Nature and Human Society The Quest for a Sustainable World (1997) / Chapter Skim
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9 Examples of Sustainability
9 Examples of Sustainability
Pages 519-604
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From page 521... ...
That "somewhere" focused on the 10,000-hectare Santa Rosa National Park in northwestern Costa Rica because we were familiar with it and its biology. The idea survived and grew because the Costa Rican community believed in it and worked for it and because the international community was willing to invest cash and labor to preserve the existence of important tropical na ture.
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From page 522... ...
Parque Nacional Santa Rosa, part of one of Costa Rica's first ranches, was a 10,600-hectare island in the ghost of the dry forests that once extended from near Mazatlan, Mexico, to southern South America, with some rain forest intermingled here and there. What was that dry
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From page 523... ...
On the one hand, this large-scale purchase of land was facilitated greatly by a rapid demise of the region's cattle industry, by the overall low quality of the regional agroscape, by Central American military turmoil, and by the socioeconomic reality that virtually all owners were willing to convert their land into more-profitable ventures elsewhere. Another major contribution was the moderate number of owners who believed that it was highly respectable to have their lands become national park, thus tolerating the minimal prices that the conservation community pays for existence value.
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From page 524... ...
Somewhere in these 120,000 hectares, such footprints may well be absorbable; in only 10,600 hectares, they rarely could be. Today, the expansion of the ACG into the eastern rain forests and cloud forests has become part of the conservation solution to the effect of the drying and heating that the western dry forests of the ACG are suffering through global warming, an outcome that was unforeseen before 1992.
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From page 525... ...
The ACG has been a major stimulus, supporter, training ground, and proving ground for many of the field activities of INBio (Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad) , the institution that has accepted major responsibility in the Costa Rican national biodiversity inventory, teaching of bioliteracy, and computerization of biodiversity management (http://www.inbio.ac.cr)
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From page 526... ...
This juice is penetrating the Costa Rican market, heading for the Euro' pean market, and reinforcing the contemporary Costa Rican attitude of taking virtually its entire agroscape into sustainable development. Stop the Ranching' Farming' Logging' and Hunting The impact of everyday agroscape activities on the ACG was largely eliminated by stopping the fires and purchasing the land.
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From page 527... ...
The future of the ACG depends heavily on its being able to seek reasonable compensation for the biodiversity and ecosystem services to the public and commercial sectors both independently and in consort with national-level and international-level projects. The new, landmark biodiversity-prospecting agreement between Yellowstone National Park and Diversa Corporation in California (http://www.wfed.org)
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From page 528... ...
The development of the ACG and many other Costa Rican institutions has made us all excruciatingly aware that internalizing the costs of biodiversity development and ecosystem service development will require budgetary figures that were not anticipated by the societies that stand to gain in both the short and long terms. An enormous amount of labor and institutional subsidy has gone into the current projects of taxonomy, biodiversity prospecting, wildland administration, political decentralization, wildland~ecosystem engineering, and all the other things dis' cussed here and in such international agreements as the Convention on Bio' diversity.
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From page 529... ...
I particularly thank the Costa Rican team of Alvaro Umana, Rodrigo Gamez, Alvaro Ugalde, Mario Boza, Alfio Piva, Pedro Leon, Luis Diego Gomez, Rene Castro, Randall Garcia, Johnny Rosales, Luis Daniel Gonzales, Karla Ceciliano, Jose Maria Figueres, Maria Marta Chavarria, Roger Blanco, Angel Solis, Isidro Chacon, Nelson Zamora, Jorge Corrales, Manuel Zumbado, Eugenia Phillips, Jesus Ugalde, Carlos Mario Rodriguez, Alonso Matamoros, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Masis, Ana Sittenfeld, Felipe Chavarria, Julio Quiros, Jorge Baltodano, Luz Maria Romero, and Sigifredo Marin, and all the parataxonomists of INBio, for their especially insightful and inspirational input over the last 12 years of development of these ideas. Although it is clear that the international cast of contributors to a concept of this nature is enormous, I particularly thank Winnie Hallwachs, Kenton Miller, Peter Raven, Tom Eisner, Jerry Meinwald, Ed Wilson, Don Stone, Paul Ehrlich, Hal Mooney, Kris Krishtalka, Jim Edwards, Gordon Orians, Monte Lloyd, Mike Robinson, Steve Young, Preston Scott, Leif Christoffersen, Odd Sandlund, Mats Segnestam, Eha Kern, Bernie Kern, Hiroshi Kidono, Frank Joyce, Ian Gauld, Jon Jensen, Murray Gell-Mann, Steve Viederman, Staffan Ulfstrand, Carlos Herrera, Steve Black' more, Meridith Lane, Jim Beach, John Pickering, Amy Rossman, Bob Anderson, Terry Erwin, Don Wilson, Diana Freckman, Chris Thompson, Marilyn Roossnick, Luis Rodriguez, Dan Brooks, Charles Michener, Bob Sokal, John Vandermeer, Jack Longino, Rob Colwell, Chris Vaughan, and Tom Lovejoy for their investment in this process.
