Seminar Title:  Recolonising New Zealand sea lions: Spatial insights and management implications

Presented by:  Dr Amélie A. Augé, Spatial Ecology Research Facilities, School of Surveying, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Where:  Sir George Fisher Building Conference Room #114 (DB32 upstairs)

When:  11am – 12pm Monday 27 Feb 2012

Abstract:  The New Zealand sea lion, Phocarctos hookeri, is a threatened species endemic to the New Zealand region. Although the species used to breed all around the North and South Islands, it was extirpated from these islands before the 1830s. There are currently only three breeding areas of this species, all on sub-Antarctic islands where numbers have also been decreasing for the past 15 years. A first natural recolonisation attempt by New Zealand sea lions is occurring on the Otago coast of the South Island, following the arrival of a single breeding female from sub-Antarctic islands in 1994. This recolonisation is significant for the future of the species but creates several conservation issues due to human interactions, on land and at sea. I will present the work that I have been involved with, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation, during the last 6 years using spatial data and GIS to improve our understanding of this new population and of the management issues. This work includes habitat preference study, habitat suitability model, foraging areas study and identification of spatial overlaps with fishery. Our aim was to inform the government, local management agencies and stakeholders on where management issues will likely occur as the recolonisation progresses so that precautionary management can lead to the establishment of a breeding colony at Otago while limiting the negative effects it may have on the local economy, in particular fisheries, coastal recreational activities and tourism. 

Seminar Title:  Recolonising Past, present and future: Informing participatory conservation planning with long-term land use/cover change research in East Africa

Presented by:  Dr Nicholas Mitchell, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart and University of Applied Sciences, Karlsruhe, Germany

Where:  Sir George Fisher Building Conference Room #114 (DB32 upstairs)

When:  Mon Feb 27; 12 noon – 1pm

Abstract:  The presentation will show how long-term land use/cover change research has assisted the conservation planning of a forest landscape in western Kenya in Eastern Africa. Research into historical environmental changes have brought an understanding of disturbance and fragmentation processes that have fed directly into restoration plans. The creation of disturbance indices have provided quantified and spatially explicit views of disturbance that are helping managers to target protective measures and interventions. The tracing and analysis of factors contributing to past land use/cover change has brought greater understanding of, for instance, the role human population growth in the exploitation of natural resources.

The devising of a multi-user zonation plan has allowed for the future sustainable extraction by the local communities while maintaining the governing authorities expectation of commercially viable exploitation. The participation of a major scientific research body within the management planning process has stimulated a new sense of purpose and urgency to both the ecological and socio-economic agenda regarding the local forest landscape. This has led, for example, to the addition of a livelihood support zone outside the forest boundary.

The inclusion of scientists within the management planning process has enabled the ready access to research results and has highlighted the need for scientists to make results available in a format ready for digestion by protected area managers and non-scientists. The process has not only encouraged community participation but also brought together two governing authorities with NGOs and scientists in a rounded example of participatory natural resource management planning. This Kenyan example therefore claims to represent the interests of a broad coalition of stakeholders that has potential for replication elsewhere.