Conservation Biology最新文献

The house mouse (Mus musculus) is often thought of as a pest species in biological conservation, in agriculture, and in urban areas. As a result, populations are frequently targeted for control and eradication. However, M. musculus has notable within-species biodiversity: it has genetically, morphologically, and behaviorally distinct subpopulations. Conserving biodiversity is usually considered the paramount goal of conservation biology, not least because biodiversity is claimed to have intrinsic value. But the biodiversity in mouse populations is often overlooked. In particular, conservationists do not call for the unique diversity represented by threatened mouse populations to be protected. This is illustrative of the inconsistent valuing of biodiversity in conservation. If biodiversity is intrinsically valuable, then it should be valued; however, it reveals itself. And yet, in examples presented here, unique populations of house mice with clear biodiversity value are threatened by eradication campaigns on islands and by changing agricultural practices on the Swiss-Italian border. The inconsistent valuing of biodiversity in the case of M. musculus raises important questions about whether the intrinsic value of biodiversity in conservation is, in practice, conditional on other implicit assumptions.

Widespread insect losses are a critical global problem. Mitigating this problem requires identifying the principal drivers across different taxa and determining which insects are covered by protected areas. However, doing so is hindered by missing information on most species owing to extremely high insect diversity and difficulties in morphological identification. To address this knowledge gap, we used one of the most comprehensive insect DNA metabarcoding data sets assembled (encompassing 31,846 flying insect species) in which data were collected from a network of 75 Malaise traps distributed across Germany. Collection sites encompass gradients of land cover, weather, and climate, along with differences in site protection status, which allowed us to gain broader insights into how insects respond to these factors. We examined changes in total insect biomass, species richness, temporal turnover, and shifts in the composition of taxa, key functional groups (pollinators, threatened species, and invasive species), and feeding traits. Lower insect biomass generally equated to lower richness of all insects and higher temporal turnover, suggesting that biomass loss translates to biodiversity loss and less stable communities. Spatial variability in insect biomass and composition was primarily driven by land cover, rather than weather or climate change. As vegetation and land-cover heterogeneity increased, insect biomass increased by 50% in 2019 and 56% in 2020 and total species richness by 58% and 33%, respectively. Similarly, areas with low-vegetation habitats exhibited the highest richness of key taxa, including pollinators and threatened species, and the widest variety of feeding traits. However, these habitats tended to be less protected despite their higher diversity. Our results highlight the value of heterogeneous low vegetation for promoting overall insect biomass and diversity and that better protection of insects requires improved protection and management of unforested areas, where many biodiversity hotspots and key taxa occur.

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is an escalating humanitarian issue and a conservation concern. In terms of protection and management, areas at high risk of HWC are not necessarily afforded the same resources as areas prioritized for protection. To improve allocation of limited protection resources and HWC mitigation efficiency, we determined management priorities based on HWC risk and people's attitudes toward wildlife around the Giant Panda National Park. We constructed an ensemble species distribution model with 1959 species' distribution loci and 337 conflict event records. This model was used to simulate the spatial distribution patterns of HWC risk and to evaluate the influence of diverse environmental factors. A survey of people's attitudes toward wildlife was conducted in 155 villages around the Giant Panda National Park. Priority areas for HWC management were concentrated near protected areas, where wildlife habitats and populations were recovering and expanding. We obtained 947 questionnaires, which showed that some residents were highly aware of conservation and had a high tolerance for wildlife, even when they were living in areas at high risk of HWC. However, people who had encountered conflicts with wild boar were more likely to have negative attitudes toward other wildlife, even giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). Thus, HWC may lead to the generalization of negative attitudes toward wildlife conservation. In our study area, environmental (e.g., building fences and changing crop types) and social measures (e.g., insurance and ecocompensation) have been implemented to mitigate HWC. Our results can provide an important basis for the allocation of compensation resources and improvement of HWC management in areas of high conservation priority. Future studies should further explore how to develop more personalized HWC management plans based on the characteristics of different regions.

