The network BiodiversityKnowledge in practice: insights from three trial assessments

In order to develop BiodiversityKnowledge, a Network of Knowledge working at the European science–policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services, we conducted three trial assessments. Their purpose was to test structure and processes of the knowledge synthesis function and to produce knowledge syntheses. The trial assessments covered conservation and management of kelp ecosystems, biological control of agricultural pests, and conservation and multifunctional management of floodplains. Following the BiodiversityKnowledge processes, we set up expert consultations, systematic reviews, and collaborative adaptive management procedures in collaboration with requesters, policy and decision-makers, stakeholders, and knowledge holders. Outputs included expert consultations, systematic review protocols, a group model and a policy brief. Important lessons learned were firstly that the scoping process, in which requesters and experts iteratively negotiate the scope, scale and synthesis methodology, is of paramount importance to maximize the scientific credibility and policy relevance of the output. Secondly, selection of a broad array of experts with diverse and complementary skills (including multidisciplinary background and a broad geographical coverage) and participation of all relevant stakeholders is crucial to ensure an adequate breath of expertise, better methodological choices, and maximal uptake of outcomes: Thirdly, as the most important challenge was expert and stakeholder engagement, a high visibility and reputation of BiodiversityKnowledge, supported by an incentive system for participation, will be crucial to ensure such engagement. We conclude that BiodiversityKnowledge has potential for a good performance in delivering assessments, but it requires adequate funding, trust-building among knowledge holders and stakeholders, and a proactive and robust interface with the policy and decision making community.     

Less government intervention in biodiversity management: risks and opportunities

In a changing global environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity conservation is likely to become increasingly important. However, with the current global financial crisis, governments are increasingly trying to stabilise economies through spending cuts aiming to reduce national deficits. Within such an economic climate, the devolution of governance through public participation is an intrinsically appealing concept. We outline a number of challenges that explain why increased participation in biodiversity management has been and may continue to be problematic. Using as a case study the local stakeholder-driven Moray Firth Seal Management Plan in Scotland, we identify four key conditions that were crucial to the successful participatory management of a biodiversity conflict: a local champion, the emergence of a crisis point, the involvement of decision-makers, and long-term financial and institutional support. Three of the four conditions point to the role of direct government involvement, highlighting the risk of devolving responsibility for biodiversity conflict management to local communities. We argue that without an informed debate, the move towards a more participatory approach could pose a danger to hard-won policy gains in relation to public participation, biodiversity conservation and conflict management.     

《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》指引下中国生物多样性主流化实施路径探析

《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》制定了未来一段时期全球范围内生物多样性保护的重要行动,包括将生物多样性及其多重价值纳入经济和社会活动的主流。中国作为联合国《生物多样性公约》(CBD)缔约方之一,在持续推进生物多样性主流化方面作出了不懈努力且成效显著。该文通过探讨解析生物多样性主流化的概念内涵,梳理总结我国生物多样性主流化的具体实践和阶段成效,对标《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》目标,围绕政府、企业、公众不同行为主体,提出新时期我国全方位推进生物多样性主流化的4个主要实施路径:(1)引入统一的行动框架;(2)发挥政府治理的主导作用;(3)联动企业采取共同行动;(4)提高公众意识以促进其广泛参与,致力于将生物多样性融入各级政府部门政策机制及社会生产生活实践活动中,为完善生物多样性治理决策提供参考。     

Is breeding of farmland wading birds depressed by a combination of predator abundance and grazing?

Agri-environment schemes have been implemented across Europe to counter biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes and halt the continual decline of farmland birds, including waders. Such schemes provide financial compensation for changes in agricultural practice, including livestock grazing regimes. Scheme uptake has been variable, partly because farmers believe that other factors, notably predation, are key to wader population declines. On the basis of wader breeding surveys across Shetland, UK, we show that predator density and livestock grazing, through reducing sward height, interact to influence territoriality and thereby are likely to affect wader breeding success. Our results appear to reflect views of both farmers and government agencies, which indicates that future agri-environment schemes would benefit from genuine stakeholder participation to maximize scheme uptake, implementation and beneficial effects on biodiversity. Our findings also imply that agri-environment schemes will reap the greatest benefits for waders through reducing stocking rate where avian predators are abundant.     

Should conservation of biodiversity involve private land? A Q methodological study in Poland to assess stakeholders’ attitude

Biodiversity conservation is gradually shifting its dependency on public protected areas to take a more holistic ecosystem and landscape approach that includes private lands in addition to public lands. However, effective practice of biodiversity conservation on private land also depends on landowners’ attitude and their willingness to participate and cooperate. This study focuses on Poland where conservation on private land is a relatively new concept but it is slowly gaining recognition, especially after its accession into the European Union. It investigates and classifies the diverse attitudes among stakeholder groups in Poland toward biodiversity conservation on private land that are part of protected areas. Four primary stakeholder groups were considered: conservation and park authorities, local administrative officials, local conservation based NGOs and private landowners. The study was conducted across three sites that represented three different forms of protected areas in Poland: a national park, a landscape park and a Natura 2000 site. Q methodology, a research method from psychology and other social sciences, was used to classify human subjectivity in stakeholders’ attitude in a more systematic manner. The analysis yielded three predominant factors which highlighted the diversity in attitudes among the stakeholder groups based on their knowledge, concerns and experience in the subject. Additionally, it underlined the common recognition among all stakeholder groups for better policy support, stronger collaboration among stakeholder and more financial or compensatory support for landowners to make private land conservation more feasible. Understanding the differences in attitudes will help bridge the gap between conservation priority and conservation opportunity—a current challenge in the field of biodiversity conservation.     

Research priorities for natural ecosystems in a changing global climate

Climate change poses significant emerging risks to biodiversity, ecosystem function and associated socioecological systems. Adaptation responses must be initiated in parallel with mitigation efforts, but resources are limited. As climate risks are not distributed equally across taxa, ecosystems and processes, strategic prioritization of research that addresses stakeholder‐relevant knowledge gaps will accelerate effective uptake into adaptation policy and management action. After a decade of climate change adaptation research within the Australian National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, we synthesize the National Adaptation Research Plans for marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. We identify the key, globally relevant priorities for ongoing research relevant to informing adaptation policy and environmental management aimed at maximizing the resilience of natural ecosystems to climate change. Informed by both global literature and an extensive stakeholder consultation across all ecosystems, sectors and regions in Australia, involving thousands of participants, we suggest 18 priority research topics based on their significance, urgency, technical and economic feasibility, existing knowledge gaps and potential for cobenefits across multiple sectors. These research priorities provide a unified guide for policymakers, funding organizations and researchers to strategically direct resources, maximize stakeholder uptake of resulting knowledge and minimize the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems. Given the pace of climate change, it is imperative that we inform and accelerate adaptation progress in all regions around the world.     

Towards sustainable land use: identifying and managing the conflicts between human activities and biodiversity conservation in Europe

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities are becoming increasingly apparent in all European landscapes. The intensification of agricultural and silvicultural practices, land abandonment and other land uses such as recreation and hunting are all potential threats to biodiversity that can lead to conflicts between stakeholder livelihoods and biodiversity conservation. To address the global decline in biodiversity there is, therefore, a need to identify the drivers responsible for conflicts between human activities and the conservation of European biodiversity and to promote the management of these conflicts. Here, the drivers of biodiversity conflicts are analysed in a European context for five habitat types: agricultural landscapes, forests, grasslands, uplands and freshwater habitats. A multi- disciplinary approach to conflict management is described, with active stakeholder involvement at every stage of conflict identification and management as well as a range of other approaches including stakeholder dialogue and education, consumer education, improvement of political and legislative frameworks, financial incentives, and planning infrastructure.     

