Workshop Summary: Environmental protection of the High North – How to protect the Arctic from afar?

The Arctic is home to unique habitats that are increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change and the release of pollutants. As the region warms up and becomes more accessible, also the planning and conduct of economic activities puts more stress on the region’s ecosystems. Due to the inevitable linkages between Arctic and non-Arc-tic regions, Arctic states and states that do not directly border Arctic regions are responsible to promote environmental protection of the region. The expert workshop aimed to enable exchange and discussion on how Arctic Council observers can engage strategically and practically in Arctic environmental protection. In an exchange with states that are active in the High North, indigenous communities, businesses, research, and civil society, potential solutions were developed for a sustainable development in the Arctic that allows reconciling a wide spectrum of interests in the region. Topics included in particular climate change and air pollution control, ship-ping, and tourism

Tigers Need Cover: Multi-Scale Occupancy Study of the Big Cat in Sumatran Forest and Plantation Landscapes

The critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae Pocock, 1929) is generally known as a forest-dependent animal. With large-scale conversion of forests into plantations, however, it is crucial for restoration efforts to understand to what extent tigers use modified habitats. We investigated tiger-habitat relationships at 2 spatial scales: occupancy across the landscape and habitat use within the home range. Across major landcover types in central Sumatra, we conducted systematic detection, non-detection sign surveys in 47, 17×17 km grid cells. Within each cell, we surveyed 40, 1-km transects and recorded tiger detections and habitat variables in 100 m segments totaling 1,857 km surveyed. We found that tigers strongly preferred forest and used plantations of acacia and oilpalm, far less than their availability. Tiger probability of occupancy covaried positively and strongly with altitude, positively with forest area, and negatively with distance-to-forest centroids. At the fine scale, probability of habitat use by tigers across landcover types covaried positively and strongly with understory cover and altitude, and negatively and strongly with human settlement. Within forest areas, tigers strongly preferred sites that are farther from water bodies, higher in altitude, farther from edge, and closer to centroid of large forest block; and strongly preferred sites with thicker understory cover, lower level of disturbance, higher altitude, and steeper slope. These results indicate that to thrive, tigers depend on the existence of large contiguous forest blocks, and that with adjustments in plantation management, tigers could use mosaics of plantations (as additional roaming zones), riparian forests (as corridors) and smaller forest patches (as stepping stones), potentially maintaining a metapopulation structure in fragmented landscapes. This study highlights the importance of a multi-spatial scale analysis and provides crucial information relevant to restoring tigers and other wildlife in forest and plantation landscapes through improvement in habitat extent, quality, and connectivity

Estimates of β for the logit link function based on best and univariate models for tiger probability of habitat use (ψ_1-km) within acacia plantations in central Sumatra for landscape covariates.

<p><u>Note</u>:</p><p>*indicates strong or robust impact, that is 95% confidence intervals as defined by ±1.96×SE not overlapping 0; italics indicate opposite from <i>a priori</i> prediction. AltDEM = altitude; Precip = precipitation;Dtwater = distance to freshwater body; dtfedge07 = distance to forest edge; dtpacr = distance to centroid of protected areas; Dtmprd = distance to major public road; dtf05cr = Distance to nearest centroid of forest block greater than 50,000 ha.</p

Top models (<i>w</i>_i>0) for tiger probability of habitat use (ψ_1-km) in central Sumatra across all landcover types in the landscape based on detection history data collected at transect sites (n = 1857, 1-km transects) in six landcover types.

<p>Note: Psi = probability of site occupancy/habitat use; p = probability of detection; thta0 = spatial dependence parameter - probability that the species is present locally, given the species was not present in the previous site; thta1 = spatial dependence parameter -probability that a species is present locally, given it was present at the previous site. LCCode = landcover code; AltDEM = Altitude; Precip = Precipitation; dtwater = distance to freshwater; Dtfedge07 = distance to forest edge; dtf05cr = Distance to nearest centroid of forest block greater than 50,000 ha; dtpacr = distance to centroid of protected area; Dtmprd = Distance to major public road; LCFor = forest(1) or nonforest(0).</p

Estimates of β for the logit link function based on best and univariate models for tiger probability of habitat use (ψ_1-km) in all landcover types in central Sumatra for manual covariates.

<p>Note:</p><p>*indicates strong or robust impact, that is 95% confidence intervals as defined by ±1.96×SE not overlapping 0; italics indicate opposite from <i>a priori</i> prediction. Overall = overall vegetation cover.</p

Estimates of β for the logit link function based on best and univariate models for tiger probability of habitat use (ψ_1-km) within acacia plantations in central Sumatra for manual covariates.

<p><u>Note</u>:</p><p>*indicates strong or robust impact, that is 95% confidence intervals as defined by ±1.96×SE not overlapping 0; italics indicate opposite from <i>a priori</i> prediction.</p

Estimates of β for the logit link function based on best and univariate models for tiger probability of habitat use (ψ_1-km) within forest areas in central Sumatra for landscape covariates.

<p><u>Note</u>:</p><p>*indicates strong or robust impact, that is 95% confidence intervals as defined by ±1.96×SE not overlapping 0; italic indicates opposite from <i>a priori</i> prediction. AltDEM = altitude; Precip = precipitation; Dtwater = distance to freshwater; dtfedge07 = distance to forest edge; dtpacr = distance to centroid of protected areas; Dtmprd = distance to major public road;dtf05cr = Distance to nearest centroid of forest block greater than 50,000 ha.</p

Estimates of β for the logit link function for landscape covariates extracted using GIS based on best and univariate models for tiger probability-of-occupancy (ψ_{17×17 km}).

<p><u>Note</u>:</p><p>*indicates strong or robust impact, that is 95% confidence intervals as defined by ±1.96×SE not overlapping 0; italics indicate opposite from <i>a priori</i> prediction. AltDEM = Altitude; dtf05cr =  Distance to nearest centroid of forest block greater than 50,000 ha; For07Area = Area of forest in the grid cell based on 2007 data; Dtpacr = distance to centroid of protected area; Def0607 = Deforested area from 2006 to 2007 in each grid cell; Precip = Precipitation; Dtmprd = Distance to major public road.</p

Summary of survey effort and detection of tigers in five landcover types in Riau Province, central Sumatra.

<p>*number of sites where the species was detected divided by total number of sites surveyed.</p