Asiatic lions (Panthera leo leo) have increased in range and abundance in densely populated India, a rare example of coexistence between humans and large carnivores. We sought to determine the underlying mechanisms of this coexistence and to infer lessons that could help conserve carnivores in multiuse landscapes, globally. Using data collected from 2012 to 2017 from conflict-compensation records, we studied the spatiotemporal trends in human-lion conflict across the lion's range in India. We also surveyed 1434 people from 277 villages across the gradient of conflict to better understand their tolerance of lions. The cumulative number of villages that registered attacks on livestock increased by 105 (9.61%) per year, suggestive of an expanding lion population. Livestock killed per village increased by 15% per year, indicative of increasing lion density. Attacks on humans averaged 20.8 (SE 2.3) per year and showed no trend. Attacks on humans were spatially correlated with livestock predation, and both were best explained by proximity to lion tourism areas, lion habitat, and areas with low lion density. Intolerance of lions was related to economic losses (49.8%) and fear of lions (43.9%). Communities that lived longer with lions had higher probability of tolerating lions and practiced livestock-rearing techniques that minimized predation. Human-lion coexistence is common in India as indicated by 61% of respondents being tolerant of lions. This coexistence is related to a mix of sociocultural tolerance, enforced legal protection, government compensation, and mutual adaptation of humans and lions to each other. Lions receive food subsidies from people and space, and local communities have enhanced livelihoods through tourism and bolstered sociocultural norms. Institutionalizing lion-based ecotourism on community lands could support coexistence in the long term. Only through such participatory and profitable land-sharing approaches can we best sync the well-being of local communities with sustainable carnivore conservation.

Effective conservation of migratory species relies on habitat protection throughout their annual cycle. Although protected areas (PAs) play a central role in conservation, their effectiveness at conserving habitats across the annual cycle of migratory species has rarely been assessed. We developed seasonal ecological niche models for 418 migratory butterfly species across their global distribution to assess whether they were adequately represented in the PAs across their full annual cycle. PA coverage was inadequate in at least one season for 84% of migratory butterflies, adequate for only 17% of species in one season, and inadequate for 45% of species in all seasons. There was marked geographic variation in PA coverage: 77% of species met representation targets in Sri Lanka, for example, but only 32% met targets in Italy. Our results suggest that coordinated efforts across multiple countries will be needed to develop international networks of PAs that cover the full annual cycle of migratory insects and that conservation measures, in addition to the establishment and maintenance of PAs, are likely to be needed to effectively conserve these species.

Youth are increasingly recognized for their important role in shaping environmental decisions surrounding conservation. Regrettably, youth who are crucial decision-makers are often excluded from environmental governance spaces due to structural barriers, both economic and political. As highlighted by recent environmental justice literature, this marginalization hinders their active participation in the decision-making process. The recent publication of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Youth Strategy 2022–2030 has brought prominent environmental organizations into the debate. The IUCN World Conservation Congress (WCC) presents a useful example from which to understand how youth access and participate in decision-making at the highest level of governance in a prominent global conservation organization. We used event ethnography and participant observation methods to study the WCC Forum in Marseille, France (2021). We sought to examine the geopolitical intricacies of power and the underlying inequalities at the root of youth engagement, or lack thereof. We considered the IUCN's engagement with youth, outlining the process from previous resolutions and recommendations to the publication of the IUCN Youth Strategy in 2022. The results from the youth narratives we compiled showed that youth are not a monolith, that tokenism should be challenged, and that youth have agency but require support. We argue that when youth are mobilized in metalevel decision-making spaces, their engagement is stratified and unequal. We situated youth engagement in decision-making through the perspective of environmental organizations as a contribution to environmental governance and youth literature.

Integrating diverse disciplines and knowledge practices into conservation offers new insights into the complex socioecological dynamics of conservation challenges and how to address them. Integration, however, is not simple; disciplines differ widely in their epistemic and professional commitments, theories, methods, applications, practices, and codes of ethics. Using an epistemic justice approach, we examined how and why different forms of disciplinary and social diversity are connected and offer a framework for promoting disciplinary diversity for conservation science and practice. This framework draws on a literature review and open-ended responses from surveys of Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) members (n = 577) and nonmembers (n = 213) on experiences of professional and disciplinary exclusion and inclusion collected by SCB's Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force. We propose 4 steps conservation organizations and projects can take to promote disciplinary diversity and inclusion: know your history; understand power dynamics; listen to underrepresented voices; and operationalize disciplinary diversity and inclusion. As members of a highly interdisciplinary and diverse task force, we illustrated this framework through reflections on our shared experiences working together and the challenges and opportunities we faced.

