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[Extract] Biological Conservationwas published for the first time in October 1968 and is now celebrating 50 years of contributions. Significant birthdays sometimes promote reflection on accomplishments and events leading up to them. Whilst fifty years makes the journal look like a mere stripling compared to Proceedings of the Royal Society (date of birth 1665) and a relative newcomer compared to the established ecology journals like Journal of Ecology (d.o.b.1913) and Ecology (d.o.b. 1920), Biological Conservation was a pioneer in the field of conservation biology. It was the first journal dedicated to conservation science as a whole and is characterised by the wide range of topics and sub-disciplines covered, as well as by the large number of papers published.

Despite the outsized role of mangrove forests in sustaining biodiversity, ecosystem function, and local livelihoods, the protection of these vital habitats through blue carbon financing has been limited.1,2 Here, we quantify the extent of this missed conservation and financial opportunity, showing that the protection of ∼20% of the world's mangrove forests (2.6 Mha) can be funded through carbon financing. Of these investible areas, 1.1-1.3 Mha can be financially sustainable over a 30-year time frame based on carbon prices of US$5-9.4 t-1CO2e. This contributes up to 29.8 MtCO2e year-1 and yields a return on investment of ∼US$3.7 billion per year. Our results point toward a disproportionately large potential of blue carbon finance that can be leveraged to meet national-level climate mitigation goals, particularly if combined with other conservation interventions that further safeguard carbon stocks and biodiversity in these irreplaceable forests. Robust information on return on investment highlights the potential for currently underutilized tropical coastal carbon credit projects.

The climate mitigation potential of urban nature-based solutions (NBSs) is often perceived as insignificant and thus overlooked, as cities primarily pursue NBSs for local ecosystem services. Given the rising interest and capacities in cities for such projects, the potential of urban forests for climate mitigation needs to be better understood. We modelled the global potential and limits of urban reforestation worldwide, and find that 10.9 ± 2.8 Mha of land (17.6% of all city areas) are suitable for reforestation, which would offset 82.4 ± 25.7 MtCO2e yr−1 of carbon emissions. Among the cities analysed, 1189 are potentially able to offset >25% of their city carbon emissions through reforestation. Urban natural climate solutions should find a place on global and local agendas.

Oil palm is one of the world’s most rapidly expanding crops, replacing humid forests across tropical regions. Studies examining the effect of this land conversion on biodiversity have tended to focus predominantly on Southeast Asia, where the majority of the world’s oil palm is produced. Because the Amazon possesses the greatest area of suitable land for oil palm expansion, oil palm is considered an emerging threat to Amazonian biodiversity. This is the first study to examine how oil palm agriculture affects avian diversity within the context of Western Amazonia. We used mist nets to conduct avifaunal surveys of forest and oil palm habitat in the Pucallpa region of Peruvian Amazonia. Bird species richness, species evenness, and overall abundance were all significantly higher in the forest than in oil palm habitat. Strikingly, less than 5% of all captured species were common to both forest and oil palm habitat. The species absent from the oil palm plantations were disproportionately habitat specialists, forest interior birds, birds with high sensitivity to disturbance, and insectivores and frugivores. The results suggest that oil palm is particularly poor habitat for Amazonian birds, and that the species that are persist on them are of lower conservation value. Given the apparent lack of diversity on oil palm plantations, preventing further conversion of forests to oil palm should be prioritized.

Integration of multiple technologies greatly increases the spatial and temporal scales over which ecological patterns and processes can be studied, and threats to protected ecosystems can be identified and mitigated. A range of technology options relevant to ecologists and conservation practitioners are described, including ways they can be linked to increase the dimensionality of data collection efforts. Remote sensing, ground-based, and data fusion technologies are broadly discussed in the context of ecological research and conservation efforts. Examples of technology integration across all of these domains are provided for large-scale protected area management and investigation of ecological dynamics. Most technologies are low-cost or open-source, and when deployed can reach economies of scale that reduce per-area costs dramatically. The large-scale, long-term data collection efforts presented here can generate new spatio-temporal understanding of threats faced by natural ecosystems and endangered species, leading to more effective conservation strategies.

Tropical forests are crucial in terms of biodiversity and ecosystem services, but at the same time, they are major sources of revenue and provide livelihoods for forest-dependent people. Hopes for the simultaneous achievement of conservation goals and poverty alleviation are therefore increasingly placed on forests used for timber extraction. Most timber exploitation is carried out unsustainably, which causes forest degradation. Two important mechanisms have emerged to promote sustainable forest management: certification and community-based forest management (CFM). We synthesize the published information about how forest certification and CFM perform in terms of environmental, social, and economic variables. With the caveat that very few published studies meet the standards for formal impact evaluation, we found that certification has substantial environmental benefits, typically achieved at a cost of reduced short-term financial profit, and accompanied by some improvement to the welfare of neighboring communities. We found that the economic and environmental benefits of CFM are understudied, but that the social impacts are controversial, with both positive and negative changes reported. We identify the trade-offs that likely caused these conflicting results and that, if addressed, would help both CFM and certification deliver the hoped-for benefits. (Resume d'auteur)

Addressing transboundary environmental problems, such as pollution, and climate change, hinge on strategies that often require both mandatory and voluntary participation of affected nations. Using an unprecedented approach, the Singapore government recently passed a Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA) that financially penalizes companies for smoke-haze affecting the city-state but originating from activities outside her political boundaries. This Act may set a precedent for future actions against proximate actors of environmental degradation but is fraught with substantial challenges in implementation. In attempting to hold agri-business companies accountable, the THPA must present indisputable evidence of fire burning activities and positively identify the initiator of these fires. We further argue that small amendments to the THPA, and other similar laws, may result in environmental co-benefits related to carbon emissions, ecosystem services and biodiversity preservation.

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting all parts of human society. Like everyone else, conservation biologists are concerned first with how the pandemic will affect their families, friends, and people around the world. But we also have a duty to think about how it will impact the world's biodiversity and our ability to protect it, as well as how it might affect the training and careers of conservation researchers and practitioners. As editors of Biological Conservation, we have heard first-hand from colleagues, authors, and reviewers around the world about the problems they are facing, and their concerns for their students, their staff, and their research projects. Some of our colleagues have become infected with the virus. Field and lab work have largely shut down, while teaching and other communications have moved online, with consequences for training, data collection, and networking that are still unclear. Our colleagues and the media report some examples of reduced human pressures on natural ecosystems, cleaner air and water, and wildlife reclaiming contested habitats. Beyond the direct and immediate consequences of this particular virus, some have also started to think about emerging infectious diseases and their links with biodiversity loss, human activities, and issues of sustainability. As we write this, the pandemic is still accelerating in most countries, although there are hopeful signs of returns to normality in, for example, China. This editorial can therefore only be a snapshot of a quickly evolving situation. We hope, however, that we can offer some encouragement and insights for our colleagues in lockdown. Our world is changing, and the conservation community must be ready to respond.

Understanding causes of population change is critical for conservation. Quantifying these causes can be difficult, especially for hard to sample animals like marine vertebrates (e.g. pinnipeds). One solution is to investigate spatiotemporal differences in a species' body condition by measuring body size and mass. Collecting traditional morphological measurements is risky and labour intensive, making less invasive and more efficient techniques desirable. Using Australian sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) of known size and mass as a case study, we tested the suitability of using drone-derived photogrammetry to estimate morphological measurements and assess body condition. Drone-derived measurements were precise and without bias. Animal mass was highly correlated with the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional measurements of simplified area and volume, explaining >77% and >84% (all P 0.99). Using each measurement as a proxy for mass, we calculated body condition indices for each class by standardising the variables by animal length. Photogrammetric indices ranked individuals comparably to those generated from ground-collected data (rs = 0.77–1, depending on age-sex class). Our technique provides a workflow for the non-invasive collection of morphometric data to quantify animal condition, which is transferrable to other pinniped species with species-specific calibration. It will also facilitate the efficient collection of morphometric data of vertebrates from remotely sensed imagery.

The relationship between β-diversity and latitude still remains to be a core question in ecology because of the lack of consensus between studies. One hypothesis for the lack of consensus between studies is that spatial scale changes the relationship between latitude and β-diversity. Here, we test this hypothesis using tree data from 15 large-scale forest plots (greater than or equal to 15 ha, diameter at breast height ≥ 1 cm) across a latitudinal gradient (3–30 o ) in the Asia-Pacific region. We found that the observed β-diversity decreased with increasing latitude when sampling local tree communities at small spatial scale (grain size ≤0.1 ha), but the observed β-diversity did not change with latitude when sampling at large spatial scales (greater than or equal to 0.25 ha). Differences in latitudinal β-diversity gradients across spatial scales were caused by pooled species richness (γ-diversity), which influenced observed β-diversity values at small spatial scales, but not at large spatial scales. Therefore, spatial scale changes the relationship between β-diversity, γ-diversity and latitude, and improving sample representativeness avoids the γ-dependence of β-diversity.

In this chapter we review cases of drones being used for the mapping of natural landscapes and habitats. We also highlight several key considerations in the use of drones for mapping, including effective mission planning, data processing software, environmental factors, and legislation.

In this chapter we review a number of cases where drones have been used for habitat and wildlife surveillance. Specifically we discuss their use in patrolling terrestrial and marine protected areas for detecting and documenting illegal activities. We highlight success stories, as well as key technical, ethical, and security issues.

In this final chapter we discuss emerging technologies that are relevant to the use of remotely piloted aircraft for environmental and conservation applications. These technologies include new power systems, smart navigation systems, and integration with other platforms.

In this book, we introduce the use of drones for wildlife conservation. We provide a broad overview of when drone technology can be useful for wildlife conservation before going into the different types of drones that are available and the basic configuration of such systems. After this we discuss the various types of sensors that are being used to obtain data and the various applications for those sensors by us and others. We discuss the various applications of sensors and discuss research that we and others have conducted with those. The usage of drones for surveillance is discussed as well with a particular focus on poaching and other illegal activities. Drones are commonly used for mapping areas and we provide an overview of considerations for mapping missions as well as on how to process the data collected during mapping missions into products. We discuss examples such as the creation of orthomosaics and digital surface models, and their use in land cover classification and for object detection. We also provide an overview of how drones have been used to count animals and derive distribution and density from such data. We end with some thoughts on the future of drones.

This chapter discusses how data that have been collected with drones can be used to derive orthomosaics and digital surface models through structure-from-motion software and how these can be processed further for land-cover classification or into vegetation metrics. Some examples of the various programs are provided as well. The chapter ends with a discussion on the approaches that have been used to automate counts of animals in drone images.

In this chapter a brief introduction is given on three main aspects that drones are used for: detecting animals; land-cover mapping; and anti-poaching. Then the chapter focuses on which considerations are important to take into account when deciding to start applying drones for conservation. The chapter starts by providing an overview of alternative aerial data collection technologies. Deciding which technology to use for data gathering is not always straightforward and will likely depend on multiple factors. An overview is given of some aspects that are important to consider when starting the process of thinking about data collection. Then a discussion follows about which equipment and infrastructural needs are important to consider when using drones and the chapter ends by discussing some general considerations related to the usage of drones for conservation.

