Conservation Letters最新文献

Conservation professionals expect increased attempts to weaken the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) during the second Trump administration. As such, it is important to understand Americans’ level of support for the ESA. Prior research indicates that support for the ESA remained consistently strong across four studies conducted over a two-decade period, 1996–2015. The research presented here extends those observations to six studies conducted over a three-decade period, 1996–2025. We find that support of the ESA over that period has remained consistently high, at about 84%, and opposition has remained consistently low, at about 12%. We also report on other trends and patterns in support for the ESA, highlighting high and growing support for the ESA among politically conservative people and the absence of any rural–urban divide in support for the ESA.

Human behavior shapes both our impact on nature and the success of solutions to safeguard it. We used crime opportunity and deterrence theory, together with methods from epidemiology, to link space–time patterns in 560 rhino poaching incidents (2011–2021) to poacher and ranger behavior in a South African rhino stronghold. Poaching activity was significantly associated with proximity to ranger camps. Together with supplementary evidence we present from internal investigations, this suggests that criminal syndicates collude with some rangers to facilitate poaching. Poachers repeatedly targeted specific regions of the reserve for set periods before shifting, mirroring the “near-repeat” behavior observed for other crimes. Poachers also avoided tourist activity and minimized time on the reserve. Results suggest poachers strategically leverage space–time variation in opportunity and risk. Solutions based on these behavioral insights include early response to space–time clusters of poaching, spatially targeted implementation of rhino dehorning, and bolstering ranger resilience to the corrupting influence of criminal syndicates.

Community-based natural resource management is a common strategy for conserving biodiversity, but little is known about how such initiatives can scale appropriately and widely. We interviewed 80 experts across 5 widely adopted community-based initiatives (in Chile, Nepal, Namibia, Madagascar, and Fiji) to understand their perspectives on the drivers of adoption and spread. We used general elimination methodology and diffusion of innovation theory to identify and rule out possible explanations. Factors consistently considered influential were economic and social benefits, compatibility with needs, support and facilitation by extension agencies, and the presence of international organizations. Initiatives aiming to scale should be designed to be flexible and aligned with adopters’ needs, and external organizations should coordinate resources for scaling out. Dependence on external support underscores the need for quality assistance, good practices by external actors, and understanding power relations and fairness, as well as the need to temper donor and policy expectations of scaling beyond supported and appropriate sites.

The 2018 arrival of African swine fever (ASF) in China was followed by reports of wild pig deaths across most countries in Southeast Asia. However, the magnitude and duration of population-level impacts of ASF on wild pig species remain unclear. To elucidate the spatiotemporal spread of ASF in the region for native pig species, we gathered qualitative information on wild pig population dynamics in Southeast Asia between 2018 and 2024 from 88 expert elicitation questionnaires representing sites in 11 countries. Peak reported population declines occurred in 2021 and 2022, with more than half of respondents reporting declining wild pig populations, far higher than in earlier years. The reported declines waned to 44.23% in 2024, whereas simultaneously, the number of populations reported to be “increasing” increased from 11.3%–13.2% in 2019–2022 to 28.9% in 2024. These reports suggest that the ASF outbreak may have peaked for wild boars and bearded pigs in mainland Southeast Asia, Borneo, and Sumatra, with some subsequent recovery. However, the disease is still expanding into the ranges of island endemic species, such as new reports for the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus celebensis) in September of 2024. Island endemics remain particularly vulnerable to extinction from ASF and require urgent monitoring and conservation action.

The Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) marked a renewed commitment to addressing the global biodiversity crisis. This framework of four goals and 23 interim targets is intended to guide and accelerate conservation efforts over the next 25 years and is more ambitious than its predecessor, the Aichi 2020 targets. However, the pursuit of multilateral agreements is dependent upon national pledges, and the limited success of the Aichi targets shows that national pledges are of little worth without aligned (sub)national action. We assessed the submitted National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans of several member countries to determine their alignment with the bold ambition of the GBF. We find a lack of alignment between the GBF and country submissions across many targets, with the notable exception of Target 3—commonly interpreted as increasing protected area coverage to 30% by 2030. Reflecting on the submissions, recent developments, and our collective experience, we outline key considerations that could help guide future submissions and implementation strategies. We caution against cherry-picking specific targets, highlighting that an overemphasis on Target 3 will fail to achieve the overarching vision of living in harmony with nature. This requires a more holistic and inclusive approach to conservation and a focus on the full suite of GBF targets.