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From page 530... ...
The goods are wood, edible plants and fungi, medicinal plants, microorganisms with potential biological activity, ecotourism, and recreation. The services include maintenance of hydrological cycles and air and water quality, regulation of regional climate, nutrient cycling, soil conservation, carbon storage, provision of habitats for wildlife, and contributions to regional and local aesthetics.
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From page 531... ...
Other figures based on sampling of entire property and nonforested and forested habitats. Amphibians do not occur in Tierra del Fuego.
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From page 532... ...
It refers to concrete actions for conserving biodiversity in a private sustainable forestry initiative, the Rio Condor project in Tierra del Fuego, southern Chile. Less than 10% of the earth's terrestrial surface is pro' tected, and conservation value in the past was more often influenced by scenic beauty and wilderness value than by biodiversity, such that existing protected areas are now often inadequately distributed for the protection of biodiversity (for example, Arroyo and Cavieres 1997~.
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From page 533... ...
The recognition that numerous elements of biodiversity in forests are essential for maintaining productive capacity is central to the concept of ecological sustainability. For example, ectomycorrhizal fungi are responsible for aiding nitrogen uptake and fixation by tree species; many lichens fix atmospheric nitrogen; some bryophytes act as sinks for nitrogen leachate; arthropods aid in nutrient cycling of down wood and are major decomposers, chewers, shredders, predators, and food sources in forest streams and rivers; fungi are important decomposers of woody debris; and birds and mammals can be dispersal agents of fruit and seeds (Marcot 1997~.
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From page 534... ...
With those caveats in mind, an objective like biodiversity conservation with forest harvesting should be considered at the level of a u) orking hypothesis.
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From page 535... ...
THE R10 CONDOR SUSTAINABEE-FORESTRY PROJECT The Rio Condor sustainable-forestry project entails land holdings comprising 273,000 hectares, at 54°S in Tierra del Fuego, Chile, of which 54% is forested (figure 2~. It is the first forestry project in Chile in which the principles of modern ecological sustainability have been assumed.
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From page 536... ...
on the Rio Condor property, Tierra del Fuego. Also shown (light shaded)
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From page 537... ...
Many watersheds in the Rio Condor forests have been heavily affected by the American beaver, Castor canadensis, liberated in Tierra del Fuego in 1946. The forests, dominated primarily by one or two tree species, often lack a shrub stratum; biodiversity is moderate; and there is a conspicuous absence of sensitive groups, such as amphibians, salamanders, and very large mammals that are wholly dependent on the forest habitat.
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From page 538... ...
Opening of the Tierra del Fuego forests through harvesting was seen to be accompanied by an increase in exotic plants, including such aggressive species as Taraxacum officinale; dealing with exotic plants will probably constitute one of the more difficult problems. Hundreds of species of arthropods were found in the litter layer in the Rio Condor forests.
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From page 539... ...
In establishing the Rio Condor reserves, special attention was given to areas of high archaeological sensitivity along coastal areas and in the vi' cinity of the major lakes, in view of the 77 archaeological sites of Selk'nam affin' ity registered during baseline work. Additional considerations were continuity with other protected areas in the general region, such as Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, boarding on the Lago Blanco'Kami Reserve; enhancement of areas of high aesthetic value, such as Fjord Almirantazgo (Canal Whiteside reserve)
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From page 540... ...
and a wide range of subantarctic peat bogs with a rich flora including rare and marginally distributed species. In equaling in size Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego in adjacent Argentina, the Rio Condor reserves constitute an important contribution to regional conservation in southern South America and the largest private conservation effort in a managed landscape in Chile.
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From page 541... ...
Protecting biodiversity and ecosystem processes in the Rio Condor Project, Tierra del Fuego. Santiago Chile: Dept Investigacion y Desarrollo, Univ de Chile.
