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Effective biodiversity protection is generally associated with a strict rule of law and democratic participation in environmental decision making. Norway's exceptional ranking in terms of governance, however, has failed to be a predictor of effective biodiversity protection. Through a systematic review of the main regulatory frameworks relevant to protecting biodiversity in Norway, this article analyses the misconceptions, perverse incentives and institutional bottlenecks that lie at the centre of the problem. The analysis finds three overarching barriers that regulatory frameworks have created to the effective protection and promotion of biodiversity in Norway, namely, a governance system based on diffuse legal obligations and responsibilities, excessive trust in private operators and considerable discretion to local entities. Accordingly, this article proposes three enabling factors, and related reform suggestions, for mitigating such barriers and domesticating earth system governance in biodiversity matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many nature‐based solutions (NBS), including urban greenspaces, urban agriculture and agroforestry, depend upon animal‐pollinated plants to sequester carbon or to provide other ecosystem services. Thus, long‐term success of these solutions also depends upon resilient pollinator communities.Despite their importance to functioning communities, a literature search revealed that 0%–3% of papers on NBS and related topics considered pollinators or pollination. Pollinators were more likely to be considered in the subgroup of papers on NBS related to agricultural production, where 12.5% considered pollination.Conservation of species interactions is essential to conservation of biodiversity and the sustained benefits of NBS. By applying our understanding of the ecology of plant‐pollinator mutualisms to the implementation of NBS, we can promote their functioning under future climatic conditions. In particular, we point to the need to identify keystone plants and pollinators, those species that contribute most to biodiversity maintenance, community stability and ecosystem function, and to leverage these species and their interactions in NBS and conservation efforts. We further advocate for the use of phylogenetic trait‐based analyses to understand the characteristics associated with keystoneness.Synthesis: Resilience of pollination services rests upon the responses of keystone species and their partners, and the likelihood that they continue to express traits that confer mutual benefit under future climates. By understanding the traits of species of outsized importance to their communities, we gain insight into the mechanisms underlying the resilience of pollination services and the NBS that rely on those services in a changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global urbanisation reduces greenery and species richness (biodiversity) and limits opportunities for most children to gain experiences of nature. Disconnecting children from nature has implications for their play, health, well‐being, and comprehension of ecological systems, as well as their engagement with the environment as adults.In the competition for land for built infrastructure, the preservation of remaining greenery is essential to fulfill multiple functions. One way forward is to look for synergies between conservation of biodiversity and children's need for outdoor environments of high quality.In this paper, we synthesize the existing literature on how to understand the many interfaces between children and nature, suggesting perspectives and tools for the management and design of nature‐based play settings. We frame this transdisciplinary perspective using 'play biotopes', as a conceptual framework in which both children's play and species are taken into account.We exemplify how the play biotope framework can be put into practice as part of (1) an overall approach to landscapes made more useful to both children and other species, (2) affordances for play in nature such as branches from dead wood, and (3) a design process of a playground by giving input to nature‐based solutions.A conclusion is that play biotopes as a conceptual framework within nature‐based solutions can help increase play and biodiversity by promoting structures for climbing, making huts and biotopes otherwise overlooked in urban planning. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout history, humans have maintained an intricate connection with nature, often finding fascination with, and deriving numerous benefits from, the natural world. This positive emotional bond with nature, which is considered to have a genetic basis, is known as "biophilia".However, biophilia represents just one facet of our relationship with nature. People can also harbour strong negative emotions and attitudes towards nature, increasingly referred to as "biophobia". Current evidence suggests that the prevalence of biophobia is high and increasing, especially in more developed and urbanised societies. Despite this, the importance of biophobia has largely been overlooked in discussions about human‐nature interactions.This special feature: 'Biophobia: a hidden dimension of human‐nature relationships' includes seven papers from different disciplinary perspectives, including biodiversity conservation, psychology, and behavioral science. These studies explore diverse aspects of biophobia, with a particular emphasis on its drivers and consequences. They also provide key insights into how to mitigate excessive phobic responses towards nature.In this introductory paper, we will briefly explore what biophobia entails, how it operates, and why it is important in the context of the human‐nature relationship. We outline that biophobia can manifest in response to a wide range of organisms and natural environments, and it can have significant adverse impacts on both human health and well‐being and efforts to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis.We hope that this special feature will serve as a catalyst for more biophobia research, encouraging collaboration among researchers from diverse backgrounds. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic habitat loss is widely recognized as a primary environmental concern. By contrast, debates on the effects of habitat fragmentation persist. To facilitate overcoming these debates, here we: (i) review the state of the literature on habitat fragmentation, finding widespread confusion and stigma; (ii) identify consequences of this for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management; and (iii) suggest ways in which research can move forward to resolve these problems. Confusion is evident from the 25 most‐cited fragmentation articles published between 2017 and 2021. These articles use five distinct concepts of habitat fragmentation, only one of which clearly distinguishes habitat fragmentation from habitat area and other factors ('fragmentation per se'). Stigmatization is evident from our new findings that fragmentation papers are more charged with negative sentiments when compared to papers from other subfields in the environmental sciences, and that fragmentation papers with more negative sentiments are cited more. While most empirical studies of habitat fragmentation per se find neutral or positive effects on species and biodiversity outcomes, which implies that small habitat patches have a high cumulative value, confusion and stigma in reporting and discussing such results have led to suboptimal habitat protection policy. For example, government agencies, conservation organizations, and land trusts impose minimum habitat patch sizes on habitat protection. Given the high cumulative value of small patches, such policies mean that many opportunities for conservation are being missed. Our review highlights the importance of reducing confusion and stigma in habitat fragmentation research. To this end, we propose implementing study designs in which multiple sample landscapes are selected across independent gradients of habitat amount and fragmentation, measured as patch density. We show that such designs are possible for forest habitat across Earth's biomes. As such study designs are adopted, and as language becomes more precise, we expect that confusion and stigma in habitat fragmentation research will dissipate. We also expect important breakthroughs in understanding the situations where effects of habitat fragmentation per se are neutral, positive, or negative, and the reasons for these differences. Ultimately this will improve efficacy of area‐based conservation policies, to the benefit of biodiversity and people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Growing understanding of decision‐making and environmental science is essential to carry out a successful wetland renewal. To foster this understanding and integrate knowledge on wetland renewal, we convened a diverse group of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at an online symposium held on 23 November 2021. Following the symposium, we curated 22 papers from a global community of wetland experts for the special feature on "Wetland Renewal" in Restoration Ecology. This special feature encompasses findings from 15 field‐based experiments and 7 data‐based papers (P). The research spans various scientific fields such as: Biodiversity Conservation (P15), Coastal Engineering (P4, P8, and P9), Plant Ecology (P1, P2, P10, P12, and P13), Invasion Ecology (P7), Social Science (P3), Peat Soil Science (P6), Wildlife Ecology (P5, P11, and P22), Ecological Modeling (P16, P17, P18, P19, and P20), Microbiology (P22), and Policy and Law (P21). