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Species distribution models (SDMs) have been used to forecast the impact of climate change on species' potential distribution, with results that might support decisions for conservation and biodiversity management. Despite their vulnerability to parameterization and data quality input, SDM use has been increasing in the last decades. In fact, inappropriate inputs and the lack of awareness about the effects of methodological decisions on results can lead to potential unreliability in results, a problem that might gain relevance when SDMs are used to predict climate change impacts on species-suitable areas. Aiming to assess how far such a topic is considered, an analysis of the calibration data and methodological decisions was conducted for recent publications (2018 to 2022) that include SDMs in this context, aiming to identify putative deviations from the consensual best practices. Results show that the parameters presented more consistently are the algorithm in use (MaxEnt was used in 98% of the studies), the accuracy measures, and the time windows. But many papers fail to specify other parameters, limiting the reproducibility of the studies. Some papers fail to provide information about calibration procedures, others consider only a fraction of the species' range, and others provide no justification for including specific variables in the model. These options can decrease reliability in predictions under future scenarios, since data provided to the model are inaccurate from the start or there is insufficient information for output discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental classifications are of paramount importance for assessing the impacts of land-use changes, for prioritizing conservation efforts, and for developing effective management strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of human activities. The aim of our research was to provide as complete an analysis as possible of the studies that have been carried out using the Braun-Blanquet approach. The global review of studies based on the Braun-Blanquet approach includes 1168 papers and was conducted using the PRISMA 2009 methodological recommendations, strict criteria for the selection/quality of papers, and modern methods of data analysis and visualization using VOSviewer software developed by Nees Jan van Eck and Ludo Waltman (Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands) (version 1.6.18), which ensures a representative sample, minimization of subjective judgements, and reliability of conclusions. It was noted that the number of publications on Braun-Blanquet is growing exponentially. This is an indication of the scientific interest in this methodology and its continuous further development. Based on a detailed analysis of the keywords, the main research directions and challenges are identified. These include improving the conceptual and methodological foundations of the Braun-Blanquet approach; improvement in regional vegetation classifications, synthesizing them and producing a comprehensive classification for large areas as a basis for biodiversity conservation and sustainable land use; expansion of the geography; compilation and updating of databases of phytosociological data; management of dynamics and vegetation; discussion of the important problem of continuity and discreteness of vegetation in the context of ecological classifications; and vegetation mapping. The top 20 journals publishing the most cited articles were identified, as well as the top 20 most cited journals whose high citation rate is due to the large number of high-quality articles. The analysis of the bibliographic network of papers in dynamics has shown that the structure of relationships is not constant and has changed significantly. The analysis of the authors' publication activity showed that the vast majority of researchers have a low publication activity and have published only one to three papers. A peculiarity also emerges: if all the most cited authors are concentrated in Eurasia, then most of the most actively published authors are outside Eurasia. The importance of the Braun-Blanquet approach for the study and classification of forest vegetation should be emphasized. In this case, the Braun-Blanquet approach is integrated into forest typologies, increasing their ecological validity and environmental relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Today's zoos and aquariums claim to be shifting from being entertainment facilities to centers for the conservation of biodiversity. To make this shift, scientific research, including understanding the biology of endangered species and improving the environment of captive animals, is essential. Several studies have examined the trends in the number of research papers published by zoos and aquariums globally and indicated that this number has increased over the past few decades. In this study, we examined the trends in the number of papers published by Japanese zoos and aquariums over the past 62 years to determine whether research activities are also developing in Japan. We found that the number of research papers has significantly increased and that the research fields have diversified since around 1990. However, we also found some problems: about a quarter of the institutions have published no papers, research targets in zoos were biased toward captive mammals and that aquariums conducted little research on animal welfare. Addressing these issues, we would argue, will help Japanese zoos and aquariums to make further progress. With the shift in their social roles, modern zoos and aquariums are required to develop scientific research. Although zoos and aquariums worldwide have reported an increase in the number of papers they publish and the diversification of their fields in recent decades, the specific circumstances in Japan are slightly unclear. We listed peer-reviewed papers authored by Japanese zoos and aquariums using search engines and quantitatively evaluated the changes in the number of papers published over 62 years. Our results showed that papers published in Japan have increased remarkably since the 1990s, and research fields have diversified as in the rest of the world. In particular, joint research with research institutes has seen an upward trend, and the instances of English-language papers have increased. Meanwhile, the content of the research was biased. In zoos, research on animal welfare has been increasing, but the focus was heavily biased toward captive mammals. Aquariums contributed to the understanding of local ecosystems through the fundamental study of wildlife, but there were fewer papers on improving husbandry. Our results indicated that while research by Japanese zoos and aquariums is developing, research on welfare, conservation, and education regarding native endangered species must still be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endangered species detection plays an important role in biodiversity conservation and is significant in maintaining ecological balance. Existing deep learning-based object detection methods are overly dependent on a large number of supervised samples, and building such endangered species datasets is usually costly. Aiming at the problems faced by endangered species detection, such as low accuracy and easy loss of location information, an efficient endangered species detection method with fewer samples is proposed to extend the few-shot object detection technique to the field of endangered species detection, which requires only a small number of training samples to obtain excellent detection results. First, SE-Res2Net is proposed to optimize the feature extraction capability. Secondly, an RPN network with multiple attention mechanism is proposed. Finally, for the classification confusion problem, a weighted prototype-based comparison branch is introduced to construct weighted category prototype vectors, which effectively improves the performance of the original classifier. Under the setting of 30 samples in the endangered species dataset, the average detection accuracy value of the method, mAP50, reaches 76.54%, which is 7.98% higher than that of the pre-improved FSCE method. This paper also compares the algorithm on the PASCOL VOC dataset, which is optimal and has good generalization ability compared to the other five algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These research articles are highly varied and can be classified into eight sub-domains that are representative of the chosen domain: natural and human disturbances, genetics, site conditions, tropical forest, peri-urban forest, forest soils, forest reserves, and mountain ecosystems (Figure 2). The sustainable and regular supply of ecosystem services by forests requires excellent knowledge of the functional and biological diversity in these complex ecosystems [[7], [9]]. In this study, natural forests were the most positively rated type of forest, while the managed ones were the least positively rated, revealing an important trend among the participants, and human intervention was not the foremost landscape-related factor affecting this perception. Forest ecosystems contribute to human wellbeing and the economy through the complex ecosystem services they provide [[1], [3], [5]]. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the global decline in marine species biodiversity, relatively few countries have enacted national endangered and threatened species legislation. Tailoring an adequate legislative framework with clear objectives and regulations consistent with the available scientific evidence is fundamental for the effective conservation of marine endangered and threatened species. This paper analyzes the legal framework and current institutional tools for the conservation of marine endangered and threatened species in the Russian Federation. In this regard, important legislative tools include federal laws, as well as internationally binding signed agreements, among others, such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar). A strategy and an action plan for the conservation of biological diversity were also developed. Besides, the most important tool for the conservation and protection of marine endangered and threatened species is the Red Book of the Russian Federation (RBRF) and other regional Red Books. Responsibility for causing harm to the species listed in the RBRF and their habitat is specified in the code of administrative offenses and the criminal code of the Russian Federation. Finally, conclusions and identified gaps were highlighted in the last section, including, among other things, that legislation is still limited in how it takes the impacts of climate change into account. Such type of study is highly recommended, considering the relatively few number of papers dedicated to the study of the impact and/or implications of the conservation tools and strategies mentioned in this paper on the status of the marine endangered and threatened species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces the notion of complex t-neutrosophic graphs (CTNGs) as a powerful tool for understanding and displaying complex interactions that are sometimes difficult to understand. It demonstrates that CTNGs may accurately reflect complicated interactions involving several components or dimensions within a particular scenario. It also instructs the basic set operations of CTNGs and analyzes notions like homomorphism and isomorphism within this framework. Furthermore, the research describes a practical application of CTNGs. It illustrates their value in addressing biodiversity conservation by taking into account a variety of relevant factors. The paper uses this application to highlight the flexibility and effectiveness of CTNGs as a tool for decision-makers to visualize and prioritize activities targeted at improving biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we confront novel environmental challenges, a full understanding of the physical and biological processes that govern species responses to climate change will help maintain biodiversity and support conservation measures that are more robust to irreducible uncertainty. However, climate impacts are so complex, and the literature on salmon and trout is so vast that researchers and decision makers scramble to make sense of it all. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review of climate impacts on salmon and anadromous trout as a resource for stakeholders, managers, and researchers. We reviewed studies published from 2010 to 2021 that address climate impacts on these fish and organized them in a database of 1169 physical and 1853 biological papers. Papers are labeled with keywords across eight categories related to subject matter and study methods. We compared the literature by biological process and life stage and used these comparisons to assess strengths and weaknesses. We then summarized expected phenotypic and genetic responses and management actions by life stage. Overall, we found the largest research gaps related to species interactions, behavioral responses, and effects that carry over across life stages. With this collection of the literature, we can better apply scarce conservation resources, fill knowledge gaps, and make informed decisions that do not ignore uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use change detection (LUCD) is a critical technology with applications in various fields, including forest disturbance, cropland changes, and urban expansion. However, the current review articles on LUCD tend to be limited in scope, rendering a comprehensive review challenging due to the vast number of publications. This paper systematically reviewed 3512 articles retrieved from the Web of Science Core database between 1985 and 2022, utilizing a combination of bibliometric analysis and machine learning methods with LUCD as the main focus. The results indicated an exponential increase in the number of LUCD studies, indicating continued growth in this research field. Commonly used methods include classification-based, threshold-based, model-based, and deep learning-based change detection, with research themes encompassing forest logging and vegetation succession, urban landscape dynamics, and biodiversity conservation and management. To build an intelligent change detection system, researchers need to develop a flexible framework that integrates data preprocessing, feature extraction, land use type interpretation, and accuracy evaluation, given the continuous evolution and application of remote sensing data, deep learning, big data, and artificial intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities and climate change have increased damage to riparian forest and their functions, stimulating interest in riparian restoration research and resulting in a surge of related publications. However, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of riparian restoration research has been lacking until recently. To understand trends and hotspots in riparian restoration research, we performed a literature search of riparian restoration publications from 1990 to 2022 based on the Web of Science database. We found 2121 peer-reviewed articles, and then each paper was bibliometrically researched, analyzing authors, institutions, countries, citations, journals, publication years, and keywords. The results showed a growing number of annual articles during 1990–2022, but declining average citations. Environmental science, ecology, biodiversity conservation, engineering, and forestry were popular fields in riparian restoration. Publications on the riparian restoration field were widely dispersed in different journals, but Restoration Ecology and Ecological Engineering have higher influence and more publications and citations than other journals. Lorenz A. W., Nilsson C., and Kondolf G. M. were the most competitive authors because of their high number of publications and citations. The USA had the greatest research output and the most citations. American scientists preferred national collaboration, while Switzerland scientists engaged more in international collaborations. Research focus shifted from ecosystems and rivers before the 21st century to management topics after 2001 and biodiversity and conservation after 2011. This study provides valuable insights into the progress of riparian restoration research globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botanical living collections within botanical gardens are a crucial global asset for plant diversity. Special attention should be directed towards dendrological collections due to their significant contribution to biodiversity conservation, support for scientific inquiry, enhancement of educational initiatives, and engagement of the public. Introducing plants, particularly woody species, poses a significant challenge in botanical science, one that is addressed through botanical gardens and arboretums. The establishment and development of dendrological collections in botanical gardens provide a means to comprehensively represent diverse plant species from various biogeographical regions and continents. The current paper presents, for the first time, the establishment, development, status, and future perspective of dendrological collections at the Yerevan Botanical Garden, particularly in relation to the introduction of woody plants in Armenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era dominated by conventional agricultural practices, underutilized legumes termed "Forgotten Gems" represent a reservoir of untapped benefits with the unique opportunity to diversify agricultural landscapes and enhance global food systems. Underutilized crops are resistant to abiotic environmental conditions such as drought and adapt better to harsh soil and climatic conditions. Underutilized legumes are high in protein and secondary metabolites, highlighting their role in providing critical nutrients and correcting nutritional inadequacies. Their ability to increase dietary variety and food security emerges as a critical component of their importance. Compared to mainstream crops, underutilized legumes have been shown to reduce the environmental impact of climate change. Their capacity for nitrogen fixation and positive impact on soil health make them sustainable contributors to biodiversity conservation and environmental balance. This paper identifies challenges and proposes strategic solutions, showcasing the transformative impact of underutilized legumes on agriculture, nutrition, and sustainability. These "Forgotten Gems" should be recognized, integrated into mainstream agricultural practices, and celebrated for their potential to revolutionize global food production while promoting environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue intended to collect articles focusing on the assessment of the possible effects of climate changes on aquatic species inhabiting inland waters all over the world, including the possible synergistic effects in combination with other anthropogenic stressors. A total of six original articles were published that report on investigations of different freshwater ecosystems across the world, including the mountain streams of the Western United States and Northwest Italy, river basins of Northwest China and Central Italy, a larger lowland river in north Italy, and a high-elevation temporary pond in Central Italy. In most of these papers, special attention was devoted to the repercussions of the climate change and its effects on three important components of the biotic community: the fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, and zooplankton. According to the aims of this Special Issue, three of the articles offer new insight into the synergistic effects of global warming together with other anthropogenic stressors, including water exploitation and alien species invasions. In light of the studies' aim to highlight the effects of climate change, three papers provided analyses of environmental data collected through long-term monitoring. The scientific findings provided by these studies could help to create sound management strategies for freshwater biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between out-migration from rural areas, sustainable regional development and the conservation of biodiversity. Urbanization is a key challenge for sustainable development. Will the move to cities reduce land use pressures on rural areas, and thus provide opportunities for biodiversity conservation? This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between rural out-migration and biodiversity. Generalizing statements or even predictions are rarely possible, as regional contexts differ greatly and a multitude of factors are at work. It is apparent, however, that traditional land use practices, in particular, are in decline as a result of out-migration. In some cases, this can lead to intensification, in others to abandonment, while some studies do not show any link at all. The paper then considers the case study of a peripheral biosphere reserve in Germany that is characterized by strong out-migration. Here, the urbanization tendency is evident on a smaller scale; the regional urban center consolidates, and the small communities face great challenges. At the same time, new innovative actors are emerging. It is essential for new and established actors to collaborate and jointly develop new narratives for "shrinking" regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the evolution and integration of diatom-based water quality assessments with environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques for advancing river ecosystem health evaluations. Traditional methods, relying on microscopy and diatom indices, have significantly contributed to our understanding of aquatic ecosystems but face challenges such as the need for taxonomic expertise and the labor-intensive nature of sample collection. Recent advancements in molecular biology, particularly eDNA analysis, offer opportunities to overcome these limitations, providing more accurate and comprehensive assessments. This study highlights the benefits of combining traditional microscopy with modern molecular techniques, enhancing the precision and efficiency of water quality evaluations. By addressing the challenges of standardizing methods and improving species identification through comprehensive reference libraries and advanced bioinformatics tools, this integrated approach aims to refine and advance the effectiveness of diatom-based strategies in monitoring and managing river health amidst environmental changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The dedication of people towards wildlife will form an important part in future wildlife conservation and the halt of biodiversity decline. In this context, education and knowledge transfer can help to prevent actions deriving from misinformation. In this study, we refer to a survey among people interested in wildlife and try to highlight the importance of the improvement of educational services for a success in future coexistence and meaningful wildlife care. We discovered that a strong opinion about dealing with wildlife is associated with increasing contextual knowledge and experience in wildlife conservation. With the results of a survey presented in this paper, we provide insight into public attitudes towards dealing with wildlife. Based on 1569 data sets derived from participating stakeholders, we inquired about the individual experience the participants had made with wild animals, and asked about their personal engagement, attitude towards management, and emotions involved and tried to evaluate basic contextual knowledge. As a result, we discovered a positive effect showing that a strong opinion about dealing with wildlife is associated with increasing contextual knowledge. People that are experienced in and engaged in wildlife conservation expressed significantly stronger positive emotions in this context. We conclude that education is essential in dealing with wildlife responsibly and that positive emotions are a main trigger for such engagement. The results of the survey underline that a combination of contextual knowledge and a positive attitude towards wildlife leads to a higher awareness of possible conflicts between humans and wildlife. Furthermore, these criteria are crucial when developing strategies that strive for a sustainable coexistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxus mairei (Lemée and H.Lév.) S.Y.Hu, indigenous to the southern regions of China, is an evergreen tree belonging to the genus Taxus of the Taxaceae family. Owing to its content of various bioactive compounds, it exhibits multiple pharmacological activities and has been widely applied in clinical medicine. This article comprehensively discusses the current state of cultivation, chemical constituents, applications in the pharmaceutical field, and the challenges faced by T. mairei. The paper begins by detailing the ecological distribution of T. mairei, aiming to provide an in-depth understanding of its origin and cultivation overview. In terms of chemical composition, the article thoroughly summarizes the extracts and monomeric components of T. mairei, unveiling their pharmacological activities and elucidating the mechanisms of action based on the latest scientific research, as well as their potential as lead compounds in new drug development. The article also addresses the challenges in the T. mairei research, such as the difficulties in extracting and synthesizing active components and the need for sustainable utilization strategies. In summary, T. mairei is a rare species important for biodiversity conservation and demonstrates significant research and application potential in drug development and disease treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas are critical for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. In the last few years, there has been growing recognition of the role of indigenous peoples and local communities in the management of government designated protected areas, and thus their perceptions and adaptability were paid much attention. Drawing on a survey of 487 residents in the Qilian Mountain National Park Pilot of Northwestern China, this study used the adaptive analysis framework to study the adaptability of local residents. The main contribution of this paper is to select a typical social-ecological system to study the adaptability of local residents, and using Elinor Ostrom's Social-Ecological System framework to analyze the adaptability mechanism. The results show that different types of residents had different adaptability to environmental change. People whose income mainly depends on work salary with a small part of herding have the highest level of adaptability, while people whose income mostly comes from farming with a small part of herding have the lowest level. This result is related to people's living location, as people living in the core zone and buffer zone of the reserve mainly earned from grazing, and people living in the experimental zone and peripheral zone earned mainly from outside work. Moreover, people living in the core zone and buffer zone are mostly elders and ethnic groups, while people in the experimental zone and buffer zone are Han people. To improve management effectiveness and to avoid conflict between local residents and managers, this paper suggests that more attention should be paid to these who have lived for a long time in the core zone and buffer zone. They are the most vulnerable groups and show low adaptability in almost all domains. For the long run, education quality should be improved to decrease the population in the reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource depletion, land-use change, and population growth triggered by the industrial revolution represent serious issues shared globally that have altered the structure, processes, and functions of ecosystems and had significant impacts on human well-being and survival security. This paper assesses changes in ecosystem service values (ESVs) in karst areas based on the perspective of land-use change. Guizhou province, which is typical of the South China Karst (SCK) ecologically fragile areas, was taken as a research subject. The past, current, and future spatial-temporal evolution of karst ESVs were assessed, using equivalence factors and CA-Markov modelling methods. The results show that: (1) from 1980 to 2040, arable land, woodland, and grassland occupy the main land types in the study area; at the same time, the water and built-up areas show a steady growth trend, with dramatic land use shifts occurring in the western, middle, and northern parts. (2) The overall ESVs increased by US$ 31.12 million during the study period, showing a temporal change trend of first decreasing and then increasing; forest land, grassland, and arable land area shift are the main factors of ESVs change; soil conservation, biodiversity conservation, and gas regulation functions are enhanced and play a vital role in the single ESVs increase; ESVs show a basin-type spatial distribution pattern. (3) The sensitivity index is <1, the ESV is inelastic to the VC factor adjustment, and the results are true and valid. This paper found that using quantitative methods to predict land use change of the South China Karst can provide accurate assessment of the differences in supply and