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Greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector will be lower if the rising demand for bioenergy is met with worldwide protection for areas important for biodiversity and carbon storage, shows this IIASA policy brief.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the land-use sector will be lower if the rising demand for bioenergy is met with worldwide protection for areas important for biodiversity and carbon storage, shows this IIASA policy brief.

27 páginas ; El presente artículo tiene como objetivo realizar un análisis sobre el marco jurídico existente en torno a los derechos a la participación y al acceso a la información pública, para ser aplicado a la conservación de la biodiversidad (en particular de los bosques y de los humedales) en Argentina. El mismo será enfocado a partir de la revisión de normativa, de una selección de casos jurisprudenciales, desde el impacto generado por el derecho penal ambiental argentino y a través del análisis de otras modalidades de participación regional. De esta forma, queremos plantear el interrogante respecto a si más allá de contar con las herramientas jurídicas que nos brindan la posibilidad de implementar acciones vinculadas con la participación pública y con el acceso a la información ambiental, estas son o no bien canalizadas a través del régimen de sanciones brindado por el derecho ambiental argentino. Se realiza un estudio de tipo bibliográfico de normativa, jurisprudencia y de doctrina. Preliminarmente se concluye que los actores sociales cumplen una función clave y complementaria a la del sector público, y que sus derechos requieren ser ejercidos de manera constante, ya que la normativa otorga herramientas cuyos resultados no son siempre reflejados eficientemente en la sociedad. ; The objective of this article is to analyze the current legal framework on the right to participation and the right to access to public information, as applicable to the conservation of biodiversity in Argentina (particularly fo - rests and wetlands). The focus is on a review of regulations and a selection of case law, based on the impact generated by Argentine environmental legislation, and an analysis of other modes of regional participation. The idea is to raise the question as to whether or not, above and beyond having legal tools that afford the possibility of taking action related to public par - ticipation and access to environmental information, these tools are chan - neled effectively through the system of sanctions provided under Argentine environmental law. A bibliographic study of norms, jurisprudence and doc - trine is provided. The preliminary conclusion is that social actors play a key role and one that is complementary to the role of the public sector, and their rights need to be exercised constantly by citizens, since the results of the tools afforded by law are not always reflected efficiently in society.

Presents a case study summarising efforts to obtain prior informed consent for a bioprospecting project that the authors led in Chiapas, Mexico, known as the Maya International Cooperative Biodiversity Group. Describes how the research efforts came under attack from local, national and international NGOs. Argues that these NGOs, as part of their unjustified equation of legitimate access to biological resources with what they call bio-piracy, have usurped the rightful authority of local communities to act on their own behalf concerning the use of their own resources - resources that increasingly represent their best entry point into the world economy. Includes a commentary by Philippe Descola, Chair of Anthropology of Nature at the College de France. (Quotes from original text)

Evolutionary biology has long sought to explain how new traits and new species arise. Darwin maintained that competition is key to understanding this biodiversity and held that selection acting to minimize competition causes competitors to become increasingly different, thereby promoting new traits and new species. Despite Darwin's emphasis, competition's role in diversification remains controversial and largely underappreciated.In their synthetic and provocative book, evolutionary ecologists David and Karin Pfennig explore competition's role in generating and maintaining biodiversity. The authors discuss how selection can lessen resource competition or costly reproductive interactions by promoting trait evolution through a process known as character displacement. They further describe character displacement's underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms. The authors then consider character displacement's myriad downstream effects, ranging from shaping ecological communities to promoting new traits and new species and even fueling large-scale evolutionary trends. Drawing on numerous studies from natural populations, and written for a broad audience, Evolution's Wedge seeks to inspire future research into character displacement's many implications for ecology and evolution

