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MONITORING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

MONITORING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY. The Nature Conservancy’s Natural Heritage Program. The Nature Conservancy was established to conserve biodiversity by establishing natural area preserves.

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MONITORING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

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  1. MONITORING BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY The Nature Conservancy’s Natural Heritage Program

  2. The Nature Conservancy was established to conserve biodiversity by establishing natural area preserves Preserves are selected and designed to protect examples of the widest possible spectrum of native ecosystems & species habitats

  3. Gathering and Organizing Scientific Information became One of the First Orders of Business

  4. The Nature Conservancy initiated the first State Natural Heritage Inventories in 1974 Methodology used has become the most systematic, comprehensive & widely used technology in existence for gathering & organizing information needed for conservation

  5. Natural Data Centers exist in every state of the U.S.

  6. Heritage Inventory Technology is also being used in more than 30 countries

  7. “A permanent and dynamic atlas and data bank on the existence, characteristics, numbers, condition, status, location, and distribution of occurrences of the elements of natural biological and ecological diversity”

  8. How and Why the Heritage Program Works • Focused Goal • Focused Method • Multi-Institutional Cooperation • Program Continuity • Practical Geographic Scale • Successive Approximation • Factual, Balanced Information System • Standardization • Central Support

  9. Some Applications of the Data • Preserve Selection & Design • Element Status Monitoring • Development Planning - “Certainty” Key-word • Environmental Impact Assessment • Access to Additional Information • Predictive Modeling • Conservation Priority Setting • Facilitating Continuing Inventory • Land Conservation Administration

  10. For these reasonsHeritage programs have been applauded by big business, chambers of commerce, trade associations and environmentalists • Saves Money • Avoids Litigation

  11. The Conservancy is now able to make regional and preliminary national assessments of the most important gaps in ecosystem and species coverage

  12. Example: Geographic Distribution of Endangered Species in the United StatesA.P. Dobson, J.P. Rodriguez, W.M. Roberts, D.S. WilcoveSCIENCE24 January 1997

  13. Species Extirpated from a State

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