Theory and Design of Nature Reserves

Managing landscapes In a 2008 review, David Lindenmayer and a long list of distinguished conservation biologists review two decades of research on landscape management [5]. They identify a set of 13 factors that anyone managing a landscape for conservation should consider, and they group those factors under four boad themes: setting goals, spatial issues, temporal issues, and management approaches. • Setting goals – Develop long-term shared visions and quantifiable objectives. • Spatial issues – Manage the entire mosaic, not just the pieces. – Consider both the amount and configuration of habitat and particular land cover types. – Identify disproportionately important species, processes, and landscape elements. – Integrate aquatic and terrestrial environments. – Use a landscape classification and conceptual models appropriate to objectives. • Temporal issues – Maintain the capability of landscapes to recover from disturbances. – Manage for change. – Time lags between events and consequences are inevitable. • Management approaches – Manage in an experimental framework.