In 2005 the political parties constituting the Norwegian Government declared that they wanted to introduce a nature index providing a picture of developmental trends in Norwegian nature. In September 2010 The Norwegian Directorate for Nature presented the first Nature index for Norway (NI): an overview of the situation and development for nine central ecosystems. The results show varying trends. The situation for 'forest' and 'open lowland' is relatively poor, whereas the situations for the other ecosystems were, although varying, less precarious, for some good and improving. One of the explicit aims of NI were that the results should be of help for future environmental policies. This report is an answer to this last challenge, and aims at an answer to two questions. First, we want to find out how politicians conceive of the results from NI: Do they actually understand the message? Second, we would like to see how a biological diversity policy actually is articulated by Norwegian politicians: Is biological diversity an issue of concern to them? Do they consider it a pressing issue? How do they look at the relation between scientific knowledge and politics? How does biological diversity as in issue fit in with existing political cleavages? What kind of policy tools do they see as relevant for a policy based on the information from NI? To find an answer to these questions, six focus group interviews with members of the youth organizations of six political parties where conducted. As an introduction to each interview, the participants were given a 25 minutes introduction to the results from the NI. Thereafter the groups discussed biological diversity as a political issue, to the extent it was necessary, guided by the researchers' interview guide. The groups consisted of four to eight participants, from 17 to 27 years of age. For the first research question, all involved participants reported that they understood the results presented to them from the NI. When given the opportunity to comment on NI, two themes appeared more often than others. First, the question of reference situation (what is the optimal biodiversity in different ecosystems?) was not clear to everyone. Second, there was some discussion regarding what is called expert knowledge which were based on more qualitative knowledge (in lack of quantitative data). The main question addressed how youth politicians actually articulate biodiversity as a political issue, on the background of a presentation of NI. The study summarises the answers to this question along four dimensions. First, when it comes to the theme of biodiversity, we see that, with a very few exceptions, none of the participants have any special knowledge or interest in this issue. Even though all agree that biodiversity is an important issue when they actually are asked to discuss it, few participants are seeing this as an issue requiring immediate action. Scientific knowledge is of uttermost importance for understanding the issue of biodiversity. Even though none of our participants were very critical towards NI when it was presented to them, they all revealed a deep uncertainty with respect to scientific knowledge and most also a certain scepticism towards science. Apart from this common scepticism, there are significant differences when it comes to what kind of research (f ex IPCC) they actually trust and the extent to which they consider research a good policy tool for nature preservation. For a theme to have some political momentum, it has to be linked to other political issues and ideologies, and in the interviews two such cleavages stood out as important. First, there is the traditional left-right cleavage. On the one hand, there was a tendency, for both left and right, to emphasize that biodiversity and nature preservation are issues with a broad appeal, on the other the more leftist parties expressed a clearer intention to prioritize ecology at the cost of economic matters than the rightist parties. As a political issue biodiversity often equals nature or species preservation which in practice implies that more rural districts have to carry the cost of general interest. For four of our focus groups this meant that national institutions should take the necessary decisions concerning biodiversity, whereas two other groups tend to prioritize local development and welfare at the cost of general interests. On a question of relevant policy tools regarding biodiversity, responses reflected the lack of specific knowledge on biodiversity and represented more standard political approaches: from radical anti-system stances, via more state and marked friendly strategies to a view stating that this in the end is an individual responsibility. For more information on the nature index, see: http://www.dirnat.no/content/500041350/ ; «Naturindeks for Norge» er en oversikt over tilstand og utvikling for biologisk mangfold i Norge. Et av målene for Naturindeksen er at den skal kunne fungere som et redskap for politikkutforming. Mot en slik bakgrunn, spør vi i denne rapporten hvordan politikere forstår den kunnskapen som formidles i Naturindeksen. Dernest spør vi hvordan en politikk om biologisk mangfold blir formulert av norske politikere: Er biologisk mangfold viktig for dem? Hvordan ser de på forholdet mellom vitenskap og politikk? Hvordan passer biologisk mangfold inn i forhold til vanlige ideologiske skillelinjer? Hva slags politiske virkemidler er sentrale? Studien er basert på fokusgruppeintervjuer med medlemmer av seks norske politiske partiers ungdomsorganisasjoner.

The paper's aim is to assess effectiveness of the implementation of nature conservation measures in Polish agriculture. Environmental regulations influence main groups of Common Agricultural Policy instruments. In the I pillar of the policy, it refers to cross-compliance, in the II pillar it refers to agri-environmental programmes, the Natura 2000 payments and organic farming support. In Poland they are ineffectively implemented and insufficiently directed to nature conservation. This refers both to domestic environmental and agricultural policy. In some aspects they are not coordinated. This is connected with delay in construction of protection plans which are necessary for proper policy in the Natura 2000 network. Consequently, the specialized payments for farmers in the Natura 2000 network have not been implemented yet while the extent in which agri-environmental measures have been implemented is too small. Moreover, the system of control and certification in organic farming does not involve requirements referring to biodiversity. There are some deficiencies in biodiversity protection standards within domestic regulations of cross-compliance. In this situation, Polish agriculture could contribute to degradation of biological diversity in rural areas.

