Conservation Letters最新文献

National Parks are under threat from multiple interacting climatic changes, which have already triggered transformations in these protected landscapes. We conducted a multidimensional analysis of climate-change vulnerability for National Parks to identify which parks are most at risk of climate-change impacts and therefore in the greatest need of targeted climate-change vulnerability assessment and planning. We identified 174 (67%) parks as most exposed to one or more potentially transformative climate impacts including fire, drought, sea-level rise, and forest pests and diseases. Cumulative vulnerability across multiple dimensions was the highest for parks in the Midwest and eastern United States due to high physical exposures, the exacerbation of existing stressors, and high surrounding land-use intensity. Western parks exhibited lower cumulative vulnerability due to less intense land use and topography that may provide climatic refugia. However, western parks tended to be most exposed to multiple transformative impacts. These widespread, diverse threats highlight not only the need for coordinated evaluation of vulnerabilities from multiple perspectives, but also the need for park managers to evaluate and plan for potentially irreversible ecological changes to the landscapes and resources that parks are intended to preserve.

Conservation science has substantial capacity to analyze a range of risks to species. We identify an additional form of risk for biodiversity: The risk that legal protections may be scaled back or repealed as a result of political changes. We demonstrate the importance of “political extinction risk” through an analysis of the implications of a partial repeal of the federal Endangered Species Act, removing protections for species on private lands. Such a repeal reduces protections for all species from hunting by over one-third, and from habitat modification by over 40%. Loss of protections vary significantly by species, across states, and by taxonomic group. In particular, more charismatic taxonomic groups generally have higher levels of protection relative to less charismatic groups. Our results highlight the importance of political risks for conservation.

Species protection laws, like the US Endangered Species Act (ESA), are key tools for reversing biodiversity loss. One important question concerns whether legal protection can be phased out once a species is considered recovered and how this affects population dynamics. We used Bayesian hierarchical models and time series of annual population size estimates for gray wolves (Canis lupus) across eight US states to assess how annual population growth rates were affected by the proportion of each year that each wolf population was not listed under the ESA. We found that between 1979 and 2022, delisting had an overall negative effect on the growth rate of wolf populations. This effect remained after accounting for potential confounders like density dependence. The resulting growth rates after 1 year unlisted varied between the different states’ populations and included short-term declines as well as population stabilization and continued growth at slower rates over longer terms.

International conservation policy includes the dual aims of protecting biodiversity and nature's contributions to people (NCP). Achieving these goals requires protecting not only species and habitats but also the networks of biotic interactions that sustain them. Food webs, which represent predator-prey interactions between species, are increasingly recognised as a link between ecosystem structure, function, and resilience, which are concepts that are frequently cited in conservation policy. Yet, conservation planning and policy typically focus on individual species and habitats and overlook the interactions that support their persistence. We review the literature at the intersection of food web ecology and conservation, and highlight how food webs can inform three conservation goals: preventing species extinctions, maintaining ecosystem functions and NCP, and fostering ecosystem resilience. Food web data and metrics, such as interaction diversity, trophic diversity, connectance, or modularity, can be used to prioritize species that are key to ecosystem structure and functioning, and to guide spatial prioritization to protect functionally diverse and resilient communities. Given the growing availability of food web data, incorporating food webs in conservation planning can lead to more effective and resilient conservation outcomes that sustain biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the long term.

Environmental crimes pose harms and risks to socioecological systems, driving biodiversity loss. A 2024 resolution at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime prompted stakeholders to discuss a new international framework for addressing crimes that affect the environment. Advocates say existing multilateral efforts are insufficient for addressing environmental crime; opponents say creating a new framework could dilute efforts to reduce environmental harms, and other approaches are more suitable for the nuances of environmental crime. These debates encouraged us to probe the concept of positive criminology for environmental crime. We review the concept and present key theories informing the harm-reduction processes central to positive criminology's theory of change. Five positive criminology inputs have touchpoints with conservation that could result in desired outcomes and impacts for harm reduction, halting and reversing loss of biodiversity: community policing, crime desistance, problem-solving courts, restorative justice, and strength-based programs. Regardless of whether the framework is updated or includes environmental crime, positive criminology is an intriguing theory of change with broad potential applicability to conservation policy and practice focused on halting and reversing loss of biodiversity.

Mining is a significant driver of biodiversity loss, with impacts expected to escalate due to rising metal demand for the energy transition. However, global assessments of mining impacts are still in their infancy, as global biodiversity models overlook many relevant impact pathways. Here, we present a comprehensive synthesis of the biodiversity impact pathways of mining to inform the conservation and modeling community, as well as the policies and corporate actions to address these impacts. Our review highlights pollution, primarily driven by the disposal of reactive waste materials, as the most diverse pathway, especially in freshwater ecosystems, where acid mine drainage, heavy metal contamination, and sedimentation result in significant ecological impairment. Mining-induced habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and hydrological disruptions further exacerbate biodiversity loss. To improve the representation of mining impacts in biodiversity models, we recommend incorporating pollution effects and refining the representation of physical habitat change effects. Future modeling efforts should also consider cumulative and interactive effects to ensure comprehensive impact estimation. Our findings provide a roadmap for more accurate global biodiversity models, aiding informed conservation and policy initiatives in light of assessing the cumulative impacts of increasing mineral demand for the energy transition.

Gender equality is a key target for conservation but is often treated as a women's issue with limited attention to the roles of men and masculinities in perpetuating unequal gender relations. This paper provides a qualitative systematic review of academic literature on “masculinities”—actions, norms, and values associated with men—in the conservation sector and synthesizes the reported effects of masculinities on conservation science, policy, and practice. We adopt a performative and intersectionality-inspired approach, recognizing that masculinities may be performed by men, women, nonbinary, and gender-diverse people, and that gender interacts with other dimensions of identity such as race, age, and (dis)ability. We found that the current literature primarily reports conservation masculinities performed by White men in Global North and settler-colonial contexts. The most common actions and norms were the exercise of control/authority, rationalism, and strength, and the most common effects were the marginalization of others, prioritization of natural sciences over other knowledge, and support for policies such as protected areas and militarization. Explicitly addressing the dominance of such masculinities, as well as the conditions through which their dominance is enabled and rewarded, may contribute towards gender equality and to more just and effective forms of conservation.

A core rationale for wildlife conservation incentive programs is their ability to catalyze habitat provision on private lands. Stewardship drop refers to the magnitude and timing of the decreased landowner effort that most notably occurs after a landowner completes a conservation incentive program. We examined how landowner and land use characteristics, motivations for program participation, perceptions of land management effort, and program characteristics were related to habitat quality across stages of a program. We used a mail survey to examine engagement and perceptions of habitat management across landholders, from newly enrolled to those in the post-completion stage. We conducted on-site habitat assessments for a subsample of landowners to assess habitat condition. We found that habitat condition ratings decreased before program completion, during the monitoring stage, and remained at a similar level afterward. Stewardship drop was primarily associated with completed agreements and longer contracts. Programs should anticipate erosion by including mechanisms that support landowners throughout the program and during the transition as contracts conclude. We highlight the timing of payments as a structural fix and a relational monitoring approach as promising ways to mitigate stewardship drop.