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ERA Case Studies

By admin on 3/26/2007 | Keyword(s): Ecoregional assessments; Webpage; Case Studies; regional assessment

ERA Toolbox

Ecoregional Assessment Case Study Library

Case Studies are stories from the field sharing approaches, methods and innovations to achieve quaility ecoregional assessments. Case Studies are available in the Ecoregional Assessment Toolbox organized by the Standards for Ecoregional Assessments. Here is the complete library of Ecoregional Assessment Case Studies for easy browsing.

Contributing to the case study library. If you have an approach, method or innovation to share, consider developing and submitting a case study to this library. First download the case study template. Then submit the completed template to conservationgateway@tnc.org. Any questions you may have should also be directed to the above address.

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Assemble Team

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Organization of a tri-national and multidisciplinary team for Gran Chaco Ecoregional Assessment, South America The Gran Chaco ecoregional assessment covers an area that includes three countries. The organizational structure and professional skills needed to ensure success of this project includes: (1) a mentor who raises the carefully assembled professional team to functional level via training; (2) a manager who coordinates project activities to ensure the completion of the project in a timely fashion; (3) a facilitator who fosters a participatory process and makes the ecoregional plan relevant to local communities.
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Engage Partners & Stakeholders

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An Outreach Program that Catalyzed US and Mexico Cross-border Collaboration. The purpose of the outreach efforts conducted for the Sonoran and Apache Highlands ecoregional assessments was to (1) generate awareness of the project and be proactive in messaging the purposes of the project; (2) attract participation by natural resource entities
throughout the two ecoregions; and, (3) create positive expectations for the eventual release of ecoregional assessments and associated data.
Linking an Ecoregional Assessment with the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in the Federated States of Micronesia. This Ecoregional Assessment was conducted within the country’s effort to develop a National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan, a requirement of all Convention on Biological Diversity signatory nations.
Okanogan Ecoregional Assessment Team Charter. The team formed to conduct the Okanogan ecoregional assessment included 3 major partners along with collaborators from many other agencies and organizations involved to varying degrees depending on interest of the participating group. Terms of involvement were established early.
Multinational Collaboration in Central America. The Selva Maya, Olmeca, Zoque ecoregion contains portions of 3 countries in Central America. The team developed several strategies to deal with the difficulties of identifying and working with a diversity of partners in Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Finding the Balance Among Different Stakeholders. Lessons learned from stakeholder involvement in reforestation and common lands management efforts in rural India.
Participants in the ERC Process in the Carpathian Mountains. A summary of the participants and their roles. While this example covers all participants including biological experts, it puts major partners and stakeholders into context.
Stakeholder Involvement in the Sulawesi Ecoregional Conservation Assessment (ECA), Indonesia. In order to assist the process and help garner support for an ECA, a steering committee was formed, comprised of conservation professionals from throughout the Sulawesi Also, a series of "roadshows" were developed and carried out, targeting local governments.
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Conduct Peer Reviews

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Identification of priority sites for conservation in the northern Gulf of Mexico; using peer review to improve credibility and quality of methods and outcomes. The ERA for the nearshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico underwent peer review at several points throughout the process.
Sulawesi Ecoregional Conservation Assessment (ECA), Indonesia. The Sulawesi ECA team solicted review from internal and external peers via three main avenues; a steering committee, a series of “roadshows,” and ongoing involvement from experts.
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Share Products & Data

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The Arctic Updates for the Alaska Yukon Arctic Ecoregional Assessment . TNC's Alaska Program produced updates on progress and products during the Alaska/Yukon ecoregional assessment and sent them electronically to partners. Find updates at http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/alaska/preserves/art13301.html
Southeastern United States freshwater biodiversity assessment final report and supplementary CD. Priority Areas for Freshwater Conservation Action: A Biodiversity Assessment of the Southeastern United States is a publication for a broad audience summarizing the intent, partnerships, approaches, methods and products of a four ecoregion assessment. The report is distributed with a CD that provides the report, databases and links to spatial data to allow further analyses.
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Manage Data

