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This work is based on a workshop funded by iDiv via the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT 118 and 202548816). National and local governments need to step up efforts to effectively implement the post-2020 global biodiversity framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity to halt and reverse worsening biodiversity trends. Drawing on recent advances in interdisciplinary biodiversity science, we propose a framework for improved implementation by national and subnational governments. First, the identification of actions and the promotion of ownership across stakeholders need to recognize the multiple values of biodiversity and account for remote responsibility. Second, cross-sectorial implementation and mainstreaming should adopt scalable and multifunctional ecosystem restoration approaches and target positive futures for nature and people. Third, assessment of progress and adaptive management can be informed by novel biodiversity monitoring and modeling approaches handling the multidimensionality of biodiversity change. Publisher PDF

Global commitments to species conservation have failed to halt systematic widespread declines in plant species. Current policy interventions, such as protected areas and legal species legislation, remain insufficient, and there is an urgent need to engage novel approaches and actors in conservation. Here, we propose that urban conservation gardening, namely the cultivation of declining native plant species in public and private green spaces, can be one such approach. Conservation gardening can address key (a)biotic drivers of species decline, act as a critical dispersal pathway and increase the occupancy of declining native species. We identify policy mechanisms to upscale conservation gardening to a mainstream activity by reforming the existing horticultural market into an innovative nature protection instrument. This involves incentivizing the integration of the native seed sector, leveraging existing certification and labelling schemes, promoting consumer access, as well as building citizen-science projects to foster public engagement. Mainstreamed conservation gardening can be an economically viable, sustainable, and participatory measure that complements traditional approaches to plant conservation.

Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio‐economic challenges. The European Commission's proposal for a CAP post‐2020 provides a scope for enhanced sustainability. However, it also allows Member States to choose low‐ambition implementation pathways. It therefore remains essential to address citizens' demands for sustainable agriculture and rectify systemic weaknesses in the CAP, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge. Concerned about current attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, and the lack of concrete proposals for improving the CAP in the draft of the European Green Deal, we call on the European Parliament, Council and Commission to adopt 10 urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. Knowledge is available to help moving towards evidence‐based, sustainable European agriculture that can benefit people, nature and their joint futures. The statements made in this article have the broad support of the scientific community, as expressed by above 3,600 signatories to the preprint version of this manuscript. The list can be found here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3685632). A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Making agriculture sustainable is a global challenge. In the European Union (EU), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is failing with respect to biodiversity, climate, soil, land degradation as well as socio-economic challenges especially in rural areas. The European Commission’s proposal for a CAP post-2020 allows Member States to choose low-ambition implementation. With a new Parliament and Commission in place, the reform process has now restarted. It is therefore time to act on urgent challenges and address citizens’ demands for sustainable agriculture, using the full breadth of available scientific evidence and knowledge. Concerned about attempts to dilute the environmental ambition of the future CAP, we call on the European Parliament, the EU’s Member States and the European Commission to adopt ten urgent action points for delivering sustainable food production, biodiversity conservation, and climate mitigation towards an evidence-based, future-proof European agriculture. The, This version of the paper has been made publically available for signatories to support, from 4.11.2019 until 19.2.2020. The final version is available as a paper in People and Nature.

Table S1: Practitioners guide to measuring and evaluating each indicator within the rewilding score framework; Table S2: Summary of the evidence base for proposed restoration actions. EF=Effectiveness of restoration actions at achieving rewilding objectives (restoring trophic processes, landscape connectivity and composition, natural disturbance regimes and/or biodiversity). EF=0: No evidence or unknown effectiveness of restoration action; EF=1: Likely to be ineffective; EF=2: Trade-off between benefit and harm; EF=3: Likely to be beneficial; EF=4: Beneficial.

Many underground structures have witnessed great damage in recent earthquakes. Thus underground structures in earthquake prone zones should be designed to withstand both static overburden loads and earthquake loads. In this paper, different closed form solutions for the analysis of the tunnel response, are considered as developed on the basis of the theory that the stress increment due to seismic loading can be assessed through a correct estimate of free-field deformation, while the internal forces of tunnel linings subjected to overburden loads can also be estimated through an assumption of far-field stress using the developed solutions. Numerical studies have been performed to validate the available analytical solutions.