Conservation Letters最新文献

Trees on farms not only provide agricultural and environmental benefits but can also contribute to food security. We use panel data covering a 10-year period from the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) to examine the effects of trees on farms on people's dietary quality in rural Malawi. We found that having on-farm trees leads to higher and more diverse fruit and vegetable consumption. Specifically, households who had trees on their farm (or who acquired trees during the 10-year period) exhibited a 3% increase in vegetable consumption compared to households without trees. Moreover, for every additional tree species owned or acquired by a household during the study period, fruit consumption increased by 5%. These results demonstrate that trees on farms may play a role in meeting nutrition, conservation, and climate change mitigation goals, with important implications for sustainable development strategies in low- and middle-income countries.

Maintaining ecological connectivity is crucial for biodiversity, yet effectively managing interconnected areas through actor collaboration is challenging. This study examines collaboration through social–ecological fit in interconnected aquatic “blue” and terrestrial “green” areas, encompassing natural and semi-natural elements, in human-dominated landscapes. Combining species distribution models and connectivity analyses focused on declining amphibians and survey data on actors’ area management and collaboration within interconnected areas, we create a spatially explicit social–ecological network that we analyze using network models. Results highlight diverse ecological dependencies shaping actor interactions. Strong collaboration is observed in interconnected blue-rural-green areas, whereas blue-urban-green areas lack collaboration, with minor rivers and urban-green spaces at the network's core plagued by social–ecological misfit. Strengthening collaboration in these areas is essential to prevent further ecological network degradation. Incorporating a spatially explicit social–ecological perspective covering diverse blue and green areas guides targeted interventions and fosters effective conservation policy and practice.

Globally, hundreds of thousands of rangers patrol protected areas every day. The data they collect have immense potential for monitoring biodiversity and threats to it. Technologies like SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool), which facilitate the management of ranger-collected data, have enhanced this potential. However, based on our experience across diverse use cases and geographies, we have found that ranger-based monitoring is often implemented without a clear plan for how the data will inform management and without critical evaluation of whether the data are reliable enough to meet specific monitoring goals. Here we distill six key lessons and present a decision framework to guide funders, governments, protected area managers, and NGOs toward more effective use of ranger-based monitoring for protected area management and suggest when alternative monitoring approaches may add value. Essential considerations include the welfare and motivation of rangers, biases in patrol coverage and detectability, the capacity to analyze data, and the buy-in of those tasked with using the data to inform management decisions. When implemented well, ranger-based monitoring can help improve conservation outcomes through evaluating management interventions, more efficient deployment of limited law enforcement budgets to optimize the deterrence of illegal activities, and basic ecological monitoring.

Banning wildlife trade is an immediate measure to protect species from overexploitation. Yet, regulations on the harvest and use of natural resources might have unintended side effects beyond the policy goals. Few causal inference studies have investigated the consequences of wildlife trade bans. We use the synthetic difference-in-differences causal inference approach based on an 11-year online trade dataset to explore whether trade bans on three threatened species in Japan—giant water bugs (Kirkaldyia deyrolli), Tokyo salamanders (Hynobius tokyoensis), and golden venus chub (Hemigrammocypris neglectus)—have spillover effects on trades of substitutable nonbanned species. We found spillover effects of wildlife trade bans, leading to an increase in sales of nonbanned species in each taxon. This effect lasted over a year only for water bugs. Our results raise concerns about the unintended consequences of trade bans and underscore the importance of additional efforts concerning consumer research, monitoring and enforcement beyond the policy-targeted species.

Conservation investments do not operate within a zero-sum paradigm, but instead provide opportunities for co-benefits across sustainable development and conservation goals. Recognizing the interconnectedness of conservation efforts within socioenvironmental systems can amplify support for conservation actions, ultimately creating additional co-benefits across the social, ecological, and economic sectors. As an ecologically diverse taxonomic group with broad conservation needs, we explore how conserving bats contributes to both biodiversity and society's economic and social needs. We align bat conservation goals with Global Biodiversity Framework targets and explore their contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The benefits of targeted bat conservation actions extend beyond species-level conservation goals and the preservation of bat-derived ecosystem services, encompassing broader contributions to global sustainability goals. Our findings underscore the potential for conservation investments to generate positive outcomes across multiple sectors, fostering sustainability and resilience within socioenvironmental systems.