demand for natural and social ecosystem services (ES) in a region, clarifying the trade-offs and synergies of ecosystem service functions, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development, and providing a practical reference for global land landscape optimization and land resource planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic potentials of rice cultivars will need to be expressed to their fullest if global rice production is to be expanded enough by 2050 to meet the increased demand of the expanding population while the availability of land and water per capita dwindles. New and 'improved' rice varieties have contributed greatly to increased production over the past 50 years, but the rate of rice yield increase based on genetic changes has declined in recent decades compared with the early years of the Green Revolution. In fact, many rice consumers continue to prefer to consume 'traditional' rice varieties (referred to also as local, native, unimproved, or indigenous varieties) because of their taste, aroma, texture, and other qualities. Furthermore, many farmers prefer to cultivate these varieties because of their better adaptation to local climatic and soil conditions and their evolved resistance to endemic stresses. The practices that comprise the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), including transplanting rice seedlings at a young age, wide spacing between plants, keeping the soil well aerated rather than inundated, and enhancing soil organic matter, provide traditional rice varieties with micro-environments that are more favorable for the expression of their genetic and agronomic potentials. Interactions among rice plants, soil characteristics, water, energy, and other inputs improve the phenotypic and physiological performance of rice plants. This paper considers how the cultivation of traditional rice varieties with SRI methods can raise yields, reduce farmers' costs of production, and generate higher incomes while contributing to the conservation of rice biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas are considered the backbone of biodiversity conservation, but their management often fails because local people are not involved, and their needs are ignored. A socioecological approach has been demonstrated to be effective in improving the relationship between conservation efforts and human wellbeing through a better understanding of the interdependence between nature and people. This relationship can be observed through the case of the Kichwa indigenous communities within Yasuní National Park, Ecuador, as they have retained a very close relationship with forest ecosystems. Using key respondent interviews, along with semi-structured interviews and focus groups, this research describes the complex relationship between changing forest ecosystems and human wellbeing. The results highlight food, health, and cultural identity as the most important benefits that communities obtain from forests. The research also sheds light on how people in the investigated area perceive the dynamics of socioecological systems, indicating petroleum, infrastructure development, and small-scale agriculture as the most important direct drivers and land governance and the presence of colonists as the most important indirect drivers of changes to forest ecosystems. This paper demonstrates the importance of monitoring socioecological systems and adapting management to balance complex economic, social, and ecological challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the general phenomenon of diminishing genetic diversity, especially in cattle, the conservation of endangered species plays a primary role. The disappearance of some animal populations can irreparably affect the biodiversity of genetic resources. Among the most ancient European cattle are breeds that belong to the Podolian group, the history of which is still not well established. The common origin of these breeds is the wild ox (Bos taurus primigenius), which has been declared extinct since the 17th century. The purpose of this paper is to highlight and compare the latest studies on the origin, evolution, genetic diversity, and phylogenetic relationships of Podolian cattle, with special emphasis on the endangered Romanian Grey Steppe. The importance of studying these cattle derives from the special biological properties by which they have distinguished themselves over time (adaptability and resistance to diseases, severe climate and habitat conditions, hardiness, and longevity). The bibliographic references reviewed in this study confirm that these breeds are carriers of valuable genes that must be preserved for improvement of other cattle and protection of biodiversity. The information presented represents a valuable tool for efforts to conserve endangered cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory landscape conservation is an innovative approach that weaves together theoretical models and practical applications. Intertropical regions, such as Mexico, face challenges to conciliate regional governability, social justice, and nature conservation. The State of Michoacan is one of these regions where such challenges are exacerbated, particularly nature conservation, due to ongoing territorial disputes. We implemented the participatory landscape conservation approach by creating a complementary form of protected area to deal with ongoing conflicts, drought conditions, and extreme poverty. We conducted participatory mapping and landcover/use analyses as the main methodological tools to reach consensus among stakeholders. We integrated, macro, micro, and social scales to provide sound arguments to integrate local, scholar, and policy makers' perceptions. The outcomes of the participatory mapping analyses were assessed. The present paper provides evidence of the positive outcome of using The Participatory Landscape Conservation Approach to establish a Biosphere Reserve, safeguarding one of the most biologically diverse and delicate ecosystems consisting of seasonally dry tropical forests within a rather disputed region. We discussed the relevance of our findings and compared them to ongoing regional and global trends in light of other forms of establishing long-term multistakeholder agreements, as is the case for protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitats have been undergoing significant changes due to environmental processes and human impact that lead into habitat fragmentation and connectivity loss. To improve quality habitats and maintain ecological connectivity, elements that improve the connectivity of habitats need to be identified. To meet this goal, finding optimal pathways locations plays a key role for designing corridors for biodiversity conservation. Conducted in the Castilla y León region of Spain, this paper aims to determine optimal pathways and to enhance the connectivity of protected areas. To this end, three different scenarios were developed including the Natura 2000 network and their surroundings (Natura 2000, Level 0, and Level 1). We used Restoration Planner (RP) available in GuidosToolbox to analyze the network and detect pairwise optimum restoration pathways between the five largest network objects. Our results demonstrate that connector density varies across the region for each scenario. There was also a large variability in the length of connectors. Connectors were found mainly distributed around the center and northwestern part of Castilla y León. This paper also suggests that proposed new restoration pathways should increase in the study area. Thus, the findings can be used effectively for extensive planning and interpretation in biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest certification is a private, voluntary and market-driven instrument designed to promote responsible forest management. This paper focused on the FSC and the NOM NMX-AA-143-SCFI-2008 schemes used in Mexico for the certification of sustainable forest management. In this paper we used the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to study the factors that determine the main impacts of forest certification in México. A panel of 30 experts was selected as decision-makers to find which principles, criteria and indicators are considered as the most relevant while implementing forest certification. For decision-makers, the environmental principle occupied the first place with 40.26% of importance in the implementation of forest certification, followed by the social principle, and the economic principle with 32.15% and 27.59% of importance, respectively. Regarding the criteria, forest management and production, biodiversity, and forest protection were considered to be the most relevant. Regarding the indicators, the results indicated that forest certification in Mexico can have a positive impact on the existence of educational institutions, community services such as water, energy, medical services and drainage, the quality of the forest management plans, investment in forest management, machinery and equipment, environmental services, recreation, tourism, research, development and community education, planning for the conservation of biological diversity, and planning for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Intelligent monitoring of endangered and rare wildlife using deep learning is important for biodiversity conservation. The present study aims to train deep learning recognition models using the limited animal samples and computational resources available in real-world field monitoring scenarios. Inspired by the ability of human zoologists to quickly identify endangered and rare wildlife species based on only one single picture, we incorporate expert knowledge to create an excellent recognition model with these practical constraints. The empirical evidence