Environmental liability litigation could remedy biodiversity loss

Abstract: Many countries allow lawsuits to hold responsible parties liable for the environmental harm they cause. Such litigation remains largely untested in most biodiversity hotspots and is rarely used in response to leading drivers of biodiversity loss, including illegal wildlife trade. Yet, liability litigation is a potentially ground‐breaking conservation strategy to remedy harm to biodiversity by seeking legal remedies such as species rehabilitation, public apologies, habitat conservation and education, with the goal of making the injured parties ‘whole’. However, precedent cases, expert guidance, and experience to build such conservation lawsuits is nascent in most countries. We propose a simplified framework for developing conservation lawsuits across countries and conservation contexts. We explain liability litigation in terms of three dimensions: (1) defining the harm that occurred, (2) identifying appropriate remedies to that harm, and (3) understanding what remedies the law and courts will allow. We illustrate the framework via a hypothetical lawsuit against an illegal orangutan trader in Indonesia. We highlight that conservationists’ expertise is essential to characterizing harm and identifying remedies, and could more actively contribute to strategic, science‐based litigation. This would identify priority contexts, target defendants responsible for egregious harm, propose novel and meaningful remedies, and build new transdisciplinary collaborations

Single-nucleotide polymorphism in the 5-alpha-reductase gene (SRD5A2) is associated with increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome in chemotherapy-treated testicular cancer survivors

Purpose: Chemotherapy-treated testicular cancer survivors are at risk for development of the metabolic syndrome, especially in case of decreased androgen levels. Polymorphisms in the gene encoding steroid 5-alpha-reductase type II (SRD5A2) are involved in altered androgen metabolism. We investigated whether single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs523349 (V89L) and rs9282858 (A49T) in SRD5A2 are associated with cardiometabolic status in testicular cancer survivors. Methods: In 173 chemotherapy-treated testicular cancer survivors, hormone levels and cardiometabolic status were evaluated cross-sectionally (median 5 years [range 3-20] after chemotherapy) and correlated with SNPs in SRD5A2. Results: The metabolic syndrome was more prevalent in survivors who were homozygous or heterozygous variant for SRD5A2 rs523349 compared to wild type (33% versus 19%, P = 0.032). In particular, patients with lower testosterone levels ( Conclusion: Metabolic syndrome develops more frequently in testicular cancer survivors homozygous or heterozygous variant for SNP rs523349 in SRD5A2. Altered androgen sensitivity appears to be involved in the development of adverse metabolic and vascular changes in testicular cancer survivors and is a target for intervention. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved