Measurement of conservation effectiveness for island biodiversity

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Conserv-Vision Conference

A celebration of 20 years of conservation by New Zealand's Department of Conservation.

Conference Proceedings edited by: Dr Bruce Clarkson, Dr Priya Kurian, Todd Nachowitz, & Dr Hamish Rennie.

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Systematic measurement of effectiveness for conservation of biodiversity on New Zealand islands (PDF, 363K)

Summary

The offshore islands of New Zealand have a history of use by people, including conversion to farming, the introduction of livestock, pests and weeds, and comprehensive destruction of indigenous ecosystems.

The removal of pests since the mid 1980s has become increasingly effective, with at least 70 islands in public or private ownership now free of all introduced mammals.

Goals for management on these islands vary with land tenure and legal classification. On some islands management aims to maximise ecological integrity through ecological restoration whereas on others iconic species are managed through community participation.

We identify a range of performance measures for different management regimes. We then use case studies to demonstrate the use and applicability of selected measures for the differently managed islands. We found that outcome-specific measures of effectiveness can be applied to a wide range of conservation activities on islands.

Publication information

Full article title: "Systematic measurement of effectiveness for conservation of biodiversity on New Zealand islands"
Authors: David R. Towns, Elaine Wright and Theo Stephens
Source: Proceedings of the Conserv-Vision Conference, University of Waikato, 2-4 July 2007
Published by: The University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

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David R. Towns