A few more comments on land management by NGO's by helpful netters.
Thanks again for everyone's responses.
Tom Beckley (403)435-7372 (tel)
Forest Sociologist (403)435-7359 (fax)
Canadain Forest Service tbeckley@nofc.forestry.ca
5320 - 122 Street
Edmonton, AB, Canada
T6H 3S5
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1) Hi Tom,
I saw your posting about NGOs land management. While my project is
only periferally associated with this topic it may be of iterest. I am working
on the Gap Analysis Project of Arkansas. The GAP project tries to identify
"gaps" in the management of biodiversity (in the eventual hope that they will
be aquired for manangement). Below is a short blurb and a reference. Let me
know if you would like more ...
---------------
I just wanted to send you a more complete note on what Gap Analysis is
all about, how the data will be used by us (at the University) and perhaps by
others....
Gap Analysis is funded by the National Biological Service (previous to
the NBS's inception, it was funded by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). It is
separately funded for each state in the union (currently somewhere on the order
of 20-30. Gap Analysis grew out of a want of land managers to better
understand
what they are trying to manage.It essentially uses a Geographic Information
System (GIS) to orgainize alot of data. A GIS is just a computer program that
can remember how different maps are related to each other. For example, you
can put a USGS quad map, a map of buildings and a map of roads into a GIS and
then ask questions such as "How far is building x from a road ?" etc...
Gap Analysis uses current vegetation maps, obtained from satellite
images to obtain mappable vegetation units (ie White Oak, Shortleaf Pine
etc..).
Then for every terrestrial vertebrate in the state, a matrix is created to
relate that species to each vegetation unit. Current distributions of the
species are also included to exclude obvious over extensions of range. The
result is a map of POTENTIAL area where the particular species occurs. A map
of land management practices (such as National Wildlife Refuge, Wilderness
Areas, State Parks, USDA Forest Service Lands etc...) is also created. The
mapof potential species distribution is passed throught the filter of land
management practices to investigate if biodiversity is being protected on a
level that is acceptable.
The final Arkansas product will be used by researchers and managers in
Arkansas and will be edged mapped with all the other states in the union (at a
larger spatial resolution) to present a unified study of biodiversity in
America. So you can see it is a big and an ambitious project....
If you wish to contact the Principle Investigators they are Dr. Fred
Limp ( fred@cast.uark.edu) and Dr. Kimberly Smith ( ksmith@mercury.uark.edu).
Don Catanzaro
dgc@cast.uark.edu
BTW if you wish to have more information on Gap Analysis there is a monograph
published on it explaining in detail what I was trying to get across...
J.M. Scott et al., Gap Analysis: A geograhic approach to
protection of Biological Diversity, in Wildlife Monograph
No. 123, Jan 1993.
2) Tom
I know that there has been quite a lot of interest in land management
by NGO's in Honduras, supported by 'Fundacion Vida' a foundation set
up by USAID. This was a recent development when I was there in 1994,
and I don't know if there have been any concrete results. Several
NGO's had been set up, one was involved in managing one of the cloud
forest areas, another with managing Lake Yojoa north central
Honduras. I am sorry i can not be more specific, but USAID or
Fundacion Vida may be able to help you.
Andrew Mathews
MSc. Student
Oxford Forestry Institute
South Parks Road
Oxford, OX1 3RB
England
3) Dear Tom-
A colleague of mine the 'land management by NGOs' printout and I am really
glad he did.Just by chance, I was going over your paper again today.--First
on the trust issue: The Foothills Lands Conservancy has just completed a
major conservation victory in that it raised well over a million US dollars
to buy a 4000 acre piece of forested realestate next to the Great Smoky Mt.
National Park in East Tennessee. The parcel was prime realestate
development potential and a developer was ready to buy it and put second
homes, etc., on it. The owner gave the Conservancy a specified time to come
up with the funds and they did. The property was especially important for
migrating mammals (esp Bears) between the Park and parts of the Cherokee
National Forest, another large government property. Randy Brown is the
executive director, 615/8326; Address Gribble Road, Maryville, TN 37801.
(from David Ostermeier - Dept of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries,
U-Tenn- Knoxville)
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