Conservation AI—the deliberate application of artificial intelligence technology to achieve conservation goals—has great potential to boost productivity, make existing conservation actions more efficient, and enable entirely new areas of activity. However, it also comes with risks, including AI being used by bad actors; high material demand for energy, land, and water; biases in training datasets; AI-fueled techno-optimism distracting from other actions; and undesirable changes in staffing and working practices in the conservation sector. Changes in wider society brought about by AI in areas such as agriculture, human health, and labor markets may also have significant impacts on biodiversity (whether positive or negative), as these are major drivers of biodiversity loss. This article reviews the various links between AI and conservation, arguing that to date there has been too much techno-optimism and a lack of attention to risks and broader implications. It concludes with recommendations for how conservation could approach AI more effectively by considering risks and potential unintended consequences; adopting a principle of transparency; ensuring AI does not harm the staff, skills, and independence of the conservation sector; and investing in research and advocacy to address the conservation implications of wider societal changes caused by AI.

Humans have caused pervasive wildlife habitat loss by transforming most of the Earth's terrestrial surface, while unexpectedly limited species have consequently gone extinct. The concept of time-lagged extinction (i.e., an extinction debt) potentially explains this paradox, but the starting time of the process is difficult to estimate. Herein, by projecting extinction risk backward onto human perturbation time series, we applied a statistical framework to examine extinction debt for 8435 terrestrial avian species. The results suggested that the modern extinction risk induced by anthropogenic terrestrial land modification began 150 years ago, aligning with the acceleration of human activities since the Second Industrial Revolution. Intriguingly, we found a reversal of anthropogenic effects on extinction risk over the mid-20th century, perhaps driven by spatiotemporal contrasts in anthropogenic perturbations between developed and developing areas. These findings indicate the need for proactive conservation and highlight the role of ecosystem restoration in the potential repayment of extinction debt.

Evaluating the effectiveness of freshwater protected areas (FPAs) is crucial for improving their performance, yet evidence remains limited. Using remote sensing and field surveys from 2001 to 2017, we examined FPA coverage, their efficacy in preventing species decline and habitat deterioration, and strategies to enhance FPA effectiveness for the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis). FPAs failed to cover nearly half of high-abundance regions and two thirds of medium-abundance areas. Despite initially better conditions, FPAs experienced similar or greater species declines and habitat deterioration. Porpoise distribution closely correlated to habitat conditions, with abundance declining most in severely degraded floodplains while remaining stable or increasing in less disturbed areas. To improve FPA performance, we recommend expanding protection to medium- and high-abundance areas to better cover key porpoise habitats and enhancing existing FPAs through stricter law enforcement, proactive management, and targeted restoration. These strategies are reinforced by China's new legal and policy framework for Yangtze River protection, providing a foundation for long-term conservation.

Horseshoe crabs are unique living fossils that have remained almost unaltered through 400 million years of global change. They face rapid worldwide declines under increasing anthropogenic pressure. Using comprehensive geographic and genomic sampling combined with approaches that integrate DNA with environmental and climatic datasets, we assessed the population genetic structure, demographic histories, and vulnerability to future climate change in three out of four extant horseshoe crab species, all centered in Asia. Our study highlights that the Sunda Shelf, a complex and dynamic shallow-marine landscape, has been the sole repository of most genetic diversity among all three Asian species, and therefore crucial to the long-term survival of horseshoe crabs. Our study not only provides the first genomic baseline data for the evaluation of Asian horseshoe crabs’ conservation status but also identifies core habitats that potentially act as refugia and corridors for Asian horseshoe crab populations with impending anthropogenic global warming.

Typically, Western Science approaches the study of complex systems by examining the component parts outside of their contextual relationships. In contrast, Indigenous people continue to advocate the need for land and seascape approaches that include all aspects of life, particularly the special relationship between Kin (people), Country, and Knowledge. Globally, Indigenous people are lobbying for environmental research to take a rights-based approach that improves economic opportunities; confers greater authority over the stewardship of Country; delivers equity in managing Country; emboldens control to integrate knowledge systems; values and promotes culture; and recognizes Indigenous self-determination. In Australia, the National Indigenous Environment Research Network (NIERN) proposal offers a solution that supports the rights-based approach driven by Indigenous Australians through the establishment of a community of practice guided by Indigenous researchers and Indigenous Knowledge holders. We describe this Indigenous-led solution to the self-determination of Indigenous environmental research priorities by exploring the concept, the authorizing environment, and the mutual benefits that could be delivered by such a network. The empowerment of Indigenous people in research is possible if an all-of-system approach is taken. This approach must involve Indigenous people in all decision-making processes including the development of research priorities, the design of methodologies, the interpretation of findings, and finally the evaluation of outputs and outcomes.