Environmental Management最新文献

Trail management in protected natural areas seeks to maximize opportunities for outdoor recreation and the provision of cultural ecosystem services while minimizing deleterious changes to trail-associated natural resources. The field’s interdisciplinarity, drawing on recreation ecology, trail science, and restoration ecology, enriches the knowledge base and practice of trail management, yet it can also lead to inconsistent use and application of cross-disciplinary terminology. We conducted a systematic literature review with summative content analysis to examine four term sets: (i) terms for deleterious physical changes affecting trail usability (impact, damage, degradation), (ii) terms for the creation of new trails (construction, build), (iii) terms for the care of existing trails (maintenance, repair), and (iv) terms for reversing trail degradation (rehabilitation, restoration, renaturalization, recovery), whether to return a trail to functional use or to advance ecological restoration toward a designated reference. Based on this analysis, we introduce two conceptual outputs that organize terminology and map relationships among terms. Finally, to translate these outputs into practice, we present a decision-making flowchart to support managers in selecting trail interventions aligned with explicit management goals. Clarifying overlaps and transitions among principal terms can improve communication among stakeholders, help identify ecological thresholds, and guide timely choices between sustaining functional trail use and shifting toward strategies that emphasize biodiversity conservation.

Conservation planning provides a structured, step-by-step process for making informed decisions by identifying, developing, and implementing actions to achieve specific goals and objectives. To date, there are limited examples within the academic literature that describe Indigenous-led conservation planning processes. Our research documents an Indigenous-led conservation planning initiative led by Xeni Gwet’in First Nation Government as they worked to design a wildlife management strategy for their Caretaker Area, located in British Columbia, Canada. Using a case-based approach, we describe the Xeni Gwet’in wildlife management strategy planning process— which included scoping, honoring the past, data inventory and review, action prioritization, and engagement— and associated strengths and challenges. Beyond the Xeni Gwet’in context, we distill adaptive planning tools and lessons learned for others— including Indigenous Nations and communities interested in conservation planning, and non-Indigenous governments and collaborators seeking to support Indigenous approaches to conservation, stewardship, and wildlife governance.

Forest expansion is an important climate mitigation strategy in support of decarbonization efforts. Estimates of land-based potential for forest expansion and other natural climate solutions typically neglect key social dimensions that shape land conversion opportunity. Building on our previous work that examines landowner willingness to expand forest, our analysis integrates estimates of potential for converting land into forest with social preferences of private landowners in New York, United States. We estimate that, when accounting for landowner willingness and excluding land in active agriculture, the maximum amount of land where there is opportunity in New York is 352,000 acres, about one-fifth of the State’s 1.7-million-acre goal. Support for local conservation practitioners and landowner-tailored programming must be expanded to meet climate mitigation goals.

Riparian forests are key ecosystems for mitigating the adverse effects of climate change due to their high potential for carbon sequestration and storage. However, the dynamics of scientific production on carbon in these ecosystems remain poorly understood. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, aiming to identify temporal trends, geographic distribution, collaboration networks, and socioeconomic factors associated with scientific production on the topic. Descriptive statistics, co-authorship network analysis, and a negative binomial regression model were used to assess the influence of variables such as GDP, life expectancy, literacy rate, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions growth, and disaster risk from natural extreme events on global scientific production. A total of 921 studies were cataloged, with the United States (n = 92), Indonesia (n = 85), and China (n = 82) showing the highest number of studies. The United States led international collaboration. A significant positive effect of disaster risk was observed on the number of publications (β = 0.0524; p < 0.001), indicating that greater exposure to extreme natural events is associated with increased research on riparian forest carbon. GDP also showed a statistically significant association with scientific production, although with a weak effect, reflecting its role as a structural capacity factor rather than a primary driver. Other socioeconomic variables were not statistically significant. Therefore, scientific production appears to be governed by a dual mechanism, combining structural research capacity, represented by GDP, and contextual environmental pressure, represented by disaster risk.

Mining activities have expanded rapidly in the Amazon, generating ecological, social, and health concerns. Although the number of publications addressing mining impacts has grown, studies often lack integrative assessments. Here, we provide a systematic synthesis of how the ecological impacts of mining in the Amazon have been framed in the scientific literature over the last 30 years (1995–2025). We analysed 462 peer-reviewed articles and applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify the main themes discussed in the literature and the research gaps that structure this field. Twelve topics emerged and were grouped into five categories: Pollution and Toxicology, Land Use, Social–Ecological Systems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health, and Monitoring and Assessment. The most prevalent topics were mercury bioaccumulation, human mercury exposure, and post-mining restoration, highlighting persistent concerns with toxicological pathways and ecosystem recovery. In contrast, environmental monitoring & impact indicators, disease hotspots, and landscape changes due to resource extraction were the least represented, revealing limited attention to broader-scale ecological processes and early-warning indicators. Semantic similarity analysis showed close relationships among topics linked to contaminant pathways and human health, as well as between landscape alteration and stream biodiversity. The co-occurrence–based dissimilarity analysis revealed weak connections among several topic pairs and highlighted substantial gaps, particularly the infrequent association between monitoring indicators and either toxicological or biodiversity-focused studies. Together, these findings reveal structural imbalances in the scientific agenda. Bridging ecological, toxicological, and socio-political perspectives is essential to support evidence-based responses and safeguard both biodiversity and human well-being in the Amazon.

