Trends in Romanian biodiversity conservation policy

Romania's commitment and ability to protect its environment inthe long term is challenged by several problems: insufficient financialmechanisms, monitoring, enforcement, and the information dissemination capacityof local environment protection agencies. History indicates that periods ofeconomic and social transition are very dangerous to biodiversity conservation.The demonstrated tendency during such periods gives priority to short-termincome-generating activities. Romanian conservation policy has had to adapt tothis change of circumstances. New sites have been included in the nationalprotected system and new legislation has been developed. But is this enough? Dothese satisfy progressive concepts and IUCN recommendations? This paper isintended to make recommendations, based on intersectoral participatoryplanning, for nature resources management. It focuses on how biodiversityconservation is being encouraged and developed at a national level.     

Putting pharmacogenetics into practice

Genetics is slowly explaining variations in drug response, but applying this knowledge depends on implementation of a host of policies that provide long-term support to the field, from translational research and regulation to professional education.     

Research needs for incorporating the ecosystem service approach into EU biodiversity conservation policy

Using a range of different methods including extensive reviews, workshops and an electronic conference, 70 key research recommendations and 12 priority research needs to integrate the ecosystem services approach into biodiversity conservation policy and funding were identified by a cross-disciplinary group of over 100 scientists and 50 stakeholders, including research funders and policy-makers. These recommendations focus on the ecological underpinning of ecosystem services, drivers that affect ecosystems and their services, biological traits and ecosystem services, the valuation of ecosystem services, spatial and temporal scales in ecosystem service assessment, indicators of ecosystem services, and habitat management, conservation policy and ecosystem services. The recommendations in this paper help steer the research agenda on ecosystem services into policy-relevant areas, agreed upon by funders, researchers and policy-makers. This research agenda will only succeed with increased collaboration between researchers across disciplines, thereby providing a challenge to the research community and research funders to work in new, interdisciplinary ways.     

Putting epigenome comparison into practice

Comparative analysis of epigenomes offers new opportunities to understand cellular differentiation, mutation effects and disease processes. But the scale and heterogeneity of epigenetic data present numerous computational challenges.     

Integration of preference heterogeneity into sustainable nature conservation: From practice to policy

The aim of this work is to assess and understand the social drivers that determine the willingness to pay for sustainable management measures to preserve a Natura 2000 area. These social drivers of the support for nature conservation were then included in the design of economic instrument to support nature conservation. In a contingent valuation exercise, the local population in the Cabezo de la Jara and Rambla de Nogalte protected areas (SE Spain) stated their willingness to pay for sustainable management measures aimed at their conservation. Among the socio-demographics, environmental attitudes and experiential drivers, income and environmental commitment were found to be the only significant drivers in support of nature conservation, revealing preference heterogeneity. Economic instruments, specifically green taxes and user fees, are proposed, taking into account the sources of heterogeneity in order to ensure financial support for the measures and greater social acceptability. Hence, our research adds to the existing literature through the design of an economic instrument to support nature conservation, considering preference heterogeneity.     

Incorporating evolutionary history into conservation planning in biodiversity hotspots

There is increased evidence that incorporating evolutionary history directly in conservation actions is beneficial, particularly given the likelihood that extinction is not random and that phylogenetic diversity (PD) is lost at higher rates than species diversity. This evidence is even more compelling in biodiversity hotspots, such as Madagascar, where less than 10% of the original vegetation remains. Here, we use the Leguminosae, an ecologically and economically important plant family, and a combination of phylogenetics and species distribution modelling, to assess biodiversity patterns and identify regions, coevolutionary processes and ecological factors that are important in shaping this diversity, especially during the Quaternary. We show evidence that species distribution and community PD are predicted by watershed boundaries, which enable the identification of a network of refugia and dispersal corridors that were perhaps important for maintaining community integrity during past climate change. Phylogenetically clustered communities are found in the southwest of the island at low elevation and share a suite of morphological characters (especially fruit morphology) indicative of coevolution with their main dispersers, the extinct and extant lemurs. Phylogenetically over-dispersed communities are found along the eastern coast at sea level and may have resulted from many independent dispersal events from the drier and more seasonal regions of Madagascar.     

集合种群与生物多样性保护

集合种群的概念受到空前的重视,其精髓是强调物种受局域和区域两个空间尺度上生态学过程的共同作用。主要介绍了集合种群概念的由来、集合种群动态理论以及集合种群理论在生物多样性保护及生物防治中一些可能的应用。     

Biodiversity conservation attitudes and policy tools for promoting biodiversity in tropical planted forests

Biodiversity loss poses a real threat to the livelihoods, food security and health of the poor. In Vietnam, nearly 700 species are threatened with national extinction and over 300 species are threatened with global extinction. Deforestation is the main contributor to these biodiversity losses. This study examines biodiversity conservation attitudes of foresters and proposes policy options to promote biodiversity in planted forests. A household survey of 291 foresters in Yen Bai Province, Vietnam, was conducted to examine attitudes to biodiversity conservation. A range of forest policy tools was investigated to find the most appropriate one to enhance biodiversity, given the specific social-economic conditions of foresters. A forest-level optimisation model was employed to design the optimal level of payment for biodiversity conservation. The results suggest that a large number of foresters would agree to the idea of enhancing biodiversity in planted forests if they were financially supported. It is concluded that policy options for the Government of Vietnam include refinements to the current payment scheme and considering increasing the payment level to foresters to enhance biodiversity. These findings may have some generalisability to the plantation forestry sector in other developing countries in tropical zones, and implications for implementing the REDD+ mechanism in developing countries.     

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity

The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified. Here, we show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global biodiversity conservation. By screening 419,679 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages, we identified 1,234 non-English-language studies providing evidence on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation interventions, compared to 4,412 English-language studies identified with the same criteria. Relevant non-English-language studies are being published at an increasing rate in 6 out of the 12 languages where there were a sufficient number of relevant studies. Incorporating non-English-language studies can expand the geographical coverage (i.e., the number of 2° × 2° grid cells with relevant studies) of English-language evidence by 12% to 25%, especially in biodiverse regions, and taxonomic coverage (i.e., the number of species covered by the relevant studies) by 5% to 32%, although they do tend to be based on less robust study designs. Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally. We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges.Please see the Supporting information files for Alternative Language Abstracts.

A survey of 419,680 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages reveals that non-English-language studies can expand geographical (by 12-25%) and taxonomic (by 5-32%) coverage of English-language evidence on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation interventions, especially in biodiverse regions.     

中国古籍与生物多样性保护

本文提出一种借助古代文献恢复自然生态系统的方法,而中国古籍在这方面可以发挥巨大的作用。生物多样性保护的技术性关键在于找到合适的生态系统,而自然生态系统就是其中之一。中国古籍,特别是中国医书、中国农书和中国方志的有关记载为寻找这种生态系统提供了大量的信息。因此我们可以参考中国古籍,使现存的复合生态系统逐步地接近自然生态系统,从而达到生物多样性保护的目的。