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Few studies explicitly assess the robustness and practicality of occupancy analysis informed by local inhabitants, compared to estimates from conventional monitoring methods within different contexts. This study evaluates the efficacy and robustness of occupancy models based on camera trap data, and two locally informed methods: seasonal interviews and hunter diaries, for monitoring 13 hunted mammal species in south‐eastern Cameroon. We triangulate estimates of detectability and occupancy to assess the precision and comparability of their estimates for different species, and their cost. Camera trap estimates are comparable with estimates from locally informed methods in 7 of 11 available cases, but produced the lowest detection probabilities for all species in both villages. While camera traps provide robust estimates for abundant species with a high detection probability, locally informed methods can provide estimates of occupancy comparable to camera trap estimates, but at significantly less cost. They are particularly useful where camera trap detection rates (p) are too low to produce robust occupancy model estimates, notably for rare or cryptic species. The methods, survey effort and animals that can be monitored robustly vary between villages. As such, consideration should be given before monitoring commences to ensure that the most effective and informative approach is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Green Status of Species was developed following an IUCN Resolution that called for development of Green Lists of Species, Ecosystems and Protected Areas. In summer 2021, IUCN launched the Green Status of Species, an optimistic new part of the Red List of Threatened Species that provides a tool for assessing species recovery and the impact of conservation. [Extracted from the article]

Many shark and ray species (Class Chondrichthyes, herein 'sharks') are threatened by overfishing. Tackling this requires implementation of context-specific fisheries management measures, which are both technically effective and socio-economically feasible. Here we explore the cost-effectiveness of various input-oriented management measures for mitigating capture of seven priority shark taxa (i.e., threatened and CITES-listed species) in a small-scale longline mixed-species shark fishery in Indonesia, where there is a need to balance difficult trade-offs between conservation and socio-economic objectives. We apply Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) to analyse five years of landings and profit data, to identify and assess the relative influence of different plausible management measures (e.g., effort restrictions, gear restrictions, spatio-temporal closures). We then use predictive models to inform a semi-quantitative assessment of the hypothetical cost-effectiveness of these management measures, based on the estimated conservation benefits (reduced risk of capture of priority taxa) and socio-economic cost (relative profit foregone). Our results show that fishery closures in January–March, depth limits at <100 m, hook limits at <500 hooks, and gear restrictions on bottom longlines could have the greatest relative conservation impact for lowest profit foregone. However, there are clear trade-offs between taxa, with these measures primarily benefiting Critically Endangered bottlenose wedgefish (Rhynchobatus Australiae) and scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), while potentially increasing pressure on Vulnerable silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis) and Endangered mako sharks (Isurus spp.). When shark fishing is important for economic welfare, and entire fishery closures or buy-outs are unfeasible, managing small-scale shark fisheries for multiple outcomes may require hard choices. This may require prioritising slow-growing Critically Endangered taxa for protection – by restricting fishing during seasons and at depths in which they are most susceptible to capture – while faster-growing taxa can continue to provide benefits for coastal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Payments for environmental services (PES) aim to improve the supply of environmental services by making payments to service providers, which are conditional on the provision of those services. Payments cannot be conditional unless the service can be effectively monitored, making monitoring of service provision a central feature of PES. We introduce a framework for designing monitoring programmes in PES schemes for biodiversity conservation. We suggest that decisions must be made concerning the indicators to be used (e.g. species, threats or positive actions), how they will be monitored (e.g. using ground-based or remote-sensed data) and how the monitoring information will be used to differentiate payments (e.g. trends over time, performance relative to neighbouring sites, performance against a target). We then use this framework to examine the feasibility of monitoring species and threat indicators in a community-based biodiversity payment scheme in Menabe, Madagascar. We find that detecting population changes, differences between sites, or whether a target has been met is only feasible for the most common indicators, suggesting that it may not be possible to base payments on the species conservationists are most interested in. If payments need to be based on relatively common indicators, threat indicators may be more appropriate than common species indicators due to a stronger relationship to the service of interest (presence of a rare species). It is, however, possible to incorporate information from rare indicators using accumulation curves to compare between sites. This study highlights the impact of indicator choice on the monitoring effort required in a biodiversity PES. We urge caution in the design of payment schemes and suggest it can be detrimental to structure a scheme around an indicator that cannot be effectively monitored. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sharks and their cartilaginous relatives (Class Chondrichthyes, herein 'sharks') are one of the world's most threatened species groups. Their slow life history traits and vulnerability to capture make them particularly susceptible to overfishing, and they are widely caught in both target and by-catch fisheries. Fisheries management measures that can effectively reduce shark fishing mortality are urgently required to halt population declines and species extinctions. We provide an overview of typical measures for understanding and managing risks to sharks, and highlight critical gaps relating to incorporating socio-economic factors in to research and management. We argue that neglecting these factors hinders effective shark conservation, and has negative consequences for people. We emphasise the importance of a holistic approach, which explicitly considers socio-economic factors in decision-making. Based on this, we propose the first framework for assessing feasibility in a shark management context, which could be integrated with traditional fisheries risk assessments in order to bridge this gap. This framework considers key dimensions of the costs, benefits and overall enabling environment for shark management in a given fishery. Overall, managers and policy makers must consider socio-economic factors in shark conservation efforts to deliver better outcomes for sharks and people. Our