Report from the ICCB2013 symposium
Representatives
of the Society for Conservation Biology - Europe Section participated in a
symposium on ‘roadless areas’ as important target areas for biodiversity
conservation in Baltimore, USA. The symposium was part of the biennial International Congress for Conservation Biology
2013,
celebrated at the Baltimore Convention Center, from 21 to 25 July, and was
organized by Dominick de la Salla, president of the North American section of
SCB. Further SCB sections represented were Australia, Latin America and
Caribbean, as well as the Marine section.
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| Speakers of the Roadless Symposium in ICCB2013 |
Nuria Selva
and Pierre Ibisch, both members of the Policy Committee of the Europe Section,
delivered papers on the European perspective on roadless areas and biodiversity
and on a first assessment of the global roadless areas. The presentations were
a result of an ongoing cooperation with Google and Kriton Arsenis, Member of the
European Parliament. Kriton Arsenis contributed a video message to the symposium,
and once more proved that worldwide he is the leading politician striving for a
better conservation of roadless areas. Rebecca Moore presented the contribution by Google
to the project. At Google, Rebecca
conceived and leads the Google Earth Outreach program, and initiated and leads the development of Google Earth Engine.
The talk given by
Nuria, co-authored by members of the European SCB Policy Committee,
Kriton Arsenis and Google staff, summarized conceptual findings highlighting the
opportunities for embracing roadless areas conservation in Europe, and also
presented recently published results (index for mapping road impacts;
publication in Landscape ecology; state of roadless areas conservation in
Europe).
Pierre’s paper,
also co-authored by members of the European SCB Policy Committee, Kriton Arsenis
and Google staff, presented new results to be published in the near future. For
the first time, roadless areas are assessed on all continents. Among others,
coverage of functional ecosystems, biomes and protected areas were analysed.
Less than 4% of the roadless areas are protected by strict reserves, such as
wilderness areas or national parks (IUCN categories I + II); best coverage has
been achieved in North America.
Pierre L. Ibisch & Nuria Selva
Roadless and Low Density-Transportation Networks
as Permeable Landscapes and Seascapes [Part I]
23 July
Organizer: DellaSala, D., Geos Institute
23 July
Organizer: DellaSala, D., Geos Institute
A vast
network of roads and marine highways crisscrosses the planet, transporting
people and goods over global distances with substantial environmental impacts.
For instance, the ecological footprint of roads is known to extend up to a
kilometer on either side of an individual road (road effect zone) with
cumulative effects of dense road networks in some regions impacting up to
15-20% of total surface area (e.g., continental USA). Marine transportation
networks and associated ship transport lanes also create migration and other
problems for wildlife, including acoustic pollution and collision-related
mortality. In contrast, areas with low road densities and/or low-traffic volume
(marine and terrestrial) and those with no roads (e.g., roadless areas in the
USA, South America, Asia, Africa) are a conservation priority globally because
they provide habitat for road-adverse wildlife, have characteristic ecological
processes, are relatively resistant to weed invasions, act as strongholds for
aquatic species, and provide climatic refugia. In some terrestrial regions
(e.g., western Europe), only low-density roads with low traffic volume remain
and these areas are building blocks for re-wilding landscapes. This symposium
will provide a global synthesis of impacts of vast transportation networks and
a region by region and a global synthesis on the importance of intact areas
showcasing new intactness and human footprint technologies.
