Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals

The unfolding crises of mass extinction and climate change call for urgent action in response. To limit biodiversity losses and avert the worst effects of climate disruption, we must greatly expand nature protection while simultaneously downsizing and transforming human systems. The conservation initiative Nature Needs Half (or Half Earth), calling for the conservation of half the Earth's land and seas, is commensurate with the enormous challenges we face. Critics have objected to this initiative as harboring hardship for people near protected areas and for failing to confront the growth economy as the main engine of global ecological destruction. In response to the first criticism, we affirm that conservation policies must be designed and implemented in collaboration with Indigenous and local communities. In response to the second criticism, we argue that protecting half the Earth needs to be complemented by downscaling and reforming economic life, humanely and gradually reducing the global population, and changing food production and consumption. By protecting nature generously, and simultaneously contracting and transforming the human enterprise, we can create the conditions for achieving justice and well-being for both people and other species. If we fail to do so, we instead accept a chaotic and impoverished world that will be dangerous for us all

A biological risk assessment for an Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) invasion in Alaskan waters

We present an event-tree biological risk assessment for a non-native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) invasion into Alaskan waters. Atlanticsalmon farming is prohibited in Alaska, USA, but large numbers of them are reared in ocean net-pens in Washinton (WA) USA, and BritishColumbia (BC), Canada. Large numbers of Atlantic salmon escape each year, and they have been recovered in both saltwater and freshwaterin WA, BC, and Alaska. There is limited evidence of successful spawning and rearing in BC, but none from Alaska. No stream-reared smoltsare known to have returned successfully from ocean migrations, but survey efforts for escaped adults and reared juveniles in streams havebeen very limited in time and space. Given recurring, large-scale escape events, propagule pressure could be great enough in any given yearfor a successful invasion. To date, such large numbers of adults have not been recorded ascending Alaskan streams, but again, monitoring isvery limited. Atlantic salmon could most likely successfully spawn and rear in Alaskan streams, so successful ocean migration appears to bethe factor most likely to limit their success. Successful invasion of BC waters, where propagule pressure is greater, followed by a subsequentinvasion of a pre-adapted stock by straying to Alaskan waters, may pose the greatest risk. The lack of adequate surveys, under-reporting ofescapes and recoveries, and inherent ecosystem variation, make it impossible to assign meaningful probabilities to the risk of an invasion ofAlaskan waters. We conclude that the short-term risk of invasion generally appears low, but that it might increase over time. We also notethat invasion is only part of the ecological risk of Atlantic salmon farming in Pacific waters. Disease, parasites, and pollution may also poserisks to local ecosystems – we do not assess these risks here

Hit or miss? : Evaluating the effectiveness of Natura 2000 for conservation of forest bird habitat in Sweden

Biodiversity conservation often requires a landscape perspective. When establishing the Natura 2000 (N2k) network, the effectiveness of the sites and the influence of the surrounding landscapes for species of interest was often disregarded. We analyzed the effectiveness of N2k sites in Sweden for three forest bird species of conservation interest in the European boreal landscapes: lesser spotted woodpecker (LSW), Siberian jay (SJ) and hazel grouse (HG). Our objectives were to: 1) quantify effective suitable habitat area in N2k sites with and without consideration of the adjoining landscapes; 2) examine effective habitat area within N2k sites along the north-south vegetation gradient 3) analyze functionality of N2k sites and assess how forests outside the sites affect habitat suitability inside N2k. GISbased habitat suitability index models were applied to calculate the amount of effective habitat within and outside N2k sites. N2k sites contributed with 10% (HG), 13% (SJ) and 51% (LSW) suitable habitat identified in Sweden. Functionality of forest environments as habitat was higher inside N2k sites for LSW within all vegetation zones, and for SJ in the Alpine and Middle Boreal zones; for HG habitat outside the sites was more functional in all zones accept Alpine and Middle Boreal. The majority of N2k sites were of quite small size (<500 ha) and the size influenced their functionality for LSW and HG, with larger N2k sites being more functional. For SJ, however, average functionality of N2k sites was not influenced by their size. The largest average habitat increase linked to considering the contribution of areas outside N2k sites for their functionality as habitat was for the N2k sites of smaller size (1-500 ha). Therefore, the presence and quality of forests outside of N2k sites are of a greater importance for smaller sites, and as such these should be carefully managed. To improve conservation efficiency of the N2k sites in Sweden, we call for incorporating them into the development and implementation of the regional Green Infrastructure plans. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Strengthening the Network of High Conservation Value Forests in Boreal Landscapes