Biodiversity banking: a strategic conservation mechanism

Among the conservation initiatives, biodiversity banking is a strategic new concept that calls for advocacy by the researchers, conservationists, policy planners and business corporate houses to enhance the conservational behaviour of the stakeholders. The concept has dual benefits of restoration of livelihood support systems and conservation of biodiversity that provides ecological services and economic benefits to civil society. Currently, lack of defined guidelines with robust valuation and incentive mechanism for biodiversity banking has resulted in ‘business as usual’ situation especially in developing and under developed countries. There is need for re-defining the country level biodiversity banking guidelines for the effective private-government-stakeholder participation. Furthermore, the mechanism must consider using robust scientific database of inter-disciplinary nature and suitably adopt the modalities of successful case studies to overcome the flaws/risks. Biodiversity banking is a realizable concept in developing and resource poor countries as additional livelihood support system through the market of accrued ecosystem services linked to conservation behaviour of stakeholders.     

The Importance of Stakeholder Engagement in Invasive Species Management: A Cross-jurisdictional Perspective in Ireland

The management of invasive non-native species is a frequent cause of conflict in the field of biodiversity conservation because perceptions of their costs and benefits differ among stakeholder groups. A lack of cohesion between scientific researchers, the commercial sector and policy makers lies at the root of a widespread failure to develop and implement sustainable management practices for invasive species. The crisis of this situation is intensified by drivers stemming from international conventions and directives to address invasive species issues. There are further direct conflicts between legislative instruments promoting biodiversity conservation on the one hand while liberalizing trade at the national, European and global level on the other. The island of Ireland provides graphic illustration of the importance of cross-jurisdictional approaches to biological invasions. Using primarily Irish examples in this review, we emphasize the importance of approaching risk assessment, risk reduction and control or eradication policies from a cost-efficient, highly flexible perspective, incorporating linkages between environmental, economic and social objectives. The need for consolidated policies between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is particularly acute, though few model cross-border mechanisms for such consolidation are available. The importance of engaging affected stakeholders through positive interactions is discussed with regard to reducing the currently fragmented nature of invasive species management between the two jurisdictions.     

Biodiversity and ecosystem services: a multilayered relationship

The relationship between biodiversity and the rapidly expanding research and policy field of ecosystem services is confused and is damaging efforts to create coherent policy. Using the widely accepted Convention on Biological Diversity definition of biodiversity and work for the U.K. National Ecosystem Assessment we show that biodiversity has key roles at all levels of the ecosystem service hierarchy: as a regulator of underpinning ecosystem processes, as a final ecosystem service and as a good that is subject to valuation, whether economic or otherwise. Ecosystem science and practice has not yet absorbed the lessons of this complex relationship, which suggests an urgent need to develop the interdisciplinary science of ecosystem management bringing together ecologists, conservation biologists, resource economists and others.     

A systematic map of ecosystem services assessments around European agroforestry

Agroforestry offers proven strategies as an environmentally benign and ecologically sustainable land management practice to promote ecosystem services. In this literature review, we systematically consider the agroforestry and ecosystem services literature with the aim to identify and catalogue the knowledge field and provide the first systematic synthesis of ecosystem services research in relation to European agroforestry. We reviewed 71 scientific publications from studies conducted in farmland and forest ecosystems with various types of agroforestry management. Each publication was systematically characterized and classified by agroforestry practice and research approach in order to provide an insight into the current research state in addressing ecosystem services (including methods, indicators, and approaches). Spatial distribution of the case study sites in Europe was also explored. In addition, typical clusters of similar research approaches were identified.The results show that ecosystem service assessment of European agroforestry is currently focused on the spatially extensive wood pastures in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Continental agricultural mosaic landscapes. A specific emphasis has been on regulating, supporting, and provisioning services, such as provision of habitat and biodiversity, food, climate regulation, fibre, and fuel, and the consideration of cultural services has been largely limited to aesthetic value. There is a bias to biophysical and monetary research approaches. The majority of the studies focus on quantitative methods and biophysical field measurements addressing the assessment of only one or two services. Monetary approaches have been applied in less than one fifth of the studies but form a distinctive group.Our results highlight gaps and biases in the ecosystem service research agenda within agroforestry based on which we conclude that research should aim to diversify from the biophysical and monetary approaches, towards a wider variety of approaches, especially socio-cultural, and a wider coverage of ecosystem services. Stronger consideration of stakeholder participation and introduction of spatially explicit mapping are also important key actions. We make suggestions to advance the promise of ecosystem services provision from European agroforestry in decision making including various actors, stakeholders, and institutions, with strong links to policy processes, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy and Common Agricultural Policy.     

Synergy between adaptive management and participatory modelling: The two processes as interconnected spirals

The management of social-ecological systems often presents a complex and wicked problem due to interactions between natural processes and varied, sometimes opposing, stakeholder goals. The adaptive management and participatory modelling processes are often used either to manage or in support of the management of social-ecological systems but are not always used in concert. We suggest that these processes are naturally complementary with overlapping components and between-process feedback. As such, we advocate that adaptive management should make use of participatory modelling for the management of social-ecological systems to increase stakeholder communication, confidence, and participation, streamline management strategy development, and improve management strategy application and durability. We present a translation of the typical adaptive management cycle concept to a spiral format, as well as a representation of adaptive management and participatory modelling proceeding together as interconnected spirals.     

基于不同利益相关者认知分析的生态移民安置区生态风险识别

生态移民安置区内,不同群体在生态环境保护方面存在复杂的利益冲突.基于安置区内利益群体对风险类别、干扰强度的识别,构建相应的决策模型,是生态移民安置区生态风险管理亟待解决的重要课题.本文依据利益相关者理论划分出生态移民安置区4类不同利益群体,并采用参与式半结构访谈法和定性聚合法,构建了3类一级变量和13个二级变量的生态风险因子体系,进一步运用模糊认知图模型(FCM)和人工神经网络(ANN)开展生态移民安置区生态风险识别.结果表明: 从利益相关者群体生态风险变量认知来看,其共同点是不同利益群体对垃圾污染风险变量提及数量最多,但整体上又存在显著差异,即管理者注重环境保护政策的制定和实施;居民则关注生活水平的提高,且直接关系到其环保意识和行为;经济活动者多追求经济利益;环境保护者专注于生态环境问题.不同利益相关者群体认知图论指数结果显示,管理者和环境保护者对安置区生态风险认知较为全面且清晰.从安置区4方利益相关者的整体风险认知结果来看,生态环境风险因子显著影响居民的人身安全及满意度;公共政策对安置区风险管理起关键作用;风险变量的中心度结果进一步表明,提高居民生活水平是防范生态风险的关键.从利益相关者群体生态风险感知与管理情景模拟结果来看,解决垃圾污染有助于生态环境整体改善,且关键是要完善和落实相关公共政策;建立健全社会保障制度,直接关系居民生活水平和环保行为;加强基础设施建设,影响景观生态格局、生物生境和多样性,同时可提高居民满意度和公众参与度.     

Biodiversity: negotiating the border between nature and culture

In a context of globalization, Article 8j. from the Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes the value of biodiversity and formalizes its mixed nature through its biological as well as cultural dimensions. This new definition raises questions more than it solves them. We demonstrate that national and international organizations, local communities, and even researchers from different disciplines (anthropology, botany or genetics) identify and evaluate biodiversity differently. The various stakeholder groups have developed an unavoidable social relation with multiple aspects of biodiversity that they relate to through their job or way of life. And therefore, they pursue various conservation purposes: the preservation of place’s memory through ancestral links, cultural diversity, phenotypic variability or evolutionary potential. Which disciplinary and ethical boundaries are these actors willing to compromise, in order to preserve biodiversity in the name of development? Which indicators should we choose to fulfil which goals? The contrasting examples of taro (a socially valued object, planted on taro pondfields inherited “from the ancestors”, linked to an important cultural diversity and to a narrow genetic-base) and coconut (a socially devalued object, cultivated in coconut plantations at the prompting of “the Whites” and genetically diverse despite few named types) demonstrate that same farmers from a village in Vanuatu (South Pacific) affirm traditional ecological knowledge though their management of taro, and still participate in a market economy by intensifying their crop of coconuts. Conservation and research programs should integrate ethical questions and political processes to reconcile systems of diversified values and representations.     

