Detecting Barriers Between Protected Areas to Restore Ecological Connectivity
Abstract
Protected areas have two tasks on a global scale: First, to protect biodiversity and second, to ensure the continuity of ecosystem services. Identifying potential links between protected areas in a region and barriers between these links or restoration points is very important for the effective development and implementation of conservation strategies within the scope of biodiversity. In this study firstly, potential connectivity corridors between 10 different protected areas were determined to support the biological diversity in the Rize landscape, then the barriers that could block the ecological flows in these corridors were determined by using 100 m, 500 m, 300 m radii. Least Cost Path and Cost Weighted Distance methods were used for both analyses. The most suitable corridors have been identified between Kaçkar Mountains National Park-1st Degree Natural Protected Areas-Wildlife Protection and Development Area and Firtina Creek. Improvement scores were calculated by considering the radii determined for the barriers. As a result, the highest improvement scores at 100 m, 500 m 300 m radii were calculated as 21.1, 4.49, and 7.0, respectively, and according to these scores, it showed that there were barriers between Karadere, Handüzü Nature Park, Uzungöl Special Environmental Protection Area and Kaçkar Mountains National Park. The method used in this study is important in terms of generating protection strategies for protected areas in the Rize landscape. The results of this study will guide not only protected areas in Rize landscape, but also conservation priority planning studies.
Keywords
Landscape connectivity, Protected areas, Barriers, Restoration opportunities, Improvement score, Biodiversity
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