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From page 542... ...
1996. Sustainable forestry in Chilean Tierra del Fuego.
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From page 543... ...
That is profoundly regrettable, for natural history has taken on new significance. Given the state of our molecular understanding, virtually anything uncovered in nature can now be coupled to chemical knowledge.
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From page 544... ...
544 / NATURE AND HUMAN SOCIETY applicable knowledge could have an enormous effect on conservation (Eisner 1989-90, 1994a; Reid and others 1993~. It could lead to new goals for natural history and, by refocusing the process of discovery itself, could redefine the role of the naturalist explorer.
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From page 545... ...
THOMAS EISNER / 545 beetle ordinarily walks with a loose hold; it clamps down only when disturbed and by so doing can effectively counter the proddings of such enemies as ants.
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From page 546... ...
and some cockroaches (Plattner and others 1972~. SECRETS OF AN ENDANGERED SPECIES l~icerandra frutescens (figure 4a)
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From page 547... ...
THOMAS EISNER / 547 FIGURE 3 (a) Ant attack on slug.
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From page 548... ...
The species had been discovered only in 1962, has a range of only a few hundred acres, and was already on the endangered species list (Middleton and Liittschwager 1994~. Were most of its acreage not part of a protected site (the Archbold Biologi' cat Station)
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From page 549... ...
Natural history is essentially Reinstitutionalized. Hardly any academic courses teach how to discover in nature and how to assess, in conventional as well as molecular terms, the value of what simple observation can reveal.
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From page 550... ...
1993. Biodiversity prospecting: using genetic resources for sustainable development.
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From page 551... ...
Animal health and human health are inextricably connected through the ecological realities that govern life on our planet. The health of individuals, species, and populations and the more encompassing notion of environmental health represent a continuum of the way in which health concerns currently are defined.
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From page 552... ...
As health problems related to environmental degradation multiply and magnify in importance, health professionals increasingly will be relied on to comment on environmental strategies and to advise communities taking part in processes of environmental decision~making. In their publicly per' ceived roles as educators, all conservationists need to understand and articulate the linkage between human and animal health and intact ecosystems.
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From page 553... ...
For instance, the introduction of tuberculosis from humans to populations of orangutans and other endangered primates has serious implications for the long-term existence of these species in the wild Jones 1982~. Predators and diseases, plus disease vectors and reservoirs that people have introduced either purposefully or accidentally, have led to the extinction of many endemic Hawaiian bird species, and they threaten many more (van Riper and other 1986~.
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From page 554... ...
A mutual respect for the knowledge and abilities of other professionals is an impor' tent prerequisite to progress. THE GOALS OF CONSERVATION MEDICINE The goal of conservation medicine is the integration of the diagnostic and prob' lem~solving tools of medical professionals with the ecological and management knowledge of conservation professionals to preserve biodiversity and maintain the health of interdependent species (including humans)
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From page 555... ...
It provides a framework for bringing the health-science professions into the realm of conserving biological diversity and ecosystems and for infusing conservation biology thinking into the health pedagogy. In the end, we hope to use this approach to help people understand that esoteric concepts like "conservation of biodiversity" are intimately connected to their own personal health and that of animals.
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From page 556... ...
1988. Disease and endangered species: the black-footed ferret as a recent example.
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From page 557... ...
How, then, are the tropical countries coping with the challenge of conserving biodiversity? At least a partial answer is provided by table 2, which demonstrates that the tropical developing countries are making a substantial effort to establish protected areas, a major objective of which is to conserve biological diversity.
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From page 558... ...
This is a clear recognition of the need of governments to collaborate with each other and with various kinds of multilateral and bilateral organizations if they are to be successful in their efforts to manage biological re' sources sustainably. Effects in one state for example, consumption of such prod' ucts as ivory, tiger bones, and medicinal plants may affect biodiversity pro' TABLE 1 The World's Most Species'Rich Countries by Rank Number of Number of Mammals Species Reptiles (continued)
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From page 559... ...
HOW THE CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY PROMOTES INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION While stressing national sovereignty over biodiversity, the CBD also strongly emphasizes international cooperation. It specifically recognizes that "the provision of new and additional financial resources and appropriate access to relevant technologies can be expected to make a substantial difference in the world's ability to address the loss of biological diversity." It also acknowledges that "special provision is required to meet the needs of developing countries, including the provision of new and additional financial resources and appropriate access to relevant technologies." Signatories acknowledge that "substantial investments are
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From page 560... ...