Convention on Biological Diversity: a review of national challenges and opportunities for implementation

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) lies at the heart of biodiversity conservation initiatives. It offers opportunities to address global issues at the national level through locally grown solutions and measures. This article reviews the national challenges and opportunities in meeting requirements of the CBD by analysing twenty Third National Reports (TNRs), covering five different CBD regional clusters from the three global economic groups. While there is a plethora of challenges, the predominant ones discussed in this study include: institutional and capacity, knowledge and accessible information, economic policy and financial resources, cooperation and stakeholder involvement, and mainstreaming and integration of biodiversity. The underlying problem is that limited capacity in developing countries and transition economies undermines conservation initiatives. Lack of capacity in science, coordination, administration, legislation, and monitoring are barriers to on-ground implementation of biodiversity programmes. Opportunities to overcome these challenges embrace use of knowledge products, information-sharing mechanisms, participatory platforms, educational programmes, multi-level governance, and policy coherence. Innovative market-based instruments are also being trialled in various countries, which seek to offer incentives to local communities. The article concludes that conservation measures should be supported by multiple sectors and secure high level political support. Political, economical, and legislative sectors are more likely to show interest in CBD implementation and use it as a tool for managing biodiversity when they know the Convention processes and perceive it as a benefit. Modest investments in capacity building and training, and engaging different sectors in setting priorities would have a significant pay-off.     

Towards more effective integration of tropical forest restoration and conservation

Conservation and restoration interventions can be mutually reinforcing and are converging through an increased focus on social dimensions. This paper examines how to more effectively integrate the complementary goals of conservation and restoration of tropical forests. Forest conservation and restoration interventions are integral components of a broad approach to forest ecosystem and landscape management that aims to maintain and restore key ecological processes and enhance human well‐being, while minimizing biodiversity loss. The forest transition model provides a useful framework for understanding the relative importance of forest conservation and restoration interventions in different regions. Harmonizing conservation and restoration presents serious challenges for forest policy in tropical countries, particularly regarding the use and management of secondary forests, fallow vegetation, and forests degraded by logging and fire. Research to implement restoration more effectively in tropical regions can be stimulated by transforming questions that initially focused on conservation issues. Examination of papers published in Biotropica from 2000–2018 shows that most studies relevant to tropical forest conservation do not address forest restoration issues. Forest restoration studies, on the other hand, show a consistent association with conservation issues. There is much scope for further integration of conservation and restoration in research, practice, and policy. Securing a sustainable future for tropical forests requires developing and applying integrated approaches to landscape management that effectively combine knowledge and tools from multiple disciplines with practical experience and engagement of local stakeholders. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.     

Changing conservation strategies in Europe: a framework integrating ecosystem services and dynamics

Protecting species and their habitats through the designation and management of protected areas is central to present biodiversity conservation efforts in Europe. Recent awareness of the importance of ecosystem dynamics in changing environments and of human needs for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services expose potential weaknesses in current European conservation management strategies and policy. Here we examine these issues in the light of information gained from reviews, workshops, interviews and discussions undertaken within the RUBICODE project. We present a new conceptual framework that joins conventional biodiversity conservation with new requirements. The framework links cultural and aesthetic values applied in a static environment to the demands of dynamic ecosystems and societal needs within social–ecological systems in a changing Europe. We employ this framework to propose innovative ways in which ecosystem service provision may be used to add value to traditional conservation approaches by supporting and complementing present European biodiversity conservation strategy and policy while remaining within the guidelines of the Convention on Biological Diversity.     

