SYMP 6-2 - Applying biodiversity and human value measures to meet conservation goals in Micronesian Island forests

Strategies and measures used to reach biological conservation goals do not necessarily overlap with the cultural and economic goals of people. Therefore, identifying lands where ecological, cultural, and economic goals overlap is the key to finding win-win conservation solutions. The Micronesian Islands have led the world in promoting the use of protected areas with the Micronesian Challenge, which calls to set aside both terrestrial and marine habitats for conservation. Residents of these islands have deeply-rooted relationships with their natural environments, and this region provides an ideal setting to seek overlap between biodiversity conservation goals and goals of societal value such as preserving cultural practices, food security, and economic prosperity. We created two valuation metrics that reflect societal values of forest trees, both assigning higher values to species based on their number of documented categorical uses – an average use value that considers only number of species present in a given area, and a use-value sum that incorporates abundance of these species within an area. We then assessed how societal values compared to traditional biodiversity metrics. We then tested whether areas with higher biodiversity or use values were more resilient to invasive species, and determined the role of land-ownership types in preserving ecologically and culturally valuable areas. We used U.S. Forest Service Inventory Analysis data and surveys of forestry experts from across three Micronesian island jurisdictions. Finally, we surveyed regional botanical experts, asking them to evaluate tree species in order to determine trees that could be considered cultural keystone species.
We found that areas with higher species richness had lower average use value per tree species. However, when calculating a use value sum that accounted for the abundance of each species in a plot, more diverse (using Shannon diversity) plots also had higher total use value. Invasive species coverage across plots was not reduced by higher native richness, Shannon diversity, use averages, nor use sums. Our surveys showed that cultivated species of trees with utilitarian purposes (i.e., food) were ranked as more culturally important across both the FSM and the Mariana Islands, but many of these trees were also prominent in symbols and art forms. This study is the first attempt to quantify cultural and use values of plants across the islands of Micronesia, and we found that use value, even when including non-native species does not necessarily preclude native biodiversity, and should be considered in conservation strategies.