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The article explains how the Agricultural Protection Area Act in Idaho will help usher preservation measures for working lands, including cropland, pasture, rangeland and private forests. It summarizes provisions of the law covering the regulation of necessary use of lands, continuity development, viability of agricultural use, and application for designation of land as an agricultural protection area (APA). Also noted is the need for local governments to establish APA ordinance and commission.

Bulgaria is a country with an extremely diverse nature. Unlike a number of European countries, Bulgarian nature is relatively well preserved. For the purposes of its protection, a network of protected areas was created, which occupy 5.3% of the country's territory. Bulgaria also participates in a number of international initiatives, which put about 1/3 of the territory of Bulgaria under protection of the natural environment. According to the Protected areas Act in Bulgaria, 6 categories are distinguished - national parks, natural parks, reserves, maintained reserves, protected localities, natural attractions. Among them, important resources for the development of tourism are national parks, natural parks, protected localities and natural attractions. They represent unique sites for the development of alternative forms of tourism such as ecological, cultural-cognitive, route-cognitive tourism, etc. On the other hand, reserves and maintained reserves prohibit tourism activities. The network of protected areas is unevenly developed throughout the country. It is better represented in the mountainous areas, and in the plain parts of the country it is more limited due to the strong anthropogenic changes and the pressure from various human activities. In connection with the preserved nature, the mountains are preferred sites for tourism. The contribution of the protected areas in this regard is significant. Stara planina tourist region is among the country's tourist areas with well-defined mountainous characteristics. This is an important prerequisite both for the preservation of nature and for the formation of a suitable environment for recreation and tourism, and the mentioned directions are mutually bound. The purpose of this article is to valorize the protected areas in Stara Planina tourist region and to highlight the possibilities for their current and future use for the development of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global policies call for connecting protected areas (PAs) to conserve the flow of animals and genes across changing landscapes, yet whether global PA networks currently support animal movement—and where connectivity conservation is most critical—remain largely unknown. In this study, we map the functional connectivity of the world’s terrestrial PAs and quantify national PA connectivity through the lens of moving mammals. We find that mitigating the human footprint may improve connectivity more than adding new PAs, although both strategies together maximize benefits. The most globally important areas of concentrated mammal movement remain unprotected, with 71% of these overlapping with global biodiversity priority areas and 6% occurring on land with moderate to high human modification. Conservation and restoration of critical connectivity areas could safeguard PA connectivity while supporting other global conservation priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seychelles is a small island nation with large maritime areas. It has an enviable natural environment and significant endemic biodiversity, both of which are at risk due to environmental pressures. Seychelles has been an active participant at the global level, ratifying a number of environmental treaties and leading blue economy developments. Nevertheless, its size and developing country status calls into question Seychelles' ability to meet its goals. This issue is particularly pressing given the recent debt swap arrangement and commitment to establish marine protected areas across thirty percent of its exclusive economic zone. Relatively little legal research has been published in relation to Seychelles' environmental laws. This article contributes to the literature by examining Seychelles' area-based protection laws focusing particularly on the marine environment. The article analyses the legal frameworks and explores the extent to which these will enable Seychelles to meet its blue economy and marine conservation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The siting of protected areas to achieve management and conservation objectives draws heavily on biogeographic concepts of the spatial distribution and connectivity of species. However, the marine protected area (MPA) literature rarely acknowledges how biogeographic theories underpin MPA and MPA network design. We review which theories from biogeography have been incorporated into marine spatial planning and which relevant concepts have yet to be translated to inform the next generation of design principles. This biogeographic perspective will only become more relevant as climate change amplifies these spatial and temporal dynamics, and as species begin to shift in and out of existing MPAs. The scale of climate velocities predicted for the 21st century dwarfs all but the largest MPAs currently in place, raising the possibility that in coming decades many MPAs will no longer contain the species or assemblages they were established to protect. We present a number of design elements that could improve the success of MPAs and MPA networks in light of biogeographic processes and climate change. Biogeographically informed MPA networks of the future may resemble the habitat corridors currently being considered for many terrestrial regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Together with a better appreciation for the importance of protected areas, efforts for environmental protection have been increasing both at international and national level. However, when changes in policies related to protected areas are evaluated it is observed that in some countries protected areas administrations highlight utilisation rather than conservation. Turkey is also one of those countries which undergo such discussions. Although there has been no significant increase in the number of protected areas whose protection characteristics are highlighted, there has been an extreme increase in the number of recreation areas and newly established nature parks. In addition, it was found out that significant changes have been made with regards to regulations, administrative approaches, and implementation practices to enable opening of protected areas to non-forestry uses. Moreover, regulations