Training future experts in “biodiversity and ecosystem services”: a progress report

Biodiversity is essential for multiple aspects of human life and well-being, but many current assessments of the functioning of biodiversity and ecosystems, understanding of risks posed by environmental change and the best practice of their management of ecosystems are lacking a unified scientific and conceptual basis. Methods such as scenario analysis, and terms such as ecosystem services, are widely used, but their meaning is understood in many different ways depending on context, user needs and experience of researchers. In order to advance the conceptual basis for ecosystem analysis and management in a rapidly changing world, as well as the ability of young scientists to reflect upon these concepts, we have organised five 2-week-long summer schools in Peyresq, a remote village in the Southern French Alps. In total 173 participants have worked intensively with 69 experienced researchers and a team of conveners and tutors in order to discuss a broad range of views on topics on ecosystem analysis and functioning. Topics ranged from conditions of and threats to various ecosystems due to environmental change, models and scenarios for assessment, stakeholder perceptions and needs for information, to the social and economic contexts for biodiversity. We report our experience from these schools, present the training concept which has emerged from them and suggest lines of further development.

Analysis of institutional adaptation: integration of biodiversity conservation into forestry

Integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management requires changes in the practices of those public and private actors that have implementing responsibilities and whose strategic and operational opportunities are at stake. Understanding this kind of context-dependent institutional adaptation entails bridging between two analytical approaches: policy implementation and organizational adaptation. This article combines these two approaches by reviewing them, and their caveats, and by summarizing empirical analyses of organizational competences, specialization, professional judgment, and organizational networks in the organizational field of non-industrial private forestry in Finland. Drawing on these theoretical and empirical analyses, the article discloses the broad phenomenon of institutional adaptation in the integration of biodiversity conservation and forest management. The empirical analyses point to the dominance of hierarchical policy implementation over strategic organizational adaptation. Together with the detected isomorphism of professional norms and networks, these contribute to meeting minimum standards but can constrain the ways in which the organizations and professionals respond to the challenge of biodiversity conservation. The detected inertia signals lack of alertness. It is perhaps also an indication of self-sufficiency among the actors. The interpretation of these responses to challenges and responsibilities across the public and private sector boundaries demonstrates the necessity of combining the two traditionally segregated approaches.     

我国生物多样性行政管理体制改革方案研究

本研究针对环境管理体制中最核心最重要的行政管理体制问题,运用制度经济学与组织理论的决策、咨询、执行与监督机制的基本分析框架,分析了现行的生物多样性行政管理体制运行状况,回顾总结评估了2008年环保机构改革,在分析总结地方及香港特别行政区实践与借鉴它国经验的基础上,本研究设计出我国生物多样性改革体制改革的四个方案,力图为未来政府环境行政管理体制改革提供相应的政策建议。     

湿地保护与可持续利用的国际经验借鉴

随着生产力水平的提高以及城市化进程的加剧,我国湿地资源被大力开发利用,逐渐面临面积减少、功能衰退和湿地生态系统受损的困境.本文通过借鉴世界发达国家或地区保护和可持续利用不同类型湿地的成功经验,为国内湿地的保护和利用提出建议:制定湿地保护规划,划分湿地功能区;保护湿地生物资源;实施湿地生态恢复与重建工程;探索可持续利用湿地资源的新思路;适当开发利用泥炭资源;加强湿地资源保护与利用的科学研究;强化湿地知识的宣传、教育与公众参与意识.     

Transcending capitalism growth strategies for biodiversity conservation

The unlimited economic growth that fuels capitalism's metabolism has profoundly transformed a large portion of Earth. The resulting environmental destruction has led to an unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss. Following large-scale losses of habitats and species, it was recognized that biodiversity is crucial to maintaining functional ecosystems. We sought to continue the debate on the contradictions between economic growth and biodiversity in the conservation science literature and thus invite scholars to engage in reversing the biodiversity crisis through acknowledging the impacts of economic growth. In the 1970s, a global agenda was set to develop different milestones related to sustainable development, including green–blue economic growth, which despite not specifically addressing biodiversity reinforced the idea that economic development based on profit is compatible with the planet's ecology. Only after biodiversity loss captured the attention of environmental sciences researchers in the early 2000s was a global biodiversity agenda implemented. The agenda highlights biodiversity conservation as a major international challenge and recognizes that the main drivers of biodiversity loss derive from economic activities. The post-2000 biodiversity agendas, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the post-2020 Convention on Biological Diversity Global Strategy Framework, do not consider the negative impacts of growth-oriented strategies on biodiversity. As a result, global biodiversity conservation priorities are governed by the economic value of biodiversity and its assumed contribution to people's welfare. A large body of empirical evidence shows that unlimited economic growth is the main driver of biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene; thus, we strongly argue for sustainable degrowth and a fundamental shift in societal values. An equitable downscaling of the physical economy can improve ecological conditions, thus reducing biodiversity loss and consequently enhancing human well-being.     

Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress

To inform governmental discussions on the nature of a revised Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we reviewed the relevant literature and assessed the framing of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the current strategic plan. We asked international experts from nongovernmental organizations, academia, government agencies, international organizations, research institutes, and the CBD to score the Aichi Targets and their constituent elements against a set of specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, unambiguous, scalable, and comprehensive criteria (SMART based, excluding time bound because all targets are bound to 2015 or 2020). We then investigated the relationship between these expert scores and reported progress toward the target elements by using the findings from 2 global progress assessments (Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). We analyzed the data with ordinal logistic regressions. We found significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between progress and the extent to which the target elements were perceived to be measurable, realistic, unambiguous, and scalable. There was some evidence of a relationship between progress and specificity of the target elements, but no relationship between progress and ambition. We are the first to show associations between progress and the extent to which the Aichi Targets meet certain SMART criteria. As negotiations around the post-2020 biodiversity framework proceed, decision makers should strive to ensure that new or revised targets are effectively structured and clearly worded to allow the translation of targets into actionable policies that can be successfully implemented nationally, regionally, and globally.     

Global protected-area coverage and human pressure on tidal flats

Tidal flats are a globally distributed coastal ecosystem important for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. Local to continental-scale studies have documented rapid loss of tidal habitat driven by human impacts, but assessments of progress in their conservation are lacking. With an internally consistent estimate of distribution and change, based on Landsat satellite imagery, now available for the world's tidal flats, we examined tidal flat representation in protected areas (PAs) and human pressure on tidal flats. We determined tidal flat representation and its net change in PAs by spatially overlaying tidal flat maps with the World Database of Protected Areas. Similarly, we overlaid the most recent distribution map of tidal flats (2014–2016) with the human modification map (HM_c) (range from 0, no human pressure, to 1, very high human pressure) to estimate the human pressure exerted on this ecosystem. Sixty-eight percent of the current extent of tidal flats is subject to moderate to very high human pressure (HM_c > 0.1), but 31% of tidal flat extent occurred in PAs, far exceeding PA coverage of the marine (6%) and terrestrial (13%) realms. Net change of tidal flat extent inside PAs was similar to tidal flat net change outside PAs from 1999 to 2016. Substantial shortfalls in protection of tidal flats occurred across Asia, where large intertidal extents coincided with high to very high human pressure (HM_c > 0.4–1.0) and net tidal flat losses up to 86.4 km² (95% CI 83.9–89.0) occurred inside individual PAs in the study period. Taken together, our results show substantial progress in PA designation for tidal flats globally, but that PA status alone does not prevent all habitat loss. Safeguarding the world's tidal flats will thus require deeper understanding of the factors that govern their dynamics and effective policy that promotes holistic coastal and catchment management strategies.     

《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性框架》下的生物多样性监测

生物多样性监测是执行和评估《昆明-蒙特利尔全球生物多样性保护框架》（简称《昆-蒙框架》）长期目标和行动指标所需要的关键数据的主要来源。简要介绍了《昆-蒙框架》下的全球生物多样性观测网络（The global biodiversity observation network,GEO BON）概况、中国已有的生物多样性监测/观测网络,构建全球生物多样性观测系统（A global biodiversity observation system,GBiOS）的目的和核心监测指标,分析了生物多样性监测网络建设的一般步骤和GEO BON建议的4种生物多样性监测新方法。提出,地理空间单元与生物类群的全覆盖监测是建设生物多样性监测网络的主要目标,传统监测方法和新监测技术的互补是当前生物多样性监测的重点工作内容。     

Frontiers of protected areas versus forest exploitation: Assessing habitat network functionality in 16 case study regions globally

Exploitation of natural forests forms expanding frontiers. Simultaneously, protected area frontiers aim at maintaining functional habitat networks. To assess net effects of these frontiers, we examined 16 case study areas on five continents. We (1) mapped protected area instruments, (2) assessed their effectiveness, (3) mapped policy implementation tools, and (4) effects on protected areas originating from their surroundings. Results are given as follows: (1) conservation instruments covered 3–77%, (2) effectiveness of habitat networks depended on representativeness, habitat quality, functional connectivity, resource extraction in protected areas, time for landscape restoration, “paper parks”, “fortress conservation”, and data access, (3) regulatory policy instruments dominated over economic and informational, (4) negative matrix effects dominated over positive ones (protective forests, buffer zones, inaccessibility), which were restricted to former USSR and Costa Rica. Despite evidence-based knowledge about conservation targets, the importance of spatial segregation of conservation and use, and traditional knowledge, the trajectories for biodiversity conservation were generally negative.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01628-5.