Increasingly complex research questions and global challenges (e.g., climate change and biodiversity loss) are driving rapid development, refinement, and uses of technology in ecology. This trend is spawning a distinct sub‐discipline, here termed “technoecology.” We highlight recent ground‐breaking and transformative technological advances for studying species and environments: bio‐batteries, low‐power and long‐range telemetry, the Internet of things, swarm theory, 3D printing, mapping molecular movement, and low‐power computers. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize ecology by providing “next‐generation” ecological data, particularly when integrated with each other, and in doing so could be applied to address a diverse range of requirements (e.g., pest and wildlife management, informing environmental policy and decision making). Critical to technoecology's rate of advancement and uptake by ecologists and environmental managers will be fostering increased interdisciplinary collaboration. Ideally, such partnerships will span the conception, implementation, and enhancement phases of ideas, bridging the university, public, and private sectors.

Oil palm agriculture threatens tropical forests and biodiversity. Previous studies focused on finding ways to reduce the impacts of oil palm on biodiversity and the environment. However, the actual uptake of sustainable practices depends in part on economic demand. We undertook the first investigation on consumer attitudes and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for deforestation-free sustainable palm oil. In a sample of 251 consumers in Singapore, we found little consumer bias against palm oil per se. However, consumers had strong negative opinions toward products that cause deforestation. On average, consumers stated a WTP of 8.2–9.9% more for common palm oil-containing products that are deforestation-free. Given the current premium for segregated certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO; 1.5–5%), there is an incentive for manufacturers to use CSPO. Educational campaigns by environmental organizations and prominent advertising of CSPO usage through sustainability labels can potentially improve the economic demand for sustainable practices in oil palm agriculture.

Monitoring of animal populations is essential for conservation management. Various techniques are available to assess spatiotemporal patterns of species distribution and abundance. Nest surveys are often used for monitoring great apes. Quickly developing technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to complement these ground-based surveys, especially for covering large areas rapidly. Aerial surveys have been used successfully to detect the nests of orang-utans. It is unknown if such an approach is practical for African apes, which usually build their nests at lower heights, where they might be obscured by forest canopy. In this 2-month study, UAV-derived aerial imagery was used for two distinct purposes: testing the detectability of chimpanzee nests and identifying fruiting trees used by chimpanzees in Loango National Park (Gabon). Chimpanzee nest data were collected through two approaches: we located nests on the ground and then tried to detect them in UAV photos and vice versa. Ground surveys were conducted using line transects, reconnaissance trails, and opportunistic sampling during which we detected 116 individual nests in 28 nest groups. In complementary UAV images we detected 48% of the individual nests (68% of nest groups) in open coastal forests and 8% of individual nests (33% of nest groups) in closed canopy inland forests. The key factor for nest detectability in UAV imagery was canopy openness. Data on fruiting trees were collected from five line transects. In 122 UAV images 14 species of trees (N = 433) were identified, alongside 37 tree species (N = 205) in complementary ground surveys. Relative abundance of common tree species correlated between ground and UAV surveys. We conclude that UAVs have great potential as a rapid assessment tool for detecting chimpanzee presence in forest with open canopy and assessing fruit tree availability. UAVs may have limited applicability for nest detection in closed canopy forest. Am. J. Primatol. 77:1122–1134, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An important topic in the scientific publication process is how well reviewers evaluate the quality of papers and how their recommendations influence editors’ decisions to accept or reject papers. Additionally, a particular concern for researchers from China and other countries with rapidly developing scientific communities is whether there are potential biases affecting their manuscripts in the review process. To address these topics, we examined 4575 manuscripts submitted to the journal Biological Conservation. For the 2093 papers sent out for review, reviewer recommendations strongly influenced the outcome of the review process. Reviewer recommendations of accept and minor revision were similar in their positive effects on editor decisions, while papers receiving at least one recommendation of reject (“the kiss of death”) were almost always rejected. Papers with more consistent reviews (e.g. both reviewers recommending a major revision) had a greater chance of acceptance than did papers with more variation (e.g. minor revision and reject). We found no evidence of editor bias against papers from China; however, reviewer recommendation for papers from China had a greater degree of agreement than did reviewers of papers from English-speaking countries (e.g. intra-class correlation of 0.25 vs. 0.55), due to reviewers of papers from China often agreeing that papers should be rejected or require major revision. Reviewers from China judged papers from China more harshly than did reviewers from other countries. Our results demonstrate that the review process is not a crapshoot; reviewers are providing useful information and editors are using this information to make reasonable decisions.

Land sparing and land sharing are contrasting strategies often aimed at improving both agricultural production and biodiversity conservation in multifunctional landscapes. These strategies are embodied in land management policies at local to international scales, commonly in conjunction with other land-use policies. Evaluation of these strategies at a landscape scale, for multiple ecosystem service benefits, and multiple elements of biodiversity has not previously been attempted. We simulated the effects of applying land sharing and land sparing strategies to the agricultural zones designated by four future land-use scenarios (reflecting both current land-use and prospective land-use plans) in the Ex-Mega Rice Project region of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. We assessed impacts of each strategy on biodiversity, agricultural production, and other ecosystem service benefits at a landscape scale. We examined whether it was possible to achieve predetermined targets that reflect the aspirations and entitlements of diverse stakeholder groups. We found that the prospective land-use plans for the region would deliver considerably more benefit than the current land-use allocations, and while not all targets can be achieved, additional progress could be made with reasonable and realistic levels of land sharing or sparing. We found that species and forest types sensitive to agricultural disturbance could benefit most if land in agricultural zones was spared and prioritised for conservation. Conversely, land sharing strategies favoured the more widespread and common species, particularly if the area of wildlife-friendly agriculture is increased. However, the effectiveness of agricultural-focused land management strategies is inherently limited by the extent of agricultural zones. While agricultural land sparing and sharing strategies can deliver some gains in target achievement for multiple ecosystem services, we find that they have a limited effect over the benefits achieved by implementing better land-use allocation from the outset.

Tropical deforestation in Southeast Asia is one of the leading causes of carbon emissions and reductions of biodiversity. Spatially explicit analyses of the dynamics of deforestation in Indonesia are needed to support sustainable land use planning but the value of such analyses has so far been limited by data availability and geographical scope. We use remote sensing maps of land use change from 2000 to 2010 to compare Bayesian computational models: autologistic and von Thunen spatial-autoregressive models. We use the models to analyze deforestation patterns in Indonesia and the effectiveness of protected areas. Cross-validation indicated that models had an accuracy of 70–85%. We find that the spatial pattern of deforestation is explained by transport cost, agricultural rent and history of nearby illegal logging. The effectiveness of protected areas presented mixed results. After controlling for multiple confounders, protected areas of category Ia , exclusively managed for biodiversity conservation, were shown to be ineffective at slowing down deforestation. Our results suggest that monitoring and prevention of road construction within protected areas, using logging concessions as buffers of protected areas and geographical prioritization of control measures in illegal logging hotspots would be more effective for conservation than reliance on protected areas alone, especially under food price increasing scenarios.

Biodiversity underpins the health of ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Yet biodiversity is in rapid decline globally, despite commitments by world leaders to reduce the rate of loss (1). Monitoring is an essential part of biodiversity conservation, allowing governments and civil society to identify problems, develop solutions, and assess progress (2). Satellite imagery has emerged as a vital tool for monitoring the status of environmental parameters relevant to biodiversity conservation (3-5). Tackling a global challenge like biodiversity loss requires the assembly of global information products. Satellite remote sensing is especially useful at generating consistent observation records of key drivers of biodiversity change (i.e., land cover and land use dynamics, climate variables, and sea surface conditions) at a global level (6-8). A recent review of the needs of the biodiversity research and conservation communities for satellite remote sensing (9) uncovered three factors, which are rooted in government and commercial policies and actions, that ultimately have a disproportionate impact on the utility of satellite data for understanding changes in biodiversity. These factors are data continuity, data affordability, and data access., JRC.H.5-Land Resources Management

Environmental degradation continues to take a significant toll on natural habitats, biodiversity and human communities worldwide. Remote sensing is increasingly being used to monitor changes in forest cover, species distributions and carbon stocks. However, data derived from space-borne remote sensors can be prohibitively costly and inaccessible for conservationists in many developing countries. In 2012, Prof. Koh founded a non-profit organisation known as ‘ConservationDrones.org’ to share his experience of using low-cost unmanned aircraft for monitoring orang-utans and other species in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Since then, his team has travelled to more than a dozen countries to bring this technology to fellow biologists around the world. Prof. Koh will talk about the various applications of conservation drones for ecological and conservation research.

Journal of Tropical Ecology, 27, ISSN:0266-4674, ISSN:1469-7831

Ecologists are increasingly using technology to improve the quality of data collected on wildlife, particularly for assessing the environmental impacts of human activities. Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS; commonly known as ‘drones’) are widely touted as a cost-effective way to collect high quality wildlife population data, however, the validity of these claims is unclear. Using life-sized seabird colonies containing a known number of replica birds, we show that RPAS-derived data are, on average, between 43% and 96% more accurate than data from the traditional ground-based collection method. We also demonstrate that counts from this remotely sensed imagery can be semi-automated with a high degree of accuracy. The increased accuracy and precision of RPAS-derived wildlife monitoring data provides greater statistical power to detect fine-scale population fluctuations allowing for more informed and proactive ecological management.

Global demands for agricultural and forestry products provide economic incentives for deforestation across the tropics. Much of this deforestation occurs with a lack of information on the spatial distribution of benefits and costs of deforestation. To inform global sustainable land-use policies, we combine geographic information systems (GIS) with a meta-analysis of ecosystem services (ES) studies to perform a spatially explicit analysis of the trade-offs between agricultural benefits, carbon emissions, and losses of multiple ecosystem services because of tropical deforestation from 2000 to 2012. Even though the value of ecosystem services presents large inherent uncertainties, we find a pattern supporting the argument that the externalities of destroying tropical forests are greater than the current direct economic benefits derived from agriculture in all cases bar one: when yield and rent potentials of high-value crops could be realized in the future. Our analysis identifies the Atlantic Forest, areas around the Gulf of Guinea, and Thailand as areas where agricultural conversion appears economically efficient, indicating a major impediment to the long-term financial sustainability of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) schemes in those countries. By contrast, Latin America, insular Southeast Asia, and Madagascar present areas with low agricultural rents (ARs) and high values in carbon stocks and ES, suggesting that they are economically viable conservation targets. Our study helps identify optimal areas for conservation and agriculture together with their associated uncertainties, which could enhance the efficiency and sustainability of pantropical land-use policies and help direct future research efforts., Author summary Tropical forests are often destroyed to clear land for agriculture or to harvest forestry products, such as timber. However, the benefits derived from agriculture and these products are countered by the costs to the environment and the loss of ecosystem systems (the benefits that nature provides to humans). Little is known about how the economic benefits and costs of deforestation vary on a global scale. Knowing the distribution of benefits and costs would help identify regions where deforestation is most and least beneficial and thus could help select areas to focus conservation efforts. We studied the trade-offs between agricultural benefits, carbon emissions, and losses of multiple ecosystem services (ES) in tropical deforested areas around the world. We find large differences between costs and benefits globally. For instance, we identify the Atlantic Forest, areas around the Gulf of Guinea, and Thailand as areas where the benefits from agricultural conversion are greater than environmental costs, which could make it difficult to incentivize and implement biodiversity conservation strategies that are based on payments to farmers. By contrast, Latin America, insular Southeast Asia, and Madagascar represent areas with low agricultural benefits and high environmental costs. This suggests that these regions are economically viable conservation targets. Our study helps identify strategies to enhance the sustainability of land-use policies in the tropics.

