Engaging stakeholders in using future scenarios to analyse the potential impacts of agricultural development in the Lake Victoria Basin

This report presents the proceedings from the inception workshop for the project “Engaging stakeholders in using future scenarios to analyse the potential impacts of agricultural development in the Lake Victoria Basin”. This two-year project (2015-2017) aims to ensure that land-use related decision-making in the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) takes into consideration biodiversity and ecosystem services and is based on sound information and on the consideration of trade-offs between food production and conservation goals. The long-term outcome of the project will be a reduction in the adverse impacts of agricultural commodity developments on biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being in the LVB

Benthic habitat modelling and mapping as a conservation tool for marine protected areas: A seamount in the western Mediterranean

1. An ecologically representative, well‐connected, and effectively managed system of marine protected areas (MPAs) has positive ecological and environmental effects as well as social and economic benefits. Although progress in expanding the coverage of MPAs has been made, the application of management tools has not yet been implemented in most of these areas. 2. In this work, distribution models were applied to nine benthic habitats on a Mediterranean seamount within an MPA for conservation purposes. Benthic habitat occurrences were identified from 55 remotely operated vehicle (ROV) transects, at depths from 76 to 700 m, and data derived from multibeam bathymetry. Generalized additive models (GAMs) were applied to link the presence of each benthic habitat to local environmental proxies (depth, slope, backscatter, aspect, and bathymetric position index, BPI). 3. The main environmental drivers of habitat distribution were depth, slope, and BPI. Based on this result, five different geomorphological areas were distinguished. A full coverage map indicating the potential benthic habitat distribution on the seamount was obtained to inform spatial management. 4. The distribution of those habitats identified as vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) was used to make recommendations on zonation for developing the management plan of the MPA. This process reveals itself as an appropriate methodological approach that can be developed in other areas of the Natura 2000 marine networkEn prensa1,92

Population assessment and impact of trade on the Asian Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus Cuvier, 1829) in Vietnam

Physignathus cocincinus has been harvested in Vietnam for the local food market as well as for the international pet trade since at least 20 years. However, comprehensive knowledge about its global conservation status is lacking so far. Our study was conducted to evaluate potential impacts of harvest and trade on wild populations by providing an overview of the international and domestic trade in P. cocincinus in Vietnam. To assess the level of anthropogenic impacts on wild populations, we compared population densities and sizes of an undisturbed and several disturbed sites in northern Vietnam between 2014 and 2016 by using a mark-recapture method. The results indicate that mean densities are smaller in disturbed populations than in the reference population. Imports of 1.47 million individuals, mainly of wild origin from Vietnam, into the EU and US were documented in the last 20 years. Regarding national pet trade, a total of 51 domestic dealers and nine online pet shops trading P. cocincinus were documented in Vietnam since 2015. Our study also highlights a considerable harvest for the national use, viz. pet trade and food consumption, in Asian range states. We assume that the long-term viability of P. cocincinus in the Indo-China region, at least in the North of Vietnam, is at risk due to the considerable extent of harvest and ongoing habitat degradation. Thus, we suggest stringent conservation measures to protect wild populations more efficiently and improve habitat conservation. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V