Contrasting Distributions of Urban Green Infrastructure across Social and Ethno-racial Groups

Links between urban green infrastructure (UGI) and public health benefits are becoming well established. Despite this, how UGI is distributed varies widely. Although not a universal finding, sectors of society that are disadvantaged often suffer from poor provision, something which might be due to which UGI are examined. We assess the distribution of street trees and public greenspaces (two types of publicly-owned and accessible UGI) across the city of Bradford, UK which is characterised by high levels of inequality and variation in ethno-racial background. We do this through statistical and spatial analyses. Street tree density was distributed unevenly and was highest in neighbourhoods with a high proportion of Asian/Asian British residents and with lower socio-economic status. Conversely, neighbourhoods with better access to public greenspaces were characterised by high income and/or a high proportion of White households. While the quality of public greenspace was spatially clustered, there were only limited spatial associations with ethno-racial group or socio-economic status. Population density was a key determinant of the distribution of UGI, suggesting understanding UGI distributions should also focus on urban form. Nevertheless, within the same city we show that equitable distribution of UGI differs according to the form and characteristics of UGI. To fully realise the public health benefits of UGI, it is necessary to map provision and understand the causal drivers of unequal distributions. This would facilitate interventions that promote equitable distributions of UGI based on the needs of the target populations

The role of community acceptance in planning outcomes for onshore wind and solar farms: An energy justice analysis

The deployment of renewable technologies as part of climate mitigation strategies have provoked a range of responses from various actors, bringing public acceptance to the forefront of energy debates. A key example is the reaction of communities when renewable projects are proposed in their local areas. This paper analyses the effect that community acceptance has had on planning applications for onshore wind and solar farms in Great Britain between 1990 and 2017. It does this by compiling a set of indicators for community acceptance and testing their association with planning outcomes using binomial logistic regression. It identifies 12 variables with statistically significant effects: 4 for onshore wind, 4 for solar farms, and 4 spanning both. For both technologies, the visibility of a project, its installed capacity, the social deprivation of the area, and the year of the application are significant. The paper draws conclusions from these results for community acceptance and energy justice, and discusses the implications for energy decision-making

Informing investments in land degradation neutrality efforts: A triage approach to decision making

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 15.3 commits countries to strive towards land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030. LDN requires reductions in land quality to be balanced by efforts to restore or rehabilitate degraded areas. However, decisions need to be made as to where to invest given limited budgets and the impossibility of targeting all degraded land. Any prioritisation process is likely to be controversial and needs to be underpinned by transparent, justifiable, repeatable decision processes. In this paper, we develop a triage approach for LDN, drawing on experiences from biodiversity conservation. In conservation, triage refers to prioritisation where for a given budget, threatened species, habitats or ecosystems receive management if they contribute more to the achievement of particular objectives (e.g. maintaining ecosystem function, ensuring the survival of a species) and the management actions are more likely to be successful. Conservation triage has proved both effective in allocating scarce resources, and controversial, as it requires acceptance that it is not possible to save everything. We present a decision framework 'the Decision Dahlia' that transposes triage principles to the LDN decision context, recognising that not all land can be improved. First, we consider countries’ reporting needs on SDG 15.3 and set out a decision process to support progress towards three biophysical global indicators agreed by the United Nations. Second, we take a more people-centred approach, recognising the imperative for social justice and good governance, matching LDN investment decisions more closely with societal needs in an integrated social-ecological systems approach. We then reflect on the remaining risks, such as the potential for vulnerable areas to miss out on investments due to the scale of decision making and challenges of leakage. While we acknowledge the controversial nature of the approach, we argue that a decision framework grounded in triage principles, offers a transparent, justifiable and repeatable process for deciding where to invest in efforts to achieve LDN. This can lower financial costs and help to reduce risks so that ‘striving towards LDN’ does not exacerbate existing drivers of land loss and worsen poverty

Stakeholders’ Perceptions on Agricultural Land-Use Change, and Associated Factors, in Nigeria

Agricultural Land-Use Change (ALUC) is a major driver of global environmental change, not least via its direct impact on the sustainability and resilience of the rural economy. Its drivers are complex and have remained contentious, necessitating further empirical study. This study aims to derive context-specific evidence on the driving factors and effects of ALUC from different stakeholders’ perceptions. We carried out household surveys and participatory rural appraisal across Benue State, Nigeria. ALUC has economic, social, ecological, and institutional implications for farmers and on agricultural productivity. Farmers perceived that the main factors driving ALUC were land conflict, government land-use policies and infrastructural development. Stakeholders’ perceptions revealed that although the factors driving ALUC are diverse in nature, they are somewhat embedded within the broader issue of land-use conflict, which has led to cropland abandonment, clearing of forest vegetation, soil degradation, changes from large scale to subsistence farming, and farmers’ eventual loss of interest in agriculture. This suggest that the drivers and implications of ALUC go beyond simple changes to the extent of land used for agriculture, but also incorporates other regional socio-ecological changes. Our study highlights the importance of stakeholders’ perceptions in understanding complex socio-ecological issues if we are to provide clear direction into areas where policy interventions are most needed

