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• The Israeli attack on cultural heritage sites have intensified and becoming a platform for the urbicide of cities and erasing people identity. • Conservation efforts undertaken for preservation of cultural heritage in Palestine have become the crux of resistance against identity suppression. • International aids play a crucial role in protecting global cultural heritage and should be accountable for the preservation of global authenticity of historical narrative. War is often an amalgamation of various objectives and occupation a realization of one core aim, that is, the suppression of the identity of an occupied population. Thus, warfare not only affects people but also the collective narrative of their environments, history, culture, and identity. Consequently, deliberate destruction of cultural heritage becomes part of any political struggle. Once political struggles infringe on a nation's history, both local and global institutions and entities must take responsibility for preserving the authenticity of the global narrative. Deprioritizing urban conservation policies, especially during times of war, is known to inflict sheer, and sometimes irreversible, damage on a national and global scale. Despite the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) regulations on protecting cultural heritage during war, the enforcement of such responsibilities on the ground remains questionable. The Palestinian experience is among the rare existing narratives of cultural heritage and architectural conservation becoming the crux of resistance against loss of land and identity. Lacking a central authority and having only been operational for the last three decades, the conservation movement has nonetheless succeeded in conserving a considerable part of Palestinian architectural heritage. The quality of work produced by these efforts has received international recognition and various accolades, despite ongoing difficulties faced under occupation. This paper highlights the role of non-governmental organizations in Palestine, particularly of Riwaq , and details their internationally recognized conservation efforts in several locations, such as Jerusalem and Hebron. These examples are presented to foster the argument that architecture is intrinsic to preserving historical authenticity and local identity. A dependable future rests on preserving the cultural heritage of all places, requiring universal compliance among nations that transcends physical borders and boundaries to promote the continuity of shared legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • This article compares conservation guidelines and Protected Areas created in Brazil. • The analysis was performed for the whole country and at a single State (São Paulo). • Federal Protected Areas were created mainly in areas of high biological importance. • Other factors than science guide the creation of State Protected Areas in São Paulo. • Misallocation of public funds for conservation occurs largely in São Paulo. Abstract The current rates of biodiversity loss are amongst the major global environmental problems, especially in the tropics. The creation of Protected Areas (PAs) is the most widespread strategy adopted for the minimization of such problem. However, official studies that guide the creation of PAs frequently do not convert their outcomes into conservation. This problem is not expected in Brazil, because scientific studies for the definition of priority areas for conservation were ordered by the same institutions in charge of the creation and management of PAs. In this paper, we compared the spatial distribution of PAs created in Brazil in the past decade with studies of priority areas for the protection of biodiversity. At a federal level of analysis, 19.44% of federal PAs are located in non-priority sites, which represents 0.47% of the total land area of federal PAs created. At a state level, 71.05% of state PAs are located in non-priority sites, which represents 60.68% of the total land area of state PAs created. In 2015, the total cost for the preservation of PAs in non-priority classes was US$ 17,539.30 (3.28% of the annual budget for federal PAs created after 2007) at federal level and US$ 541,745.02 (55.98% of the annual budget for state PAs created after 2008) at state level. The findings contribute to the development of strategies for the creation of new PAs in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Relationships with carbon mainly positive; with timber and NTFPs inconclusive. • Myriad of little used plant diversity indicators limits comparisons. • Positive pan-tropical relationship between tree species richness and carbon stock. • Geographical extent of study area moderates plant diversity-ES relationships. • Synergies between local to regional carbon and conservation policies are possible. This paper sheds light on the state of our knowledge of relationships between plant diversity and tropical forests ecosystem services. We systematically reviewed the empirical evidence of relationships between three ecosystem services: carbon stock and sequestration, timber provisioning and non-timber forest product (NTFP) provisioning, and three dimensions of plant diversity: taxonomic, functional and structural. We carried out meta-analyses to assess their validity across spatial scales and plot sizes. We found that indicators of all three dimensions of plant diversity have reported relationships with at least two of the studied ecosystem services, but there has been limited and inconsistent use of plant diversity indicators and little attention for relationships with timber and NTFP services. Nevertheless, we found that tree species richness showed robust significant positive correlations with carbon stock across the tropics, and that the geographical extent of the study area had a significant negative effect on the strength of this relationship, where the strength of the relationship decreased with increasing geographical extent. This paper reveals a knowledge gap for services other than carbon stock and shows that at local to regional spatial scales, synergies can be achieved between policies focused on biodiversity conservation and maintenance of carbon stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of nature reserves is an important public policy strategy for the protection of biological diversity. In this paper, the authors use integer programming model structures derived from Location Set Covering Problem and Maximal Covering Location Problem approaches of location science as tools for selectively augmenting nature reserve sites for special status species protection. The linear programming models presented incorporate the following: biological constraints in the form of species'' area needs; economic constraints in the form of opportunity costs of converting smaller administrative districts into nature reserves; and spatial constraints in the form of required connectivity among districts in site selection. The construction of a taxonomic data set for Thailand enables the implementation of the models, the comparison of results and evaluation of the differences in outcomes. The models build upon the existing nature reserve network in Thailand and suggest various public policy options that would augment the reserves for enhancing species protection and for possibly improving national conservation efforts at lowest costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The preservation of species diversity generally suggests protection of either the greatest number of species possible or all species. Requiring representation of each species in at least one parcel in the system and seeking the minimum number of parcels in the reserve system to achieve this requirement is termed the Species Set Covering Problem (SSCP). Nonetheless, it is important, as well, to consider the rarest of species, as their populations are the most in need of protection to assure their survival. This paper uses 0–1 programming models and an existing data set to study species protection, rarity, species abundance and species diversity. We employ for this purpose an integer programming model that uses the SSCP format to require at least one representation of each and every species, but that seeks in addition protection of the rarest species. This is achieved by maximizing redundant coverage of those species designated as rare. Results are then compared to those of the SSCP. Recognizing that resources available for conservation purchases could well be insufficient to represent all species at least once, we structure a model comparing coverage of the greatest number of species and redundant coverage of rare species. We develop a trade-off curve for this multi-objective problem in order to evaluate the opportunity cost of covering more species as redundant coverage of rare species decreases—and vice versa. Finally, various possible rarity sets and various budget proxies are considered along with their impacts on conservation policies, Pareto optimality and species diversity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper considers the economics of conserving a species with mainly non-use value, the endangered mahogany glider. Three serial surveys of Brisbane residents provide data on the knowledge of respondents about the mahogany glider. The results supply information about the attitudes of respondents to the mahogany glider, to its conservation and relevant public policies, and about variations in these factors as the knowledge of participants of the mahogany glider alters. Similarly, data are provided and analysed about the willingness to pay of respondents to conserve the mahogany glider and how it changes. Population viability analysis is applied to estimate the required habitat area for a minimum viable population of the mahogany glider to ensure at least a 95% probability of its survival for 100 years. Places are identified in Queensland where the requisite minimum area of critical habitat can be conserved. Using the survey results as a basis, the likely willingness of groups of Australians to pay for the conservation of the mahogany glider is estimated and consequently their willingness to pay for the minimum required area of its habitat. Methods for estimating the cost of protecting this habitat are outlined. Australia-wide benefits are estimated to exceed the costs. Establishing a national park containing the minimum viable population of the mahogany glider is an appealing management option. This would also be beneficial in conserving other endangered wildlife species and ecosystems. Therefore, additional economic benefits to those estimated on account of the mahogany glider itself can be obtained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Biodiversity Offsets (BO) and Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are sometimes used interchangeably to characterize innovative economic tools to conserve or restore biodiversity, ecosystems, or their services. We assume that a confusion between PES and BO can have negative implications for biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we argue that these two tools follow different targets and have different founding principles, and thus, their basic mode of functioning would only coincide under special circumstances and institutional contexts. Here, we propose a new definition of BO, delimiting them more clearly from PES, and use practical examples to underscore conceptual differences. Both tools require specific policy framework conditions, in terms of rights, responsibilities, and enforcement. If unmet, however, the implications for biodiversity conservation outcomes are stronger for BO than for PES since BO are explicitly linked to biodiversity losses, while PES typically are not. PES experiences can certainly inform BO implementation vis-à-vis contract design and enforcement, but these PES lessons need to be enacted vis-à-vis BO specific requirements, in order not to underestimate generic risks in their implementation: if a PES scheme fails, payments can be stopped; if a BO fails, biodiversity losses remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]