discovered in this study indicates that the insightful incorporation of specialist knowledge can meaningfully improve an algorithm's accuracy, even with limited sample sizes. Additionally, our experimental results validate the usefulness and efficacy of our discoveries in identifying previously unknown species. This work presents the first exploration of a practical solution for endangered and rare wildlife monitoring using a foundational deep learning model. Automated monitoring capability for unidentified species has the potential to facilitate breakthroughs in the fields of zoology and biodiversity research. Intelligent monitoring of endangered and rare wildlife is important for biodiversity conservation. In practical monitoring, few animal data are available to train recognition algorithms. The system must, therefore, achieve high accuracy with limited resources. Simultaneously, zoologists expect the system to be able to discover unknown species to make significant discoveries. To date, none of the current algorithms have these abilities. Therefore, this paper proposed a KI-CLIP method. Firstly, by first introducing CLIP, a foundation deep learning model that has not yet been applied in animal fields, the powerful recognition capability with few training resources is exploited with an additional shallow network. Secondly, inspired by the single-image recognition abilities of zoologists, we incorporate easily accessible expert description texts to improve performance with few samples. Finally, a simple incremental learning module is designed to detect unknown species. We conducted extensive comparative experiments, ablation experiments, and case studies on 12 datasets containing real data. The results validate the effectiveness of KI-CLIP, which can be trained on multiple real scenarios in seconds, achieving in our study over 90% recognition accuracy with only 8 training samples, and over 97% with 16 training samples. In conclusion, KI-CLIP is suitable for practical animal monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term monitoring and adaptive ecological management are essential to the conservation of biodiversity. Yet, achieving successful long-term ecological monitoring and management, especially at the landscape level, has proven challenging. In this paper, we address the hurdles faced in sustaining long-term monitoring and management for landscape-scale efforts by offering three promising conceptual and methodological developments that support such initiatives. Then, we introduce L-TEAM, a long-term ecological adaptive monitoring and management framework that integrates those three components using four tools: a conceptual model, clearly defined and measurable objectives, scientifically robust experimentation, and decision support tools. Finally, using a case study, we demonstrate L-TEAM's effectiveness in supporting the long-term monitoring and management of a landscape conservation project with diverse habitat types and multiple management objectives. This structured decision framework not only facilitates informed decision making in management practices, but also ensures the implementation of scientifically grounded long-term monitoring. Additionally, L-TEAM holds the potential to enhance our understanding of ecosystem functioning and biodiversity responses to disturbances and management actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This paper considers examples of how humans negatively affect the welfare of wild animals, how such impacts might be reduced and what additional research is needed, including examples from biodiversity conservation, wildlife management, wildlife tourism and wildlife trade. Further, it discusses the relationship between wild animal welfare and biodiversity conservation, including consideration of various ethical viewpoints. Human activities negatively impact the welfare of wild vertebrates in many different contexts globally, and countless individual animals are affected. Growing concern for wild animal welfare, especially in relation to conservation, is evident. While research on wild animal welfare lags behind that focused on captive animals, minimising human-induced harm to wild animals is a key principle. This study examines examples of negative anthropogenic impacts on wild animal welfare, how these may be mitigated and what further research is required, including examples from wildlife management, biodiversity conservation, wildlife tourism and wildlife trade. Further, it discusses the relationship between animal welfare and biodiversity conservation, and synergies that may be achieved between these. Ultimately, it is discussed how the welfare of wild animals may be balanced with other priorities to ensure that welfare is afforded due consideration in interactions between people and wildlife. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we establish and study a novel predator–prey model that incorporates: (i) the migration of prey between breeding and non-breeding regions; (ii) the refuge effect of prey; and (iii) the reduction in prey pulse birth rate, in the form of a fear effect, in the presence of predators. Applying the Floquet theory and the comparison theorem of impulsive differential equations, we obtain the sufficient conditions for the stability of the prey-extinction periodic solution and the permanence of the system. Furthermore, we also study the case where the prey population does not migrate. Sufficient conditions for the stability of the prey-extinction periodic solution and the permanence are also established, and the threshold for extinction and permanence of the prey population is obtained. Finally, some numerical simulations are provided to verify the theoretical results. These results provide a theoretical foundation for the conservation of biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of protected areas such as national parks (NPs) is a key policy in response to numerous challenges such as biodiversity loss, overexploitation of natural resources, climate change, and environmental education. Globally, the number and area of NPs have steadily increased over the years, although the management models of NPs vary across different countries and regions. However, the sustainability of NPs necessitates not only effective national policy systems but also the active involvement and support of the local community and indigenous people, presenting a complex, multifaceted challenge. Although the availability of literature on community-based conservation and NPs has increased over the years, there is a lack of research analyzing trends, existing and emerging research themes, and impacts. Hence, in this study, we employed bibliometric methods to conduct a quantitative review of the scientific literature concerning community management of NPs on a global scale. By analyzing data from published articles, we identified research hotspots and trends as well as the quantity, time, and country distribution of relevant research. We developed a framework to illustrate the main research hotspot relationships relevant to NPs and community management, then summarized these findings. Based on the literature from 1989 to 2022, utilizing 2156 research papers from the Web of Science Core Collection database as the data source, visualizations were conducted using the VOSviewer software (1.6.18). Based on the results of network co-occurrence analysis, the initial focus of this field was on aspects of resource conservation. However, with the convergence of interdisciplinary approaches, attention has gradually shifted towards human societal well-being, emphasizing the "social-ecological" system. Furthermore, the current research hotspots in this field mainly revolve around issues such as "natural resources, sustainable development, stakeholder involvement, community management, sustainable tourism, and residents' livelihoods". Effectively addressing the interplay of interests among these research hotspot issues has become an urgent topic for current and future research efforts. This exploration necessitates finding an appropriate balance between environmental conservation, economic development, and human welfare to promote the realization of long-term goals for sustainable development in NPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is witnessing massive land degradation caused by climate change and various anthropogenic activities. There has been a significant increase in habitat restoration efforts, with demand for seeds to restore these degraded ecosystems in some cases outstripping supply. Traditionally, seeds for restoration activities have mainly been sourced through collections from the wild, but with the growing seed demand, this is increasingly becoming unsustainable. In order to ensure responsible restoration practice, restoration practitioners need to explore other options of economical, ethical and sustainable sourcing of seeds. Ex situ seed banks can leverage their technical and infrastructural capacity to play a greater and more direct role in supporting biodiversity and ecosystem conservation and restoration, particularly through the supply of quality ecologically and genetically suitable seed. In this paper, we review whether ex situ seed banks possess the capacity and competence for supporting habitat restoration and the challenges they are likely to face in these efforts. The review focuses on seed collecting, field-based seed bulking, seed handling and storage, seed quality control as well as experience and capacity in facilitating germplasm exchange. The availability of high-quality germplasm collections of documented provenance and with broad genetic diversity is arguably the greatest resource and asset that seed banks have in supporting habitat restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a complex interaction