Consistency and use of information about threats in the participatory process for identification of priority conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon

Despite the increasing number of scientific papers on the subject, conservation planning has failed to actively prioritise the creation of new protected areas. Strategies proposed to increase the creation of new protected areas based on conservation plans include broad stakeholder participation in decision-making processes in order to include their concerns and facilitate social acceptance of proposed actions. However, there are controversial views about the effectiveness of stakeholder participation. The quality of the decision depends both on the information used by stakeholders and on how it is used, so it is necessary to evaluate both these aspects of a decision-making process. Threats are intrinsically related to conservation decisions because they are more easily understood by people than biodiversity values, and they can affect both decisions and outcomes of conservation actions. This article analyses how information about threats was used in the decision-making process conducted by the Brazilian Government in 2006 to indicate priority areas for the conservation of the Amazon biome. We first verified the consistency of the information on threats attributed by stakeholders to these new priority areas, and then assessed whether the existence, levels and types of threats influenced the choice of areas for conservation. The results showed that there were some successes in recognising threats, but also many inconsistencies, especially in assigning levels of intensity for some types of threats such as fishing. The decision-making process also did not fully use available information to indicate areas for conservation. The lack of understanding on the motivation behind these inconsistencies could suggest the presence of political opportunism. A more quantitative approach to assigning priorities is needed: one that is less dependent on the individual input of stakeholders and more accurately reflects the actual emergency status of proposed areas. This indicates that greater effort should be allocated to combining a participatory approach with a robust decision support system.     

Ecological intensification to mitigate impacts of conventional intensive land use on pollinators and pollination

Worldwide, human appropriation of ecosystems is disrupting plant–pollinator communities and pollination function through habitat conversion and landscape homogenisation. Conversion to agriculture is destroying and degrading semi‐natural ecosystems while conventional land‐use intensification (e.g. industrial management of large‐scale monocultures with high chemical inputs) homogenises landscape structure and quality. Together, these anthropogenic processes reduce the connectivity of populations and erode floral and nesting resources to undermine pollinator abundance and diversity, and ultimately pollination services. Ecological intensification of agriculture represents a strategic alternative to ameliorate these drivers of pollinator decline while supporting sustainable food production, by promoting biodiversity beneficial to agricultural production through management practices such as intercropping, crop rotations, farm‐level diversification and reduced agrochemical use. We critically evaluate its potential to address and reverse the land use and management trends currently degrading pollinator communities and potentially causing widespread pollination deficits. We find that many of the practices that constitute ecological intensification can contribute to mitigating the drivers of pollinator decline. Our findings support ecological intensification as a solution to pollinator declines, and we discuss ways to promote it in agricultural policy and practice.     

What are the policy priorities for sustaining ecological processes? A case study from Victoria,Australia

Summary Developments in ecological theory indicate that ecological processes have major implications for sustaining biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services. Consequently, conservation actions that focus solely on particular species, vegetation communities, habitats or sites (‘assets’) are unlikely to be effective over the long term unless the ecological processes that support them continue to function. Efforts to sustain biodiversity must embrace both ‘assets’ and ‘process‐oriented’ approaches. Existing knowledge about ecological processes, incomplete though it is, has not been adequately considered in government decision making. It is, therefore, necessary to consider how to build consideration of ecological processes into legislative and institutional frameworks, policy and planning processes, and on‐ground environmental management. Drawing on insights from interviews, a facilitated workshop, and a literature review, this paper identifies a suite of policy priorities and associated reforms which should assist in ensuring that ecological processes are given more attention in policy‐making processes. It is concluded that a multi‐pronged approach is required, because there are no ‘silver bullets’ for sustaining ecological processes.