Global COVID-19 lockdown highlights humans as both threats and custodians of the environment. Biological Conservation, 263, 109175

The quasi-experimental conditions of the global COVID-19 lockdown can illuminate new paths for our role as stewards of nature. On April 5th, 2020, it was estimated that 4.4 billion people were a ff ected by lockdown measures (i.e. 57% of the world ’ s population). First impressions and reports led to the belief that reducing human presence and mobility only positively a ff ected ecosystems. However, a more detailed and area-speci fi c analysis reveals that humans also have a key role as custodians of nature, which was also negatively impacted by the lockdown. In Bates et al. (2021), nearly 350 scientists present data from 67 di ff erent countries about the e ff ects of the global COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 on the relationship of humans with wildlife and ecosystems. The study aggregates media reports, qualitative observations, and more than 300 responses on wildlife using data provided by scienti fi c monitoring programmes covering large geographic areas. In total, more than 1.000 assessments are integrated to under-stand both the positive and negative e ff ects of the lockdown and how these interact in four main areas: 1) human mobility and activity, 2) biodiversity threats, 3) wildlife responses, and 4) social structures and systems for conservation. In a highly intercon-nected globalised society, in a matter of days, air travel decreased by 75%, driving by 41%, and marine tra ffi c by 9%, while humans stayed most of their time at home. This phenomenon, which provides quasi-experimental conditions for studying the impact of human activity on nature, was named anthropause by Rutz et al. (2020). The fi rst set of observations of Bates et al. (2021) renders visible the unexpected negative consequences of the lack of human presence, surveillance, and active conservation e ff orts for biodiversity. In countries where outdoor activities were allowed, visits to