1. Effective prevention and control of invasive species generally relies on a comprehensive, coherent and representative list of species that enables resources to be used optimally. European Union (EU) Regulation 1143/2014 on invasive alien species (IAS) aims to control or eradicate priority species, and to manage pathways to prevent the introduction and establishment of new IAS; it applies to species considered of Union concern and subject to formal risk assessment. So far, 49 species have been listed but the criteria for selecting species for risk assessment have not been disclosed and were probably unsystematic. 2. We developed a simple method to systematically rank IAS according to their maximum potential threat to biodiversity in the EU. We identified 1,323 species as potential candidates for listing, and evaluated them against their invasion stages and reported impacts, using information from databases and scientific literature. 3. 900 species fitted the criteria for listing according to IAS Regulation. We prioritised 207 species for urgent risk assessment, 59 by 2018 and 148 by 2020, based on their potential to permanently damage native species or ecosystems; another 336 species were identified for a second phase (by 2025), to prevent or reverse their profound impacts on biodiversity; and a further 357 species for assessment by 2030. 4. Policy implications. We propose a systematic, proactive approach to selecting and prioritising IAS for risk assessment to assist European Union policy implementation. We assess an unprecedented number of species with potential to harm EU biodiversity using a simple methodology and recommend which species should be considered for risk assessment in a ranked order of priority along the timeline 2018– 2030, based on their maximum reported impact and their invasion history in Europe ; Peer reviewed

The sea surrounding Aberdeenshire is home to a rich diversity of seabed ecosystems, ranging from kelp forests along the coast to burrowed mud within the Southern Trench, a deep seabed incision that is both geologically and ecologically important. The value of the Southern Trench as a biodiversity hotspot has been recognised by the Scottish government, which proposed the creation of the Southern Trench Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area (NCMPA) to protect four biodiversity features (burrowed mud, fronts, minke whale, and shelf deeps) and two geodiversity features (Quaternary of Scotland and submarine mass movement). However, it is not yet known whether the site will in fact be designated, and other protection of benthic ecosystems in the Aberdeenshire area remains limited. In 2017, Oceana carried out a research expedition in the waters of Aberdeenshire, to gather further information about the area's benthic species and communities. Surveys were conducted mainly through low-impact visual means (filming via a remotely operated vehicle and by professional divers) and were complemented with seabed grab sampling of infauna. Both protected and unprotected locations were surveyed, including points within the area's three existing marine protected areas (none of which protect seabed ecosystems) and the proposed Southern Trench NCMPA. In total, Oceana documented 481 taxa (351 to the species level), in association with 14 habitat types. Among the marine features recorded were 16 species and seven habitat types that are considered priorities for conservation under Scottish or international frameworks. Key findings included reefs and other aggregations formed by ross worm (Sabellaria spinulosa), kelp forests, submerged caves, and sea pen and burrowing megafauna communities. On the basis of its findings, Oceana strongly supports the designation of the Southern Trench NCMPA, and encourages the Scottish government to grant formal protection to other features found within the site. In particular, the Aberdeenshire area ...

The National Biodiversity Assessment of 2011 found freshwater ecosystems to be highly threatened and poorly protected. However, a number of studies have shown that the National Wetland Map (NWM) Version 4 represents less than 54% of wetlands mapped at a fine scale. A more comprehensive South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE) would greatly improve the assessment of wetland ecosystem types and their condition and conservation status, and is crucial for monitoring trends to inform decision making and planning. In preparation for the third National Biodiversity Assessment of 2018, a review was undertaken to identify possible data sources that could contribute to the SAIIAE. The objectives of the study were to (i) assess which type of information is available for developing a SAIIAE; and (ii) list and understand the availability of fine-scale wetland data for updating the NWM. A variety of data related to species occurrence and distribution, extent and type of inland wetlands and rivers, as well as datasets which describe regional settings of inland aquatic ecosystems, were found across a number of institutions. Fine-scale spatial data amounted to more than double the extent of inland wetlands mapped by remote sensing at a country-wide scale. Nearly 5 million ha of fine-scale data were collected from a diverse number of institutions, with the majority (73%) of these data mapped by Government (3 681 503 ha or 3% of South Africa). It is estimated that < 8% of the sub-quaternary catchments of South Africa had complete wetland data sets, primarily in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape Provinces. Accuracy assessment reports and confidence ratings were however not consistently available for the wetland datasets. Inland wetlands in the majority of South Africa (84%) therefore remain poorly represented. We recommend future steps to improve the SAIIAE, including improving the representation of inland wetland ecosystem types and focusing on accuracy assessment.