between lightning-caused fire behavior and the flora and fauna of the forest, which involves the influence of a large number of ecological factors. However, more comprehensive simulation studies under multi-system interactions between lightning ignition, forest fire spread, and animal behavior are not well developed. In this paper, we propose a forest ecosystem model based on the Agent-based modelling approach to explore the detailed linkages between different forms of lightning-caused fires and forest biodiversity. The model simulates the lightning ignition, fire spread, vegetation burning and recovery, and multi-species-survival dynamics. The experimental results show the sensitivity between environmental parameters and the magnitude of lightning-caused fires, and the beneficial ecological consequences of lightning-caused fires on forest ecosystems. By exploring detailed linkages between different forms of lightning-caused fires and forest biodiversity, we provide theoretical insights and reference suggestions for forest system governance and biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the Giant Panda National Park as an example, this paper uses factor analysis to measure residents' financial awareness and mediating effect models to investigate the influence paths of community governance, financial awareness, and residents' willingness to participate in the construction and development of national parks. Finally, it suggests potential solutions for national park development and biodiversity conservation. The results indicated that financial awareness and community governance levels had a positive effect on residents' willingness to participate, and satisfaction with community governance played a significant partially mediating role in their financial awareness, which in turn influenced their level of willingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected Areas are the most widely applied policy tool for biodiversity conservation. In Europe, protected areas are expected to significantly increase as the new EU Biodiversity strategy sets an ambitious target of 30% of land and 30% of water to be protected by 2030. Despite the popularity of this environmental policy, understanding variations in the level of public support for protected areas remains underexplored. This is an important area of research, considering that, in order for protected areas to be effective, they need to be supported by most users, including local communities and visitors. In this paper, we reviewed theoretical and empirical evidence explaining the level of support for protected areas and proposed a new approach when designing and designating protected areas in Europe. This approach models the process of the introduction of a new protected area as a policy intervention within a socio-ecological system. Specifically, it models how protected area social outcomes or impacts are conditioned and contextualised by numerous intervening factors relating to the social context and governance and management system to influence local actors' attitude and active support for the protected area. This new approach aims to assist policy makers, conservation practitioners and scientists to plan actions that assist in increasing the level of public support for protected areas in the context of the post 2020 Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's tropical savannas are a vast landscape of grasslands with high biodiversity value. Effective biodiversity conservation in this landscape requires private contributions to complement the under-sized formal conservation estate. The landscape is dominated by rangelands, in particular extensive cattle grazing on pastoral stations which typically measure hundreds or thousands of square kilometers. The paper reports the results of a discrete–continuous (or "two-stage") choice experiment conducted with savanna pastoralists. A discrete choice experiment explored the stated willingness to participate in two long-term conservation strategies: (i) total exclusion of cattle from designated parcels of land with management of that land for biodiversity, and (ii) the implementation of rotational grazing systems governed by the requirements of biodiversity, among other contractual attributes. An extension question asked about the area that respondents were willing to supply and a contract they were willing to accept. Double-hurdle (type II tobit) modelling was used for combined data analysis. The results show that potential participation in voluntary conservation contracts by pastoralists is primarily influenced by contract attributes, namely, the conservation action required, the stewardship payment received, contract length and whether the contract contains flexibility provisions. Land productivity is also significant. The level of stewardship payment required to incentivize participation in the conservation of grasslands is in line with opportunity costs, in particular option value. The amount of land that pastoralists are willing to supply is determined by the conservation payment as well as farm size and intrinsic motivation. This research illustrates strategies for integrating biodiversity conservation into cattle grazing operations in Australia's tropical savannas, which are applicable to grasslands globally. It provides data of an economic nature to inform the development of multi-tenure biodiversity conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biodiversity of our planet is under threat, with approximately one million species expected to become extinct within decades. The reason: negative human actions, which include hunting, overfishing, pollution, and the conversion of land for urbanisation and agricultural purposes. Despite significant investment from charities and governments for activities that benefit nature, global wildlife populations continue to decline. Local wildlife guardians have historically played a critical role in global conservation efforts and have shown their ability to achieve sustainability at various levels. In 2021, COP26 recognised their contributions and pledged USD 1.7 billion per year; however this is a fraction of the global biodiversity budget available (between USD 124 billion and USD 143 billion annually) given they protect 80% of the planets biodiversity. This paper proposes a radical new solution based on "Interspecies Money", where animals own their own money. Creating a digital twin for each species allows animals to dispense funds to their guardians for the services they provide. For example, a rhinoceros may release a payment to its guardian each time it is detected in a camera trap as long as it remains alive and well. To test the efficacy of this approach, 27 camera traps were deployed over a 400 km 2 area in Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo Province in South Africa. The motion-triggered camera traps were operational for ten months and, using deep learning, we managed to capture images of 12 distinct animal species. For each species, a makeshift bank account was set up and credited with GBP 100. Each time an animal was captured in a camera and successfully classified, 1 penny (an arbitrary amount—mechanisms still need to be developed to determine the real value of species) was transferred from the animal account to its associated guardian. The trial demonstrated that it is possible to achieve high animal detection accuracy across the 12 species with a sensitivity of 96.38%, specificity of 99.62%, precision of 87.14%, F1 score of 90.33%, and an accuracy of 99.31%. The successful detections facilitated the transfer of GBP 185.20 between animals and their associated guardians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on ecological corridor extraction methods has made some progress and has been gradually applied to the planning and construction of regional ecological corridors, which play a role in biodiversity conservation efforts. However, the factors affecting species migration in ecological environments are very complex, especially anthropogenic disturbances, typically including noise pollution. Their effects on species habitats, reproduction, predation, and other activities are currently underestimated. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for superposition analysis of multiple road impacts and construct an ecological corridor extraction method that considers landscape pattern, habitat quality, remote sensing ecology, and road traffic resistance to address the shortcomings of current ecological corridor extraction methods that underestimate the potential impacts of road traffic. An extraction of ecological corridors was completed in Wuhan, and a quantitative comparative analysis was conducted from multiple perspectives. The results show that the improved method was effective, with the proportion of ecological corridors not re-identified due to road traffic impacts being 0.45% and the proportion of ecological corridors with significant changes in spatial location, represented by regions far from roads or high road network density, being 22.15% in the whole of Wuhan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterising the people that work in zoos is a key element of understanding how zoos might better contribute to conservation activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate demographics, early life experiences and perceptions of zoo staff to the role of the modern zoo. This paper reports the key characteristics and qualitative themes emerging from study of international (European and Chinese) zoo professionals. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with eight Chinese and eight European zoo staff about aspects of zoological animal welfare, conservation and zoological practices. These qualitative data were thematically analysed, and themes generated. This paper describes interviewee demographics and two themes relating to 'early life influences' and 'the role of the modern zoo'. This analysis indicates that demographic data and early life influences of zoo professionals were broadly similar between two culturally diverse regions, but that their views on the role of the modern zoo differed, particularly in terms of their perceptions of conservation activities, with European interviewees focussing on biodiversity conservation, and Chinese interviewees focussing on animal protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many landscapes are the result of interactions between ecological processes, economic activities, and the administrative and political organisation of society. Therefore, as a consequence of human transformations over time, some landscapes may contain residual damaged habitats hosting testimony of past biodiversity that can be called "biodiversity heritage relicts". From this perspective, the aim of the paper is to describe an applicative approach to habitat restoration in social-ecological landscapes. The approach entails the restoration of vegetation using GIS analysis integrated with field activities and a phytosociological method. The methodology includes expert and stakeholder involvement in order to increase the resilience of the measures over time, thereby consolidating landscape value. The approach was applied in the municipality of Campi Salentina, Province of Lecce, Italy, and the result was the restoration of an important riparian habitat classified under Directive 92/43/EEC as "Salix alba and Populus alba galleries" (code 92A0), which had not previously been recorded in the Province of Lecce. In this case, the project re-established a natural habitat that represented a "biodiversity heritage relict" in the landscape. The paper shows that direct knowledge of the landscape and the ability to identify "biodiversity heritage relicts", in combination with a phytosociological approach, can enhance the effectiveness of ecological restoration projects. Moreover, social and institutional integration in projects helps ensure the management of the measures over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few decades, considerable concern has been expressed about the threat of Mekong River Basin hydropower dams to a range of important freshwater riverine fisheries, particularly for fish that seasonally migrate long distances. However, much less attention has been given to the threat of hydropower dams to fish biodiversity in the high-diversity Mekong River Basin, the focus of this paper. Through reviewing the existing state of knowledge regarding Mekong River Basin fish biodiversity, and threats to it, we argue that even though no species are definitively known to have been extirpated from the Mekong River Basin to date, hydropower dam development and various other developments nevertheless pose a serious threat to fish biodiversity. Indeed, dams typically significantly block fish migrations and fish larvae distribution, cause river fragmentation, fundamentally alter river hydrology, and change water quality, all factors that have the potential to intersect with each other and lead to significant species extirpation and extinction, or in some cases, functional extinction, when a small population remains but the important larger population is lost permanently. The circumstances are further exacerbated by the lag time between impact and when that impact becomes evident, cumulative impacts, a lack of consistent data collection, including the collection of base-line data, and insufficient post-project research related to biodiversity. We contend that much more could and should be done to ensure that the Mekong River basin's exceptional fish biodiversity is not variously diminished and destroyed during the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the fourth edition of the checklist of birds recorded in northwestern Italy (the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions) and covers more than 300 years of ornithological data, including subspecies. This work updates the previous works published in 1981, 2003, and 2009, with the revision of the AERC codes and the addition of special annotations for several species. We also provide some new settings to make the bird checklist a more useful tool for all users, particularly scholars and professionals interested in biodiversity assessment and conservation reports. To this end, (a) new coding concerning population estimates and trends, as well as risk categories (Red List), is introduced; (b) bird lists are structured for analysis at two temporal levels: the General Checklist (GCL), covering the period from 1685 to 2022, and the Operational Checklist (OCL), covering the decade 2010–2019, providing periods of reference for comparison and analysis; and (c) an electronic spreadsheet is provided as part of the online Supplementary Materials to allow for further data analysis by readers, if necessary. The list presently contains 408 species and 444 taxonomic units, which consist of both subspecies and monotypic species. Each of them has been allocated to one of the AERC categories A, B, C, or D, while category E has been excluded. Since the publication of the previous list (2009), 19 species have been added. The avifauna currently breeding in the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions comprises 197 species, with an additional 9 species that were once breeders but are now considered regionally extinct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between biodiversity and economic growth is a topic that still needs to be considered in a volatile global environment. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis of this topic can help scholars understand the current state of research and topical issues. Based on CiteSpace and Pajek, this paper fully does this study from the perspectives of authors, journals, countries, keywords, regions, and path analysis. Through this research, we find that: (1) the number of publications and citations in the literature about biodiversity and economic growth research have increased significantly; (2) scholars oppose unrestricted economic growth and advocate for the protection of the environment and biodiversity. Ecological environment protection and economic development are win-win relationships. (3) The keyword analysis revealed that a current research hotspot is the question of how to develop the economy while preserving ecological diversity. (4) Developed countries or regions are pioneers in studying the relationship between biodiversity and economic growth, and they have progressively led and driven the development of research in this field. The main purpose of this study is to provide guidance to researchers, and those interested in biodiversity and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social forestry (SF) has long been implemented in production and protected forests in Indonesia. SF is considered to be a win–win solution for occupied and cultivated forest areas. The aim of this paper was to review the implementation of social forestry in Indonesia and its strengths and challenges. The secondary purpose was to synthesize the lessons learned and recommendations for the government about designing SF that can integrate the objective of forest biodiversity conservation and the social welfare of the surrounding communities. The study used a systematic literature review (SLR) of international and national peer-reviewed articles. The results of the study indicate that SF is intended to achieve benefits in three main areas: social, economic, and ecological. However, the review found that the ecological aspects of biodiversity conservation often receive less attention compared to the social and economic goals. A strong point of SF implementation is increasing community access to forest land use, while a challenge that must be resolved is that including communities in forest management can result in fragmentation and changes to animal habitats; thus, there is the potential for population decline and extinction. This study advises policymakers to pay more attention to ecological functions to ensure forest sustainability in SF development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic prediction of the plant and animal species most likely to be observed at a given geo-location is useful for many scenarios related to biodiversity management and conservation. However, the sparseness of aerial images results in small discrepancies in the image appearance of different species categories. In this paper, we propose a novel Dynamic Vision Transformer (DViT) architecture to reduce the effect of small image discrepancies for plant and animal species recognition by aerial image and geo-location environment information. We extract the latent representation by sampling a subset of patches with low attention weights in the transformer encoder model with a learnable mask token for multimodal aerial images. At the same time, the geo-location environment information is added to the process of extracting the latent representation from aerial images and fused with the token with high attention weights to improve the distinguishability of representation by the dynamic attention fusion model. The proposed DViT method is evaluated on the GeoLifeCLEF 2021 and 2022 datasets, achieving state-of-the-art performance. The experimental results show that fusing the aerial image and multimodal geo-location environment information contributes to plant and animal species recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress is required in response to how cities can support greater biodiversity. This calls for more research on how landscape designers can actively shape urban ecologies to deliver context-specific empirical bases for green