Furthermore, the CBD expects that "the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity will strengthen friendly relations among states and contribute to peace for humankind." This implicitly recognizes the principle of ecological security that the peace and stability of a nation depend not only on its conventional military defenses, but also on its environmental stability. Environmental degradation within a country can result in social collapse and appalling human tragedies, leading to disputes within and between nations and even, ultimately, to war.
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From page 561... ...
. undertakes to provide and/or facilitate access for and transfer to other Contracting Parties of technologies that are relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity or make use of genetic resources and do not cause significant damage to the environment.
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From page 562... ...
Indeed, article 8(j) of the CBD says, "Subject to its national legislation, [each Contracting Party shalll respect, preserve, and main' tain knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations, and practices and en' courage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of such knowledge, innovations, and practices." In most parts of the tropics, rural villagers believe that they have historical rights to the land and resources that governments have declared "protected" in the national interest (for example, Vandergeest 1996~.
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From page 563... ...
Fish populations in the area appear to be rebuilding, and the local communities are benefiting directly from their self-imposed management programs. In the Philippines, the Kalahan Education Foundation, a local NGO established by the Ikalahan Tribe, is implementing an integrated program of community forest management and the extraction of nontimber forest products, leading to the production of jams and jellies from forest fruits, the extraction of essential oils, the collection and cultivation of flowers and mushrooms, and the manufacture of furniture.
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From page 564... ...
For example, through the Zambia Privatisation Agency, the Zambian National Parks and Wildlife Service offered some 25 prime locations in the parks on competitive-tender lease. These locations include sites in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, at Victoria Falls, and in the South Luangwa National Park, Kafue National Park, and Blue Lagoon National Park.
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From page 565... ...
· In Colombia, the Fundacion Pro-Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is responsible for managing three areas within the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park (300,000 hectares) , including land-protection and community-outreach activities.
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From page 566... ...
NGOs also are involved in supporting the effective management of Indonesia's Kerinci'Seblat and Lore Lindu National Parks (Elliott and others 1993~. In Kerinci'Seblat, four provincial NGO alliances are working on soil' and water~con' servation projects in five park~boundary villages; in Lore Lindu, four small NGO alliances are implementing a range of community~development activities in the Lake Lindu enclave.
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From page 567... ...
KMTNC is designed to raise funds for the development and management of protected areas and to execute projects; it has established associated national trusts in the UK, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Canada. It has worked in Sagarmatha National Park, Chitwan National Park, the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, and elsewhere on various aspects of protected-area management.
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From page 568... ...
Many investments in biodiversity may involve foreign-exchange components to build the confidence of investors and to leverage domestic sources of financing. Generating foreign exchange by exploiting biological resources may be contrary to the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity; external investment may reduce the need for such exploitation.
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From page 569... ...
CONCLUSIONS With the global economy now dependent on the reliable flow of biological re' sources from all parts of the world, international cooperation is essential for en' suring that biological resources are used in a sustainable way that leads to the conservation of biological diversity. Such cooperation can produce many benefits, but these depend, above all, on adequate investments in the field of biodiversity.
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From page 570... ...
Governments Taxes and charges Tradable permits Privatization and property rights Debt-related measures · Large amounts of funds primarily for forest biodiversity · Links biodiversity with climate change · Potential for vast amounts of funds · Can influence policies to be more supportive of biodiversity · Could raise US$1.5 billion per year with no effect on final product prices · Provides incentives for improved forest management · Can generate substantial funds with existing structures · Can build on "polluter-pays" and "beneficiary-pays" principles · "Green" taxes can change consumer behavior in favor of biodiversity without increasing total tax burden · Can generate billions of dollars of funding · Can change behavior affecting biodiversity · Specifies opportunity costs and provides mechanism for beneficiaries to pay them · Property rights give responsibility to people living closest to the resources · Assigning shares of privatized state corporations to conservation endowments helps retain public accountability · Can generate funds in national currencies and slightly reduce debt burdens · Requires international agreement; difficult to attain · Needs new institutions to manage funds · Requires unprecedented levels of coordination · Tacitly accepts continued high consumption of fossil fuels in North · Funds available only for direct forest management · May not be World Trade Organization-compatible; requires political will · Funds may be diverted to purposes unrelated to biodiversity · Consumer countries forgo important tax revenues · Needs internationally agreed monitoring and enforcement · Many governments resist hypothecated taxation · Taxpayer resistance · Biodiversity-rich areas are often distant from sources of funding · Administratively demanding · Behavioral changes might last only as long as payments continue · Difficult to translate to international level · Government monitoring of resource management in remote areas is difficult · Why use for biodiversity instead of for other needs? · Privatizing can destroy effective community-based management systems · Some resentment of "conditionality" continues
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From page 571... ...