Forest canopies are dynamic interfaces between organisms and atmosphere, providing buffered microclimates and complex microhabitats. Canopies form vertically stratified ecosystems interconnected with other strata. Some forest biodiversity patterns and food webs have been documented and measurements of ecophysiology and biogeochemical cycling have allowed analyses of large-scale transfer of CO2, water, and trace gases between forests and the atmosphere. However, many knowledge gaps remain. With global research networks and databases, and new technologies and infrastructure, we envisage rapid advances in our understanding of the mechanisms that drive the spatial and temporal dynamics of forests and their canopies. Such understanding is vital for the successful management and conservation of global forests and the ecosystem services they provide to the world.

That the Himalaya contain the basins of major rivers, regulate regional climate, and harbor rich biodiversity and varied ecosystems is well known. The perennial waters and biodiversity are closely linked to the livelihoods of over a billion people. The Himalaya are stressed because of a burgeoning human population and the escalating pressures of deforestation; urbanization; hunting; overexploitation of forests; and, more recently, intensive dam building. The cumulative effects of these forces have led to biotic extinctions and an increased frequency of hazards threatening human lives, livelihoods, and property. However, there is largely no comprehensive account of these challenges facing the Himalaya. We review and discuss the importance of the Himalaya and the need for their conservation by exploring four broad themes: (1) geobiological history, (2) present-day biodiversity, (3) why the Himalaya are worth protecting, and (4) drivers of the Himalayan change. We suggest scientific policy interventions, a strengthening of institutions, and proactive institutional networking to reverse the trend.

Research collaboration between developed countries from the northern hemisphere and developing countries in the southern hemisphere is essential for the understanding and protection of the major proportion of biodiversity located in the tropics. Focusing on the case of sub-Saharan Africa, we here assess the real involvement of northern versus southern contributors, and caution against unequal academic benefit sharing arising from non-commercial biodiversity research that may ultimately hamper sustainable knowledge transfer and long-term biodiversity conservation. We discuss possible drivers that may have led to a business of raw biodiversity data. While we fully support the current efforts to stamp out biopiracy through international biodiversity policies and agreements, we illustrate that such legislative frameworks may further constrain biodiversity research, especially in countries where regulations are poorly streamlined and bureaucracy remains rather inert. We therefore ask for workable solutions towards more equal footing in north-south biodiversity research, and propose a number of steps to transgress the current barriers towards a more fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from biodiversity research.

The effectiveness of land-sharing and land-sparing approaches has been widely debated. Yet, few studies quantify the environmental and socio-economic outcomes of these approaches within a real-world landscape. Indonesia's plans to increase its palm oil production present an opportunity to investigate the potential environmental and socio-economic implications of the land-sharing and sparing approaches.We developed a computer model to simulate the expansion of oil palm agriculture in Sumatra, Indonesia, under four different scenarios distinguishable by the dominance of scheme smallholders or industrial estates: business-as-usual, BAU (25 : 75, scheme smallholders:industrial estates); high-yielding industry dominated, ESTATE (10 : 90); low-yielding smallholder dominated, SMALLHOLDER (40 : 60), high-yielding smallholder dominated, HYBRID (40 : 60; but with improved smallholder yields).Our results reveal several trade-offs associated with varying the proportion of scheme smallholders and productivity of oil palm plantations. The ESTATE scenario (reflecting land-sparing) resulted in lowest environmental costs in terms of forest conversion, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity losses and nitrogen fertilizer usage. Additionally, infrastructural development and tax revenues were highest under the land-sparing approach, though fewer jobs were created. The SMALLHOLDER scenario (indicating land-sharing) resulted in highest environmental costs in terms of forest conversion, carbon dioxide emissions and biodiversity losses but involved more households in oil palm agriculture and thus created more employment opportunities. The HYBRID scenario ranked second best in terms of both minimizing forest loss and job creation. However, the drawbacks of this approach included high nitrogen fertilizer consumption, lower infrastructural development and lower tax revenues.

