Conserving critical sites for biodiversity provides disproportionate benefits to people

Protecting natural habitats in priority areas is essential to halt the loss of biodiversity. Yet whether these benefits for biodiversity also yield benefits for human well-being remains controversial. Here we assess the potential human well-being benefits of safeguarding a global network of sites identified as top priorities for the conservation of threatened species. Conserving these sites would yield benefits--in terms of a) climate change mitigation through avoidance of CO(2) emissions from deforestation; b) freshwater services to downstream human populations; c) retention of option value; and d) benefits to maintenance of human cultural diversity--significantly exceeding those anticipated from randomly selected sites within the same countries and ecoregions. Results suggest that safeguarding sites important for biodiversity conservation provides substantial benefits to human well-being.     

IPBES:生物多样性科学评估将成为政策决策的驱动因素

生物多样性和生态系统服务政府间科学-政策平台(IPBES)的目的,是为了缓解生物多样性持续减退的趋势,推动政策和科学之间的互动。2012年成立至今构建了概念模型,确定了2014—2018年的工作方案。分析IPBES工作方案的4个目的和相应交付成果可以看出,通过推出不同专题评估报告,将为全球提出生物多样性相关的新问题,给生物多样性相关的谈判和履约提出新挑战。一系列区域和全球评估报告的推出,可能通过持续积累效益,引起公众和媒体的关注,使生物多样性问题迅速政治化,形成科学驱动政策决策的趋势。应对IPBES及其生物多样性相关公约的谈判,我国需要制定深入和持续参与其国际过程的策略,需要通过培养和推荐专业水平高且政治敏感的专家,参与IPBES评估报告的具体工作,从科学层面影响评估结果,把握生物多样性领域国际政策决策动向,在保护生物多样性的基础上,维护国家利益。     

Valuing biodiversity and ecosystem services: Why put economic values on Nature?

The evaluation of ecosystems and biodiversity has become an important field of investigation for economists. Although their interest has been largely motivated by the search for arguments in favour of broader conservation policies, both the methods and the meaning of the results remain controversial. This article aims at clarifying the interest and limitations of these works, by revisiting a number of issues, such as the economic qualification of the services that human societies take from biodiversity and ecological systems in general, the specificities of their contribution to human well-being and the consequences of a valuation of biodiversity based on ecosystem services. We conclude with a discussion of the purposes of evaluations: improving public policies or creating new markets?     

Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience

Biodiversity loss is a matter of great concern among conservation scientists, but the wherewithal to reverse this trend is generally lacking. One reason is that nearly half of the world's people live in urban areas and are increasingly disconnected from nature. If there is to be broad-based public support for biodiversity conservation, the places where people live and work should be designed so as to provide opportunities for meaningful interactions with the natural world. Doing so has the potential not only to engender support for protecting native species, but also to enhance human well-being. Accomplishing these goals will necessitate conservation scientists forging new collaborations with design professionals, health practitioners and social scientists, as well as encouraging the participation of the general public.     

Psychological benefits of greenspace increase with biodiversity

The world's human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many people's daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.     

推进生物多样性保护与人类健康的共同发展——One Health

随着新冠肺炎(COVID-19)的暴发, 野生动物、生物多样性和人类健康的关系再次引起广泛讨论。近20年来, 国际社会对于生物多样性与健康的研究日益增多, 并将它作为生物多样性保护与研究的重要方向之一。One Health作为一个新的理念框架, 通过交叉学科的研究和行动来推动包括人、所有其他动物及环境的健康。这个理念被不同国家、国际组织及协定所接纳及推广, 包括《生物多样性公约》等。本文通过总结近些年生物多样性对健康的影响方式、One Health的定义与发展历史、进入生物多样性议程的过程, 提出中国应用One Health改进相关野生动物管理以降低公共卫生危机的可能性的建议, 以及One Health框架内增强生物多样性保护所需的研究方向。One Health在中国的应用与发展应重视生物多样性研究和保护在其中的作用, 利用在景观生态学、群落内物种关系动态变化、气候变化影响、土地利用变化模式与趋势的研究, 与人类健康相结合, 提高One Health在应对公共健康和环境健康风险方面的准确性与及时性。同时, 需要加强我国在野生动物管理方面的投入和力度, 增强生物多样性保护与公共健康的联系, 将预警与干预措施前移, 减少疾病暴发带来的社会经济成本。     

“保护兼容”理念源起、实践与发展

以国内外文献、报告、规划为原始材料,以"保护兼容"一词为核心,结合其使用语境,系统阐述在自然保护话语由"堡垒式"转向"社区保护"时,随着自然保护地功能与管理发生变化,人类活动的保护兼容性如何被重新发现并在自然保护实践中助力生物多样性保护。研究发现,"保护兼容"理念充分体现在景观尺度的土地利用连续体上;在生产性景观视角下乡村土地利用和传统农业系统进入自然保护领域;"保护兼容"理念以土地利用为基础下沉到乡村社区的资源管理、生计发展等多类型活动,以各种保护倡议和项目实现,并在发展中国家和发达国家呈现出不同特征。"保护兼容"理念既进行尺度扩展,探索区域内、跨行政区域乃至国家间多利益相关方参与、多类型土地利用贡献于自然保护扩展,也进行尺度下沉,倡导基于本土价值实现全球价值的保护理念。研究提出,全球在生物多样性保护中要进一步重视生产性景观和农业生物多样性保护,而发展中国家面对全球生物多样性保护紧迫目标时,需要坚持社区主体性和在保护实践中的主动性。     

The emergence of biodiversity conflicts from biodiversity impacts: characteristics and management strategies

Conflicts between the conservation of biodiversity and other human activities occur in all habitats and can impact severely upon socio-economic and biological parameters. In a changing environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services and increasing urgency for biodiversity conservation, these conflicts are likely to increase in importance and magnitude and negatively affect biodiversity and human well-being. It is essential, however, to better understand what is meant by ‘biodiversity conflicts’ in order to develop ways to manage these effectively. In view of the complexity of the social and ecological contexts of conflicts, this paper explores ‘biodiversity impacts’ linked to agricultural, forestry and other sectoral activities in the UK. The paper then describes the transition from ‘biodiversity impacts’ to ‘biodiversity conflicts’, illustrating this concept with specific examples. While generalisations relating to conflict management are made difficult by their unique contextual settings, this paper suggests approaches for their management, based on the experiences of scientists who have been involved in managing conflicts. We consider the role of science and scientists; trust and dialogue; and temporal and spatial scales in biodiversity conflicts and highlight the combined role they play in successful biodiversity conflict management. Recommendations are also made for future research on biodiversity conflicts in a changing environment.     

A Biodiversity Indicators Dashboard: Addressing Challenges to Monitoring Progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets Using Disaggregated Global Data

Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world''s governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity''s “Aichi Targets”. These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity “dashboard” – a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate), state of species (Red List Index), conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas), and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision). Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the protection of natural resources.     

European species and habitat monitoring: where are we now?

Biodiversity now is considered a highly valuable material, providing manifold services of high importance for the well-being of humankind. However, biodiversity globally is rapidly diminishing and, despite efforts to halt the loss of biodiversity, positive effects are hardly visible. Biodiversity monitoring, the close observation of our natural environment, is imperative to determine the state and trend of organism populations and their habitats. Therefore, it has become a centrepiece of nature conservation across the globe. However, monitoring activities are not centrally coordinated, differ vastly in their monitoring targets, sampling designs, and human resource needs. This special issue on biodiversity and monitoring presents an overview of the current state of biodiversity monitoring in Europe, gives suggestions for the integration of monitoring data to improve the geographical and taxonomic coverage, deals with general methodological aspects of monitoring biodiversity across different geographic scales, the involvement of the public in monitoring activities, and provides some monitoring case studies. The special issue is aimed to provide recommendations and suggestions for more standardized monitoring approaches, and is mainly based on the findings of the EU-project EuMon.     

Conserving Southeast Asia’s imperiled biodiversity: scientific,management, and policy challenges

Southeast Asia was almost entirely covered by rainforest 8,000 years ago. Today, this region is experiencing the highest relative rates of deforestation and forest degradation in the humid tropics. Every year, millions of hectares of tropical forests are destroyed and degraded. Given the rapid rate of deforestation and the high concentration of endemic species in the region, Southeast Asia could lose 13–42% of local populations by the turn of the next century, at least 50% of which could represent global species extinction. In this Special Issue, we discuss the uniqueness of Southeast Asian biodiversity, drivers of forest destruction, threats to the region’s unique ecosystems and taxa, and key conservation challenges to provide a broad-based review of the science, management and policy issues concerning biodiversity conservation. Overall, we highlight the need for an interdisciplinary and multi-pronged strategy requiring all major stakeholders to work together to achieve the ultimate goal of reconciling biodiversity conservation and human well-being in the region.     

