few extinctions)
In marine environments, few are transformed at habitat level, more at ecosystem level e.g. food chains
Threats are more widespread and difficult to limit to one region
Aliens can’t be controlled
Threats to terrestrial environment 
Habitat destruction (fragmentation)

12. Six current MPA Projects: BCLME
National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment
KwaZulu-Natal
Offshore MPAs
Agulhas Bioregion
Prince Edward Islands

13. Special challenges in the marine environment
Where are the bioregions?
- 3-D environment
- limited patterns maps
- limited process maps
- limited human use maps

14. INSHORE BIOREGIONS (X5)A t l a n i c O f s h o r e B g I d - P S u w N m q W D C p
OFFSHORE BIOREGIONS (X4)
INSHORE BIOREGIONS (X5)
All of the inshore bioregions were assumed to extend to the edge of the continental shelf (where the sub photic and upper slope meet).

15. 2. Where is the biodivesity?
Known
Unknown (surrogates)

16. 3a. What scale should we be mapping at for effective implementation?

17. 3b. What scale should we be mapping at for effective implementation?
Deep-sea sediments

18. 4. How do we map and protect the moving component of biodiversity?

19. 5. How do we map ecosystem processes (offshore)?
The three-dimensional nature of the marine environment and its temporal variability pose difficult challenges in understanding and managing the pelagic (water column) component of the oceans.

21. KwaZulu-Natal (SeaPlan)
Sea surface temperature
Chlorophyll

22. Offshore “Profiles”– 1km x 1km
Defined by …….
* Depth
* Geology & sediment type
* Sediment stability/mobility
* Turbidity
* Temperature
* Chlorophyll

25. Oceanographic Provinces
Bakun (Ocean triads)

26. (i) Map human activity in the marine environment
6. How do we incorporate costs and opportunities into MPA planning?
(i) Map human activity in the marine environment
        Who are they and what are they doing?
        Where do they go in space and time?
        How much do they go?
        What are the costs/values/significance of the activities?
       

27. (ii) Map vulnerability
Rouget et al. (2003). Biological Conservation
Kerri Wilson

28. (iii) Incorporate this information into the conservation planning analyses (Marxan)
Romola Stewart

29. 7. How does one trade long-term biodiversity goals with short-term fisheries goals?2 n m 1
Prince
Edward
Islands
To Australia

30. Patagonian toothfish
Lombard et al. (2007). Antarctic Science

31. The Gap In Conservation Planning Implementation Research
- goal is to design protected areas and other management strategies
which represent and ensure the persistence of nature
- by separating it from the activities which degrade or destroy it
However:
- conservation assessments are rarely translated into actions which
actually conserve nature
The gap:
There is a “research-implementation gap” between conservation science and ‘real-world’ action
Conclusion:
A re-evaluation of the research direction of both the conceptual and operational basis of conservation planning is urgently required
Knight et al. 2006b

32. The End