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Ecoregional Data Management Team. In 2005, the Ecoregional Data Management Team (EDMT) pilot project (see TOOLS section below) spawned a formal project to develop Ecoregional Data Management Tools Software 1.0, on a shared TNC server. This project is currently in development and results will be formally evaluated by TNC in April 2006 to determine how these tools may serve the organization. A summary of this project can be accessed at: /workspaces/EDMT

Working in collaboration with the development of ERA Data Standard 1.0, EDMT extends functionality provided by CPT to include spatial data, data rollup, data visualization, and the following features:
- Integrating spatial data into the CPT model. EDMT 1.0 is built on an SDE/Geodatabase model, and features a personal geodatabase version for use on laptop computers.
- Systematizing data resulting from ecoregional portfolios and also data extending beyond portfolio sites and across the ecoregional landscape.
- Compatibility with site optimization tools such as Marxan, SITES, and SPOT, without requiring the use of these tools,
- Freshwater and marine assessment data are supported and can be used in conjunction with terrestrial data for analysis and developing ecoregional-scale conservation vision.
Arizona Ecoregional Rollup. A six-ecoregion geodatabase for the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico was completed by the TNC’s Arizona chapter between 1999 and 2004. They were designed to identify an efficient network of lands where the viability of a region’s biological diversity could be maximized by abating major threats. Assessments are systematic and comprehensive analyses that represent a new, synthetic data source for more than 1300 species and ecological systems found in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. To facilitate analyses across ecoregional boundaries, we aggregated and standardized data for six assessments into a single geodatabase that includes the Apache Highlands, Arizona-New Mexico Mountains, Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, and Southern Rocky Mountains ecoregions. A summary report describes the assessment process and the methods used to develop the geodatabase. A summary report describing this work, as well as GIS data sets can be downloaded from: http://www.azconservation.org/ecoregions.htm
Conservation Priorities for Freshwater Biodiversity in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (2003) is a freshwater ecoregional assessment featuring extensive management of freshwater species and ecosystems data across a large geographic extent. A summary report describing this work can be downloaded from: /docs/2003/08/UMRB_report.pdf (.pdf, 5.18MB).
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Define Assessment Unit

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Revising bi-national ecoregional boundaries in the Superior Mixed Forest region. The original SMF ecoregion delination stopped at the Canadian-U.S. border. A binational team used existing data to draw the boundary. A table organizing differences in terminology was developed to help the involved groups communicate about biogeographic land units. A detailed boundary change justification was included as appendix to the SMF ecoregional plan.
Refining ecoregional boundary delineations through the incorporation of new data in the Selva Maya, Zoque and Olmeca Ecoregion. The Selva Maya, Zoque and Olmeca assessment unit is an aggregated unit containing several ecoregions in portions of Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. The original boundaries were derived from coarse-scale data which showed dramatic inconsistencies with currently available finer-scale spatial data. In order to revise the boundaries of and within the Selva Maya, Zoque and Olmeca ecoregions, several iterations of data integration, expert input/review, and boundary modification were conducted.
Establishing subecoregions using cluster analysis in the SW Amazon. Cluster analysis using climate data was used to identify 14 subecoregions in Southwest Amazon.
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Select Targets

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West Coast Groundfish Survey Data was incorporated into the Offshore Component of the Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Assessment. The focus was on reviewing and assessing the utility of the existing groundfish trawl survey data from the National Marine Fisheries Service for use in The Nature Conservancy’s spatially-explicit marine ecoregional planning process. The primary purpose of these surveys has been to collect long-term distribution and abundance information to support management of commercially-harvested managed groundfish species. We used these data to help select marine fish targets and determine location and relative abundances.