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Other effective area‐based conservation measures (OECMs) create opportunities for a wide range of area‐based conservation strategies. As countries seek to integrate OECMs into conservation planning, it is useful to consider the types of areas that might meet the formal criteria. To support this goal, I analyzed the different types of measures discussed as possible OECMs in the literature, identifying a wide range of measures, far more diverse than those currently recognized as OECMs. There was a strong emphasis on measures with conservation as a secondary management objective, with most studies being supportive of the potential to balance biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource use. However, many studies have highlighted the need to ensure biodiversity outcomes are achieved and sustained, and that appropriate governance and management structures are in place. Concerns were raised about measures associated with resource extraction, such as fisheries and forestry, which were often considered incompatible with conservation. Very few studies offered a nuanced discussion of specific measures or evaluated whether sites offer conservation outcomes, leaving clear knowledge gaps in translating speculation into evidence. Nevertheless, the current literature offers a strong starting point from which to target potential case studies to build the evidence base necessary to advance OECMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic reviews and maps are considered a reliable form of research evidence, but often neglect non-English-language literature, which can be a source of important evidence. To understand the barriers that might limit authors' ability or intent to find and include non-English-language literature, we assessed factors that may predict the inclusion of non-English-language literature in ecological systematic reviews and maps, as well as the review authors' perspectives. We assessed systematic reviews and maps published in Environmental Evidence (n = 72). We also surveyed authors from each paper (n = 32 responses), gathering information on the barriers to the inclusion of non-English language literature. 44% of the reviewed papers (32/72) excluded non-English literature from their searches and inclusions. Commonly cited reasons included constraints related to resources and time. Regression analysis revealed that reviews with larger author teams, authors from diverse countries, especially those with non-English primary languages, and teams with multilingual capabilities searched in a significantly greater number of non-English languages. Our survey exposed limited language diversity within the review teams and inadequate funding as the principal barriers to incorporating non-English language literature. To improve language inclusion and reduce bias in systematic reviews and maps, our study suggests increasing language diversity within review teams. Combining machine translation with language skills can alleviate the financial and resource burdens of translation. Funding applications could also include translation costs. Additionally, establishing language exchange systems would enable access to information in more languages. Further studies investigating language inclusion in other journals would strengthen these conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is competition for land between Maasai pastoralists and the park agency in the Serengeti ecosystem. The park agency wants to use the land for wildlife conservation while the pastoralist community wants to use it for livestock grazing. Predatory wildlife kills livestock while herbivorous wildlife competes with livestock for water and grazing. In retaliation, the Maasai hunt predators and grazers to protect their livestock and also to supply the black market for wildlife products. With both the Maasai and animal populations growing, increased conflicts are inevitable. This paper develops a bioeconomic model with three animal species to analyse the optimal combination of pastoral activities and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem. Using Pontryagin's maximum principle, the market problem for each agent is optimized and compared to the social planner's outcome. Results show that the market solutions are suboptimal because of negative externalities affecting both agents and inadequate regard to biodiversity conservation values. Mathematical simulations of the bioeconomic model are used to generate a solution in which the Maasai pastoralists and park agency can optimally share the land for their mutual benefit. The policy implication is that the government should establish an independent regulatory institution with a primary mandate of balancing the contested socioeconomic and ecological needs of stakeholders in prime ecosystems such as the Serengeti. Recommendations for Resource Managers: Both pastoralists and park agencies must limit the amount of effort engaged in extensive livestock production and wildlife conservation, as this translates into increased demand for land by either party.In terms of welfare, a combination of antipoaching effort by the parks agency and poaching effort by the pastoralists that exceed optimum levels results in a decrease in social welfare.Increasing extensive livestock production entails greater demand for grazing space, which must be offset by a reduction in protected acreage; this, too, poses a risk of species extinction.Given that the current size of the Serengeti's wildlife stock may be near optimal, the goal of wildlife policy should be to simultaneously reduce the incentives for resource managers to exert excessive antipoaching effort to maintain a healthy wildlife population while also reducing incentives for the pastoralist community to overstock livestock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of the goals and targets specified by the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 3, often referred to as "30 × 30," has garnered widespread attention globally. In this paper, we critique India's potential to meet this target. We find that with its vast network of ecosystems that are under some form of protection and through the recognition of other effective area‐based conservation measures sites, India has the potential to meet the quantitative target of conserving and managing at least 30% of its area by 2030. However, the qualitative attributes of the target might be more difficult to realize owing to several challenges, such as inadequate landscape connectivity, insufficient representation of habitats in the current protected area model, and the exacerbation of socioeconomic vulnerabilities of resource‐dependent communities. To achieve strategic, inclusive, and equitable conservation, we suggest a four‐pronged approach involving landscape‐level biodiversity conservation, socially just and collaborative safeguarding of biodiversity, and relevant policy (re)formulation, informed and underlain by long‐term research and impact monitoring. Although we focus on India, the issues we discuss are of broader relevance, especially for countries across the Global South that are also likely to be significantly impacted by the implementation of the target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How best to incentivize land managers to achieve conservation goals in an economically and ecologically effective manner is a key policy question that has gained increased relevance from the setting of ambitious new global targets for biodiversity conservation. Conservation (reverse) auctions are a policy tool for improving the environmental performance of agriculture, which has become well‐established in the academic literature and in policy making in the US and Australia. However, little is known about the likely response of farmers to incentives within such an auction to (1) increase spatial connectivity and (2) encourage collective participation. This paper presents the first framed field experiment with farmers as participants that examines the effects of two features of conservation policy design: joint (collective) participation by farmers and the incentivization of spatial connectivity. The experiment employs farmers in China, a country making increasing use of payments for ecosystem services to achieve a range of environmental objectives. We investigate whether auction performance—both economic and ecological—can be improved by the introduction of agglomeration bonus and joint bidding bonus mechanisms. Our empirical results suggest that, compared to a baseline spatially coordinated conservation auction, the performance of an auction with an agglomeration bonus, a joint bidding bonus, or both, is inferior on two key metrics—the environmental benefits generated and cost effectiveness realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populations and ecological communities are changing worldwide, and empirical studies exhibit a mixture of either declining or mixed trends. Confusion in global biodiversity trends thus remains, while assessing such changes is of major social, political, and scientific importance. Part of this variability may arise from the difficulty to reliably assess global biodiversity trends. Here, we conducted a literature review of studies documenting the temporal dynamics of global biodiversity. We classified the differences among approaches, data, and methodology used by the reviewed papers to reveal common findings and sources of discrepancies. We show that reviews and meta‐analyses, along with the use of global indicators, are more likely to conclude that trends are declining. On the other hand, the longer the data are available, the more nuanced are the trends they generate. Our results also highlight the lack of studies providing information on the impact of synergistic pressures on a global scale, making it even more difficult to understand the driving factors of the observed changes and how to decide conservation plan accordingly. Finally, we stress the importance of taking into account the sources of confusion identified, as well as the complexity of biodiversity changes, in order to implement effective conservation strategies. In particular, biodiversity dynamics are almost systematically assumed to be linear, while non‐linear trends are largely neglected. Clarifying the sources of confusion in global biodiversity trends should strengthen large‐scale biodiversity monitoring and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature‐based tourism provides an outlet for people to experience non‐material nature's contributions to people (NCP) and can even promote care for nature. Yet, the literature on NCP is still dominated by studies on regulating and material NCP, with limited research on non‐material contributions.Semi‐structured interviews and photo‐elicitation methods were conducted online with 38 former tourists who have hiked Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, to investigate NCP experiences during their hiking journey. Drawing on the guiding principles of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an interwoven approach was used to link context‐specific NCP expressed by tourists to the generalizing perspective.Ten context‐specific non‐material NCP emerged including Aesthetic experiences; Learning and life‐changing perspectives; New and unique experiences; and Social cohesion and bonding. All context‐specific NCP were linked back to the generalizing perspective, with most NCP falling under the generalizing category