Future battlegrounds for conservation under global change

Global biodiversity is under significant threat from the combined effects of human-induced climate and land-use change. Covering 12% of the Earth's terrestrial surface, protected areas are crucial for conserving biodiversity and supporting ecological processes beneficial to human well-being, but their selection and design are usually uninformed about future global change. Here, we quantify the exposure of the global reserve network to projected climate and land-use change according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and set these threats in relation to the conservation value and capacity of biogeographic and geopolitical regions. We find that geographical patterns of past human impact on the land cover only poorly predict those of forecasted change, thus revealing the inadequacy of existing global conservation prioritization templates. Projected conservation risk, measured as regional levels of land-cover change in relation to area protected, is the greatest at high latitudes (due to climate change) and tropics/subtropics (due to land-use change). Only some high-latitude nations prone to high conservation risk are also of high conservation value, but their high relative wealth may facilitate additional conservation efforts. In contrast, most low-latitude nations tend to be of high conservation value, but they often have limited capacity for conservation which may exacerbate the global biodiversity extinction crisis. While our approach will clearly benefit from improved land-cover projections and a thorough understanding of how species range will shift under climate change, our results provide a first global quantitative demonstration of the urgent need to consider future environmental change in reserve-based conservation planning. They further highlight the pressing need for new reserves in target regions and support a much extended 'north-south' transfer of conservation resources that maximizes biodiversity conservation while mitigating global climate change.     

四川省生物多样性与生态系统多功能性分析

生态系统服务与人类福祉和可持续发展息息相关,近年来生物多样性丧失极大影响了生态系统服务。探究生物多样性与生态系统服务之间的关系成为当前生态学领域内的一个重大科学问题。以四川省各乡镇为单元,计算了景观尺度上的多样性指数,评估了四川省水土保持功能、水源涵养功能、固碳功能,并研究了两者之间关系。结果表明：在景观尺度上,Shannon''s多样性指数、修正Simpson''s多样性指数、景观丰度三种多样性指数可以较好表征四川省生物多样性空间分布格局。由景观丰度、欧式最近邻距离的标准差、景观丰度密度构成解释变量矩阵,RDA模型矫正解释率42.25%（P<0.001）,可更好解释由土壤保持功能、水源涵养功能、固碳功能构成的响应变量矩阵。四川省生物多样性及生态系统服务关系的模式有以下几种：（1）成都平原区区县空间距离较近,在生态系统服务和生物多样性梯度均差异较小;（2）盆周山地区、盆地丘陵区各区县在水土保持功能梯度上差异较大,与多样性关系较弱;（3）川西高原区区县在固碳、水源涵养梯度上差异较大,并有协同关系,多样性梯度差异较大;（4）川西高山峡谷区、西南山地区区县之间生态系统服务和多样性差异较大,生态系统服务可能存在强烈权衡关系,需进一步引入解释因子。     

气候变化和土地利用变化驱动下的生物多样性系统分析新框架

尽管目前已有大量关于生物多样性评估的研究,但同时考虑生物多样性多维评估、多驱动因素对生物多样性变化的影响评估及生物多样性变化中长期动态模拟预测等研究仍相对缺乏,这会引起对生物多样性不同维度变化水平的片面理解,导致生物多样性保护工程管理决策失误。基于此,综述现有生物多样性评估维度、驱动因素及历史评估的研究进展,并基于现有研究存在的局限性提出生物多样性多维评估方法与人地耦合系统下生物多样性模拟模型构建思路,基于此提出气候变化和土地利用变化驱动下的生物多样性系统分析新框架。该框架包括:①生物多样性"潜力-贡献-重要性"多维评估理论与方法构建;②人地耦合系统下生物多样性模拟模型构建;③人地耦合系统下生物多样性预测及生物多样性保护工程效果仿真与管理。该框架可为生物多样性保护工程管理及可持续开展提供科学建议。     