Rapid redistribution of agricultural land alters avian richness, abundance, and functional diversity

The conversion of natural, or seminatural, habitats to agricultural land and changes in agricultural land use are significant drivers of biodiversity loss. Within the context of land‐sharing versus land‐sparing debates, large‐scale commercial agriculture is known to be detrimental to biodiversity, but the effects of small‐scale subsistence farming on biodiversity are disputed. This poses a problem for sustainable land‐use management in the Global South, where approximately 30% of farmland is small‐scale. Following a rapid land redistribution program in Zimbabwe, we evaluated changes in avian biodiversity by examining richness, abundance, and functional diversity. Rapid land redistribution has, in the near term, resulted in increased avian abundance in newly farmed areas containing miombo woodland and open habitat. Conversion of seminatural ranched land to small‐scale farms had a negative impact on larger‐bodied birds, but species richness increased, and birds in some feeding guilds maintained or increased abundance. We found evidence that land‐use change caused a shift in the functional traits of the communities present. However, functional analyses may not have adequately reflected the trait filtering effect of land redistribution on large species. Whether newly farmed landscapes in Zimbabwe can deliver multiple benefits in terms of food production and habitat for biodiversity in the longer term is an open question. When managing agricultural land transitions, relying on taxonomic measures of diversity, or abundance‐weighted measures of function diversity, may obscure important information. If the value of smallholder‐farmed land for birds is to be maintained or improved, it will be essential to ensure that a wide array of habitat types is retained alongside efforts to reduce hunting and persecution of large bird species

A global meta-analysis reveals contrasting impacts of air, light, and noise pollution on pollination

In the face of biodiversity decline, understanding the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on ecosystem functions is critical for mitigation. Elevated levels of pollution are a major threat to biodiversity, yet there is no synthesis of their impact on many of the major ecosystem functions, including pollination. This ecosystem function is both particularly vulnerable as it depends on the fine-tuned interaction between plants and pollinators and hugely important as it underpins the flora of most habitats as well as food production. Here, we untangle the impact of air, light, and noise pollution on the pollination system by systematically evaluating and synthesizing the published evidence via a meta-analysis. We identified 58 peer-reviewed articles from three databases. Mixed-effects meta-regression models indicated that air pollution negatively impacts pollination. However, there was no effect of light pollution, despite previous studies that concentrated solely on pollinators suggesting a negative impact. Evidence for noise pollution was extremely limited. Unless action is taken to tackle air pollution, the capacity to support well-functioning diverse pollination systems will be compromised, with negative consequences for habitat conservation and food security

Increases in subsistence farming due to land reform have negligible impact on bird communities in Zimbabwe

Habitat alterations resulting from land-use change are major drivers of global biodiversity losses. In Africa, these threats are especially severe. For instance, demand to convert land into agricultural uses is leading to increasing areas of drylands in southern and central Africa being transformed for agriculture. In Zimbabwe, a land reform programme provided an opportunity to study the biodiversity response to abrupt habitat modification in part of a 91,000 ha dryland area of semi-natural savannah used since 1930 for low-level cattle ranching. Small-scale subsistence farms were created during 2001–2002 in 65,000 ha of this area, with ranching continuing in the remaining unchanged area. We measured the compositions of bird communities in farmed and ranched land over 8 years, commencing one decade after subsistence farms were established. Over the study period, repeated counts were made along the same 45 transects to assess species' population changes that may have resulted from trait-filtering responses to habitat disturbance. In 2012, avian species' richness was substantially higher (+8.8%) in the farmland bird community than in the unmodified ranched area. Temporal trends over the study period showed increased species' richness in the ranched area (+12.3%) and farmland (+6.8%). There were increased abundances in birds of most sizes, and in all feeding guilds. New species did not add new functional traits, and no species with distinctive traits were lost in either area. As a result, species' diversity reduced, and functional redundancy increased by 6.8% in ranched land. By 2020, two decades after part of the ranched savannah was converted into farmland, the compositions of the two bird communities had both changed and became more similar. The broadly benign impact on birds of land conversion into subsistence farms is attributed to the relatively low level of agricultural activity in the farmland and the large regional pool of nonspecialist bird species