of Physical and psychological experiences.This paper reveals the unique and diverse ways that nature contributes to people's lives, promoting the visibility of multiple perspectives and their incorporation into biodiversity conservation and sustainable management strategies. Through an interwoven approach, NCP can be compared on a universal scale while respecting the context‐specificity of human–nature interactions across different social‐ecological contexts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guinea‐Bissau, an important regional biodiversity hotspot in West Africa, faces the challenge of raising awareness among the general public about the significance of natural resources for rural communities' survival and the need for biodiversity conservation. This knowledge gap hinders conservation efforts as initiatives are deemed irrelevant or unnecessary. A climate of political vulnerability, financial uncertainty and threats to media freedom are further obstacles to conservation biology. Researchers lack established communication platforms for academic dissemination. In this paper, we introduce the initiative News for Nature/PRIMACTION (2020–2022), which aimed to establish a communication channel between researchers and media agents. The project had two primary objectives: firstly, to raise awareness among the Guinea‐Bissau society about the importance of national biodiversity and conservation challenges; and secondly, to enhance the capacity of specific communicators and opinion makers. The project had several important outputs, including: i) a bi‐monthly newspaper section focused on "biodiversity conservation in Guinea‐Bissau", ii) three radio‐theatre episodes performed by a well‐known group and broadcasted nationally, iii) one song composed and sung by famous musicians, with an introduction by Jane Goodall, and iv) a website providing technical resources for journalists covering biodiversity and conservation news. Collaborators mentioned the lack of logistical conditions for traveling in the country as a major impediment in reporting conservation‐related news. We emphasize the significance of establishing direct contact and articulation between researchers and local media to promote conservation research in West African countries. In countries where science communication and environmental education outreach are not well‐established, it is crucial to bridge the challenges faced by the communities in different regions of the same country. This is especially urgent in cases where such challenges are significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated farming system (IFS) is a holistic farming approach specially designed for small/marginal farmers to enhance the system productivity, profitability, and employment generation of their farm, ultimately ensuring their food and nutrition security for their livelihood. The mechanism of IFS offers various ecosystem services making farms environment‐friendly, sustainable, and climate‐resilient. IFS is characterized by the allocation of different agricultural components systematically in a single farm performing synergistically among themselves making the farm more productive, healthy, biodiversity enriched, and eco‐friendly than simplified farms. Therefore, this review paper represents an extensive analysis of existing literature on IFS exploring its concept, components, and need, and emphasizing its potential for higher system productivity, profitability, and employment generation in a sustainable manner. Moreover, it develops a conceptualization of the relationship among different agricultural components in a single farm exploring its role in ecosystem services (reducing greenhouse gases, carbon sequestration, nutrient recycling, improving soil health, and biodiversity conservation). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐rotor drones equipped with acoustic sensors have great potential for bioacoustically monitoring vocal species in the environment for biodiversity conservation. The bottleneck of this emerging technology is the ego‐noise from the rotating motors and propellers, which can completely mask the target sound and make sound recordings unusable for further analysis. The ego‐noise not only degrades the performance of bioacoustic monitoring but also impacts the behaviour of target species if the drone is too close to the target area. In this paper, we address this challenging problem by combining hardware and software solutions that minimize the impact of drone ego‐noise on bioacoustic monitoring.To collect the target sound from the ground, we used a shotgun microphone recording system suspended underneath the drone body with a wire rope (steel fishing line) of length 2 m. The suspended rope puts a large distance between the drone and the recorder, reducing the propeller sound perceived by the microphone. The shotgun microphone enables the sound to be picked up from the ground effectively while rejecting the drone sound from above. We further developed a software solution that aims to automatically recognize the bird species from the bird call recording and we proposed a noise‐augmented training scheme to improve the robustness of bird recognition in the presence of strong drone noise.We evaluated the performance of the system in a test problem of recognizing 20 bird species with in‐flight recordings, where a loudspeaker on the ground simulates bird calls. The recordings were obtained using a drone hovering at various altitudes ranging from 5 to 30 m. By combining the hardware and software solutions, the system recognizes birds robustly at an altitude of 30 m and signal‐to‐noise ratio −25 dB.This demonstrates the feasibility of our drone audition system for bioacoustic monitoring. The proposed method overcomes a long‐standing bottleneck problem in drone audition and promises new applications of bioacoustic monitoring in research and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dark diversity includes ecologically suitable species currently absent in a site, albeit theoretically able to arrive from the surrounding region. Various methods can estimate the likelihood that an absent species is in the dark diversity of a site. Recent developments in estimation of dark diversity have advanced the field, yet uncertainty on method selection might lead to confusion and misleading results. Here, we provide methodological guidance by reanalyzing a data set used in a recently published dark‐diversity study (Hostens et al. 2023; Journal of Vegetation Science 34: e13212). Using various approaches to estimate dark diversity, we discuss why their estimations differ, and examine which methods are more appropriate than others for the particular data set. In this study, the hypergeometric method based on species co‐occurrences outperformed the other considered methods (species distribution modelling, Beals index). Further, we show how estimations of dark diversity can be combined with a Bayesian framework to examine which characteristics of sites and species are related to their tendency to have higher dark‐diversity size (sites) than expected or to be more frequently in dark diversity (species). This paper hopefully enhances confidence in dark‐diversity methods, allowing progress in both ecological theory and biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indo‐Burma biodiversity hotspot has one of the world's most species‐rich inland waters. However, its freshwater biodiversity faces habitat loss and species extinction due to large‐scale development of water resources, pollution, exploitation of native biota, and introduced non‐native species.These threats include the South American suckermouth armoured catfishes, Pterygoplichthys spp., that have invaded parts of this biodiversity hotspot. Pterygoplichthys spp. are among the most impactful introduced fishes globally and pose a 'very high risk' of becoming invasive once introduced.This paper aims to compile a distribution database for Pterygoplichthys spp., map their current global distribution, and estimate their potential distribution extent in the Indo‐Burma biodiversity hotspot using MaxEnt.In the Indo‐Burma region, Pterygoplichthys spp. have already been reported from China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, with populations also present in neighbouring India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. No populations were verified for Cambodia and Laos.A maximum entropy model was developed based on the current global distribution of Pterygoplichthys spp. The species distribution model showed that the entire biodiversity hotspot, except the spine of the Arkan Mountains and the Hengduan Mountains from Three Gorges to the Hong River Valley, is suitable for Pterygoplichthys spp. An effective temperature of 15°C was identified as the lower limit of Pterygoplichthys spp. habitat suitability.Pterygoplichthys spp. were identified as a high‐risk taxon for freshwaters of almost the entire Indo‐Burma biodiversity hotspot. A coordinated management plan for Pterygoplichthys spp. is required to safeguard the freshwater biota of the Indo‐Burma freshwater ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Natural resource management in Australia is beset with 'wicked' problems: diminishing biodiversity, increasing soil erosion, spreading soil salinity and global climate change all impact private landholders across rural Australia. These problems highlight the complexity of biodiversity conservation, and the need for inclusive, respectful approaches that enable the participation of rural communities, private landholders and government agencies to effectively manage biodiversity on public and private lands. To address these problems, some landholders, rural communities and other stakeholders are seeking evidence‐based solutions through directly applicable research. In this paper, we identify current barriers to such research and highlight principles and processes for co‐designing and managing research based on mutual trust, respect, power sharing and acceptance of various knowledge systems, as embodied in the theory of reconciliation ecology. We suggest that a 'community of practice' approach could assist in establishing effective deliberative relations as a basis for active collaboration in natural resource management research to address these complex problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demand is increasing among investors to create portfolios that encourage positive outcomes for biological diversity. The evolution of investment strategies for transitions to zero carbon over the last two decades provides insights that will assist in shaping strategies for biodiversity‐positive investments. Many emerging approaches to capture company impact and dependence on biodiversity focus on nature‐related threats to an organisation by assessing ecosystem integrity. Other approaches focus on minimising an organisation's contribution to risks of species extinction by using data sets such as the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. However, while these approaches are useful for assessing threats to and from biodiversity for individual companies, to be effective for investment portfolio construction, metrics need to be comparable across companies in an investment universe. Many of the threat assessments that could link corporate activities to impacts are incomplete and omit critical information. If the investment community focuses on biodiversity without sufficient forethought, there is a risk of entrenching metrics with significant flaws. In this paper, we suggest that interim approaches are needed to support investors in understanding the approaches being taken by potential investee companies. To that end, we present and discuss a disclosure‐based Biodiversity Management Quality and a classification‐based Biodiversity Revenues metric for biodiversity‐related investing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern methods for quantifying, predicting and mapping species distributions have played a crucial part in biodiversity conservation. Occupancy models have become a popular choice for analysing species occurrence data due to their ability to separate out the observational error induced by imperfect detection of a species, and the sources of bias affecting the occupancy process. However, the spatial and temporal variation in occupancy that is not accounted for by environmental covariates is often ignored or modelled through simple spatial structures as the computational costs of fitting explicit spatio‐temporal models is too high. In this work, we demonstrate how Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) may be used to fit complex spatio‐temporal occupancy models and how the R‐INLA package can provide a user‐friendly interface to make such complex models available to users.We show how occupancy models, provided some simplification on the detection process is assumed, can be framed as latent Gaussian models and, as such, benefit from the powerful INLA framework. A large selection of complex modelling features, and random effect models, including spatio‐temporal models, have already been implemented in R‐INLA. These also become available for occupancy models, providing the user with an efficient, reliable and flexible toolbox.We illustrate how INLA provides a flexible and computationally efficient framework for developing and fitting complex occupancy models using two complex case studies. Through these, we show how different spatio‐temporal models that include spatial‐varying trends, smooth terms and spatio‐temporal random effects can be fitted to aggregated detection/non‐detection data. At the cost of limiting the complexity of the detection model structure, INLA can incorporate a range of rather complex structures in the ecological process of interest and hence, extend the functionality of occupancy models.The limitations of occupancy models in terms of scalability for large spatio‐temporal data sets remain a challenge and an active area of research. INLA‐based occupancy models provide an alternative inferential and computational framework to fit complex spatio‐temporal occupancy models. The need for new and more flexible computationally efficient approaches to fit such models makes INLA an attractive option for addressing complex ecological problems, and a promising area of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective approaches are needed to conserve the planet's remaining wildlife and wilderness landscapes, especially concerning global biodiversity conservation targets. Here, we present a new software system called EarthRanger: an open‐source platform built to help monitor, research and manage ecosystems.EarthRanger consists of seven main components (Core Server, API, Storage, Gundi, Web App, Mobile App, Ecoscope) that provide functionality for data (i) aggregation & collection, (ii) storage & management, (iii) real‐time and post hoc analysis, (iv) visualisation and (v) dissemination. The mobile application provides field‐based data recording and visualisation tools. EarthRanger may be deployed for single project use or can aggregate across multiple geographies as a centralised hub. EarthRanger can be used to collect standardised tracking data (e.g. from wildlife collars, vehicles and ranger patrols) and configurable event information (e.g. a singular recording with associated user‐defined attribute information such as a wildlife sighting or encounter with a poacher).Since development began in 2015, the platform has (at the time of writing) been deployed at over 500 sites across 70 countries and with myriad configurations and objectives. EarthRanger has improved the ability to monitor data feeds and manage conservation‐related operations in real time. For instance, the deployment of EarthRanger by African Parks has led to the removal of over 50,000 snares, steady population growth of key species of concern and near cessation of poaching. In Liwonde's protected area, enhanced mitigation efforts supported by EarthRanger reduced the number of deaths from wildlife conflict by more than 91%. EarthRanger is also providing a platform to enhance standardisation, aggregation, transfer and long‐term storage of ecological information and promote collaboration between groups conducting protected area management and ecology and biodiversity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: Large quantities of diverse native seeds are required to scale up global restoration efforts. However, it remains unclear for many ecosystems how the diversity of available seed in commercial stocks reflects the composition of the ecosystems where vegetation is being remade. This study highlights existing shortfalls in the diversity of seed presently available for use in restoration and identifies gaps in the seed supply chain while providing a new method for optimising species selection given these constraints. This work underscores how improved collaboration between stakeholders is required to strengthen the seed supply chain and help remake functionally diverse vegetation. Summary: Restoration using native seed is frequently implemented to restore degraded ecosystems. However, it remains unclear how constraints on the diversity of germplasm available for use in restoration may limit the recovery of both species and plant functional diversity.Using a dataset of seed availability for Australia's major vegetation types, we explore variation in the diversity and breadth of functional traits (leaf mass per area, seed mass, plant height) for species where seed is available on commercial markets relative to unavailable. Using these data, we simulate theoretical seed mixes derived from two species pools: (1) constrained by the current market of commercially available seed, and (2) assuming all native species can be planted; then we compare differences in functional diversity (dispersion) as an exercise to explore possible limitations within the current seed supply.Seed from only 12% of Australian plant species (2992 species) is presently available for immediate purchase. Seed was more frequently available for trees and shrubs than for understorey species. Available species were on average taller, with thicker, longer‐lived leaves than unavailable species. Overall, functional dispersion was lower for seed mixes generated using available seed compared with those drawn from all species.Solutions are required to address seed shortfalls so that plantings are not only species rich but also functionally diverse. We develop two options: (1) quantifying and addressing gaps in the seed supply chain that currently limit the capacity for practitioners to restore diverse vegetation; and (2) applying a trait‐informed species‐selection method to plantings that maximises functional diversity using available seed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans are significantly impacting ecosystems worldwide. Scientists of the IPBES Global Assessment are therefore calling for a transformative change that includes all aspects of society in order to address drivers of biodiversity loss. However, these calls are rather abstract, and thus it remains unclear how this goal can be achieved.With this conceptual contribution, we present an analytical framework for evaluating existing processes of societal change which are enhancing biodiversity, and we illustrate its application using three case studies in Germany. We argue that an empirical analysis provides insights into the causal mechanisms that initiate or promote change processes. In doing so, we can draw recommendations for future transformative change processes with regard to biodiversity conservation. In our analysis, we are dealing with questions concerning the following three areas: the drivers and context of societal change processes, the change processes themselves and finally their impacts.Subsequently, we generate recommendations on how to enhance and support the process of future societal transformation that aims at biodiversity conservation: (a) Retaining co‐benefits for biodiversity with goals that are primarily focussing on other objectives; (b) harmonising biodiversity use and conservation by turning conflicts into drivers of transformation; (c) prioritising biodiversity conservation by taking advantage of windows of opportunity.With our conceptual framework, we provide an analytical tool to learn from existing processes of societal change how to support future transformative change. This is an important step that contributes to the generation of relevant knowledge of promoting transformative change for nature and people. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Zusammenfassung: 1. Der Mensch hat weltweit erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die Ökosysteme. Die Wissenschaftler*innen von IPBES fordern daher einen transformativen Wandel, der alle Aspekte der Gesellschaft einbezieht, um die Ursachen für den Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt zu bekämpfen. Allerdings ist noch immer unklar, wie dieses Ziel erreicht werden kann. 2. Mit diesem konzeptionellen Beitrag stellen wir einen analytischen Rahmen für die Bewertung von gesellschaftlichen Veränderungsprozessen vor, die die biologische Vielfalt fördern. Darüber hinaus illustrieren wir dessen Anwendung anhand von drei Fallstudien in Deutschland, denn eine empirische Analyse kann Einblicke in die kausalen Mechanismen liefern, inwieweit transformative Prozesse initiiert oder gefördert werden können. In unserer Analyse befassen wir uns mit Fragen zu den folgenden drei Bereichen: den Triebkräften und dem Kontext gesellschaftlicher Veränderungsprozesse, den Veränderungsprozessen selbst und schließlich ihren Auswirkungen. 