In Assam state, northeastern India, human–elephant conflict mitigation has included technocentric measures, such as installation of barriers, alternative livelihoods, and afforestation. Such measures treat conflict as a technical problem with linear cause–effect relations and are usually ineffective over the long term because they do not consider how historical conditions have shaped present interactions between humans and elephants. Human–elephant encounters in South Asia, including in Assam, have arisen from colonial and postcolonial land-use policies, ethnic relations, and capital extraction. To disentangle these relations, we conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Udalguri district of Assam among the Adivasi (Tea Tribe) to examine their interactions with wild elephants. Through socioecological ruptures, caused by displacement and deforestation, Adivasi (Tea Tribe) and elephant lives have intersected through space and time. Adivasi (Tea Tribe) life narratives and observations of daily encounters with elephants revealed that their interactions are multifaceted and motivated by multiple factors. Myths and oral testimonies revealed that the community has created conceptualizations of the elephant by closely observing their behavior, especially their movements, diets, vocalizations, and interactions with humans. These conceptualizations are filled with vignettes of shared marginalized lives, caused by the loss of homeland, food poverty, and uncertain ways of living. The empathy, expressed by the Adivasi (Tea Tribe), highlights ways of living with elephants that are affective and reach beyond technocentric interventions. For Adivasi (Tea Tribe) members, cohabitation could thus be achieved by living close to elephants as uneasy neighbors. Concepts of cohabitation, we suggest, could be harnessed to inform conservation policy and bring into focus the critically important—and yet often underutilized—values, encompassed by bottom-up, place-centric understandings of what elephants are and how coexistence may be possible in increasingly anthropogenic landscapes.

Environmental managers struggle with communicating accurate and relevant information and with gaining trust from the communities they serve, problems that are especially pronounced in minority and colonized communities. An important step in developing successful management strategies is partnering directly with the communities involved, but community perceptions are rarely surveyed thoroughly when developing these strategies. We held discussions with 73 people across 22 small groups about their perceptions of environmental issues, with a focus on invasive species, on the island of Guåhan (Guam), a US island territory with a long and continued history of colonization by Western countries. We conducted these small group discussions with long-time residents to learn about their environmental concerns and perceptions of invasive species and management efforts. Using grounded theory, we identified themes concerning apathy, proenvironmental behaviors, frustrations with efficacy, and disconnectedness from environmental decision-making among residents of Guåhan. Residents expressed feeling disconnected from management decisions, which they critiqued as ineffective, but largely felt helpless to affect. Still, residents related to us their proenvironmental behaviors (e.g., picking up litter and controlling invasive species) and expressed a desire to learn more about management efforts. Our results highlight a clear need for improvement and expansion of engagement with Guåhan residents about environmental management, as well as opportunities to engage with a concerned and potentially proactive community.

Free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is now a globally established norm and is a condition of equitable engagement with Indigenous peoples and local communities in biodiversity conservation. However, implementation is frequently questioned in terms of its efficacy in top-down-driven governance contexts. Local officials represent core voices often absent from mainstream discourse. Conservation practices are framed by local discourses, value frameworks, and relationships that offer critical opportunities to tailor localized consent processes. Relative to an FPIC process for a prospective World Heritage Site in Hin Nam No National Park, Laos, we examined the importance of mediation by local officials in a comanagement context. The mediation led to commitments to address long-standing community grievances and reconcile conservation and development relationships in the area. Building the capacity of local officials as critical duty-bearers helped shape rights-based conservation and development outcomes. Enhancing nonconfrontational mechanisms for rights holders to air concerns and dialogue spaces for duty-bearers to respond plays a key role in this respect.