Landscape management - Ecological Applications: Toward a Sustainable World - page 291

can guide international conservation efforts, particularly where the host country
itself has few resources to devote to conservation.
At a national or regional scale, the aim of conservation is to represent the biota
in a way that separates biodiversity from the processes that threaten it. Margules
and Pressey (2000) recommend the following steps for systematic conservation
planning:
1 Compile data on biodiversity and on the distribution of rare and endangered
species in the planning region.
2 Identify conservation goals and set explicit targets for species and ecosystem
types.
3 Review existing conservation areas to measure the extent to which quantitative
goals have already been achieved.
4 Select additional conservation areas to augment existing reserves in a way that best
achieves the conservation goals.
5 Implement conservation actions having decided the most appropriate form of man-
agement for each area and established an implementation timetable if resources are
not available for all actions to be carried out at once.
6 Maintain the required values of conservation areas and monitor key indicators that
will refl ect management success, modifying management as required.
When selecting new biodiversity reserves (step 4), two key principles can be taken
into account - complementarity (Section 10.6.1) and irreplaceability (Section
10.6.2).

10.6.1
Complementarity -
selecting reserves for
fi s h b i o d i v e r s i t y

The basic approach in complementarity selection is to assess the biodiversity content
of candidate areas and to proceed in a stepwise fashion, selecting at each step the
site that is most complementary to those already selected in terms of the biodiversity
it contains. My example concerns coastal marine fi shes in Western Australia, with
its extensive coastline from the tropical north to the temperate south. The results
of a complementarity analysis showed that more than 95% of the total of 1855
species could be represented in just six, appropriately located, 100-km-long sections
of the coast (see stars in Figure 10.13).

10.6.2
Irreplaceability -
selecting reserves in
the Cape Floristic
Region

An approach that contrasts subtly with complementarity analysis concerns the
'irreplaceability' of each candidate area. Irreplaceability is defi ned as the likelihood
of an area being required to achieve conservation targets or, conversely, the likeli-
hood of one or more targets not being achieved if the area is not included. Cowling
et al. (2003) used irreplaceability analysis as part of their conservation plan for
South Africa's Cape Floristic Province. With more than 9000 species of plants this
is without doubt a global hotspot.
Cowling's team followed the conservation planning steps listed in Section 10.6.
Step 1, the compiling of data, is well advanced in this important region. Their goal
(step 2) is that 'the natural environment and biodiversity of the region will be effectively
conserved, restored wherever appropriate, and will deliver signifi cant benefi ts to the
people of the region in a way that is embraced by local communities, endorsed by gov-
ernment and recognized internationally' . Note the emphasis placed on the acceptance
of the plan by local people. The involvement of landowners and local communities
was fostered by initiatives ranging from education to membership of the steering
committee for the conservation plan. As part of step 2, the team identifi ed a variety