space intervention decisions. Design experiments offer opportunities for implemented projects within real-world settings to serve as learning sites. This paper explores preliminary ecological outcomes from a multidisciplinary team on whether purposefully engineered native grassland gardens provide more habitat functions for insects than mainstream gardens in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. Six different sites were sampled: two recently installed native grassland garden interventions (young native), two contemporary non-native control gardens (young non-native) on the same premises and of the same ages as the interventions, one remnant of a more pristine native grassland reference area (old native), and one long-established, non-native reference garden (old non-native). Plant and insect diversity were sampled over one year. The short-term findings suggest that higher plant beta diversity (species turnover indicating heterogeneity in a site) supports greater insect richness and evenness in richness. Garden size, age, and connectivity were not clear factors mediating urban habitat enhancement. Based on the preliminary results, the researchers recommend high native grassland species composition and diversity, avoiding individual species dominance, but increasing beta diversity and functional types when selecting garden plants for urban insect biodiversity conservation in grassland biomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadening citizen participation in biodiversity governance is often presented as a priority by public institutions. Citizens' engagement in policy design fostering the protection of biodiversity would indeed allow two-way knowledge transfers between expert knowledge and local knowledge; it would also enable citizens to influence collective choices; and it would finally lead to inclusive decision-making processes. However, the achievement of these promises depends strongly on the capacity of public participation exercises to be fair and efficient. By focusing on these two concepts, this paper aims to contribute to identifying obstacles and tools for public participation in biodiversity governance through a comparative analysis of two case studies. The first one consists of three one-day open space technology meetings, which aimed to engage citizens in orienting biodiversity research during Paris COP21. The second one was a two-year long experiment of Citizens Committees-based participatory governance led by the French Office for Biodiversity. These two case studies are representative of two complementary dimensions of biodiversity governance: the orientation of scientific research and the regulation of individual and collective actions through laws, rules and institutional communication. Among other insights, our results determine the existence of strong skepticism regarding the political outputs of public participation, which is reinforced when the objectives and the means of the exercises are not clear enough. Second, we argue that the efficiency of participative biodiversity governance depends on the capacity of institutions to propose diversity of citizen engagement formats and objectives in order to reflect the diversity of citizens' motivations and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat fragmentation is widely recognized as a contributor to the decline of biodiversity, with amphibians one of the key groups impacted. To understand the effects of habitat fragmentation on amphibian populations requires long-term data sets showing population trends. In this paper, road mortalities were employed as proxies to describe long-term numbers of four populations of the spiny toad Bufo spinosus in western France during a 17-year period. Road mortalities were found during all months in all populations but were most frequent during October, November and December, the main migratory period. Large females were found significantly more frequently during these migration months, forming 45% of the total sample, compared with their presence from January to September (34.4%). The long-term trends were evaluated using regression analysis of the logarithmic (loge) transforms of annual counts as dependent variables against year as the independent variables. All coefficients showed no significant departure from the 0 hypothetical coefficients, indicative of population stability. This was supported by jackknife analysis, which showed good agreement of the pseudo-regression coefficients with the true equations. Stepwise regression of potential climate impacts on toad numbers suggested rainfall levels in October adjusted to 2- and 3-year lags were involved in driving population change. Road mortality counts were also made during 2020 and 2021 when human movement restrictions were in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To estimate the potential impact on this disturbance in the methodology, the Poisson distribution was used to estimate potential differences between what would have been expected counts and the observed counts. The results indicate that the observed mortalities were significantly lower than expected in all four populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) are critical biodiversity areas for the conservation and sustainable use of biological and cultural resources while promoting regional peace, cooperation, and socio-economic development. Sustainable management of TFCAs is dependent on the availability of an eco-agriculture framework that promotes integrated management of conservation mosaics in terms of food production, environmental protection or the conservation of natural resources, and improved human livelihoods. As a developmental framework, eco-agriculture is significantly influenced by existing legal and governance structures at all levels; this study assessed the impact of existing legal and governance frameworks on eco-agriculture implementation in the Lubombo TFCA that cuts across the borders between Mozambique, Eswatini, and South Africa. The assessment used a mixed research method, including a document review, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. Although the three countries have no eco-agriculture policies, biodiversity practices are directly or indirectly affected by some policies related to environmental protection, agriculture improvement, and rural development. The assessment found that South Africa has the most comprehensive policies related to eco-agriculture; Mozambican policies mainly focus on equity and involvement of disadvantaged social groups, while Eswatini is conspicuous for explicitly making it the responsibility of each citizen to protect and safeguard the environment. The protection of conservation areas is critical to preserving natural habitats and ensuring the continued provision of ecosystem services. The lack of transboundary governance structures results in the Lubombo TFCA existing as a treaty on paper, as there are no clear processes for transboundary cooperation and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a review and comparison of strategies to increase forest carbon, and reduce species losses for climate change mitigation and adaptation in the United States. It compares forest management strategies and actions that are taking place or being proposed to reduce wildfire risk and to increase carbon storage with recent research findings. International agreements state that safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems is fundamental to climate resilience with respect to climate change impacts on them, and their roles in adaptation and mitigation. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on impacts, mitigation, and adaptation found, and member countries agreed, that maintaining the resilience of biodiversity and ecosystem services at a global scale is "fundamental" for climate mitigation and adaptation, and requires "effective and equitable conservation of approximately 30 to 50% of Earth's land, freshwater and ocean areas, including current near-natural ecosystems." Our key message is that many of the current and proposed forest management actions in the United States are not consistent with climate goals, and that preserving 30 to 50% of lands for their carbon, biodiversity and water is feasible, effective, and necessary for achieving them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ex situ conservation is one of the major ways to strengthen biodiversity conservation. In China, ex situ conservation institutions mainly include zoos, aquariums, and breeding centers. In 1996, China began to import living animals duty-free for conservation purposes. Here, we built a dataset of nearly 300 vertebrate species (mammals, birds, fish and reptiles) imported into China over this past 20 years by interviewing all 123 institutions importing animals duty-free during 1996–2015. We then analyzed the annual variation of the species composition and individual numbers of these imported species, and quantified the relative population growth rate of each imported species for the first time. We found that the number of living animals imported into China decreased significantly year by year. The number of imported bird species and reptile individuals decreased the most, but the population growth rate was increasing for about half of the imported threatened species. We recommend that conservation institutions should enhance communication and promote cooperative breeding among them. Scientific research and sustainability assessments of threatened species should also be enhanced, which will allocate trade licenses and quotas more effectively. We hope that the data presented in this paper will contribute to the development of conservation policies, leading to stronger management of these imported species in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]