Understanding the diversity of values underpinning forest conservation

Values are the motivational goals that underpin individual and group decisions, attitudes, and behaviours, and often influence the success of conservation. Existing studies have provided insight into the perceptions and attitudes of stakeholders towards forest conservation values. However, there are still contentions among different stakeholders regarding the values underpinning conservation policies and programs. It is still unclear what values matter most to people in forest conservation. Moreover, the specific values that can motivate and empower people to participate in conservation remain poorly understood. We examined these issues using the human value orientation lens, a framework that captures the features of human relationships and interactions with forests and with other forest users. Given the need for conservation policies and programs to align with the priorities of local people, characterising multiple stakeholder perspectives can help us to better understand and untangle the conflicting interests and diverse motivating values influencing conservation policies and programs. Working in Nigeria, a country with one of the highest rates of global deforestation, we use the Q-methodology to capture and describe the viewpoints of multiple stakeholders regarding the values that underpin forest conservation. We identify three factors representing these values, and show heterogeneity in the viewpoints held by different stakeholders. The first factor explained 24 % of the study variance and identified environmental and management values as essential. This viewpoint was largely held by hierarchical stakeholders, forest experts, and forest staff. The second factor explained 12 % of the study variance, and identified cultural values that were predominantly held by forest users. The third factor explained 13 % of the study variance, and identified economic values that were mostly held by forest experts and forest users. Our study shows a diversity of value types held for forest conservation and that there are broad differences between stakeholders regarding their viewpoints. To enhance conservation success, in addition to focussing on consensus values, decision- and policy-makers should better differentiate value types that target the specific needs of stakeholders

Flow and rent-based opportunity costs of water ecosystem service provision in a complex farming system

Unsustainable land uses present many challenges for securing ecosystem service provision. It is also difficult to estimate the cost of a transition to more sustainable land-management practices for individual landholders. The main cost to landholders is the opportunity costs, the income foregone when changing land use for continued or enhanced ecosystem service provision. Thus accurate estimation of opportunity costs and understanding their distribution are crucial starting points for determining the economic viability and design of any payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme. We compare two opportunity cost approaches and examine the distribution of these costs for improving drinking water quality in a complex farming system in a Honduran forest catchment. Data for both approaches was collected through a survey applied to upstream catchment landholders. Our results indicate that the direct flow approach and the proxy rent approach provide comparable and consistent opportunity cost estimates. The mean net flow return ha-1 was US$1410, but this estimate was skewed, mainly by exceptionally high coffee returns and negative returns of land uses making a loss. This estimate would imply spending over US$2 million per annum for water conservation, but a revised estimate comes to US$257,057 per annum. Opportunity costs were found to vary according to differences in land use and landholder characteristics. High value cash crops upholding the local economy, such as coffee, entail much higher opportunity costs than for example cattle grazing. These results suggest that discriminate PES payments, that vary according to opportunity costs and thus discriminate between land uses and landholders, are essential. Water quality at our case study site could be managed sustainably by a scheme focusing on high-impact land uses with lower opportunity costs and closer to water sources

The Impacts of Urbanisation and Climate Change on the Urban Thermal Environment in Africa

Rapid urbanisation is affecting people in different ways, with some becoming more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Africa’s cities are projected to be home to nearly 60% of the continent’s population by 2050. In conjunction with climate change, these cities are experiencing critical environmental challenges, including changes in the urban thermal environment. Urban areas generally exhibit significantly higher air and surface temperatures than their surrounding rural areas, resulting in urban heat islands. However, little has been done to synthesise existing knowledge and identify the key research gaps in this area, particularly in Africa. This paper focuses on the combined effects of urbanisation and climate change on the urban thermal environment in Africa, and provides a comprehensive review of results, major advances and the dominant direction of research. Our review of 40 publications from peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2021 revealed that South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria were most frequently studied, and satellite imagery-based data and analysis were used predominantly. Results from a few studies have shown the practical implications for urban land-use planning, informal settlement management, human wellbeing and productivity, energy use, air pollution and disease spread. Integrated approaches, strengthening planning institutions, and early warning systems are proposed to address climate change. Low-income groups are emphasised in efforts to help people cope with heat stress. Solutions based on land use and land cover dynamics and blue–green infrastructure are mentioned but are in need of further research. Cities with similar patterns of urbanisation, geographies and climate conditions could benefit from multi-disciplinary research collaboration to address the combined impacts of rapid urbanisation and climate change