Local governments manage Botubarani beaches to safeguard the characteristics of biodiversity through bureaucratic processes with the aim of enhancing sustainable economic growth for local communities. Through regulation both in the form of village regulations and local regulations. This research method is based on a qualitative approach. Data collection techniques used are, interviews, observation and documentation. Data analysis uses data reduction flow, data presentation, and conclusion. The results show a grand village management strategy leader in the protection of community-based Botubarani shark species. Government efforts in the protection of whale sharks as ecotourism centers are: (1) Beach management concept (2) Community and government management roadmap for protection of Botubarani shark species as ecotourism, and (3) Promotion and Utilization of Botubarani Beach as a Genetic Ecotourism Diversity Shark Pope. ; peer-reviewed

The interaction between science and policy in transboundary environmental regulation is dynamic. By elaborating on the concepts of boundary organizations and portable representations, I shed light on how science-based policy and policy-relevant science are co-produced. This perspective is then put to use in an analysis of the scientific representation and political regulation of two different environmental issues: ground-level ozone and biodiversity. Portable representations function as a link between experts and policymakers. By means of portable representations, nature is not only measured and represented but also made governable. Portable representations seemed to strengthen the credibility of both scientific assessments and policy. Science makes itself matter by formally separating itself from policy considerations, although the two are at the same time integrated through portable representations from boundary organizations.

For hundreds of millions of people, biodiversity is about eating, staying healthy, and finding shelter. Meeting these people's basic needs should receive greater priority in the conservation agenda.Wild and semi-wild plants and animals contribute significantly to nutrition, health care, income, and culture in developing countries, and the poorest and most vulnerable people often rely on those resources most. Depleting those resources or making them inaccessible can impoverish these people even further. 'Pro-poor conservation'—that is, conservation that aims to support poor people—explicitly seeks to address basic human needs. Such an emphasis has many potential synergies with more conventional conservation goals. Nonetheless, pro-poor conservation requires a distinct attitude to gauging conservation outcomes and a different approach to conservation science. Biologists can make a vital contribution.

The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above. ; Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, inthe online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.07.006. ; The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, and much work has gone into identifying the drivers of this diversity. Considered regionally in the context of Quaternary climate change, climate stability is generally accepted as being one of the major factors promoting the abundance of species now present in the CFR. However, little direct evidence is available from the region, and responses to changes in global boundary conditions have been difficult to assess. In this paper, we present new high-resolution stable isotope data from Pakhuis Pass, in the species-rich western CFR, and contextualise our findings through comparison with other records from the region. Combined, they indicate clear, coherent changes in regional hydroclimate, which we relate to broader forcing mechanisms. However, while these climate change events share similar timings (indicating shared macro-scale drivers), the responses are distinct between sites, in some cases expressing opposing trends over very short spatial gradients (<50 km). We describe the evolution of these trends, and propose that while long-term (105 yr) general climatic stability may have fostered high diversity in the region through low extinction rates, the strong, abrupt changes in hydroclimate gradients observed in our records may have driven a form of allopatric speciation pump, promoting the diversification of plant lineages through the periodic isolation and recombination of plant populations. ; The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013), ERC Starting Grant "HYRAX", grant agreement no. 258657. We are very grateful to Louis Scott for providing a portion of the PK1173 midden for analysis. This contribution is number ISEM 2019-138. ; Peer-reviewed ; Post-print

Ethiopia has a large farm animal genetic diversity. The existence of this diversity is due in large part to its geographical location near the historical entry point of many livestock populations from Asia, its diverse topographic and climatic conditions, the huge livestock population size and the wide range in production systems. Livestock diversity in Ethiopia has suffered considerably due to the many wars, civil strife and cyclical famines. Growing transhumance and migrations in the lower altitude areas have resulted in massive interbreeding between traditionally isolated livestock populations. In the highlands, government sponsored crossbreeding programmes have severely compromised the sustenance of genetic diversity in indigenous livestock, especially cattle and poultry. Yet not much has been done to document the existing indigenous livestock breeds and the impacts of agricultural Development, increasing human populations and the booms and bursts in livestock population numbers associated with periodic good years and bad years. The national effort in Ethiopia towards systematic characterisation and documentation of livestock biodiversity has been negligible let alone planned interventions to curb the continuing threat of loss of genetic diversity. There is no national focal point to co-ordinate and monitor activities in characterisation, documentation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources in Ethiopia, and the two major sources of systematic information on characterization of Ethiopian AnGR are administered by international research institutions who have no functional links with any one national institution. This rather substantive national task therefore remains unattended for, and needs serious attention from researchers, policy makers and Development practitioners. There is a need to identify and mandate a national institution to be the focal point of such activities. This is indeed essential because, both inter-species and intra-species (between and within breeds) diversity provide better household livelihood security for the majority of rural and urban households. There is cause for concern on the low level of research and Development interest on the characterisation and conservation of farm animal genetic resources in this country.