3. Anschließend erarbeiten wir Empfehlungen, wie der Prozess eines gesellschaftlichen Wandels gefördert werden kann, um die biologische Vielfalt zu erhalten: (1) Wahrung des Co‐Benefits für die biologische Vielfalt bei Zielen, die sich in erster Linie auf andere Ziele konzentrieren; (2) Harmonisierung von Schutz und Nutzung der biologischen Vielfalt durch Umwandlung von Konflikten in Triebkräfte des Wandels; (3) Priorisierung des Schutzes der biologischen Vielfalt durch Nutzung von Gelegenheitsfenstern. 4. Mit unserem konzeptionellen Rahmen stellen wir ein analytisches Instrument zur Verfügung, mit dem sich untersuchen lässt, wie gesellschaftliche Veränderungsprozesse gestaltet und umgesetzt werden können, die einen Beitrag zum Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt leisten. Dies ist ein wichtiger Schritt zur Generierung von relevantem Wissen, mit dem Ziel, einen transformativen Wandel für Natur und Menschen zu fördern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is the aggregate economic value of the final goods and services of the ecosystem produced within a given area, providing a potentially effective means of linking nature protection and restoration to development.In this study, we calculated the values and distribution of biodiversity, GEP and gross domestic product (GDP) in the 547 counties of Southwestern China, a biodiversity hotspot. We then divided the region into nine types of area based on spatial correlations between the three indicators.Areas with high biodiversity, GEP per km2 and GDP per capita were mainly found in and around the large cities of Kunming, Chengdu and Guiyang, reflecting a reasonably high degree of coupling coordination between ecosystems and the local economy.Contrary to our hypotheses, areas with high biodiversity do not necessarily have high GEP, and regions with high GDP do not inherently have low biodiversity. This suggests that synergies exist between biodiversity conservation and economic development, and that increasing the value of material and non‐material services in GEP could improve this alignment.Based on our findings, we argue that GEP can act as a bridge between biodiversity conservation and economic development. Understanding the interactions between biodiversity, GEP and GDP can inform the design of effective policies. In particular, we suggest that sustainable agricultural intensification and forestry along with ecotourism offer promising pathways for advancing nature‐positive development in this ecologically critical region. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of biodiversity conservation is in the midst of a cultural and practical transformation around evidence use, but the necessary institutional and technical support is still emerging. Over the past decade, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested in building institutional capacity for evidence use in its biodiversity conservation projects through technical assistance. We interviewed 34 technical assistance staff supporting biodiversity programming at USAID to explore how technical assistance is used to support evidence use and the extent to which technical assistance can fulfill the functions of "evidence bridges"—intermediaries who help practitioners access and use bodies of evidence for decision‐making. We found that the current technical assistance model supporting evidence employs varied strategies to support evidence use, some of which are more closely aligned with the functions of evidence bridges than others. We conclude that the current technical assistance model could strengthen support for evidence use through engagement with evidence bridges to promote uptake of synthesized evidence. We suggest that technical assistance and evidence bridges are needed to facilitate high‐quality evidence use at the scale necessary to achieve conservation impact, and more collaborative spaces at the boundary between research and practice are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing ongoing biodiversity loss requires collaboration between conservation scientists and practitioners. However, such collaboration has proved challenging. Despite the potential importance of tracking animal movements for conservation, reviews of the tracking literature have identified a gap between the academic discipline of movement ecology and its application to biodiversity conservation. Through structured conversations with movement ecologists and conservation practitioners, we aimed to understand whether the identified gap is also perceived in practice, and if so, what factors hamper collaboration and how these factors can be remediated. We found that both groups are motivated and willing to collaborate. However, because their motivations differ, there is potential for misunderstandings and miscommunications. In addition, external factors such as funder requirements, academic metrics, and journal scopes may limit the applicability of scientific results in a conservation setting. Potential solutions we identified included improved communication and better presentation of results, acknowledging each other's motivations and desired outputs, and adjustment of funder priorities. Addressing gaps between science and implementation can enhance collaboration and support conservation action to address the global biodiversity crisis more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finance is a precondition for many of the activities that harm ecosystems, but how to address this underlying driver of biodiversity loss remains a topic of debate. This paper reviews the Task Force on Nature‐Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), a corporate‐led effort that aims to identify how changes to biodiversity may create financial risks for companies and investors. This approach is also promoted as a strategy for managing the impact of business on biodiversity, with the assumption that risk disclosure will more effectively price biodiversity‐harming activities. We assess the potential of the TNFD toward this end, and invite conservation scientists, practitioners, and policymakers to engage critically with its theory of change. We find that the relationship between disclosing biodiversity risk and redirecting finance away from environmental degradation is tenuous and unproven, making this mechanism insufficient for addressing the impact of the financial sector on nature. We question the embrace of another industry‐led mechanism that implies that a lack of information is the greatest barrier to stopping biodiversity loss. Further, there are risks that this financial sector approach to biodiversity will reinforce the highly unequal concentration of power and wealth, which is itself inimical to transformative change, as called for by the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporary streams are affected by increasing human alterations, and this situation is expected to worsen under global change. Understanding biodiversity trends and the contribution of sites and species to β‐diversity is of high importance in establishing conservation priorities at a regional scale.This paper focuses on aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in temporary streams on the island of Mallorca, using a space–time framework. Differences in α‐diversity, spatial–temporal fluctuations of β‐diversity, local contribution to β‐diversity (LCBD) and species contribution to β‐diversity (SCBD) were examined.Data analysis shows that only the space–time approach to β‐diversity can capture the full variation of macroinvertebrate composition in temporary streams. This confirmed our hypothesis that β‐diversity patterns are better explained by incorporating the temporal dimension to the space–time approach.Regarding β‐diversity components, species replacement components always dominate over richness difference. These results imply that β‐diversity variability is mainly caused by differences in species composition, while the relative difference in richness among sites has a minor role. Consequently, the optimal conservation strategy requires the protection of several undisturbed sites.Although the LCBD analysis did not detect any keystone sites, it helped to identify those sites that should be prioritized for restoration efforts (sites with high LCBD values and low α‐diversity). We also concluded that SCBD analysis should be interpreted carefully, as rare endemic species had low SCBD values.This study demonstrated the need for incorporating temporal variability in the analysis of biodiversity patterns in highly dynamic ecosystems, such as temporary streams. It also revealed the urgency of preserving a spatial network of temporary streams under non‐impaired conditions that can act as dispersal point sources to other streams for biodiversity conservation. These insights are relevant for Mallorca and other Mediterranean islands, and for the protection of temporary rivers elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion is a major threat to diversity, especially in rapidly developing tropical countries where urban areas are growing at great pace and protection is limited.We conducted a systematic review of published research on the ecology of lentic habitats in tropical urban areas. The review focused on understanding: (1) how much is currently known about the biodiversity of these habitats; (2) whether this knowledge is biased towards certain taxonomic groups and/or geographic areas; (3) what is known about the factors influencing their diversity; and (4) which ecosystem services urban lentic habitats provide. The review aimed to establish whether existing knowledge is sufficient to help guide conservation and provide evidence to policy makers of the importance of conserving tropical urban wetlands.We found 64 papers that addressed questions about the diversity and/or distribution of lentic ecosystems within tropical urban areas. Papers came from 15 countries, although almost half (45%) were from India; relatively few countries from Southeast Asia, tropical Africa, or South America were represented in the literature.Publication patterns revealed a growing interest in urban wetlands, but several biases