simple feasibility framework can support this by enabling costs, benefits and context to be explicitly considered in planning and policy-making, alongside the typical biological and technical risks to sharks in fisheries. • An overview of typical measures for managing risks to sharks is given. • Gaps relating to socio-economic aspects of management are highlighted. • Socio-economic complexities of managing shark fisheries are described. • Priorities for including socio-economic factors in decision-making are discussed. • A framework to assess feasibility in shark management planning is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine tourism is promoted as a substitute economic activity to unsustainable fishing, which is compatible with conservation. However, benefits of marine tourism do not typically accrue in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), which often bear the costs of conservation; they accrue to tourists and tourist-focussed businesses. We explored how marine tourism levies could operationalise the beneficiary-pays principle and address these cost-benefit inequities using an online contingent valuation (CV) survey to measure international tourists' willingness-to-pay (WTP) towards community-based shark conservation (N = 1033). Levies were widely supported (96%), with median and Turnbull mean WTP of US$ 10–14.99 and $22.02 per person per day, respectively. We combined these results with data from two marine tourism hotspots in Indonesia – Lombok and Pulau Weh – to explore the feasibility of implementing tourism levies to incentivize pro-conservation behaviour in local SSFs. Our conservative estimates indicate that marine tourism levies in Lombok and Pulau Weh could respectively generate US$ 2.3–10 million and US$ 300,000–1.3 million annually – several times greater than the estimated costs of conservation incentives in local SSFs. The marine tourism industry offers an under-utilised revenue stream for marine conservation, which could support policy aspirations such as ' a sustainable and equitable blue economy '. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large, long-lived marine animals ('marine megafauna') are amongst the world's most threatened taxa, primarily due to overfishing. Reducing fisheries' impacts on marine megafauna is particularly challenging in small-scale fisheries (SSFs), where endangered species can have important consumptive use values. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have been proposed as a potential solution, but there is a lack of empirical data on if and how they might work in this context. We present a novel combination of methods – scenario interviews with contingent valuation (CV) – for exploring and designing locally-appropriate PES schemes; and apply these methods to investigate how different types of incentives might influence fisher behaviour and mortality of Critically Endangered taxa in two case study SSFs in Indonesia. Fishers almost unanimously supported positive conditional incentives: 98 % and 96 % of fishers would stop landing hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna spp.) and wedgefish (Rhynchobatus spp.), respectively, in contrast to 1 % and 6 % under a business-as-usual scenario, and 52 % and 46 % in response to a negative incentive (fine). CV results showed that an incentive-based scheme for catch mitigation of all hammerheads and wedgefish across both sites could cost US$71,408–235,927 annually, and save up to 18,500 and 2140 individuals, respectively. This study provides empirical evidence that PES could offer a cost-effective and socially-just approach for marine conservation in SSFs; and offers a scalable method for designing locally-appropriate investment-ready schemes, which could support the delivery of societal goals such as net positive outcomes for marine biodiversity and a sustainable and equitable blue economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Many terrestrial mammalian species aggregate to give birth. Such aggregations are likely to be a response to changing resource and water availability, for predator swamping and avoidance of disturbance. The critically endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is one such species. We analysed spatio-temporal locations of saiga calving aggregations in Kazakhstan over the last four decades obtained from aerial and ground surveys, to identify the factors determining the selection of calving sites within the species’ range as well as any changes in these locations over time. Generalized mixed models were employed in a use – availability framework to assess the factors distinguishing calving from random sites and predict suitable areas for calving. Saigas selected sites, with lower than average productivity and low year to year variability in productivity, at an intermediate distance from water sources, and away from human settlements. A significant change in calving locations was observed during the last decade, with calving areas occurring further north and further away from settlements than previously. The results demonstrate that the choice of calving areas is largely driven by environmental factors. However, disturbance also has a significant impact on calving site selection and in recent decades, its influence overrides that of environmental factors. This increase in the influence of disturbance coincides with a precipitous decline in saiga numbers due to poaching, as well as substantial reductions in the intensity of land use for livestock grazing following the breakup of the Soviet Union. Predictive models based on such studies can improve species conservation by guiding the stratification of sampling for effective monitoring and deployment of rangers to protect the females at this critical time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experienced by resource users. When use is illegal, it can be particularly difficult to distinguish users from non-users. The attitudes of local people are critical to conservation success, because they interact with social circumstances to determine behaviour. In this study we explore the factors influencing inferred poaching behaviour of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) in six communities in three countries of the former Soviet Union. We show that local people have a good understanding of the species¿ status and positive attitudes towards its conservation, regardless of their household¿s inferred poaching status. Poaching is a low prestige occupation, and our analyses suggest that it is carried out by poor, unemployed households who have the means to hunt. These results are consistent for all villages. However we find important regional differences in hunting behaviour, linked to saiga population density and migration patterns, which have implications for the likely effectiveness of different conservation strategies. Community-based interventions are more likely to be appropriate in Russia, where saigas are present year-round and hunting is more subsistence based, than in the strongly seasonal Kazakhstan populations where economies of scale require organised poaching by fewer households. This case study illustrates the complex linkages between attitudes, social circumstances and behaviour in resource user behaviour, and highlights both the consistencies and differences in drivers of poaching between locations at a range of spatial scales. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]