Elena Bykova - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Elena Bykova
Land Use Policy, 2015
Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effec... more Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effective implementation. The context includes baseline status of conservation targets, and most likely counterfactual given recent trends in those targets i.e. what would have occurred in the absence of intervention. The baseline and counterfactual together provide a 'frame of reference' for judging conservation outcomes. It has recently been demonstrated that, since conservation interventions take place within dynamic systems, and involve either encouraging or discouraging changes in those systems, the reference frame against which interventions are evaluated fundamentally determines how much effort is required to achieve objectives, and whether they are deemed successful. In turn, this makes frames of reference crucial to planning and policy development. Counterfactuals are difficult to estimate, however, and subject to considerable uncertainty. They are consequently not widely specified in practice. We analyse the historical context, baseline and trends for Uzbekistan's semi-arid Ustyurt plateau, as a case study development of a frame of reference for policymaking. Our framework incorporates physical, social, economic and institutional considerations. We conduct analyses of socio-ecological trends relevant to conservation targets in the region over the last 100 years-particularly the iconic, critically endangered saiga antelope Saiga tatarica-based upon primary data sets (e.g. vegetation surveys), secondary data sets obtained from collaborators (e.g. meteorological data), and satellite imagery. We demonstrate that an informative frame of reference can be developed even in the absence of exhaustive data on land use and landscape ecology. This is because the broader historical context, drivers of change, and interactions between these drivers are so influential upon the necessary design of conservation interventions. The approach taken here-of dividing trends and drivers of change into those that are physical, social, economic and institutional, and considering conservation targets in light of each in turn-provides a manageable structure for building a frame of reference. Additionally, it provides a means for making assumptions about the counterfactual explicit, leaving them open to critical evaluation. Finally, by developing alternative feasible counterfactuals, testable hypotheses can be outlined and used to improve future iterations of management plans-essentially, an adaptive management approach.
Parasitology International, 1998
Ekológia (Bratislava)
The article provides a survey of the mammalian fauna and ecology in different habitats across the... more The article provides a survey of the mammalian fauna and ecology in different habitats across the city of Tashkent that vary in the degree of urbanization. The current mammalian fauna of Tashkent is represented by 32 species; during the city’s development, 9 species have disappeared from the place, either through an anthropogenic impact or having been forced out by alien species. The urban mammalian fauna has increased through arrival of five new invasive species. With the ongoing urbanization, the species diversity of small-sized mammals is decreasing, while their numbers are growing, resulting in simplification of the structure of small mammals’ urban communities and lowering of their biodiversity. The urbanization does not impact the age and sex structure of the house mouse population noticeably. The urban population shows a productivity 1.7 times higher than the wild populations, which is a compensatory response to the relatively high embryonic mortality that is almost totally a...
Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effec... more Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effective implementation. The context includes baseline status of conservation targets, and most likely counterfactual given recent trends in those targets i.e. what would have occurred in the absence of intervention. The baseline and counterfactual together provide a 'frame of reference' for judging conservation outcomes. It has recently been demonstrated that, since conservation interventions take place within dynamic systems, and involve either encouraging or discouraging changes in those systems, the reference frame against which interventions are evaluated fundamentally determines how much effort is required to achieve objectives, and whether they are deemed successful. In turn, this makes frames of reference crucial to planning and policy development. Counterfactuals are difficult to estimate, however, and subject to considerable uncertainty. They are consequently not widely specified in practice.
... During the past ten years, the following tendencies concerning change of superficial water qu... more ... During the past ten years, the following tendencies concerning change of superficial water quality were noted: Stabilization of the ... meteoro-Table 4. The volumes of the water reservoirs in thebasin of Syr Darya River Water reservoirs Country River ... 38 logical monitoring system. ...
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2006
We assessed the threatened status of 163 Central Asian vertebrates using the IUCN Red List Criter... more We assessed the threatened status of 163 Central Asian vertebrates using the IUCN Red List Criteria (Version 3.1) at the national and regional levels, and compared these assessments to the global assessments given in the IUCN 2002 Red List. We thus compared threat status at three spatial scales; national for five countries separately (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), regional for the five countries together, and global. This analysis was undertaken as a test of the applicability of IUCN criteria at the sub-global level. Generally the criteria worked well. In 4% of cases, the threat category was lower at the smaller scale of assessment. This was predominately caused by the use of decline rate criteria at the larger scale when populations at the smaller scale were stable. We also encountered issues with the listing of migratory species at the sub-global level. We used our data to carry out a preliminary assessment of Protected Area coverage in the region, and found evidence suggesting that threatened species and endemics are not well covered by the current protected area system.
Biological Conservation, 2009
Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experien... more Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experienced by resource users. When use is illegal, it can be particularly difficult to distinguish users from non-users. The attitudes of local people are critical to conservation success, because they interact with social circumstances to determine behaviour. In this study we explore the factors influencing inferred poaching behaviour of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) in six communities in three countries of the former Soviet Union. We show that local people have a good understanding of the species’ status and positive attitudes towards its conservation, regardless of their household’s inferred poaching status. Poaching is a low prestige occupation, and our analyses suggest that it is carried out by poor, unemployed households who have the means to hunt. These results are consistent for all villages. However we find important regional differences in hunting behaviour, linked to saiga population density and migration patterns, which have implications for the likely effectiveness of different conservation strategies. Community-based interventions are more likely to be appropriate in Russia, where saigas are present year-round and hunting is more subsistence based, than in the strongly seasonal Kazakhstan populations where economies of scale require organised poaching by fewer households. This case study illustrates the complex linkages between attitudes, social circumstances and behaviour in resource user behaviour, and highlights both the consistencies and differences in drivers of poaching between locations at a range of spatial scales.
Land Use Policy, 2015
Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effec... more Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effective implementation. The context includes baseline status of conservation targets, and most likely counterfactual given recent trends in those targets i.e. what would have occurred in the absence of intervention. The baseline and counterfactual together provide a 'frame of reference' for judging conservation outcomes. It has recently been demonstrated that, since conservation interventions take place within dynamic systems, and involve either encouraging or discouraging changes in those systems, the reference frame against which interventions are evaluated fundamentally determines how much effort is required to achieve objectives, and whether they are deemed successful. In turn, this makes frames of reference crucial to planning and policy development. Counterfactuals are difficult to estimate, however, and subject to considerable uncertainty. They are consequently not widely specified in practice. We analyse the historical context, baseline and trends for Uzbekistan's semi-arid Ustyurt plateau, as a case study development of a frame of reference for policymaking. Our framework incorporates physical, social, economic and institutional considerations. We conduct analyses of socio-ecological trends relevant to conservation targets in the region over the last 100 years-particularly the iconic, critically endangered saiga antelope Saiga tatarica-based upon primary data sets (e.g. vegetation surveys), secondary data sets obtained from collaborators (e.g. meteorological data), and satellite imagery. We demonstrate that an informative frame of reference can be developed even in the absence of exhaustive data on land use and landscape ecology. This is because the broader historical context, drivers of change, and interactions between these drivers are so influential upon the necessary design of conservation interventions. The approach taken here-of dividing trends and drivers of change into those that are physical, social, economic and institutional, and considering conservation targets in light of each in turn-provides a manageable structure for building a frame of reference. Additionally, it provides a means for making assumptions about the counterfactual explicit, leaving them open to critical evaluation. Finally, by developing alternative feasible counterfactuals, testable hypotheses can be outlined and used to improve future iterations of management plans-essentially, an adaptive management approach.
Parasitology International, 1998
Ekológia (Bratislava)
The article provides a survey of the mammalian fauna and ecology in different habitats across the... more The article provides a survey of the mammalian fauna and ecology in different habitats across the city of Tashkent that vary in the degree of urbanization. The current mammalian fauna of Tashkent is represented by 32 species; during the city’s development, 9 species have disappeared from the place, either through an anthropogenic impact or having been forced out by alien species. The urban mammalian fauna has increased through arrival of five new invasive species. With the ongoing urbanization, the species diversity of small-sized mammals is decreasing, while their numbers are growing, resulting in simplification of the structure of small mammals’ urban communities and lowering of their biodiversity. The urbanization does not impact the age and sex structure of the house mouse population noticeably. The urban population shows a productivity 1.7 times higher than the wild populations, which is a compensatory response to the relatively high embryonic mortality that is almost totally a...
Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effec... more Understanding the context within which conservation interventions take place is critical to effective implementation. The context includes baseline status of conservation targets, and most likely counterfactual given recent trends in those targets i.e. what would have occurred in the absence of intervention. The baseline and counterfactual together provide a 'frame of reference' for judging conservation outcomes. It has recently been demonstrated that, since conservation interventions take place within dynamic systems, and involve either encouraging or discouraging changes in those systems, the reference frame against which interventions are evaluated fundamentally determines how much effort is required to achieve objectives, and whether they are deemed successful. In turn, this makes frames of reference crucial to planning and policy development. Counterfactuals are difficult to estimate, however, and subject to considerable uncertainty. They are consequently not widely specified in practice.
... During the past ten years, the following tendencies concerning change of superficial water qu... more ... During the past ten years, the following tendencies concerning change of superficial water quality were noted: Stabilization of the ... meteoro-Table 4. The volumes of the water reservoirs in thebasin of Syr Darya River Water reservoirs Country River ... 38 logical monitoring system. ...
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2006
We assessed the threatened status of 163 Central Asian vertebrates using the IUCN Red List Criter... more We assessed the threatened status of 163 Central Asian vertebrates using the IUCN Red List Criteria (Version 3.1) at the national and regional levels, and compared these assessments to the global assessments given in the IUCN 2002 Red List. We thus compared threat status at three spatial scales; national for five countries separately (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), regional for the five countries together, and global. This analysis was undertaken as a test of the applicability of IUCN criteria at the sub-global level. Generally the criteria worked well. In 4% of cases, the threat category was lower at the smaller scale of assessment. This was predominately caused by the use of decline rate criteria at the larger scale when populations at the smaller scale were stable. We also encountered issues with the listing of migratory species at the sub-global level. We used our data to carry out a preliminary assessment of Protected Area coverage in the region, and found evidence suggesting that threatened species and endemics are not well covered by the current protected area system.
Biological Conservation, 2009
Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experien... more Effective conservation of exploited species requires an understanding of the motivations experienced by resource users. When use is illegal, it can be particularly difficult to distinguish users from non-users. The attitudes of local people are critical to conservation success, because they interact with social circumstances to determine behaviour. In this study we explore the factors influencing inferred poaching behaviour of the Critically Endangered saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) in six communities in three countries of the former Soviet Union. We show that local people have a good understanding of the species’ status and positive attitudes towards its conservation, regardless of their household’s inferred poaching status. Poaching is a low prestige occupation, and our analyses suggest that it is carried out by poor, unemployed households who have the means to hunt. These results are consistent for all villages. However we find important regional differences in hunting behaviour, linked to saiga population density and migration patterns, which have implications for the likely effectiveness of different conservation strategies. Community-based interventions are more likely to be appropriate in Russia, where saigas are present year-round and hunting is more subsistence based, than in the strongly seasonal Kazakhstan populations where economies of scale require organised poaching by fewer households. This case study illustrates the complex linkages between attitudes, social circumstances and behaviour in resource user behaviour, and highlights both the consistencies and differences in drivers of poaching between locations at a range of spatial scales.