and gaps were evident from the review. Firstly, papers generally focused on larger natural or semi‐natural wetlands, with other types and sizes of lentic habitat under‐represented in published work. Secondly, most papers focused on a single site, with a limited number of multi‐site, city‐wide, or landscape‐scale diversity assessments. Thirdly, studies tended to focus on understanding the influence of water quality on diversity, with work assessing the influence of physical habitat or factors related to dispersal and connectivity very limited. Finally, work assessing the ecosystem services provided by wetlands in tropical urban areas remains narrow in focus, with few quantitative assessments of the relationship between ecological characteristics and ecosystem functions and services.We suggest a number of research focal points and approaches to help address these biases. Research is needed to improve understanding of the distribution patterns tropical freshwater species in urban areas and of the relationships between species diversity and a wider set of environmental and spatial conditions. Overall, there is a need for diversity assessments of tropical urban wetlands of all types and sizes, especially new and novel habitats, and scope for much greater adoption of ecosystem service concepts and evaluation tools to help emphasise the importance of these habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological connectivity, as a research method related to spatial ecology and conservation biology, has attracted increasing attention from researchers at home and abroad in recent years. Habitat connectivity, as a key link in ecological connectivity, is of great significance to promote coastal ecological restoration and protection. However, there has been less systematic research about habitat connectivity due to lack of corresponding theories and practices. Therefore, this paper discusses habitat connectivity from three aspects: (1) the concept of habitat connectivity is introduced and clarified; (2) the application of connectivity in artificial habitat and adjacent waters and its relationship with biodiversity conservation are reviewed and illustrated with examples; and (3) the future development trends of this research direction are summarized and prospected in order to provide a scientific basis and useful reference for the related work of coastal restoration projects in China. Generally, this paper argues that an increase in human behaviour irreversibly destroys the connectivity between marine habitats and threatens the spatial and temporal scales of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Therefore, the theoretical research results and practical experience of ecological connectivity should be fully applied to marine ecosystems, and the restoration of degraded ecosystems should be encouraged and supported in ways that promote natural recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Contemporary and projected shifts in global fire regimes highlight the importance of understanding how fire affects ecosystem function and biodiversity across taxa and geographies. Pyrodiversity, or heterogeneity in fire history, is often an important driver of biodiversity, though it has been largely overlooked until relatively recently. In this paper, we synthesise previous research to develop a theoretical framework on pyrodiversity–biodiversity relationships and propose future research and conservation management directions. Theoretical Framework: Pyrodiversity may affect biodiversity by diversifying available ecological niches, stabilising community networks and/or supporting diverse species pools available for post‐fire colonisation. Further, pyrodiversity's effects on biodiversity vary across different spatial, temporal and organismal scales depending on the mobility and other life history traits of the organisms in question and may be mediated by regional eco‐evolutionary factors such as historical fire regimes. Developing a generalisable understanding of pyrodiversity effects on biodiversity has been challenging, in part because pyrodiversity can be quantified in various ways. Applying the Pyrodiversity Concept: Exclusion of Indigenous fire stewardship, fire suppression, increased unplanned ignitions and climate change have led to dramatic shifts in fire regimes globally. Such shifts include departures from historic levels of pyrodiversity and add to existing challenges to biodiversity conservation in fire‐prone landscapes. Managers navigating these challenges can be aided by targeted research into observed contemporary pyrodiversity–biodiversity relationships as well as knowledge of historical reference conditions informed by both Indigenous and local ecological knowledge and western science. Future Research Directions: Several promising avenues exist for the advancement of pyrodiversity science to further both theoretical and practical goals. These lines of investigation include but are not limited to (1) testing the increasing variety of pyrodiversity metrics and analytical approaches; (2) assessing the spatial and temporal scale‐dependence of pyrodiversity's influence; (3) reconstructing historical pyrodiversity patterns and developing methods for predicting and/or promoting future pyrodiversity; and (4) expanding the focus of pyrodiversity science beyond biodiversity to better understand its influence on ecosystem function and processes more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The global distribution and diversity of mites, including the species rich and highly host plant‐specific eriophyoid mites, are important questions in biogeography and biodiversity conservation. Here we critique the paper of Li et al. (2023) titled 'Global patterns and drivers of herbivorous eriophyoid mite species diversity'. Location: Global Taxon: Eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) Methods: We assert that the data set utilized (less than 4,500 eriophyoid species) consisted of only the described extant species, not all extant species. We then provide evidence that the utilised data set represents only a small proportion of the likely global total of eriophyoid species and therefore provides a far from complete representation of their global distribution. Results: Most collections of extant eriophyoid mites have been conducted in temperate regions where most taxonomic specialists have been active, and not in the largely unstudied tropical regions which contain a very substantial majority of all plant diversity. Most undescribed eriophyoid diversity is therefore highly likely to be found in the tropics. This suggests that the global modelling analyses of Li et al. (2023) were very likely applied to a highly inaccurate data set. Main Conclusions: The actual global distribution and total number of eriophyoid mite species can only be more reliably estimated by systematic taxonomic studies that cover the entire global distribution of plant diversity, which implies a strong focus on the tropical regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hemiptera insects are the largest incomplete metamorphosis insect group in Insecta and play a vital role in ecosystems and biodiversity. Previous studies on the spatial distribution of Hemiptera insects mainly focused on a specific region and insect, this study explored the spatial distribution characteristics of Hemiptera insects in China (national scale), and further clarified the dominant factors affecting their spatial distribution. We used spatial autocorrelation analysis, hot spot analysis, and standard ellipse to investigate the spatial distribution characteristics of Hemiptera insects in China. Furthermore, we used geographic detectors to identify the main factors affecting their spatial distribution under China's six agricultural natural divisions and explore the influencing mechanism of dominant factors. The results show that: (i) The spatial differentiation characteristics of Hemiptera insects in China are significant, and their distribution has obvious spatial agglomeration. The Hu Huanyong Line is an important dividing line for the spatial distribution of Hemiptera insects in China. From the city scale, the HH type (high‐high cluster) is mainly distributed on both sides of the Hu Huanyong Line. (ii) The hot spots of Hemiptera insects are mainly distributed in southwest China, along the Qinling Mountains, the western side of the Wuyi Mountains, the Yinshan Mountains, the Liupanshan Mountains, the Xuefeng Mountains, the Nanling Mountains, and other mountainous areas. (iii) Under agricultural natural divisions, the influence of natural environmental factors on the spatial distribution of Hemiptera insects is obviously different. Temperature and precipitation are the dominant factors. Natural factors and socio‐economic factors have formed a positive reinforcement interaction mode on the spatial distribution of Hemiptera insects. These can provide the decision‐making basis for biodiversity conservation and efficient pest control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although metacommunity theory provides many useful insights for conservation planning, the transfer of this knowledge to practice is hampered due to the difficulty of identifying metacommunities in bioregions. This study aims to identify the spatial extent of metacommunities at bioregional scales using current and historical habitat data, especially because contemporary biodiversity patterns may be a result of time‐lagged responses to historical habitat configurations. Further, this estimation of the metacommunity spatial extent is based on both the habitat structure and the dispersal ability of the species. Focusing on dragonfly and damselfly (odonate) species in the eastern Swiss Plateau, the research uses wetland habitat information spanning over 110 years to create a time series of nine habitat networks between 1899 and 2010. From these networks, we identified the spatial extents of metacommunities based on the year of habitat information as well as on watershed boundaries. To identify the best metacommunity spatial extents, the study investigates whether patch pairs within a metacommunity exhibit greater similarity in species composition (i.e. lower beta‐diversity) than patch pairs between metacommunities. For the different metacommunities, we further investigated correlations between gamma diversity and metacommunity size and compare them to theoretical expectations. In both analyses we found that augmenting spatial metacommunity identification with historical geographical proximity results in stronger associations with biodiversity patterns (beta and gamma diversity) than when using only current‐day habitat or watershed information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spending time in forests benefits human well‐being, but the importance of forest characteristics on well‐being is unclear. This knowledge could help guide forest management decisions to improve outcomes for both people and nature.The overall aim of this study was to investigate how psychological restoration, defined as psychological recovery processes in nature, may be supported by forest characteristics. We (1) investigated how perceptions of restoration (perceived restorativeness) were linked to specific forest characteristics. More specifically, we selected attributes included in nature protection legislation in Germany (beauty, diversity and uniqueness) as the basis to evaluate how forest characteristics were related to perceived restorativeness. Additionally, we (2) tested differences in the assessments of these attributes between forestry experts and people from the general public. Based on the results of the first two objectives (1, 2), we (3) predicted how forest management that affects forest characteristics may impact psychological restoration today and in the future.We developed a perceived restorativeness model based on attributes stated in the German Nature Conservation Act and specific forest structure variables. Drawing from the literature, we included perceived naturalness as an additional key predictor for restoration. Forestry experts and participants from the general public were then asked to rate computer‐generated forest stand pictures on these attributes and restorativeness.We found that all attributes were positively associated with perceived restorativeness, but perceived beauty was most important. Perceived uniqueness was statistically significant, but the strength of the relationship was weak. Mixed forests were rated as most beautiful, while coniferous forest stands were rated as least beautiful. The general public gave higher ratings than forestry experts on all attributes, but the pattern was similar. Based on participant ratings, forests left without management (Set‐aside), followed by forests with management aiming for resilience to climate change (Adaptation forestry), both supporting biodiversity conservation, showed the highest perceived restorativeness over the course of 100 years.Based on our results, it could be recommendable to increase forest diversity, especially in areas with many visitors. However, more nuanced knowledge involving diverse stakeholders is needed to inform forest management decisions on landscape level. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackling environmental challenges that face humanity requires us to acknowledge new ways of working and to cross disciplinary boundaries. However, the methodological toolkit used by environmental researchers to explore the human attitudes, knowledge and behaviours that drive global challenges such as biodiversity loss and climate breakdown remains constrained.Here, we describe participatory video, a methodology for capturing and communicating knowledge, which goes beyond interviews, focus groups and participant observation. We draw from the literature and our own experience of conducting participatory video projects in Nepal, Guyana and Peru. We demonstrate the diverse ways in which the methodology can be applied to environmental research and highlight its strengths and limitations.Participatory video provides a more holistic understanding of environmental issues by using multiple types of data, its longer‐term engagement with issues, opening channels of communication between stakeholders, engaging a diversity of knowledge systems and advocating for transformative change.By taking a participatory video approach, environmental researchers may begin to counter commonplace criticisms about lack of diversity and entrenched colonialism. This simultaneously responds to wider calls for environmental research to engage with social justice issues, represent diverse voices, understand different contexts and acknowledge the role of power. Crucially, this helps build trust amongst all those involved.By demonstrating how we have successfully used participatory video in projects in conservation, ecology and climate science, we provide guidance for researchers looking to expand their methodological toolkit. Ultimately, we seek to improve the use of participatory methods to help support communities to tackle the environmental challenges that they face. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a biodiversity crisis, and to prevent extinctions the most important sites to be effectively conserved must be identified. Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) include sites of importance for species survival. Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) sites, a subset of KBAs, contain ≥95% of the population of highly threatened species. Currently, only 47 tree species have been identified using the AZE criteria. The Global Tree Assessment, assessing the extinction risk of the world's tree species, has enabled trees to be incorporated into KBA and AZE sites. Here we present a methodology to utilize data from the IUCN Red List to identify potential AZE species for trees. This 10‐part methodology identified 2909 tree species as potential AZE species across the world, representing at least 5% of described tree species. As further tree species are assessments are published on the IUCN Red List, this methodology will be important for identifying potential AZE species. The methodology can be applied and adapted to any taxa on the IUCN Red List. This analysis serves as a prioritization mechanism for identifying species in urgent need of conservation action to prevent extinctions. The species identified can feed into national KBA identification efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan's awareness of environmental conservation and biodiversity has been increasing in recent years. As frog plays a vital role in the environment and recreational activities in Taiwan, this study aimed to quantify the willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) of the public for conserving the selected endangered frog species. Respondents were asked using a semistructured questionnaire with auxiliary audio and video files. After deleting incomplete responses following regular data handling, 585 valid responses were used in the estimation. Using the contingent valuation method and single‐bounded dichotomous choice model, the results showed that people are willing to pay an amount of 32.01 USD (922.85 New Taiwan Dollars) per person annually. Factors affecting the public's WTP include price, age, support for establishing conservation areas, payment through donations, number of trips in ecotourism, and the place of residency in Taiwan. The result of this study can be used as a benchmark for the government for the implementation of the conservation and rehabilitation of the habitat of the endangered frog species in the future. Recommendations for Resource Managers: Involvement of people in recreation like traveling, their location of residency, and their age are critical factors in the government's policy formulation.The government should promote endangered frog species conservation in the Northern part of Taiwan, towns near the conservation areas, and younger and middle‐aged populations for the immediate implementation of rehabilitation.An ecological compensation scheme shall be implemented to mitigate the impact of development on ecosystems and provide aid to those residing near conservation areas.The research focused only on Taiwan's three most representative endangered frog species. Future research direction can also focus on the ecology and quantity of the remaining endangered species subject to the study on willingness‐to‐pay the conservation value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision science emphasizes necessary elements required for robust decision‐making. By incorporating decision science principles, frameworks, and tools, it has been demonstrated that decision‐makers can increase the chances of achieving conservation aims. Setting measurable objectives, clearly documenting assumptions about the impact of available actions on a specific threat or problem, explicitly considering constraints, exploring and characterizing uncertainty, and structured deliberation on trade‐offs have been identified as key elements of successful decision‐making. We quantify the extent to which these five elements were utilized in published examples of decision making in conservation in both academic and conservation practice between 2009 and 2018. We found that less than 50% of identified examples included all five elements, with differences in the degree of decision science applied across five commonly used decision support approaches: adaptive management (AM), systematic conservation planning (SCP), structured decision making (SDM), multi‐criteria decision analysis, and cost‐effectiveness analysis. Example applications that utilized the SDM framework were limited in numbers but used on average more than 50% of the five key elements we considered. Although SCP and AM constituted the majority of examples, they were more prevalent in academic studies rather than management applications. SCP and AM examples were widespread in protected area planning, threat abatement, and restoration. Strong geographic bias exists in documented conservation activities that deploy all five decision science elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat degradation and fragmentation are two of the main drivers for biodiversity loss. To mitigate the negative impact of fragmentation in forests, conservation targets are increasingly addressing connectivity to facilitate the independent movement of species between habitat fragments to ensure genetic diversity and adaptation to climate change. In this article, we present a novel approach to identifying and prioritizing stepping stones for preserving connectivity based on national and regional biodiversity data for Austrian forest ecosystems. Our study identified forest areas where conservation measures should be taken to ensure future habitat connectivity by combining four indicator values with different requirements of a stepping stone habitat into a prioritization value. The four compounded indicators are: (i) the Protect Value, which includes distances to patches of protected areas with restricted management for the undisturbed development of retention areas, (ii) the Connect Value, which combines