Verweij, P.J.F.M

Map of management areas for Bonaire. .

This map was created on request of the Dutch ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality (Dutch: Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit) to plan for activities on the basis of management areas, while recognizing the landscape diversity within these areas. To maintain the landscape diversity, it is elementary to differentiate management strategies during design and implemention. The management areas are therefor projected on top of the Bonaire landscape map (see details here) to emphasize the diversity within a management zone.

Delineation of management areas is a result from a co-production with representatives of the ministry, local experts and existing mapping material.

Local experts:

• Mangazina di Rei
• BonBerde
• STINAPA
• BAABbv

Existing map material:

• Zoning plan Bonaire (Dutch: Ruimtelijk Ontwikkelingsplan Bonaire)
• Rural development plan Bara di Karta (Dutch: plattelandontwikkelingsprogramma)
• Rural development plan Rincon (Dutch: plattelandontwikkelingsprogramma)
• Rural development plan Tras di Montana (Dutch: plattelandontwikkelingsprogramma)
• Historical toponyms

Field observations of over 100 Kunukus from September 2021. The observations have primarilly been used to validate a visual interpretation of satelite imagery of Kunuku use  (Jailani et al., 2020), from which fields a random sample was drawn (Lazebnik et al., 2022).

Observations characterized:

• Kunuku - in use / not in use (based on state of overgrowth)
• Cactus fence state- absent / poor / partial / good

Mapping the land cover of Bonaire based on very high resolution PLEIADES satellite data of 2014-2016

Bonaire is rich in natural terrestrial ecosystems ranging from dry tropical forest, caves and beaches to salt lakes and mangroves. These ecosystems provide a wealth of ecosystem services to Bonaire's population, including food provisioning, recreation opportunities for tourists, cultural heritage and habitat provisioning. A large part of the land is protected in the form of a national park, RAMSAR wetlands, Important Bird Areas and as Key Biodiversity Areas (Verweij and Mücher in Debrot et al. 2017; minLnv 2020).

Well-being and prosperity of the island's population are highly dependent on the quality of the natural environment. Bonaire is facing major challenges: managing (mass) tourism and population growth, preventing high erosion rates due to free roaming cattle, recharging fresh water into the soil, adaptation to climate change and halting biodiversity loss (Verweij et al. 2020; Debrot et al. 2017).

The interaction of the natural ecosystems with human activities is reflected in the land cover. Understanding current land cover and how the land is being used, especially with regard to the aforementioned challenges, is elementary for land management and land use planning. Measuring current conditions is achieved through land cover mapping. Satellite images are often used as basis for land cover mapping as it allows to take a measured snapshot covering the entire study area at a single moment in time. Multiple images through time can show how the land cover changes over time (Saah et al. 2019).

In this study we developed a spatial land cover classification database of Bonaire based on high resolution (2x2 m2) satellite imagery, field observations and supplemented with local knowledge. Basis of inspiration for the land cover classification was a sabbatical that Sander Mücher had in 2016 at the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) in Kralendijk, Bonaire.

You can download the land cover data file here.

Agricultural fields of Bonaire based on visual interpretation of satelite imagery of 2019 and 2003 using Google Earth. Fields have been interpreted as being 'in use' when borders could be distinguished between field and neighbouring area and that fields were barren in contrast to the borders and/or neighbouring area. Mind: This data is not (yet) validated with field observations or expert judgement.

The following classes are used:

• [red] Fields that are in agricultural use in 2003, but no longer in 2019 (presumably abandoned, or given a new function like urbanization)
• [yellow] Fields that are both in agricultural use in 2003 and in 2019 
• [grey] Fields that still have recognizable borders in 2003, but don't seem to be used in 2003. Probably abandoned before 2003. This class has only been digitized for the Rincon area

Even though there are very many scattered seabird sighting records for the pelagic waters of the wider Caribbean Sea, only few studies bring these data together to generate a more comprehensive understanding of seabird use of the offshore areas of the region. The same is the case for the Dutch Caribbean EEZ which amounts to about 92 thousand km2 of the Caribbean Sea. As a consequence, information on seabird use of offshore waters has been identified as a key knowledge gap and research priority for both EEZ conservation and management purposes (Jongman et al. 2010, Meesters et al. 2010) and in support of a Bonaire-Curacao UNESCO World Heritage nomination that has been a Bonaire government ambition since 2003 (Debrot et al. 2017).  
 
