Monitoring changes in species distribution and abundance is central to the sustainable management of natural resources and the definition of conservat

监测物种分布和丰度的变化对于可持续管理自然资源和确定养护目标至关重要。然而，对于许多稀有、广泛和神秘的物种来说，在大时空尺度上进行监测仍然是一个严峻的挑战。存在一套日益增长和日益复杂的分析工具，可用于估计不同景观中物种的丰度、密度或占有率。有关这些方法的技术文献强调了对可检测性的变异进行统计控制的绝对必要性。如果没有这一点，丰度的真实趋势就无法与可探测性的混乱趋势分开，这可能会导致错误的结论。要有力地区分丰度变化和可探测性，需要重新满足具体的假设，这反过来又需要严格设计和应用实地方法。在实践中，这通常意味着调查是由专业生态学家设计和执行的，而且有非常可观的劳动力成本，特别是在大规模执行时。为了回应这种成本限制，监测文献的另一股强调实用性。在认识到稳健、公正的监测方法的可取性的同时，这些研究指出，如果这些方法在足够大的空间和时间尺度上应用过于昂贵，以提供管理所需的信息，那么这些方法是没有意义的。发展中国家的情况尤其如此，这些国家的资金通常有限且时断时续，管理的优先事项往往需要大片偏远、难以进入的土地上的信息。因此，那些倡导最重要的是准确的监测方法的人与那些更强调长期成本效益的人之间存在分歧。虽然在某些情况下，监测方法既准确又负担得起，但在生物多样性监测中，成本和准确性之间的权衡仍然是一个普遍且尚未解决的问题。一种更可持续的监测方法是让当地人参与进来。这样做的好处有两个：减少劳动力成本，并促进将监测结果转化为有效的管理行动。然而，组织信息收集以最大限度地提高准确性仍然很重要。虽然有一些很好的例子将地方参与整合到生态监测中，但它仍然不发达，在有效应用方面仍存在许多问题。本研究将开发一种新的方法来监测发展中国家广泛存在的动物种群；基于访谈的栖息地分析。我们的目标是：在不同密度和空间分布水平的一系列物种中测试该方法；评估生物物理和基于观察者的可探测性的差异来源；量化不同物种和观察者类型之间的成本、精确度和准确度之间的权衡(例如，护林员、牧民和NTFP收集者)；为未来实施该方法提出建议。这项研究将与贝宁的ZSL项目合作进行，该项目旨在加强对Warly-Pendjari保护综合体的保护，该项目被全球公认为保护优先事项。该项目旨在支持受保护地区的管理和保护，提高对当地社区利用自然资源的了解，并探讨将以社区为中心的资源管理纳入土地利用规划的各种选择。具体地说，这项博士研究将帮助该项目实现有关野生动物种群监测和让当地社区参与管理的关键目标。更广泛地说，这项研究将通过在有限的时间和财政资源下推进适用于在大空间范围内有效监测野生动物种群的方法而具有广泛的适用性。

Monitoring changes in species distribution and abundance is central to the sustainable management of natural resourcesand the definition of conservation goals. However for many rare, widespread and cryptic species, monitoring over largespatiotemporal scales remains a serious challenge. A growing and increasingly complex set of analytical tools exists thatcan be used to estimate the abundance, density or occupancy of species across landscapes. The technical literature onthese methods emphasises the absolute necessity of controlling statistically for variation in detectability. Without this, realtrends in abundance cannot be separated from confounding trends in detectability, potentially leading to mistakenconclusions. Robustly distinguishing variations in abundance from detectability requires that specific assumptions aresatisfied, which in turn requires rigorous design and application of field methods. In practice, this usually means thatsurveys are designed and executed by professional ecologists, and have very substantial labour costs, particularly whenexecuted over large scales.In response to this cost constraint, another strand of the monitoring literature emphasises practicality. While recognising thedesirability of robust, unbiased monitoring methods, these studies point out such approaches are pointless if they are tooexpensive to be applied over sufficiently large spatial and temporal scales to provide the information needed formanagement. This is particularly true in developing countries, where funding is usually limited and intermittent, andmanagement priorities often demand information over large areas of remote, inaccessible terrain.Tension thus exists between those advocating monitoring methods that are, above all, accurate, and those who rather emphasise long-term cost effectiveness. While monitoring methods can be both accurate and affordable in somecircumstances, the tradeoff between cost and accuracy is nonetheless a pervasive and unresolved problem in biodiversitymonitoring. One approach to more sustainable monitoring has been involving local people. The benefits of this can be twofold:reducing labour costs, and facilitating the translation of monitoring results into effective management action. However,it remains important to structure information gathering to maximise accuracy. While there are some good examples of theintegration of local participation into ecological monitoring, it remains underdeveloped, and many questions remain aboutits effective application.This study will develop a new method for monitoring widespread animal populations in developing countries; interviewbasedoccupancy analysis. We aim to: test the approach with a range of species at different levels of density and spatialdistribution; assess the sources of variation in detectability, both biophysical and observer-based; quantify trade-offsbetween cost, precision and accuracy for different species and observer types (e.g. rangers vs pastoralist vs NTFPcollectors); make recommendations for future implementation of the approach.The study will be carried out in partnership with a ZSL project in Benin, which aims to strengthen conservation of the WArly-Pendjari conservation complex, globally recognised as a conservation priority. That project aims to support ProtectedArea management and protection, improve understanding of local community use of natural resources and explore optionsfor integrating community centred resource management into land use planning. Specifically this PhD research will helpthe project meet key objectives regarding wildlife population monitoring and engaging local communities in management.More broadly this research will have widescale applicability by advancing methodologies appropriate for efficient monitoringof wildlife populations at a large spatial scale under limited time and financial resources.