Data gathered through community-based forest monitoring (CBFM) programs may be as accurate as those gathered by professional scientists, but acquired at a much lower cost and capable of providing more detailed data about the occurrence, extent and drivers of forest loss, degradation and regrowth at the community scale. In addition, CBFM enables greater survey repeatability. Therefore, CBFM should be a fundamental component of national forest monitoring systems and programs to measure, report and verify (MRV) REDD+ activities. To contribute to the development of more effective approaches to CBFM, in this paper we assess: (1) the feasibility of using small, low-cost drones (i.e., remotely piloted aerial vehicles) in CBFM programs; (2) their potential advantages and disadvantages for communities, partner organizations and forest data end-users; and (3) to what extent their utilization, coupled with ground surveys and local ecological knowledge, would improve tropical forest monitoring. To do so, we reviewed the existing literature regarding environmental applications of drones, including forest monitoring, and drew on our own firsthand experience flying small drones to map and monitor tropical forests and training people to operate them. We believe that the utilization of small drones can enhance CBFM and that this approach is feasible in many locations throughout the tropics if some degree of external assistance and funding is provided to communities. We suggest that the use of small drones can help tropical communities to better manage and conserve their forests whilst benefiting partner organizations, governments and forest data end-users, particularly those engaged in forestry, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation projects such as REDD+.

Indonesia contributes significantly to deforestation in Southeast Asia. However, much uncertainty remains over the relative contributions of various forest-exploiting sectors to forest losses in the country. Here, we compare the magnitudes of forest and carbon loss, and forest and carbon stocks remaining within oil palm plantation, logging, fiber plantation (pulp and paper), and coal mining concessions in Indonesia. Forest loss in all industrial concessions, including logging concessions, relate to the conversion of forest to nonforest land cover. We found that the four industries accounted for ∼44.7% (∼6.6 Mha) of forest loss in Kalimantan, Sumatra, Papua, Sulawesi, and Moluccas between 2000 and 2010. Fiber plantation and logging concessions accounted for the largest forest loss (∼1.9 Mha and ∼1.8 Mha, respectively). Although the oil palm industry is often highlighted as a major driver of deforestation, it was ranked third in terms of deforestation (∼1 Mha), and second in terms of carbon dioxide emissions (∼1,300–2,350 Mt CO2). Crucially, ∼34.6% (∼26.8 Mha) of Indonesia's remaining forests is located within industrial concessions, the majority of which is found within logging concessions (∼18.8 Mha). Hence, future development plans within Indonesia's industrial sectors weigh heavily on the fate of Southeast Asia's remaining forests and carbon stocks.

Environment Institute and School of Earth and EnvironmentalSciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, AustraliaSummaryExpansion of oil palm plantations has led to extensive wild-life habitat conversion in Southeast Asia [1]. This expansionis driven by a global demand for palm oil for productsranging from foods to detergents [2], and more recently forbiofuels [3]. The negative impacts of oil palm developmenton biodiversity [1, 4, 5], and on orangutans (Pongo spp.) inparticular, have been well documented [6, 7] and publicized[8, 9]. Although the oil palm is of African origin, Africa’sproduction historically lags behind that of Southeast Asia.Recently, significant investments have been made that willlikely drive the expansion of Africa’s oil palm industry [10].There is concern that this will lead to biodiversity lossessimilar to those in Southeast Asia. Here, we analyze thepotential impact of oil palm development on Africa’s greatapes. Current great ape distribution in Africa substantiallyoverlaps with current oil palm concessions (by 58.7%) andareas suitable for oil palm production (by 42.3%). Moreimportantly, 39.9% of the distribution of great ape specieson unprotected lands overlaps with suitable oil palm areas.There is an urgent need to develop guidelines for the expan-sion of oil palm in Africa to minimize the negative effects onapes and other wildlife. There is also a need for researchto support land use decisions to reconcile economic devel-opment, great ape conservation, and avoiding carbonemissions.ResultsOil Palm Threat to Known Great Ape DistributionCurrent oil palm concessions for which spatial data are avail-able show a 58.7% 6 53.3% (6SD; all 6% data show 6SD)overlap with the distribution of great ape species in Africa(see Table S1 available online). Potential future oil palm devel-opment among African countries, as indicated by the percent-ageoflandsuitableforoilpalmproduction,rangesfrom0%forBurkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda, and South Sudan to 96.6% forLiberia (mean = 32.2% 6 31.9%; Table S2; Figure 1). Onaverage, the amount of overlap between the current distribu-tions of great ape species and suitable oil palm area is42.3% 6 38.4%, ranging from 0.5% in Tanzania to 100% inGhana.Large parts of great ape habitats are not protected and aresuitable for oil palm (Table S2; Figure 1). The mean countryoverlap between areas of known African ape species distribu-tion that are not protected and areas suitable for oil palm is39.9% 6 36.8%, whereas the mean percentage of Africanape species distribution that is not suitable for oil palm andis not protected is 49.8% 6 34.5%. The mean percentage ofAfrican ape species habitat that is protected under IUCNcategory II is 10.3% 6 13.1% (Table S2; Figure 1).Not all great ape species are equally threatened by oil palmdevelopment (Table S3; Figure 2). The amount of overlapbetween species distribution and suitable oil palm area is10.7% 6 18.5% for Gorilla beringei, 41.7% 6 37.9% for Pantroglodytes, 73.8% 6 16.8% for G. gorilla, and 99.2% forP. paniscus. Species that are most threatened by future oilpalm development also have some of the smallest extentsof their current distribution under protection: G. gorilla(11.2% 6 14.4%), P. troglodytes (10.2% 6 12.5%), andP. paniscus (8.0%). The percentage of distribution that is notsuitable for oil palm and at the same time not protected alsovaries across species, being highest for P. troglodytes(50.4% 6 33.9%) and lowest for G. beringei (17.6% 625.0%). We also quantified the overlap between the distribu-tion of great ape species and suitable oil palm areas withinprotected areas (Table S4). For all species combined, thisrepresents 2.4% 6 2.9%, ranging from 1.4% 6 2.4% forG. beringei to 8.7% 6 13.4% for G. gorilla (Table S4).Oil Palm Threat to Suitable Environmental Conditions forAfrican Great Ape SpeciesInall countries where great ape species predominantly inhabitrainforests, a large proportion of land containing sustainableenvironmental conditions (SEC) for these species overlapswith suitable oil palm areas (Figure 3; Table S5). This is thecase for Sierra Leone (48.8%), Liberia (81.7%), Coˆte d’Ivoire(59.6%), and Ghana (87.9%) in West Africa, and for all CentralAfrican countries containing great apes (49.5%). For some ofthe countries, such as Liberia and Republic of the Congo,more than three-quarters of great ape SEC overlaps withsuitable oil palm areas. In East Africa and countries at therange limits of ape species in West Africa, suitable oil palmareas cover much smaller proportions of SEC (