1994. A guide to the convention on biological diversity: Env Pol Law Paper No 30.
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From page 572... ...
1991. Resident peoples and national parks: social dilemmas and strategies in international conservation.
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From page 573... ...
Numerous national and international agreements address these issues. The specific need to harmonize conservation with the socioeconomic development of populations is addressed by the Convention on Biological Diversity.
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From page 574... ...
The aspirations of Costa Rican society are well interpreted in the following paragraph (Arias 1989~: When we work for development, we are seeking an austere and fair life style. We want a society where everybody can satisfy at least his/her basic needs.
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From page 575... ...
that the roots of Costa Rica's environmental thinking emerged between 1940 and 1950 (Fournier 1991~. The National Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the Wildlife Service were formally established between 1970 and 1980 under the Ministry of Agriculture and provided an adequate legal framework that enabled the creation and management of national parks and other categories of protected areas.
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From page 576... ...
The national park, forest, and wildlife
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From page 577... ...
Costa Rica is saving representative samples of the species and ecosystems present in the country through a system of protected wildlands within the conservation areas. Nearly 24% of the country is protected under different categories of management, and 11.8% is national parks and reserves (579,412 ha)
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From page 578... ...
Conceptually, INBio offers an innovative form of direct participation of the civil society in biodiversity conservation and management in direct collaboration and coordination with the government. SINAC and INBio work in close partnership in a strategic alliance supported by a periodically updated legal collaborative agreement that stipulates the rules and regulations that guide the partners' activities (Sittenfeld and Gamez 1993~.
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From page 579... ...
It also serves as the technical~scientific advisory body to the government in all international activities of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. With the approval of the new biodiversity law in 1998, COABIO was replaced with the Comision Nacional pare la Gestion de la Biodiversidad (National Commission for Biodiversity Management)
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From page 580... ...
Being a parataxonomist also brings in economic benefits to rural families. The economic benefits have multiplying effects in the rural communities, which rapidly perceive the benefits of the activities conducted in the protected wildlands.
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From page 581... ...
Biodiversity prospecting appears in profile as one of the industrial goals for the 21st century, and biodiversity-rich tropical developing countries, such as Costa Rica, have a unique opportunity to lead the process (Mateo 1996; Sittenfeld and Lovejoy 1995~. Even before the emergence of the Convention on Biological Diversity, INBio's policies recognized the need to establish collaborative research agreements and mutually beneficial partnerships with industry in the developed world, as stated by Eisner (1989~.
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From page 582... ...
INBio's experiences in bioprospecting have served to formulate national policy and legislation, as exemplified by Costa Rica's new biodiversity legislation. This knowledge has also been shared with others in African and Latin American countries through technical workshops.
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From page 583... ...
Furthermore, the Central American region can benefit from the information and knowledge generated by the Costa Rican experience. It might also be a viable example of compliance with the terms of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
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From page 584... ...
1988. Costa Rica's national park system and the preservation of biological diversity: linking conservation with socioeconomic development.
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From page 585... ...
1993. Biodiversity prospecting: using genetic resources for sustainable development.
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From page 586... ...
1992, http://www.conabio.gob.mx) , with the task of coordinating the national biodiversity inventory and the associated databases and information systems.
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From page 587... ...
, and the Costa Rican Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (InBio) system (http://www.inbio.ac.cr/~.
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From page 588... ...
The sys' tern being developed in CONABIO belongs to this class. THE NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEM OF MEXICO The main task given to CONABIO by the presidential act that created it was to coordinate the inventory of Mexican biodiversity and to develop and maintain the information system for it.
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From page 589... ...