datasets of designated habitat corridors and connectivity areas in Austria based on landscape models and expert validation, (iii) the Species Value identifying species‐rich areas, and (iv) the Habitat Value identifying biotopes of high ecological value, key biodiversity areas, and sites of favorable protection status. Nonparametric tests revealed significant differences in prioritization value among the ecoregions of Austria and therefore encourage the consideration of stepping stone prioritization at local and regional context. Building upon the insights from this case study on Austrian forest ecosystems, we developed a robust framework derived from our methodology. This framework is designed to facilitate future implementations in diverse study regions, accounting for factors beyond connectivity crucial for identifying high value stepping stone habitats. We encourage adaptation of this framework to local data availability, species requirements, and local conditions. The compiled framework provides decision support for managers and conservationists for prioritizing areas to conserve and improve connectivity of forest habitats. However, it does not substitute on‐the‐ground field assessments of habitat quality and measures of functional connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2013 and 2017, we carried out nine field missions in the Lago Grande de Curuai floodplain, located in Pará state – North of Brazil – to collect samples for monitoring surface water quality. This site separated from the river by a narrow bank is composed of a network of channels and shallow lakes, a morphology shared by the floodplains of the lower Amazon. A multiparameter probe was used in situ to measure electrical conductivity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, depth and a Secchi disk to estimate transparency. Water grab samples were analysed for suspended material, alkalinity, humic acid, phosphorus, nitrogen, carbon and chlorophyll. Sampling stations were distributed over the seven larger lakes in the floodplain and sampled at different periods of the hydrological cycle. The number of samples varied with the floodplain water level, with a minimum of 25 samples for each field visit. This data set is a collection of water quality data to assist in the limnological or biogeochemical studies of surface waters in Amazonian floodplain lakes, and the product of successive French‐Brazilian projects: (1) the Clim‐FABIAM 'Climate changes and Floodplain lake biodiversity in the Amazon Basin: how to cope and help the ecological and economic sustainability' funded by the French Foundation for biodiversity research (FRB), (2) the project Bloom‐ALERT –'Environmental sensitivity and population health vulnerability to cyanobacteria in the Amazon: towards shared indicators' funded by the French‐Brazilian research program GUYAMAZON 2014, and the project (3) 'Ecossistemas das várzeas e biodiversidade: Impactos das mudanças ambientais e climáticas considerando cenários de desenvolvimento sustentáveis' (Project number 490634/2013‐3) funded by the Brazilian National scientific Research Council CNPq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinated policies and effective global environmental governance are needed to address the global biodiversity crisis. Human dimensions like geopolitics influence conservation decision‐making and outcomes. The importance of considering these complex social factors is heightened in an era of renewed great‐power politics, as the intensifying US–China rivalry has direct implications for environmental governance and biodiversity outcomes. Can the US–China rivalry and its confrontational dynamics be channeled into conservation policymaking to improve biodiversity outcomes? Drawing from international relations and policy studies, policy diffusion theory can provide conservationists with useful insights into the interdependency of policy decisions. Here, we examine the four mechanisms—competition, coercion, learning, and emulation—of the classic model of policy diffusion theory in the context of environmental policymaking. We explore a case study for each mechanism to illustrate how it can benefit biodiversity conservation, and point to examples of relevant policies and actions that could improve outcomes. To operationalize this concept for conservation, we present a decision tree that conservationists can use to determine the most relevant policy diffusion mechanism in different policy contexts. Upon determining the appropriate mechanism, conservationists can take further steps to intentionally trigger the mechanism and catalyze conservation policy diffusion across jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the goals of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), agreed by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, there is an urgent need to address the economic drivers of biodiversity loss. The KMGBF includes a target to encourage businesses and financial institutions to disclose their impacts and dependences on biodiversity. While transparent biodiversity disclosures could help shift business operations away from activities that harm biodiversity, the weak target wording implies voluntary and unstandardized disclosures, which tend to be low quality and ineffective. Moreover, examination of scientific and practical insights strongly indicates that the evolving strategy of disclosures led by businesses may prioritize short‐term business and investment interests while neglecting biodiversity outcomes and the wider systemic risks they pose. We argue that there is a risk of limited if not altogether perverse outcomes from the target, where businesses provide ambiguous disclosures that fail to reduce impacts on biodiversity, yet an increase in volume and frequency of disclosures suggests progress toward the target. Consequently, we advocate for a regulatory approach, supported by scientific engagement in the development of disclosure standards and associated policy indicators, to ensure that the emerging response to the KMGBF target on disclosures avoids perverse outcomes and instead results in positive impacts on biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Geodiversity—the diversity of abiotic features and processes of the Earth's surface and subsurface—is an increasingly used concept in ecological research. A growing body of scientific literature has provided evidence of positive links between geodiversity and biodiversity. These studies highlight the potential of geodiversity to improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns and to complement current biodiversity conservation practices and strategies. However, definitions of geodiversity in ecological research vary widely. This can hinder the progress of geodiversity–biodiversity research and make it difficult to synthesize findings across studies. We therefore call for greater awareness of how geodiversity is currently defined and for more consistent use of the term 'geodiversity' in biodiversity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Patterns of benthic biodiversity at the macroecological scale remain poorly characterised throughout the Chilean latitudinal gradient, in part due to the lack of integrated databases, uneven sampling effort, and the use of species richness alone to quantify biodiversity. Different diversity measures, encompassing taxonomic and functional components, may give us extra information on biodiversity relevant to conservation planning and management. Thus, evaluating the spatial complementarity of these measures is essential. Location: Coast and continental shelf of Chile. Methods: The latitudinal gradient of Chile was divided into five ecoregions according to the Marine Ecosystems of the World classification. Using a 55 × 55 km equal area grid, we estimated the incidence coverage‐based estimator (ICE), taxonomic distinctness (Δ+) and three measures of functional diversity: functional richness (FRic), functional evenness (FEve) and functional divergence (FDiv). For each measure, we described spatial patterns, identified hotspots, evaluated hotspot congruence and evaluated complementarity between measures. Results: Diversity patterns varied between ecoregions and over the latitudinal gradient. ICE and Δ+ peaked in the Chiloense and Channels and Fjords ecoregions. Δ+ and FRic present a similar pattern at mid‐latitudes. FEve showed a contrary pattern, principally with FRic. Areas with high numbers of hotspots differed spatially according to each metric, and three latitudinal bands were observed. ICE, Δ+ and FRic were positively correlated, but the hotspot overlap at the grid cell level was more limited. Main Conclusions: The complementarity between taxonomic and functional diversity measures is limited when we observe the overlap between grid cells representing hotspots. However, some regions are consistently identified as highly diverse, with the Magellanic Province (Chiloense and Channels and Fjords ecoregions) being the most important for the richness, taxonomic and functional diversity of benthos. Confirmation of the importance of this region can help prioritise conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many species occurrence records from specimens and publications are based on regions such as administrative units. These region‐based records are accessible and dependable, and sometimes they are the only available data source; however, few species distribution models accept such data as direct input. In this paper, we present a method named Mikrubi for robust prediction of species distributions from region‐based occurrence data and a Julia package implementing the algorithms. The package 'Mikrubi' requires a map describing disjoint regions, climatic raster layers, and a list of occupied regions. Mikrubi then rasterizes the regions, reduces the environmental dimensionality, parameterizes the niche, and finally estimates the parameters by maximizing the likelihood. In a simulation study, we find Mikrubi effective in accurate estimation in most cases; in a case study of Allium wallichii in China, Mikrubi significantly outperforms four modeling strategies that adapt region‐based records to conventional models according to different principles. The package has many prospective applications in addition to modeling distributions on region‐based records: 1) it accepts supplementary coordinates; 2) it is a new solution for distribution modeling using deviated coordinates; and 3) its probabilistic region‐based outputs have special uses in conservation and biodiversity science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]