Research project
Darwin Fellowship - La Primavera Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
- Start date: 1 July 2013
- End date: 30 September 2014
- Funder: DEFRA - Darwin Initiative
- Primary investigator: Professor Jon Lovett
Co-Investigator: Dr Steve Carver
The aim of the Fellowship is to consolidate the work of Darwin Initiative project 17027 Market Based Scheme for Conservation in La Primavera Forest Mexico by providing training and analysis in the selection, design and management of biological corridors that will be implemented in the reserve. The implementation phase of DI 17027 consisted of developing a community-based corridor reforestation project on one of the potential corridor sites identified by the DI project. There are a number of other potential corridor sites and there is some urgency for developing these as a major road is planned around the La Primavera reserve which will create a major barrier to animal migration between the reserve and other adjacent forested mountains. Negotiations are currently underway between the road developers and La Primavera management for the inclusion of migration routes across the road. The corridor routes need to be based on sound science so that the planning is well informed and an effective sustainable solution implemented.
The objective of the fellowship is to provide training of the Darwin Fellow in GIS with a focus on tools for biological corridors. The training will make use of the corridor design add-ons for ArcGIS (www.corridor-design.org). Contacts will be made with other experts in corridor design, such as Paul Beier and his group in Northern Arizona University; and UK experts in applied corridor design and management, for example, Roger Catchpole who lives in Leeds, in order to create a sustainable international network for the Fellow. As part of a boarder approach to implementation, the Fellow will visit the Natural England ecosystem approach pilot schemes in the South Pennines and Lake District. These pilots are multi-stakeholder projects designed to integrate ecosystem services into landscape-level management plans and have demonstrated the economic viability of the approach.