The reconciliation of biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service provision and agricultural production in tropical landscapes requires recognition of the trade-offs between competing land-uses. It is especially relevant for conservation planning to assess whether the economic value of ecosystem services is spatially congruent with biodiversity. Previous analyses have largely focused on ecosystem service provision or assumed homogeneous economic values across land uses within biomes. We relax this assumption by carrying out a spatially explicit meta-analysis based on 30 studies of ecosystem service values in tropical forests from The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) database, while controlling for economic, environmental and methodological variables. Our results demonstrate a lack of spatial congruence between the economic value of ecosystem services and biodiversity in tropical forests. Instead, we find that economic value presents a nonlinear inverted-U relationship with site accessibility and economic activity, highlighting the importance of matching supply and demand between each ecosystem service and its beneficiaries for economic values to be realized. The implications are that conservation policies focusing solely on the economic value of ecosystem services will fail to protect biodiversity in remote and less disturbed regions.

Over the years large areas of primary and secondary forest have been cut or burned down to make way for oil palm plantations, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, the two countries which produce 80.5% of the world’s palm oil. To tackle the many complex sociopolitical issues surrounding the industry, a variety of regulations, treaties and campaigns have been developed by governments and non-governmental organisations (NGO) over the years attempting to create a more sustainable industry, partly in response to pressure from the environmental community. The roundtable on sustainable palm oil is an international non-profit that created the first sustainable palm oil certification scheme. A range of other industry and government initiatives aimed to reduce deforestation due to oil palm expansion were developed and implemented over the years. The emerging themes in the evolution of sustainable palm oil in Southeast Asia include a greater recognition of the complexity of the issue, the importance of maintaining true transparency, and a greater consideration of indigenous land rights. Furthermore, manufacturing companies and consumers are beginning to see the power that they hold when choosing to purchase certified sustainable palm oil, so greater awareness and education is key to further improvement. Governments should take greater control of the issue, catch up to the activity being led by NGOs and industry members, work together with them, and invest more into education and technology.

Editors are gatekeepers of the scientific publication process and many manuscripts never make it past them. For the journal Biological Conservation, editors reject about half of the manuscripts assigned to them (known as “desk reject”) before sending the remaining manuscripts out for review. Given the importance of the editor's role in the publication process we ask: how consistent are editors' decisions in Biological Conservation? To answer this question, in 2018 we asked 10 editors of the journal to evaluate 40 manuscripts that had been previously evaluated in 2017 as part of the regular review process. The editors did not know which manuscripts had been sent out for review (20 total) and which had been desk rejected (20 total) in 2017. We found that in 2018, agreement among editors was reasonable in their decisions, even when papers that editors were asked to evaluate fell outside their area of expertise, and decisions did not differ with editorial experience. Of the 40 manuscripts, at least seven editors agreed on the decisions for 73% (29) of them. On average, for the 20 manuscripts sent out for review in 2017, 70% of editors in 2018 agreed with the decisions to review them. For the 20 manuscripts that were desk rejected in 2017, on average 67% of editors in 2018 agreed with the decisions to desk reject them. While variation in editors' decisions on manuscripts exists, most decisions are repeatable and reliable. The journal can potentially improve the reliability of the review process by encouraging discussion among editors and by providing more detailed guidelines to editors. We urge other journals to carry out similar evaluations of this important desk rejection process.

Janice Ser Huay Lee, Sinan Abood, Jaboury Ghazoul, Baba Barus, Krystof Obidzinski, & Lian Pin Koh

