HR: 14:10h
AN: B13D-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Enhancing the Conservation Value of Human-Dominated Forestlands in Hawaii
AU: * Daily, G
EM: gdaily@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Center for Conservation Biology, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AU: Pejchar, L
EM: liba@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Center for Conservation Biology, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AU: Goldstein, J
EM: joshuag@stanford.edu
AF: Stanford University, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources, Mitchell Building #138, Stanford, CA 94305 United States
AB: Our goal is to help make conservation economically attractive and commonplace on land that is managed largely for human enterprise. Using the Kona District of Hawaii as a case study, we plan to assess the biodiversity value, ecosystems services and economic viability of a gradient of land cover/land uses. Kona is an ideal region for such a project because as the economic viability of ranching declines, and tourism continues to rise, managers are concerned that land use will change at the expense of Hawaii's already threatened wildlife. Koa (Acacia koa) forestry is a promising land use alternative in Kona because koa is an extremely valuable hardwood that also provides valuable forest habitat. Nonetheless, many private landowners are hesitant to switch to koa forestry because of the lack of information about the benefits and costs of this land use. Our land use analysis will take place at two scales. First, we will use existing GIS and remote sensing data to assess the biodiversity and ecosystem service value of different parts of the landscape as a function of land use, land cover, and landscape context. Second, we will conduct field surveys to determine the value of each land use to three well-known but threatened taxa: forest birds, endemic drosophilid flies, and the only native land mammal, the Hawaiian hoary bat. We will integrate these results with an assessment of economic trade-offs associated with each land use option. By comparing our data on koa forests to other land uses, we also hope to identify those policy incentives for private landowners that could enable innovative conservation mechanisms like koa forestry.
DE: 6334 Regional planning
DE: 6399 General or miscellaneous
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting