Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia

With land use change rapidly increasing in Asia, conservation prioritisation has emerged as an important tool in identifying critical landscapes for biodiversity to safeguard them from human pressures. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS/BirdLife in Malaysia) developed a set of...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wee, Shelby Q. W., Teo, Jason J. H., Teepol, Batrisyia, Jelembai, Hilda N. I., Au, Nyat Jun, Yeap, Chin Aik, Jain, Anuj
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V. 2024
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106137/1/1-s2.0-S2351989424000325-main.pdf
_version_ 1825939320260788224
author Wee, Shelby Q. W.
Teo, Jason J. H.
Teepol, Batrisyia
Jelembai, Hilda N. I.
Au, Nyat Jun
Yeap, Chin Aik
Jain, Anuj
author_facet Wee, Shelby Q. W.
Teo, Jason J. H.
Teepol, Batrisyia
Jelembai, Hilda N. I.
Au, Nyat Jun
Yeap, Chin Aik
Jain, Anuj
author_sort Wee, Shelby Q. W.
collection UPM
description With land use change rapidly increasing in Asia, conservation prioritisation has emerged as an important tool in identifying critical landscapes for biodiversity to safeguard them from human pressures. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS/BirdLife in Malaysia) developed a set of Criteria to identify Important Hornbill Landscapes (IHLs) – hornbill hotspots which are conservation priority sites in Malaysia and serve to inform land use planning and conservation action. Application of the Criteria has so far been restricted to Peninsular Malaysia, thus in this study, we adapt it to Sarawak, a Malaysian state in Borneo that supports 80 of the hornbill species diversity in the country. We expand on this conservation prioritisation methodology using Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modelling (MaxEnt), to validate the Criteria's applicability and to identify potential IHLs in Sarawak. Our data sources included literature reviews, citizen science databases and interviews. Expectedly, survey effort was spatially biased. We identified eight IHLs, mostly concentrated in eastern Sarawak, across national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and forest management units. Existing published literature on the distribution of hornbill habitats in Sarawak corroborated with our MaxEnt outputs which aligned with the results of the IHL Criteria-based assessment, validating the latter and supporting its use in Sarawak. We additionally identified six potential IHLs based on MaxEnt outputs which confirmed the value of pairing MaxEnt with the Criteria-based assessment, for such a prioritisation exercise. To our knowledge, this study not only demonstrates the significance of combining MaxEnt and the Criteria for IHL identification, but it also represents the first application of the IHL Criteria outside of Peninsular Malaysia. Our findings can, therefore, serve as a case study for future applications of IHL Criteria in Borneo and potentially for other parts of Asia.
first_indexed 2024-12-09T02:17:23Z
format Article
id upm.eprints-106137
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-09T02:17:23Z
publishDate 2024
publisher Elsevier B.V.
record_format dspace
spelling upm.eprints-1061372024-10-08T08:15:16Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106137/ Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia Wee, Shelby Q. W. Teo, Jason J. H. Teepol, Batrisyia Jelembai, Hilda N. I. Au, Nyat Jun Yeap, Chin Aik Jain, Anuj With land use change rapidly increasing in Asia, conservation prioritisation has emerged as an important tool in identifying critical landscapes for biodiversity to safeguard them from human pressures. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS/BirdLife in Malaysia) developed a set of Criteria to identify Important Hornbill Landscapes (IHLs) – hornbill hotspots which are conservation priority sites in Malaysia and serve to inform land use planning and conservation action. Application of the Criteria has so far been restricted to Peninsular Malaysia, thus in this study, we adapt it to Sarawak, a Malaysian state in Borneo that supports 80 of the hornbill species diversity in the country. We expand on this conservation prioritisation methodology using Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modelling (MaxEnt), to validate the Criteria's applicability and to identify potential IHLs in Sarawak. Our data sources included literature reviews, citizen science databases and interviews. Expectedly, survey effort was spatially biased. We identified eight IHLs, mostly concentrated in eastern Sarawak, across national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and forest management units. Existing published literature on the distribution of hornbill habitats in Sarawak corroborated with our MaxEnt outputs which aligned with the results of the IHL Criteria-based assessment, validating the latter and supporting its use in Sarawak. We additionally identified six potential IHLs based on MaxEnt outputs which confirmed the value of pairing MaxEnt with the Criteria-based assessment, for such a prioritisation exercise. To our knowledge, this study not only demonstrates the significance of combining MaxEnt and the Criteria for IHL identification, but it also represents the first application of the IHL Criteria outside of Peninsular Malaysia. Our findings can, therefore, serve as a case study for future applications of IHL Criteria in Borneo and potentially for other parts of Asia. Elsevier B.V. 2024 Article PeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106137/1/1-s2.0-S2351989424000325-main.pdf Wee, Shelby Q. W. and Teo, Jason J. H. and Teepol, Batrisyia and Jelembai, Hilda N. I. and Au, Nyat Jun and Yeap, Chin Aik and Jain, Anuj (2024) Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia. Global Ecology and Conservation, 50. art. no. 02828. pp. 1-13. ISSN 2351-9894 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351989424000325 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02828
spellingShingle Wee, Shelby Q. W.
Teo, Jason J. H.
Teepol, Batrisyia
Jelembai, Hilda N. I.
Au, Nyat Jun
Yeap, Chin Aik
Jain, Anuj
Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_fullStr Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_short Identifying Important Hornbill Landscapes in Sarawak, Malaysia
title_sort identifying important hornbill landscapes in sarawak malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/106137/1/1-s2.0-S2351989424000325-main.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT weeshelbyqw identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT teojasonjh identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT teepolbatrisyia identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT jelembaihildani identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT aunyatjun identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT yeapchinaik identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia
AT jainanuj identifyingimportanthornbilllandscapesinsarawakmalaysia