Some systems are based entirely on bibliographic information, such as the Indian Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre (http:// www.wcmc.org.uk/igcmc/) and Napralert at the University of Illinois (Farnsworth 1988~; metadata systems, such as the National Biodiversity Information Infrastructure of the Department of the Interior in the United States (http://www.nbs.gov/~; mixed systems, such as The Nature Conservancy in the United States and several Latin American countries Jenkins 1988; http://www.tuc.org/~; systems of state scope, such as the Gap Analysis Program (GAP, http://www.gap.uidaho.edu/gap/~; systems oriented wholly to taxonomic information, such as the Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI, http ://turboguide.com/data2/cdprod 1/doe/ cdrom.frame/002/607.pub.Expert.Centre.for.Taxonomic.Identification.ETI.html)
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From page 590... ...
Taxoreference (Latin name) ·Scientif1c or informal knowledge ·Legislation ·Uses/values ·Media FIGURE 1 Scheme of ideal biodiversity information system.
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From page 591... ...
CONABIO's botanical databases, in contrast, are being compiled mainly in two Mexican collections, principally in the National Herbarium of the Instituto de Biologia, UNAM (MEXU, IBUNAM) , and the Herbarium of the Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas of the National Polytechnic Institute (ENCB, IPN)
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From page 592... ...
Some data providers still use their own systems or commercial data managers; their information can be included in BIOTICA, but the number of inconsistencies tends to be larger than when BIOTICA is used. Uses of the Mexican National Biodiversity Information System Although the Mexican National Biodiversity Information System is still unfin' ished as an integrated system, many of its components are fully operational, and it is already providing services.
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From page 593... ...
The Future of the Mexican National Biodiversity Information System User demands require that CONABIO's BIS include information about protected species (including trends in populations) and useful or marketable species and provide a higher level of resolution of cartography, including time series for vegetation cover in some areas.
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From page 594... ...
. This pilot example, the North American Biodiversity Information Network (NABIN)
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From page 595... ...
1996. Guide to information management in the context of the convention on biological diversity.
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From page 596... ...
Nonetheless, this area of remarkable biological diversity is home to numerous wildlife species. Perhaps most remarkable is that fewer than 100 people live in a region that is half the size of Rhode Island.
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From page 597... ...
In the fall of 1991, a small group of ranchers in the Malpai Borderlands met with a group of individuals from the environmental community at the headquar' ters of a ranch owned by the Glenn family, known as the M alp al Ranch. These ranchers were concerned about the future of the big open landscape that is their homeland and wanted to get together with some of the critics of livestock~graz' ing in the West to see whether they shared any concerns and, perhaps, could find some common ground.
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From page 598... ...
Maintaining the vast open-space character of the ranch was important to both the Hadleys and TNC, so part of the purchase agreement included conservation easements, to be held by TNC on the private lands of the Gray Ranch. These easements stipulate that the ranch can never be subdivided.
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From page 599... ...
The committee recently helped establish a standardized range-monitoring protocol for use by the group's cooperators. Among the various research projects is a rehabilitative effort set up by the Forest Research Station, the NRCS, and a private landowner on 150 acres of veryeroded land adjacent to a creek.
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From page 600... ...
At the invitation of the Malpai Borderlands Group, world-renowned big-cat researcher Alan Rabinowitz visited to survey the site of the jaguar encounter, as well as the corridor that runs from the Peloncillos to the Sierra Madres in Mexico. Rabinowitz's opinion is that the Peloncillos and the neighboring Sierra San Luis are not true habitat for the jaguar.
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From page 601... ...
Although the second burn did not involve anywhere near the jurisdictional difficulties of the first, the attempt nearly ran aground when ecosystem management came into conflict with single-species management. The two ranchers involved voluntarily withheld grazing from their forest allotments to build the fine-fuel load high enough to affect the woody species, but the consultation under section 7 of the Endangered Species Act between the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service over the possible effect of fire on three species listed as endangered dragged on for 2 years.
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From page 602... ...
Even before this report had been reviewed by those for whom it was intended, and well before the Malpai Borderlands Group became aware of it, these recommendations were incorporated by a US Fish and Wildlife Service herpetologist into a court-ordered biological opinion on grazing for two Bureau of Land Management districts that cover nearly one-third of the land area of Arizona. Even though the report itself (which is final but not published yet ~ states that the effects of grazing on the habitat of the ridgenose rattlesnake are unknown, it recommends midwinter grazing only.
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From page 603... ...
Writing in support of the approach of the Malpai Borderlands Group, James Brown stated, "Ranchers, conservationists, government~agency employees, re' search scientists, and the American public all have much to lose if the present climate of distrust, disagreement, and interference is perpetuated. All have much to gain through interaction, cooperation, and collaboration" (Brown and McDon' aid 1995~.
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