Over the past 25 years, adaptive co-management (ACM) has gained prominence as a collaborative and learning-oriented response to complex and uncertain conditions of social-ecological systems (SES). This scoping review synthesizes ACM research published between 2010 and 2024, and builds on an initial systematic review of ACM scholarship from 2000 to 2010. In this latest review, 153 studies were identified and analyzed to: (1) characterize ACM literature over time, (2) determine the intents and key subjects of ACM scholarship, (3) discover and summarize further key contributions, and (4) determine policy, practice, and research implications. Findings show that ACM scholarship has grown steadily, with empirical, case-based studies continuing to dominate. Research remains geographically concentrated in North America, Europe, and Asia. Common resource domains include forestry, fisheries, and water, although new application contexts have emerged. Prominent topics include learning, social networks, and participatory evaluation, the latter marking a notable shift in the field. While definitional ambiguity persists, the literature reveals deepening theoretical engagement and wider application across contexts and issues. Despite progress, gaps remain in evaluating ACM outcomes and clarifying its relational foundations. Further, this review highlights pragmatic implications for policy and practice, alongside a broad agenda for future research. A range of issues have emerged as focal points for further consideration, including reflections on the life-cycle of ACM, ongoing challenges of fragmentation related to ACM scholarship, the role of evidence-based approaches to assess ACM outcomes, and the need for methodological innovation. Overall, ACM remains a relevant and maturing framework for navigating social-ecological complexity, with a growing but cautious optimism about the benefits of adaptive co-management reflected in the literature.

North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are increasingly being used to achieve restoration goals, prompting practitioners to engage with private landowners in efforts to promote beaver coexistence. Through 23 semi-structured interviews with restoration practitioners in Oregon, USA, we explored how practitioners from government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), service organizations, and private businesses communicate with private landowners about nonlethal beaver management and habitat creation. Using abductive analysis, we identified trust-building as an essential element of restoration practice. Practitioners described 60 tactics for building trust, which we organized using the Shared Foundations model of trust and distrust and the adaptive management cycle to bridge theory with field-based experience. Practitioners also reported navigating tensions between tactics and adapting their approaches to individual landowners and contexts. We argue that trust-building is a craft that can be mastered, propose a potential progression from novice to master trust-builder, and highlight the need for greater attention to trust, relationships, and trust repair in environmental management. Our findings offer a theoretically grounded yet practitioner-informed framework for understanding and improving trust-building efforts in restoration practice.

Growing awareness of the critical role Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) play in biodiversity conservation has underscored the need to shift conservation practices towards empowering IPLCs, supporting their land rights, traditional practices, and facilitating their political involvement. Despite IPLCs governing over 32% of global land, historically these communities have faced systemic marginalization and violence in the name of conservation. In response, international calls to action and policies have aimed to enhance IPLC participation in environmental governance through mechanisms like co-management. Adaptive Co-management (ACM) emerges as a promising approach, combining adaptive management’s flexibility with co-management’s collaborative principles. This study evaluates the ACM framework within the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area (MKRCA) in the Peruvian Amazon, established to protect the ancestral lands and biocultural resources of the Maijuna and Kichwa communities. Using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)-informed approach, we conducted interviews with 36 community members to assess their perspectives on the MKRCA’s co-management. Findings reveal significant improvements in resource abundance and community safety but also highlight issues with governmental support, communication, and equitable participation. Highly engaged participants voiced the strongest criticisms, underscoring how participation level shaped perceptions of governance. Recommendations were derived from participant perspectives but synthesized by the authors rather than fully co-developed. The study emphasizes the need for continuous evaluation and enhanced stakeholder engagement to optimize ACM’s effectiveness, offering culturally responsive recommendations to strengthen the MKRCA’s management and achieve its conservation objectives.

Protected area management has shifted towards holistic, ecosystem-based approaches that consider human-environment interactions. This includes the concept of benefit-sharing, which remains underexplored in the context of Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP), Ethiopia. Using the BMNP as a case study, the research (i) assessed existing benefit-sharing mechanisms, (ii) investigated community acceptance of existing benefit-sharing mechanisms, (iii) assessed the equity and fairness of benefit-sharing in BMNP, (iv) investigated the decision-making process in benefit-sharing mechanisms, and (v) assessed the challenges of operationalizing the benefit-sharing mechanisms. A mixed-methods approach involving household surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions was employed, with respondents selected using multistage sampling. The findings suggest that, while BMNP has the potential to employ various benefit-sharing mechanisms, benefits are mainly derived from ecotourism and non-timber forest products. The existing benefit-sharing structure operates mainly through community user groups, but the benefits, delivered in the form of direct payments, community development projects, and capacity-building initiatives, are very limited. This reflects a weak and poorly coordinated benefit-sharing structure within the park. The results also revealed that community acceptance of existing benefit-sharing mechanisms varied significantly across districts bordering the park, which is attributed to unequal access to benefits across districts, and socioeconomic disparities, particularly the income levels of households. The study showed that 52.3% of the respondents expressed dissatisfaction with existing benefit-sharing mechanisms due to the lack of transparency and community involvement in benefit-sharing decisions. At the same time, decision-making processes were also reported to be male-dominated. The existing benefit-sharing mechanisms are fundamentally constrained by the lack of transparency, trust and a clear approach, further compounded by limited skilled manpower and financial resources, making them unsatisfactory in their current form. We suggest that the BMNP further expand benefit-sharing through community-based ecotourism, participatory forest management, and controlled hunting zones. In addition, a well-structured benefit-sharing mechanism is needed to create a win-win situation, ensuring both ecological integrity and economic benefits. Strong political will and commitment are essential to establishing a tourism revenue-sharing policy that ensures that local communities receive their fair share, fostering ownership and support for the park.