Biocomplexity and conservation of biodiversity hotspots: three case studies from the Americas

The perspective of 'biocomplexity' in the form of 'coupled natural and human systems' represents a resource for the future conservation of biodiversity hotspots in three direct ways: (i) modelling the impact on biodiversity of private land-use decisions and public land-use policies, (ii) indicating how the biocultural history of a biodiversity hotspot may be a resource for its future conservation, and (iii) identifying and deploying the nodes of both the material and psycho-spiritual connectivity between human and natural systems in service to conservation goals. Three biocomplexity case studies of areas notable for their biodiversity, selected for their variability along a latitudinal climate gradient and a human-impact gradient, are developed: the Big Thicket in southeast Texas, the Upper Botanamo River Basin in eastern Venezuela, and the Cape Horn Archipelago at the austral tip of Chile. More deeply, the biocomplexity perspective reveals alternative ways of understanding biodiversity itself, because it directs attention to the human concepts through which biodiversity is perceived and understood. The very meaning of biodiversity is contestable and varies according to the cognitive lenses through which it is perceived.     

Some issues and options for the conservation of native biodiversity in rural New Zealand

Summary For the 70% of New Zealand under private ownership, native biodiversity conservation has to occur within a landscape that must also provide a productive return to land owners. Recent New Zealand legislation, especially the Resource Management Act 1991, promotes sustainable management on private land by allowing for the economic and cultural well-being of local communities while providing for the protection of natural resources including native biodiversity. We suggest that, to effectively conserve native biodiversity in rural landscapes, we need to consider four key issues: (i) what might be realistic goals for native biodiversity conservation; (ii) how might we better arrange different land uses to meet both native biodiversity and production goals; (iii) what is the optimum arrangement of native biodiversity; and (iv) how native biodiversity conservation can improve productive returns to land managers. Options to enhance native biodiversity conservation include a variety of incentives (e.g. management agreements, financial incentives and regulatory systems) and onsite management options (e.g. remnant management, restoration plantings, weed and pest control, use of native species for commercial and amenity purposes, use of exotic species to facilitate native biodiversity). The importance of taking a landscape-based rather than a paddock-based approach to management is emphasized.     

《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。     

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.     

Rapid Assessment of Ecosystem Services Provided by Two Mineral Extraction Sites Restored for Nature Conservation in an Agricultural Landscape in Eastern England

Despite growing recognition that mineral sites restored for nature conservation can enhance local biodiversity, the wider societal benefits provided by this type of restoration relative to alternative options are not well understood. This study addresses this research gap by quantifying differences in ecosystem services provision under two common mineral site after-uses: nature conservation and agriculture. Using a combination of site-specific primary field data, benefits transfer and modelling, we show that for our sites restoration for nature conservation provides a more diverse array of ecosystem services than would be delivered under an agricultural restoration scenario. We also explore the effects of addressing different conservation targets, which we find alter the provision of ecosystem services on a service-specific basis. Highly species-focused intervention areas are associated with increased carbon storage and livestock grazing provision, whereas non-intervention areas are important for carbon sequestration, fishing, recreation and flood risk mitigation. The results of this study highlight the wider societal importance of restored mineral sites and may help conservation managers and planners to develop future restoration strategies that provide benefits for both biodiversity and human well-being.     

The Habitat Requirement of the Genji-Firefly Luciola cruciata (Coleoptera : Lampyridae), a Representative Endemic Species of Japanese Rural Landscapes

Raising public interest in nature through conserving species of high social interest is crucial in achieving effective conservation of biodiversity. In Japan, the Genji-firefly Luciola cruciata (Coleoptera Lampyridae) in biodiversity rich agricultural landscapes called the satoyama has always attracted exceptional public interest. This study provides rare information on environmental factors associated with the abundance of the Genji-firefly. Stepwise backward multiple regression revealed that firefly abundance increased with increasing pH, DO and prey abundance while decreasing with water depth and the proportion of artificially modified ditch length. These factors are thought to be influential mainly to the larval and pre-pupal periods of the firefly. The implications of the results for the conservation of the Genji-firefly are discussed, with reference to the relationship between Genji-firefly conservation and extensive biodiversity conservation in the satoyama.