Doctoral candidate : Emeline Hily
Contract dates : 2013-2016
Research topic: Incentive payments for biodiversity conservation / migration : Dynamic and spatial analysis.
Research team and supervising scientists :
PhD supervisor: Anne Stenger
PhD co-supervisor: Serge Garcia
Collaboration : Jean-Claude Gegout (LerFob), Jean-Luc Dupouey (EEF)
Thesis committee : Jean-Claude Gegout (LerFob), Jean-Luc Dupouey (EEF), Tobias Wunscher (University of Bonn), Daowei Zhang (Aburn University)
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Context — Global warming is leading to a South-North shift of some species. This can be seen by the gradual disappearance of a given species in its “native” zone. If conditions conducive to migration are not met, it is often proved impossible for a species to settle at higher latitudes. How can we work collaboratively with private landowners to preserve forest plant biodiversity in the context of global warming? How can we define voluntary incentive mechanisms to obtain the cooperation of private owners in order to promote species conservation and migration?
Objectives —The aim of this thesis is to develop a payment system for ecosystemic services that effectively contribute to the conservation of a selected species via different measures for biodiversity conservation.
Methodological approaches — Deciding to target conservation zones and the defining an effective payment system means first taking ecological issues into account: considering the impact of climate change on different species (on spatial and temporal scales), identifying which species should be given priority in terms of conservation, identifying priority zones and deciding the measures to be implemented for this purpose, etc. Once these questions have been raised, it will then be necessary to address the spatial definition of ecological benefits – central to the issue of payments for ecosystemic services – as well as for participation costs. Depending on the accuracy of available information and data, literature shows us that it is possible to define these costs in different ways.
Expected results and impacts — The results will focus both on the structure of payments linked to conserving an ecosystemic (ie. Biodiverse) forest and on defining zones to be targeted for conservation by an incentive payment plan, taking into account the spatial dimension of biodiversity, the dynamic dimensions imposed by global warming and the time required by a given species to establish itself.
