Search

The threat of habitat fragmentation and population isolation looms large over much of biodiversity in this human-dominated epoch. Species-rich South Asia is made particularly vulnerable by its high human density and anthropogenic habitat modification. Therefore, reliably estimating wildlife connectivity and the factors underpinning it become crucial in mitigating extinction risk due to isolation. We analysed peer-reviewed literature on connectivity and corridors for terrestrial mammals in South Asia to identify trends in connectivity research. We identify key research gaps and highlight future directions that may aid efforts to robustly study connectivity. We found a significant bias towards charismatic megafauna and their habitats. Methodologically, although we observed a range of approaches reflecting some of the advances and innovations in the field, several studies lacked data on animal movement/behaviour, leading to potentially biased inferences of how species disperse through human-modified landscapes. New avenues for connectivity research, though currently under-explored in South Asia, offer alternatives to the heavily used but less-reliable habitat suitability models. We highlight the advantages of landscape genetic methods that reflect effective dispersal and are made feasible through non-invasive and increasingly more cost-effective sampling methods. We also identify important gaps or areas of focus that need to be addressed going forward, including accounting for animal movement/behaviour, human impacts and landscape change for dynamic and adaptive connectivity planning for the future.

While the Valaiyars of Karandamalai Hills and most of the peripheral farming communities of Kanakapura have expanded their livelihood portfolios in response to the changes around them, for the ‘fringe’ forest communities of the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, dependence on hunting and gathering remains high despite extensive engagement with the cash economy. The Kattunayakan and Bettakurumba people’s cultural model of the forest as communities of ‘other than human persons’ remains an important ontological and epistemological constraint in their engagement with forest ‘resources’. This case study assesses a progressive environmental NGO intervention in these communities, seeking to reduce the spread of an invasive woody shrub, Lantana camara, by helping local communities set up a ‘Lantana furniture centre’ for the conversion of the woody shrub into marketable furniture, a seemingly perfect conservation and development solution. However, instead of adopting the plan and intensifying production of Lantana, communities engaged in the industry only as a part-time activity and in ways complementary to their existing portfolio of livelihood activities. The study evaluates the limited success of the Lantana Craft Centre initiative by examining how the scheme clashed with the hunter-gatherer worldview and cultural models of the relationship between personhood and livelihood. The lessons from this Lantana furniture centre are more broadly relevant to issues in conservation, development and adaptation to biodiversity change in hunting-gathering and other forest communities.

Recent discussion on invasive species has invigorated the debate on strategies to manage these species. Lantana camara L., a shrub native to the American tropics, has become one of the worst weeds in recorded history. In Australia, India and South Africa, Lantana has become very widespread occupying millions of hectares of land. Here, we examine historical records to reconstruct invasion and management of Lantana over two centuries and ask: Can we fight the spread of invasive species or do we need to develop strategies for their adaptive management? We carried out extensive research of historical records constituting over 75% of records on invasion and management of this species in the three countries. The records indicate that governments in Australia, India and South Africa have taken aggressive measures to eradicate Lantana over the last two centuries, but these efforts have been largely unsuccessful. We found that despite control measures, the invasion trajectory of Lantana has continued upwards and that post-war land-use change might have been a possible trigger for this spread. A large majority of studies on invasive species address timescales of less than one year; and even fewer address timescales of >10 years. An understanding of species invasions over long time-scales is of paramount importance. While archival records may give only a partial picture of the spread and management of invasive species, in the absence of any other long-term dataset on the ecology of Lantana, our study provides an important insight into its invasion, spread and management over two centuries and across three continents. While the established paradigm is to expend available resources on attempting to eradicate invasive species, our findings suggest that in the future, conservationists will need to develop strategies for their adaptive management rather than fighting a losing battle. publishedVersion