such as the “Resolution for Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Law” are brought forward in this period, which will increase the utilisation of protected areas. Current nature protection policies and administrative approaches that highlight utilisation should be radically changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine Protected Areas (MPA) are one of the several means of protecting ocean biodiversity and are fundamental to the Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 of 2010. However, many existing reserves are inefficient in meeting current conservation goals and are questioned regarding their habitat representivity. This paper assesses the efficiency of existing Welsh reserves in meeting conservation goals, including implications of changing objectives. Marxan conservation planning software was used to determine 20 broad-scale habitat types found in territorial seas, using data obtained from the European Environment Agency's Level 3 Predicted EUNIS Habitats GIS dataset. Results demonstrated that the current Welsh MPA network, even at the lowest conservation targets (≤10%), fails to suitably represent more than two-thirds of the broad-scale habitats found in its coastal waters. Subsequently, a range of alternative reserve design scenarios was developed to reduce inefficiency opportunity costs. Analysis indicated that an increase of less than 5% in total reserve area, plus a retention of 75% of the current network area, would create a new network to meet or exceed all stated conservation goals. Therefore, existing reserves can be incorporated into an efficient, ecologically representative network that reduces international conservation opportunity costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of total area protected as the predominant indicator of progress in building protected area (PA) networks is receiving growing criticism. Documenting the full dynamics of PA networks, both in terms of the gains and losses in protection, provides a much more informative approach to tracking progress. To this end, documentation of PA downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) has increased. Studies of PADDD events generally fail to place these losses in the context of gains in protection; therefore, they omit important elements of PA network dynamics. To address this limitation, we used a spatially explicit approach to identify every parcel of land added to and excised from the Australian terrestrial PA network and PAs that had their level of protection changed over 17 years (1997-2014). By quantifying changes in the spatial configuration of the PA network with time-series data (spatial layers for nine separate time steps), ours is the first assessment of the dynamics (increases and decreases in area and level of protection) of a PA network and the first comprehensive assessment of PADDD in a developed country. We found that the Australian network was highly dynamic; there were 5233 changes in area or level of protection over 17 years. Against a background of enormous increases in area protected, we identified over 1500 PADDD events, which affected over one-third of the network, which were largely the result of widespread downgrading of protection. We believe our approach provides a mechanism for robust tracking of trends in the world's PAs through the use of data from the World Database on Protected Areas. However, this will require greater transparency and improved data standards in reporting changes to PAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine ecosystems are exposed to significant anthropogenic pressure mainly due to the exploitation of biotic and abiotic marine resources. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are important tools to achieve local and global marine conservation targets. Marine ecosystems generate goods and services vital for human well-being. Their value can be explored not only from an economic viewpoint based on market and human preferences, but also using a biophysical perspective based on the accounting of environmental costs sustained for the generation of natural capital stocks and ecosystem services flows. In this study, the value of natural capital in the MPA “the Islands of Ventotene and S. Stefano” (Central Italy) was assessed applying a biophysical and trophodynamic environmental accounting model based on emergy accounting. The value of natural capital was estimated for the main habitats of the investigated MPA in terms of the work done by the biosphere for its generation and maintenance. Both the autotrophic and heterotrophic natural capital of the MPA was evaluated. The highest value of emergy density of 4.26∙10 11 sej m −2 was shown by the habitat “ Posidonia oceanica seagrass bed” when investigating the autotrophic natural capital. The sciaphilic hard bottom habitat (coralligenous) showed the highest value of emergy density of 2.76∙10 12 sej m −2 when investigating the heterotrophic natural capital. The high emergy cost of coralligenous confirmed the importance of this habitat that represents one of the most important hot spot of species diversity in the Mediterranean Sea. The total emergy value of natural capital of the MPA was converted to monetary units by using the emergy-to-money ratio for Italy, resulting in 8.26 M€. Finally, a GIS tool was used to show the spatial distribution of natural capital values in relation to different habitats. The outcomes of this study highlighted the usefulness of the applied biophysical and trophodynamic environmental accounting model to explore the ecological value of natural capital in marine ecosystems while supporting local managers and policy makers for the sustainable development of MPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wrasse (Labridae) fisheries have increased markedly in Norway since 2010. Wrasse are being used as cleaner fish in salmonid aquaculture to control sea-lice infestations. However, fundamental knowledge on the demography and abundance of the targeted wrasse populations in Norwegian waters is lacking, and the consequences of harvesting at the current intensity have not been assessed. Here, we compared catch per unit effort (CPUE), size, age and sex ratio of goldsinny wrasse (Ctenolabrus rupestris) and corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops) between marine protected areas (MPAs) and control areas open for fishing at four localities on the Skagerrak coast in Southern Norway. The CPUE of goldsinny larger than the minimum size limit was 33–65% higher within MPAs, while for corkwing three of four MPAs had higher CPUE with the relative difference between MPAs and control areas ranging from −16% to 92%. Moreover, corkwing, but not goldsinny, was significantly older and larger within MPAs than in control areas. Sex ratios did not differ between MPAs and control areas for either species. Our study suggests that despite its short history, the wrasse fisheries have considerable impacts on the target populations and, further, that small MPAs hold promise as a management tool for maintaining natural population sizes and size structure. Goldsinny, being a smaller-sized species, also seems to benefit from the traditional minimum size limit management tool, which applies outside MPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the Ninth Circuit reached a decision that eliminated nearly 70,000 acres of suitable domestic sheep grazing land, when it held that disease transmission between bighorn sheep and domestic sheep was an extremely relevant factor in assessing the high mortality rates of bighorn sheep. This decision pertained to bighorn and domestic sheep in the Payette National Forest, and could be a pivotal point for agencies to adopt a comprehensive method called tiering. Tiering was created pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act, and encourages agencies (such as the Bureau of Land Management or the United States Forest Service) to take smaller site specific projects or programs, that require immediate action, and reference a broad Environmentallmpact Statement (EIS) created as a programmatic document or regional assessment created earlier in time. There are a handful of requirements that an agency needs to consider before it tiers to a preexisting document; mainly due to extensive case law and the ambiguous statutory language surrounding the National Environmental Policy Act. The 2010 Supplemental ETS (SEIS) was an endeavor to amend the 2003 Southwest Idaho Ecogroup Land and Resource Management Plan Final EIS (FEIS) for the Payette National Forest. The Land and Resource Management Plan was a regional planning effort to revise the 1988 Payette National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (Forest Plan), which was required by the Nat ional Forest Management Act. The 2010 SEIS is a product of agency analysis coupled with some of the most recent and pertinent scientific literature addressing disease transmission from domestic sheep to bighorn s heep because it withstood numerous appeals and made it through the litigation process. That document, coupled with the national guidelines and objectives fashioned by the Wild Sheep Working Group, could be used by other agencies in similarly situated circumstances to decrease the extreme workload that those agencies experience when creating an EIS or Environmen tal Assessment (EA) for their own projects that address bighorn sheep viability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sole direction in the Wilderness Act of 1964 concerning commercial livestock grazing in wilderness is forty words long: "Within wilderness areas in the national forests designated by this Art, the grazing of livestock. where established prior to September 3, 1964, shall be permitted to continue subject to such reasonable regulations as are deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture." We discuss just what these words mean in the context of the law and the subsequent so-called Congressional Grazing Guidelines, and examine recent agency misinterpretations of this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about guidelines to develop tourism sustainably in protected areas, economic impacts of tourism on country level and protected area level, and approaches by private sector tourism to ensure sustainability and their role in tourism innovation and progress.

This article discusses the impact of the minimization of the protected land of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by President Donald Trump in 2017. The author comments on the reduced funding of paleontological research projects in the region, which contains a density of fossils from the Triassic period as well as ancient Native American artifacts. The redesignation has opened the land to mining, off-road vehicles, and and other environmentally-damaging activities.

The US National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) is the world's largest wilderness protection network, yet within the contiguous United States (CONUS) it does not encompass the diversity nor is it fully representative of ecological systems on federal lands. To potentially increase NWPS diversity and representation, we simulated adding potentially eligible lands within CONUS, in the following sequence, to assess changes in ecological systems: National Park Lands not currently designated wilderness; non-NWPS lands currently managed to not degrade wilderness character; USDA Forest Service Inventoried Roadless Areas; and Bureau of Land Management roadless lands. Inclusion of these categories would increase the NWPS area from 12.8 to 48.3% of federal lands, increase diversity by adding 46 ecological systems, and nearly triple the number of ecological systems on federal lands with >20% representation. Our analysis identifies opportunities to increase diversity and representation of ecological systems within the NWPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2003 and 2012, the terrestrial area protected for conservation increased slightly, from 11.9 to 12.2 percent globally. Using data from the World Database on Protected Areas and Olson et al.'s (2001) ecological regionalization scheme, we examined the changing distribution of nationally designated protected areas. Over this period, the distribution of protected areas became slightly more even by realm, but biases increased across biomes. Current biases perpetuate long-standing trends, favoring more biodiverse ecosystems (especially tropical rainforests) at the expense of the “less lush” (particularly dry forests and deserts). Ecosystems of high agricultural value, especially temperate grasslands, also remain underrepresented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We estimate the impact of strict and multiple-use protected areas on forest disturbance in European Russia between 1985 and 2010. We construct a spatial panel dataset that includes five periods of change. We match protected areas to control observations and compare coefficients from fixed-versus random-effects models. We find that protected areas have few statistically significant impacts on disturbance, with little difference across parks closer to or farther from major cities or roads. Random-effects estimates differ qualitatively and quantitatively from those of fixed effects in our study, serving as a cautionary note for evaluations where time-invariant unobservables are important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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