In this project we followed up on these information needs by compiling many older but as-yet unpublished seabird records around the Dutch Caribbean islands, the eastern Caribbean as well as many poorly accessible seabird records for the waters off the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela. The most important additions of previously unavailable or new records for the eastern Caribbean were as follows: 1824 records by Poppe (1974), 627 by Halewijn (1972), 443 recent records by M. de Boer and J. Saulino (2014) all principally for the waters of the Dutch Caribbean, 547 records from Casler and Lira (1979) and Casler and Pirela (2004) for the northwestern sector of Venezuela and 249 records by Naranjo (1979) and Estela et al. (2004) for the Caribbean coast of Colombia. These were subsequently merged with several smaller and larger sources of seabird sighting records to yield a current total compilation of 150,372 sighting records with either exact or approximate position determinations. 
 
The database provides temporal and positional occurrence information for 65 nominate species and 13 larger familial or generic species groups in the Caribbean basin. As such, it provides a major new opportunity for the WUR to study and publish on various aspects of seabird distribution in the coming years. The potential topics include: 1) the community composition of the pelagic seabirds of the Caribbean in comparison with the community structure of other pelagic seabird communities, 2) how different habitat features (such as upwelling areas, proximity of nesting and/or roosting areas) are used by different species, 3) the identification of temporal trends in seabird species distribution and abundance, 4) identification of areas deserving conservation and management priority, either around seabird colonies or at the high seas. 

Land use map Bonaire at 2x2 m2 resolution, based on a classified Pleiades composite orthophoto  the Bonaire vegetation survey and field observations from 2017, 2019 and 2020 by Mucher,C.A., Janssen, J., de Freitas, J., Schaminee, J., Houtepen, E., van Blerk, J., Coolen, Q., Bertual, P. and Verweij, P.

Distinguished classes:

• Built-up
• Urban bare soil
• Road
• Urban green
• Bare soil and pioneer vegetation
• Sandy beaches
• Low scrub and mangrove
• Low scrub
• Low scrub with cactus
• High scrub
• High scrub with cactus
• Forest
• Mangrove
• Salina
• Salt ponds
• Crystalizer ponds
• Deep sea
• Shallow coastal waters
• Lagoon
• Shallow inland waters

Read the report here.

Sinds de staatkundige herstructurering van het Koninkrijk in 2010, maken de Caribische eilanden van Bonaire, Saba en St. Eustatius als speciale gemeenten formeel deel uit van Nederland. Het Ministerie van Economische Zaken (sinds eind 2017: Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Voedselkwaliteit) heeft daarmee de eindverantwoordelijkheid voor de uitvoering en implementatie van een zevental internationale natuurbeschermingsverdragen voor de eilanden. Deze verantwoordelijkheden houden verplichtingen in en leiden tot verschillende beleidsvragen. Om hieraan invulling te geven wordt eens in de vijf jaar een natuurbeleidsplan opgesteld en wordt er gerapporteerd in het kader van de Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) en het Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) protocol van het Cartagena Verdrag maar er wordt niet gerapporteerd door middel van een “natuurbalans” zoals in Europees Nederland. Voor de evaluatie van het gevoerde natuurbeleid en het opstellen van nieuwe natuurbeleidsplannen is echter rapportage over de staat van de natuur essentieel. Als maat voor de “staat van de natuur” hebben we een methodiek gebruikt die zoveel mogelijk aansluit op de staat van instandhouding (SvI) conform de Habitatrichtlijn (HR).

Caribisch Nederland maakt onderdeel uit van de Caribische “biodiversity hotspot” met een zeer hoge biodiversiteit en hoge menselijke druk. De hoge biodiversiteit uit zich in het voorkomen van zeer veel endemische soorten (soorten met een zeer klein verspreidingsgebied) en de hoge menselijke druk uit zich in veel bedreigde soorten. Caribisch Nederland telt ongeveer 130 endemische soorten en 143 internationaal bedreigde soorten van beleidsrelevantie (bijlage 1).

In deze opdracht wordt door 33 deskundigen en natuurbeheerders gerapporteerd over de SvI van een selecte groep habitats en soorten of soortgroepen (bedreigde, sleutel- en indicator-soorten) waarvoor over voldoende kennis wordt beschikt. Als maat voor de SvI van de natuur hebben we een methodiek gebruikt die zo nauw mogelijk aansluit op de methodiek voor de bepaling van de SvI zoals gehanteerd in de HR. Daarnaast wordt ook een probleemanalyse gegeven van mogelijke oorzaken en aanbevelingen gedaan voor managementoplossingen. Vanwege de structurele achterstand in kennis en monitoring van het grootste deel van de Caribisch Nederlandse biodiversiteit was een kwantitatieve rapportage voor de meeste soorten en soortgroepen niet mogelijk. 

Keywords: staat van instandhouding, natuur, habitats, soorten soortgroepen, Caribisch Nederland. 

Referenced in Bionews Special Edition: State of Nature Caribbean Netherlands