How to protect nature – Boreal mire conservation in Finland
Nature’s resources enable the existence of humankind. Due to our very intensive
resource extraction, many ecosystem functions are deteriorating and species’
populations, distributions, and assemblages changing, which jeopardize our
contemporary societies. Conservation areas effectively slow down these
trajectories. However, conservation benefits and costs are often
incommensurable, and spatially and temporally unevenly distributed, so their
reliable evaluation is complex. I studied how conservation decision-making
could produce ecologically, socially, and economically effective and acceptable
conservation solutions. I implemented the study in the context of boreal mire
conservation network complementation in Finland. Mires need to be set aside as
spatially and functionally continuous entities to safeguard their hydrology and
long-term existence. In Finland, mires are mostly privately owned and
landownership is fragmented within single mires. As a result, conflicts could not
be avoided. However, trade-offs between ecological gains, landowners’
conservation preferences, and conservation costs could have been alleviated, if
alternative conservation solutions were recognized, their consequences studied,
and some of the current legislation revised. Furthermore, not all assumed
conflicts proved to be true since landowners of wooded mires did not engage in
systematic pre-emptive loggings. The results also show that spatial prioritization
methods can fill the science-practice gap by supporting conservation planning
and decision-making in diverse ways. They can serve simultaneously as site
selection tools and as platforms to decision-making, enhancing sharing and
analytical use of expert knowledge. They also allow quantification of
interrelationships between different conservation-related factors, which enables
informing decision-makers about the consequences of alternative conservation
solutions. Boreal mire conservation in Finland reflects the very same challenges
than nature conservation around the world, so its solutions can help to resolve
global conservation problems.
Keywords: Conservation decision-making; involuntary conservation; peatland;
pre-emptive behavior; trade-offs; voluntary conservation; Zonation.
...
Publisher
Jyväskylän yliopistoISBN
978-951-39-8177-8ISSN Search the Publication Forum
2489-9003Contains publications
- Artikkeli I: Kareksela, S.; Aapala, K.; Alanen, A.; Haapalehto, T.; Kotiaho, J.S.; Lehtomäki, J.; Leikola, N.; Mikkonen, N.; Moilanen, A.; Nieminen, E.; Tuominen, S.; Virkkala, R. (2020). Combining spatial prioritization and expert knowledge facilitates effectiveness of large-scale mire protection process in Finland. Biological Conservation, 241, 108324. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2019.108324 . JYX: jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/67749.
- Artikkeli II: Nieminen, E., Salovaara, K., Halme, P., Kotiaho, J. (2021). No evidence of systematic pre-emptive loggings after notifying landowners of their lands’ conservation potential. Ambio, 50 (2), 465-474. DOI: 10.1007/s13280-020-01354-4
- Artikkeli III: Nieminen, E., Kareksela, S., Halme, P., & Kotiaho, J. S. (2021). Quantifying trade-offs between ecological gains, economic costs, and landowners’ preferences in boreal mire protection. Ambio, Early online. DOI: 10.1007/s13280-021-01530-0
Keywords
luonnonsuojelu soidensuojelu luonnonsuojelualueet ympäristöpolitiikka ympäristöohjelmat päätöksenteko priorisointi kustannustehokkuus maanomistus maanomistajat pakkolunastus vapaaehtoisuus Suomi conservation decision-making involuntary conservation peatland pre-emptive behavior trade-offs voluntary conservation Zonation
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- JYU Dissertations [836]
- Väitöskirjat [3546]
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