In Asia, carnivore conservation is often focused on charismatic big cats. Opportunities to conserve the entire carnivore guild are frequently overlooked by channeling conservation and mitigation efforts into single-species conservation. We synthesize experiences across Asia to explore these challenges and propose mitigations to maximize conservation benefits for the entire carnivore guild. Seven challenges for wolves (Canis lupus) in Asia are highlighted: wolves (1) have been neglected over decades of single-species conservation, (2) receive less cultural appreciation in many regions, (3) are subject to lax legislation and law enforcement, (4) are often blamed disproportionately for livestock depredation, (5) are often considered more abundant than they are, (6), receive disproportionately little attention from the scientific and conservation communities relative to their ecological importance, and (7) are threatened ecologically and genetically by increasing feral dog populations. As a result, the status of wolves across Asia is poorly documented, there is an enhanced risk of losing significant evolutionary lineages, and it detracts from research and conservation opportunities to preserve the entire carnivore guild. We propose various remedies, such as widening the scope of existing conservation programs, building awareness and knowledge of communities and law enforcement agencies, and more research to inform conservation and legislation.

Dynamic management is intended to mitigate the impacts of human activities on wildlife when and where the activities overlap with at-risk species. Amid an ever-growing maritime industry, we researched the performance of mobile underwater passive acoustic gliders as near real-time monitoring assets for the purpose of whale-vessel strike mitigation through dynamic management. Across 580 glider survey days, 30 near real-time acoustic detections of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) triggered 194 days of mandatory 10-knot vessel speed limits in three Canadian Dynamic Shipping Zones (DSZs). We found a high degree of interannual and seasonal variation in NARW acoustic occurrence and vessel slowdowns in the DSZs. Gliders were more effective than aerial surveillance at triggering slowdowns by a factor of 2–5 during fall and summer but were less effective during spring. Our results provide unambiguous evidence that gliders are effective monitoring platforms that can enhance dynamic ocean management goals globally.

Unsustainable wildlife trade is a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Effective wildlife trade governance is critical for conservation and requires international cooperation and coordination to regulate an industry valued at hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Yet, due to increasing polarization over consumptive wildlife use, certain countries have become disenfranchised by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the primary mechanism for regulating international wildlife trade. Tensions within CITES are rising over the elephant ivory and rhino horn trade, where polarization has pushed ten Southern African Development Community countries to suggest an outright withdrawal from CITES. The denunciation of CITES by such a large and ecologically significant bloc would substantially weaken the integrity, credibility, and stature of the Convention. There is a contemporary precedent to reference: Japan left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 2019 due to polarization over commercial whaling. Here, we examine the common threads between these two cases: changing organizational ethos, polarization amongst members, influence of non-state actors, and loss of decidability for dissenting nations. Taking critical lessons from Japan's IWC withdrawal, we propose various options for structural reforms in CITES to restore decidability, enable equitability, and implement inclusive decision-making.

The conservation of crop genetic diversity by farmers has been well studied, but little has been documented for farmed fish. Here, we show how indigenous farmers conserve the genetic diversity of a farmed fish species—the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), locally known as paddy field carp (PF-carp)—within the paddy ecosystem. The PF-carp have been cocultured with rice in paddy fields (i.e., rice-fish coculture) by multiethnic farmers for thousands of years in southwestern China. Although converging to a similar morphological shape as an adaptation to the paddy ecosystem, PF-carp have diverged into diverse phenotypes, displaying high genetic diversity and a distinct genetic structure pattern. Farmers from different ethnic groups showed distinct preferences for fish, resulting in phenotypic diversity and genetic variation. A large number of multiethnic farmers participated in fish propagation, thereby maintaining a high level of genetic diversity in PF-carp. Our results highlight the critical role of indigenous farmers in preserving local genetic diversity and mitigating genetic degradation.