The supposition that agricultural intensification results in land sparing for conservation has become central to policy formulations across the tropics. However, underlying assumptions remain uncertain and have been little explored in the context of conservation incentive schemes such as policies for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, conservation, sustainable management, and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+). Incipient REDD+ forest carbon policies in a number of countries propose agricultural intensification measures to replace extensive “slash-and-burn” farming systems. These may result in conservation in some contexts, but will also increase future agricultural land rents as productivity increases, creating new incentives for agricultural expansion and deforestation. While robust governance can help to ensure land sparing, we propose that conservation incentives will also have to increase over time, tracking future agricultural land rents, which might lead to runaway conservation costs. We present a conceptual framework that depicts these relationships, supported by an illustrative model of the intensification of key crops in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a leading REDD+ country. A von Thünen land rent model is combined with geographic information systems mapping to demonstrate how agricultural intensification could influence future conservation costs. Once postintensification agricultural land rents are considered, the cost of reducing forest sector emissions could significantly exceed current and projected carbon credit prices. Our analysis highlights the importance of considering escalating conservation costs from agricultural intensification when designing conservation initiatives.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) aims to avoid forest conversion to alternative land-uses through financial incentives. Oil-palm has high opportunity costs, which according to current literature questions the financial competitiveness of REDD+ in tropical lowlands. To understand this more, we undertook regional finescale and coarse-scale analyses (through carbon mapping and economic modelling) to assess the financial viability of REDD+ in safeguarding unprotected forest (30,173 ha) in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Malaysian Borneo. Results estimate 4.7 million metric tons of carbon (MgC) in unprotected forest, with 64% allocated for oil-palm cultivations. Through fine-scale mapping and carbon accounting, we demonstrated that REDD+ can outcompete oil-palm in regions with low suitability, with low carbon prices and low carbon stock. In areas with medium oil-palm suitability, REDD+ could outcompete oil palm in areas\ud with: very high carbon and lower carbon price; medium carbon price and average carbon stock; or, low carbon stock and high carbon price. Areas with high oil palm suitability, REDD + could only outcompete with higher carbon price and higher carbon stock. In the coarse-scale model, oil-palm outcompeted REDD+ in all cases. For the fine-scale models at the landscape level, low carbon offset prices (US $3 MgCO2e) would enable REDD+ to outcompete oil-palm in 55% of the unprotected forests requiring US $27 million to secure these areas for 25 years. Higher carbon offset price (US $30 MgCO2e) would increase the competitiveness of REDD+ within the landscape but would still only capture between 69%-74% of the unprotected forest, requiring US $380–416 million in carbon financing. REDD+ has been identified as a strategy to mitigate climate change by many countries (including Malaysia). Although REDD+ in certain scenarios cannot outcompete oil palm, this research contributes to the global REDD+ debate by: highlighting REDD+ competitiveness in tropical floodplain landscapes; and, providing a robust approach for identifying and targeting limited REDD+ funds.

Despite decades of research, ecologists continue to debate how spatial patterns of species richness arise across elevational gradients on the Earth. The equivocal results of these studies could emanate from variations in study design, sampling effort and data analysis. In this study, we demonstrate that the richness patterns of 2,781 (2,197 non-endemic and 584 endemic) angiosperm species along an elevational gradient of 300–5,300 m in the Eastern Himalaya are hump-shaped, spatial scale of extent (the proportion of elevational gradient studied) dependent and growth form specific. Endemics peaked at higher elevations than non-endemics across all growth forms (trees, shrubs, climbers, and herbs). Richness patterns were influenced by the proportional representation of the largest physiognomic group (herbs). We show that with increasing spatial scale of extent, the richness patterns change from a monotonic to a hump-shaped pattern and richness maxima shift toward higher elevations across all growth forms. Our investigations revealed that the combination of ambient energy (air temperature, solar radiation, and potential evapo-transpiration) and water availability (soil water content and precipitation) were the main drivers of elevational plant species richness patterns in the Himalaya. This study highlights the importance of factoring in endemism, growth forms, and spatial scale when investigating elevational gradients of plant species distributions and advances our understanding of how macroecological patterns arise.

The peat swamp forests (PSFs) of Sundaland, in Southeast Asia, support many endemic freshwater fish species. However, the future of these species is in doubt, owing to ongoing PSF deforestation. Here, we show that, if current rates of PSF conversion to a predominantly agricultural mosaic landscape continue through 2050, 16 fish species may become globally extinct. In the worst-case scenario, where the rate of conversion across the region matches that of the most rapidly deforested river basin, 77% (79 of 102 species) of the narrowly adapted (stenotopic) fish species are likely to become extinct, a figure that would more than double known extinctions of the world's freshwater fishes. As indicated by our analysis, the PSFs of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan region would be most severely impacted.

Navjot Sodhi and we often discussed how growing global demands for food are placing increasing pressures on tropical forests. Although more consumers are demanding for ‘greener’ products associated with sustainable production, green consumerism and improved production practices per se might not adequately curtail destruction of forests and biodiversity. Instead, we argue that consumers in emerging and developed countries need to avoid wasteful and excessive consumption. We demonstrate how reasonable recalibration of consumer aspirations and changes in consumption levels in China, India, the European Union and United States might substantially alleviate environmental impacts associated with oilseed production in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Argentina. We do so through a scenario analysis that projects oilseed demands and expansion from current levels to 2100 under three alternative consumption trends. We show that pursuing a business-as-usual course of consumption would impose severe pressures in producer countries to clear land for oil-palm and soybean agriculture (up to an additional ∼12 million hectares by 2040), which could exacerbate rates of deforestation and biodiversity loss in these tropical regions. On the other hand, if each person in the EU and US reduces his/her daily vegetable oil consumption by an average of 25 g – roughly equivalent to forgoing one large serving of French Fries – the pressure to convert tropical forests for oilseed expansion could be reduced by up to ∼70%. Our analysis demonstrates how changes in consumer behavior in industrialized nations could substantially alleviate environmental impacts associated with agricultural production in the developing tropics.

Colombia is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world. The country's government and oil-palm farmers association target a sixfold increase of crude palm-oil production by 2020. We model the impacts of expanding oil-palm agriculture in Colombia through a spatially explicit scenario analysis. We demonstrate that the impacts of oil-palm expansion (e.g., deforestation, conversion of natural savannahs) would be minimized by establishing new plantations on pasture lands, given the low environmental value and economic utility, and the high agricultural potential of this land use. Impacts of oil-palm expansion on beef and dairy production could be compensated by improving productivity of pasture lands elsewhere. However, the profitability of oil-palm production in these areas might suffer over the long term due to high land purchase costs.