NOTE: In using fisheries-related information in our ecoregional planning process we attempt to broaden our biodiversity conservation toolkit to include multiple management objectives, or ecosystem-based management (E-BM). To learn more about our E-BM approach visit www.marineebm.org.
Ecological Systems in the Northern Great Plains Steppe. In order to circumvent the paucity of system level data, plant associations and natural community associations were identified for use as terrestrial targets. Natural communities were grouped into ecological complexes and size class was assigned to each ecological complex to represent the spatial pattern and scale of these complexes.
Ecological Land Units in the Central Appalachians Ecoregion. Ecological Land Units were generated using geology, topography and elevation data under the premise that natural distributions of species and communities are driven by environmental gradients and unique combinations of these three attributes can be used to approximate the location and distribution of communities and species. This case study highlights how ELUs were utilized to identify matrix community targets.
Selecting Bird Targets in the East Gulf Coastal Plain Ecoregion. Partner in Flight bird occurrence lists were used as a basis for selecting bird targets. The list was further refined using Geography of Hope criteria and PiF Global Score, Abundance and Trend rankings.
Terrestrial, Freshwater and Nearshore Marine Target Selection in the Willamette Valley- Puget Trough- Georgia Basin Ecoregion. Five teams of experts were assembled to create the target list for the WPG. Three teams focused on terrestrial targets (plants, animals and ecological systems). One team complied nearshore marine targets and another, freshwater targets. Habitat or coarse filter classification systems were developed for both aquatic target identification processes.
Pacific Northwest Coast (PNWC) Ecoregion Offshore Classification Methodology. The PNWC ecoregional assessment team has developed an innovative method for classifying and mapping offshore benthic habitats utilizing a topographic model and existing classifications that characterize depth and benthic substrate to model and generate offshore benthic conservation targets.
Shoreline Habitat Classification for Northern California Current (NCC), Pacific Northwest Coast (PNWC), Northwest Atlantic Coastal and Marine (NAC-marine) Ecoregional Assessments. Described is an approach for defining shoreline conservation targets based on NOAA's Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) data. This approach has been tested in several marine ecoregion assessments.
Analysis of Representation in the Klamath-Siskiyou Forests. This case study provides an example of developing a surrogate for biodiversity (coarse filter target) in a data poor region.
Conserving Ecological Processes in the Eastern Himalayas. This WWF ecoregion conservation team identified critical ecological processes with the Eastern Himalayas ecoregion that are critical elements of a biodiversity vision.
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Set Goals

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Goal Setting in the High Allegheny Plateau: An Illustration of the Eastern Regional Approach to Setting Numeric and Distributional Goals. The goal setting process used in the Eastern Region in was developed between1997 and 1999 with a lot of dialog and debate among the state and regional scientists. The method was then employed for all ecoregions in the region including the High Allegheny Plateau. Explicit quantitative goals were set for both the number and distribution of occurrences of a target within an ecoregion.
A Tiered Approach to Goal Setting in the Utah High Plateaus Ecoregion. NatureServe and the Utah High Plateaus Ecoregional Assessment team developed a "goal-based" approach to building regional conservation scenarios. Developing three tiers of numeric goals for high, medium, and low risk scenarios promotes the examination of a range of conservation solutions.
Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission's Goal for Florida's Wildlife. As part of a gap analysis for the state of Florida, species distributions were determined for 44 focal species. This was followed by a population viability analysis to determine minimum requirements for adequate protection of a species. Out of this analysis a quantitative goal was set -- 10 populations, distributed broadly, with at least 200 individuals on publicly owned land or land under a public management agreement (e.g. conservation easements).
Aquatic and Terrestrial goal setting in the Edwards Plateau Ecoregion. Overall and stratified goals were set for aquatic and terrestrial targets using distribution, scale and conservation status criteria. Targets were selected and their associated goals developed to be in alignment with ecoregions that share conservation targets.
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Assess Viability

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Ecological Integrity of Grasslands in the Apache Highlands Ecoregion. The Apache Highlands Ecoregional Assessment team conducted a detailed assessment of the ecological integrity of grasslands throughout the ecoregion in order to identify the best remaining examples of native and restorable grasslands.
Derivation of Suitability Index Yakima/Palouse EDU Washington. A suitability index was developed from five indicators of freshwater system integrity, land use, dam density, riparian buffer width, land ownership and irrigated land. This index was then used as a cost surface in a portfolio selection algorithm.
Assessing the Quality and Threats to Aquatic Targets. This summary provides an overview of viability/integrity assessments of freshwater target occurrences and discusses size, condition and landscape context as it pertains to the freshwater biome.
Assessing condition/integrity of ecosystems: using spatial data to develop suitability indices. This summary provides a series of brief examples highlighting the use of spatial data for viability/integrity assessments for terrestrial and aquatic systems.
Focal species and minimum area requirements in Southwestern Amazon. In the absence of data identifying minimum area requirements to sustain viable populations of biodiversity targets, an umbrella species approach was used to estimate minimum block size.
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Analyze Threats

