Conservation Letters最新文献

Rewilding is increasingly adopted as a novel, process-oriented restoration approach worldwide, yet little knowledge exists on commonalities and differences in rewilding practice. This study systematically examines rewilding projects enlisted on the European Rewilding Network (n = 89) from a social-ecological perspective. Using qualitative content analysis and hierarchical clustering, we assess the diversity of rewilding strategies by comparing ecological and socioeconomic goals, types of interventions, targeted ecological processes, and people's assigned roles in rewilding. Six distinct rewilding strategies emerged: “megaherbivore rewilding”, “multi-intervention rewilding”, “ecosystem restoration”, “species breeding and reintroduction”, “fostering human-wildlife coexistence”, and “wild nature protection”. Our findings highlight (1) recurring patterns in rewilding practices across contexts, (2) co-occurrences between ecological and socioeconomic elements in shaping rewilding practices, and (3) variability in people's roles depending on the rewilding strategy pursued. The findings can support knowledge transfer and cross-site learning among researchers and practitioners, and the development of tailored policy and planning tools.

Hybridization has long been a central topic in evolution and conservation. Recent developments in genomics have increased the ability to detect hybridization, defined here as breeding between species, subspecies or distinct populations, and assess levels of introgression between taxa. For decades, hybrids directly or indirectly created and/or spread by humans have typically been considered as threats to conservation, reflected by current regional and national environmental policies that focus largely on potential negative effects. In the context of the latest global conservation policy goals, and increasing evidence of historic natural hybridization events, we call for science-based, reflective and context-dependent management of hybrids, applying a framework that shifts focus towards measuring the impact of hybrids, and assessing potential risks and benefits. Alongside demographic and ecological information, it is crucial for impact assessments to consider genetic information, and conservation management of hybrids needs to be more case-specific.

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) play pivotal roles in global ecosystem functioning, underpinning agricultural productivity and biodiversity maintenance through their pollination services. Over the past century, although advances in modern beekeeping have contributed to significant enhancement in hive output, efficiency, and economic viability, the relentless pursuit of optimized productivity and colony health has inadvertently intensified management dependencies, necessitating routine interventions such as artificial queen replacement, systematic queen rearing, and colony-wide disease treatments. These practices have exacerbated the development of genetic bottlenecks, thereby reducing the capacity of honey bees to evolve resistance traits, owing to the loss of genetic variation. This, in turn, undermines long-term colony resilience and adaptive potential, rendering honey bee populations increasingly susceptible to emerging biotic and abiotic threats. To address these challenges, sustainable apiculture demands a paradigm shift toward integrative conservation strategies that contribute to the preservation and enhancement of genetic diversity. This balanced approach should include expanding queen genetic foundations, establishing multi-trait breeding objectives, implementing controlled introgression from wild populations, and adopting sustainable disease management, with the imperative of economic value, as well as strengthening stakeholder collaborations, to safeguard the health, resilience, and productivity of honey bee colonies worldwide.

Cheung, H., D. W. S. Challender, M. Anagnostou, et al. 2025. “Protect the Integrity of CITES: Lessons From Japan's IWC Withdrawal to Keep Polarization From Tearing CITES Apart.” Conservation Letters 18: e13099. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13099.

The funding statement for this article was updated. The following funding statement has been updated to the article:

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New biodiversity and ecosystem reporting frameworks require companies to collect data on multifaceted impacts on complex ecological systems over space and time while offering them limited guidance on how to do so. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Earth Observation (EO) are powerful tools that can help make this reporting efficient and actionable. However, before companies can fulfill their crucially important role in improving the state of nature, they will need guidance from the scientific community to identify meaningful yet scalable metrics for data collection, responsibly apply AI-enabled EO to reporting workflows, and empower the reporting workforce.

Over the past decade, illuminating gillnets with LED lights or chemical lightsticks has emerged as a promising solution to reduce sea turtle bycatch while maintaining target fish catch across multiple ocean basins. However, LED lights require replaceable batteries, and chemical lightsticks only last 24 h, leading to recurring operational costs for fishers and concerns over battery and lightstick disposal. To overcome these challenges, we developed a light that (1) harnesses solar energy to illuminate gillnets; (2) flashes at a duty cycle optimized for power consumption under different fishing durations; and (3) is designed to function as a buoy, providing easy integration of the technology into existing fishing gear. Controlled fishery experiments in Mexico's Gulf of California revealed that solar-powered illuminated nets significantly reduced predicted mean sea turtle bycatch rates by 63% while maintaining target fish catch. These results suggest that fisheries bycatch can be mitigated by harnessing energy from the sun, representing a novel and renewable bycatch reduction technology with potential for global applicability.

The loss of species represents critical ecological events with far-reaching implications for conservation biology. Accurate determinations of population status are therefore essential. Erroneous declarations of extinction or extirpation can lead to legal and policy inertia, the premature termination of recovery efforts, and the ongoing degradation of critical habitat. These outcomes ultimately heighten the risk to any remaining individuals and undermine Indigenous peoples’ cultural ways of life within which species are embedded. This study challenges the status designation of a caribou population with empirical evidence derived from a traditional ecological knowledge-based conservation monitoring program initiated by West Moberly First Nations in the western subarctic of Canada. Relational, field-based methods confirmed the presence of caribou where the governments of British Columbia and Canada had declared the species extirpated. These results necessitate an urgent reassessment not only of the status of the specific caribou subpopulation but also of broader conservation strategies, land use policies, and environmental monitoring. More fundamentally, the study underscores the imperative to center Indigenous knowledges in conservation biology and to critically examine the epistemic foundations that underpin species status determinations and recovery planning.

Attention to the overwhelming degradation in the marine environment is causing a new crisis: funding often outpaces the science, leading to myriad, often hastily planned, projects that may be accelerating the detriment of the very ecosystems they are meant to restore. We offer an unbiased assessment of this problem with a particular focus on artificial reefs, one of the most abundant and fastest growing marine infrastructure types globally, which gets particular attention because of claims of their ability to save coral reefs and fisheries. We offer solutions to safeguard against the potential of ecological harm and the distortions of greenwashing.