Towards Safeguarding New Zealand's Agricultural Biodiversity:
Research Gaps, Priorities and Potential Case Studies
Table of Contents
- Towards Safeguarding New Zealand's Agricultural Biodiversity: Research Gaps, Priorities and Potential Case Studies
- Executive Summary
- Ecosystem Management Shows the Way Forward
- Special features of New Zealand's biota and conservation predicament
- An urgent need for research and adaptive management to plug knowledge gaps
- A comprehensive research portfolio
- Case studies for the CBD website
- Prospects for agricultural diversity
- 1. Introduction: the need for this project
- 1.1 - The Convention on Biological Diversity and Agricultural Biodiversity
- 1.2 - Conferences of parties calls for 'case studies' in four focal areas
- 1.3 - Knowledge gap analysis
- 1.4 - Objectives of this project
- 1.5 - Structure of this report
- 2- Landscape Processes and Ecosystem Management: Implications for Research, Policy and Land Management Applications
- 2.1 - The roots of landscape ecology and ecosystem approach
- 2.2 - Key features of the ecosystem approach
- 2.3 - The CBD ecosystem principles and operational approach
- 2.4 - Implications of ecosystem approach and landscape ecology to research, policy and management
- 3 - The New Zealand Case: are relative emphases of CBD commitments different here compared to overseas?
- 3.1 - New Zealand's unique biodiversity
- 3.2 - A profound ecological disturbance: the arrival of humans
- 3.3 - Changed ecological emphases in New Zealand
- 3.4 - New Zealand's need for integration of conservation and production concerns
- 3.5 - New Zealand's urgent need for research to allow ecosystem management and meet CBD commitments
- 3.6 - The emergence of an ecosystem approach in New Zealand
- 3.7 - Conclusion: is New Zealand a special case?
- 4 - An Overview of Research Needs And Priorities To Safeguard New Zealand's Agricultural Biodiversity
- 4.1 - Learning what works versus learning how it works
- 4.2 - Learning by experimental management
- 4.3 - The NSS statement on sustainable land management: a head start already in place
- Table 1: Priority issues for research to ensure sustainable land management as identified by the NSS Sustainable Land Management Strategy.
- 4.4 - The need for research and policy linking the NSS SLM strategy directly to biodiversity
- 5 - Integrated landscapes and farming systems
- 5.1 - Biogeographic theories in productive landscapes- importance of function and heterogeneity
- 5.2 - Our biodiversity research focus in wider landscapes
- 5.3 - The issues in integrated landscapes and farming systems - desired structure and function
- 5.4 - Cultural influences on integrated landscapes for biodiversity - how to encourage integrated landscapes
- 5.5 - Gaps in research and knowledge
- 6 - Ecologically Sustainable forestry in New Zealand
- 6.1 - Sustainable forest management - an introduction
- 6.2 - Forest landscapes
- 6.3 - Practices to maintain biodiversity
- 6.4 - Monitoring versus assessment
- 6.5 - Motivation for forest management change
- 6.6 - What is missing from New Zealand forestry research?
- 7 - Soil Biota in New Zealand's Agricultural Landscapes
- 7.1 - The importance of soil biota and the international concerns
- 7.2 - Soil health and quality
- 7.3 - The integration of soil biota with other aspects of systems
- 7.4 - Current understanding of New Zealand's soil biota in agricultural landscapes
- 7.5 - Potential gains
- 7.6 - Reversibility
- 7.7 - Methodologies
- 7.8 - Gaps in current understanding, research and applications to safeguard New Zealand's soil biota in agricultural landscapes
- 8 - Pollination in New Zealand's Agricultural Landscapes
- 8.1 - The importance of pollinators and the international concerns
- 8.2 - Characteristics of New Zealand's native flora and its pollinators
- 8.3 - Pollination of important agricultural plants in New Zealand
- 8.4 - Native bees in New Zealand
- 8.5 - Introduced bees: a net benefit or threat to biodiversity?
- 8.6 - Wasps: super competitors and predators but also pollinators
- 8.7 - Conclusions
- Table 2: Recommendations of the International Workshop on pollinators, Brazil, 1998 and potential responses from New Zealand
- 9 - Discussion
- 9.1 - Choice of New Zealand case studies
- 9.2 - Prioritisation of specific research topics
- Table 3: Research gaps
- 9.3 - Prospects for the future of New Zealand biodiversity
- 9.4 - Conclusion - New Zealand at the crossroads
- 10 - Acknowledgements
- 11 - References
- 12 - Appendices
- Appendix a: Indicative outline for case studies on agricultural biological diversity
- Appendix: Checklist for the analysis of the case study (section IV)
- Appendix b: Indicative guidelines for forest biodiversity case studies
- Appendix c: the ecosystem approach: the primary framework for action under the convention on biological diversity
- Appendix d: Sections 4.0 and 5.0 of National Science Strategy "Sustainable Land Management" Priorities
- Appendix e: Potential New Zealand case studies for the CBD web site concerning agricultural biodiversity and forestry
- Appendix f: Collation of recommendations made in this report
- Footnotes
- PDF Version (944 Kb)
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