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Synthesis of Commercial Trawl Fishing Effort Data for Pacific Northwest Coast Ecoregional Assessment. This document describes the synthesis of commercial trawl fishing data for use in The Nature Conservancy’s offshore component of the Pacific Northwest Ecoregional Assessment. Fishery-dependent, commercial trawling is only one of several types of commercial and recreational fishing occurring in this region that should be considered within an ecoregional assessment. However, it is the only type of fishing effort with spatial information that has been uniformly collected in log books. Other types of fishing, such as commercial longline or pot/trap are only tracked at the port where fish are landed, and therefore offer minimal information about the location of fishing activity.

For a complete ecosystem-based assessment it is necessary to include information about human uses of the marine environment in tandem with the biological and physical ecosystem components. NOTE: In using fisheries-related information in our ecoregional planning process we attempt to broaden our biodiversity conservation toolkit to include multiple management objectives, or ecosystem-based management (E-BM). To learn more about our E-BM approach visit www.marineebm.org.
Assessment of threats to the marine biodiversity of the Caribbean using expert workshops. The assessment of threats to biodiversity priority areas in the Caribbean was determined by experts in a workshop setting. Experts were asked to rank current threats, the persistence of threats to specific seascape and integrity features and future threats. Results were summarized in a web-based report and interactive map and were used to inform priority actions.
The Use of Experts to Assess Threats to Aquatic Targets in the Central Tallgrass Prairie. Threats to coarse and fine filter targets were identified by experts at a workshop. Experts provided a rank order of major stresses and sources of stress as well as an urgency rating and suggestions for management. A worksheet is provided to assist experts in the process.
Tennessee/Cumberland Freshwater Ecoregion Threats to areas of biodiversity significance were documented to inform site based and regional strategy development. Information was summarized by area of biodiversity significance, ecoregion and region (all four ecoregions). The World Wildlife Fund, US and TNC conducted additional spatial analyses to display patterns of sources of stress to the areas of biodiversity significance to inform strategy development.
Examples of threat forecasting from The Nature Conservancy. This is a one page document summarizing three examples of forecasting future threats for Ecoregional Assessements.
Root Cause Analysis of Threats. Provides an overview of root cause analysis as employed by WWF during the ecoregion conservation process to help understand threats to biodiversity conservation and the root cause of those threats.
Analysis of critical threats in the Vildivian Temperate Rainforest. An ecoregion conservation team conducted a detailed analysis of pervasive threats in the Vildivian Temperate Rainforest. The five top threats to biodiversity in this region are: conversion to plantations, extraction of firewood, extraction for timber, anthropogenic fire and overgrazing.
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Design Ecoregional Portfolios

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Connecting priority conservation areas in the main island of Puerto Rico. This case study describes how priority areas were identified that serve as the key connections between conservation priorities (protected areas, etc.) that are important for maintaining population dynamics of conservation targets and ensuring the persistence of the targets. These population dynamics include recruitment of species, genetic exchange of individuals between different populations, and long-distance rescue to supplement or replace populations that were weakened or eliminated as a result of natural or anthropogenic disturbances.
Scenario Building in the Utah High Plateaus Ecoregion. Six potential portfolios were produced using three sets of conservation goals and two cost surfaces. These scenarios were then integrated into a final portfolio.
Using SITES 1.0 and expert review to create a portfolio of sites for the
Southern Rocky Mountains Ecoregion. This case study details the use of SITES from deriving the data necessary for input to the final selection of areas of biodiversity significance using expert workshops.
Automated Integration of Aquatic and Terrestrial Conservation Areas in
Conservation Planning: A New Method. This new approach is called vertical integration, which allows planners to analyze aquatic and terrestrial targets simultaneously by using separate layers of assessment units, crafted to match the natural boundaries of the targets being assessed, with suitability indices incorporating impacts specific to those targets. This approach has been piloted in the Pacific Northwest Coast and the Alaska-Yukon Arctic bioregions.
Priority Sites and Spatial Variability for the Carolinian Marine Ecoregional
Assessment. Marxan automated site selection algorithm was employed to enable a dynamic decision support system (DSS) using target data and a suitability index derived from 11 indicators of anthropogenic threat to the system and its targets.
Establishing connectivity in the Southwest Amazon. A model was used to estimate the cost of migration between existing and potential priority areas in the Southwest Amazon ecoregion. This cost surface was used to establish connectivity among priority areas.
The final biodiversity vision for the Southwest Amazon. This case study presents the finished biodiversity vision for the SW Amazon ecoregion and outlines implementation considerations.
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Establish Measures

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Define Prioirites for Action

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Southern Rocky Mountain Ecoregion. Defined area-based priorities considering conservation value (number of globally imperiled targets and viability), and level of threats. Information was gathered from the Natural Heritage Program, workshops and subject experts. Priorities were areas that had higher numbers of threatened targets with higher viability and higher levels of threats. Click here for related figures (.ppt, 1 MB)and spreadsheets (.xls, 107 kb).
Arizona (portions of 5 ecoregions). Defined a Biological Value Index using total # targets, global ranks, listed status, # endemic targets, taxonomic diversity, and # aquatic/riparian targets. Defined an Irreplaceability Index to evaluate uniqueness of targets in areas. Conducted multiple prioritization schemes among 499 areas and discussed different outcomes. Click here for related figures (.pdf, 301 kb) and spreadsheets (.xls, 369 kb).
Southeastern Regional Priorities. Four classes of urgency for actions were defined using level of threat and contribution to ecoregional goals. All highly threatened areas were priorities, and combinations of high levels of biological target contribution and high threats were priorities. A program was developed for data analyses. Further analyses included opportunities for conservation actions and priorities for specific strategies linked to specific threats. Click here for related figures (.ppt, 275 kb).
Prioritizing Conservation Areas in the Willamette Valley-Puget Trough-Georgia Basin. Ecoregion. Prioritization among terrestrial portfolio sites was determined by plotting conservation value against vulnerability. An Excel-based tool was developed to allow assessment of various conservation value weighting schemes. This tool also automates the reporting of results in tables, graphs and maps.
Ranking priority areas in the Northern Andes. Priority areas were ranked through an involved process that included assessing each area's importance for biodiversity, importance for ecological processes and intactness.
Prioritization Matrix in Northern High Plains. Priorities were determined from an index based on the biodiversity value of portfolio conservation areas, and the urgency of threats to the biodiversity of these areas.
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Develop Financial Plan

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A Financial Modeling, Implementation and Tracking Tool for the Terai Arc Landscape. This comprehensive financial model was initially developed as part of the Implementation Plan for the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in Nepal. The model: provides information on the targets (goals) and the financial resources required to implement the plan and secure funding over time; incorporates the cash and in-kind contributions of 14 partners and donors and depicts gaps; prioritizes activities across the landscape, which will help partners and donors focus their investment in critical activities to maximize conservation and sustainable livelihoods outputs; and provides a tracking mechanism for monitoring spending and activities by each of the 14 partners.

MARFIN: A Financial Planning Tool for Coastal and Marine Protected Areas in the Mesoamerican Reef Ecoregion. A financial model for the Mesoamerican Reef (MAR) – called MARFIN – was developed to: (1) gather and analyze field information to determine the present and future management costs for each category of coastal and marine areas in the MAR; (2) develop a tool that provides present and future financial scenarios for managing the coastal and marine protected areas in the MAR, and that can present different possible scenarios at a national and regional scale; and (3) develop a tool that will support the development of a strategy to secure the funds needed to establish a functional network of coastal and marine areas in the MAR.
Identify financial resources to support conservation activities after the completion of the Pantanal ecoregional assessment, Brazil. The Pantanal Ecoregional Planning team developed an action plan to implement conservation strategies developed during the ecological assessment. This action plan included estimates of the financial support necessary to implement these strategies which helped prioritize strategies for implementation and set fundraising goals.
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