A co-development approach to conservation leads to informed habitat design and rapid establishment of amphibian communities

1. Effective wildlife restoration is a critical requirement of many
conservation actions. The outcome of conservation interventions can be
optimised through knowledge of species’ habitat requirements, but few
studies consider the impact of using explicit evidence from dedicated
local research to inform the design phase of habitat management.
Furthermore, interventions administered externally from the top down,
whilst simpler than those developed in discussion with multiple
stakeholders including land managers (i.e. co-development), run the risk
of failing to engage local people. 2. In this study, we focus on
interventions in the Scottish Highlands to improve the availability and
suitability of breeding ponds for local amphibian assemblages. We
collected and analysed data based on 129 ecological variables across 88
reference ponds to quantify the local habitat preferences. We used the
findings from these analyses to inform the construction or restoration of
25 intervention ponds co-developed in partnership with stakeholders
(landowners, foresters, citizen scientists and government agencies).
Following the interventions, we monitored amphibian communities at these
sites over 4 years. We assessed presence and abundance of all five native
amphibians (the anurans Rana temporaria and Bufo bufo, and the salamanders
Lissotriton helveticus, L. vulgaris and Triturus cristatus) using egg
searching, dip-netting, torching and trapping. 3. The new habitats were
overall characterised by ecological conditions more favourable to
amphibians than the reference ponds. We recorded a total of 51
colonisation events.  Within two breeding seasons after
construction or restoration, the intervention ponds hosted the full
complement of species, mirroring amphibian diversity patterns found in the
local reference ponds. 4. Our study shows that ecological research to
quantify local habitat requirements and working with commercial
land-managers to ensure equitable benefits prior to designing conservation
actions can promote rapid and efficient recovery of wildlife.