The natural and old-growth forests and their associated biodiversity continues to fade worldwide due to anthropogenic impact in various forms. The boreal forests in Fennoscandia have been subject to intensive clearfelling forestry since the middle of twentieth century. As a result, only a fraction of forests with long temporal continuity remains at the landscape level. In Sweden, some of these primary forests have been formally protected, whereas other forests with known high conservation values are not. Collectively, both protected and not protected known valuable primary forests are included in a nationally delineated network of high conservation value forests (HCVF). In addition to HCVF, older forests that have not been clearfelled since the mid-1900s, i.e., "proxy continuity forests," have recently been mapped across the entire boreal biome in Sweden. In this paper, we analyze how these proxy continuity forests may strengthen the HCVF network from a green infrastructure perspective. First, we evaluate the spatial overlap between proxy continuity forests and HCVF. Second, we perform a large-scale connectivity analysis, in which we show that adding proxy continuity forests located outside HCVF strongly increases the structural connectivity of the network of protected forests. Finally, by assessing habitat suitability for virtual species specialized in pine, spruce, and broadleaf forests, we find large regional differences in the ability to secure habitat and thereby functional green infrastructure by considering currently unprotected primary forest. We show that, by adding those forests to the network, the area of habitat for low-demanding species dependent on spruce or pine forests can be largely increased. For high-demanding species, additional habitat restoration in the landscape matrix is needed. By contrast, even counting all valuable broadleaf forests available is not enough to provide a suitable habitat for their associated species, which indicates a large need for landscape-scale habitat restoration initiatives, in particular, for broadleaf forests

Elucidating human–nature connectedness in three EU countries: A pro‐environmental behaviour perspective

Abstract Strengthening positive human–nature relationships is seen as a way to more pro‐environmental behaviour and leads to a greater environmental sustainability. Therefore, understanding human–nature relationships has attracted increasing attention among researchers. Nature connectedness is a concept developed to measure such relationships. Since nature connectedness is complex and context dependent phenomenon, more research comparing sociocultural and environmental factors within societies in different countries is needed to understand its determinants. In this study, we explored how sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics and value orientation of respondents and environmental variables affected nature connectedness across different contexts in the European Union. We used 11 sociodemographic, socioeconomic and personal value factors from the computer‐assisted web interview (CAWI) and six environmental variables characterizing the local environments of 1054 respondents as independent variables to explain the nature connectedness of the respondents in Greece, Poland and Sweden. The individual level of nature connectedness (response variable) was expressed by an additive index (NC‐index) based on a 5‐item scale originating from CAWI. The general additive model was applied to link NC‐index to sociodemographic, value orientation and selected environmental variables. We found that the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their value orientation were substantially more important in explaining the individual level of nature connectedness than environmental variables. The NC‐index was positively correlated with the frequency of visits to the natural environment and biospheric values of the respondents, and was higher for women and the most prosperous respondents. Moreover, we observed several country‐wise differences in associations between explanatory variables and NC‐index. For example, altruistic orientation was positively related to the level of nature connectedness only in Greece, but not in two other countries, and residence during childhood was important to nature connectedness only in Sweden. Our findings that some sociodemographic, socioeconomic and value orientation variables affect the level of individual nature connectedness across studied countries are encouraging. They indicate that some universally applied educational actions may elevate the level of nature connectedness. We argue that exploration of nature connectedness from a cross‐country perspective may provide significant insights into the environmental debate in national and international contexts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog