40 Sites: Conservation of sites

Once you have done the work of identifying a site which may require action to conserve biodiversity at the site (Technical), then you have to determine what the likely actions are that can conserve the biodiversity (Conservation).

40.1 What threats exist?

Typically, one must first understand what a potential threat to the site might be.

The Toolkit advocates for recognising threats in a globally standardised way.

40.2 What threats impact seabirds?

For seabirds, two key papers provide the starting point for users to consider what human activities may likely impact a species:

  • Croxall et al. (2012); Dias et al. (2019)

Users should use these papers as a guide to understand the threats recognised to impact species at a global level, and then consider what threats might be impacting species at a potential local, national or regional scale.

40.3 What known solutions to threats exist?

When identifying whether a threat may impact species at the site, users should also look beyond their specific species and explore whether a potential human activity has been documented to impact related species.

Once potential threats to species at the site have been identified, then users should understand what the potential solutions to the threats are.

  • The Cambridge University Conservation Evidence group summarises the documented evidence for the effectiveness of conservation actions.

  • Here, users can find evidence of actions known to reduce the impacts of threats to species.

    • This evidence will be key to building the case for management measures that are necessary to conserve biodiversity at a site.

40.4 What scale should threat mitigation be considered over?

Different threats occur at different scales. Therefore, conservation actions for species will need to occur at different scales depending on the scale of the threat and the species dispersal ability.

Two key papers document this consideration of scale with respect to conservation solutions for seabirds and broader biodiversity:

  • Seabirds: Oppel et al. (2018)

  • Broader biodiversity: Boyd et al. (2008)

40.5 Best available science

For many species at sites where human impacts are likely to occur, it’s likely species will be impacted by multiple threats. Disentangling which threat impacts a species most, and, therefore, which course of action will be most appropriate to conserve the species, may be challenging.

Where there is uncertainty about the impact of a potential threat to species, this Toolkit advocates for consideration of the “precautionary principle” and recognises the text of certain agreements which call for decisions to be made on the “best available science”.

Ultimately, determining a course of action to reduce a threat to species within a site will require understanding a number of factors. The Cambridge University Conservation Evidence group showcases known solutions, but the “best available science” should also be used to inform solutions to conserve biodiversity when necessary.