The role of wilderness in protecting biodiversity

Arguments for and against Wilderness designation often revolve around decidedly unecological themes, such as commodity values, recreational opportunities, and esthetics. Yet one of the strongest arguments in support of Wilderness is ecological: the preservation of biodiversity. Wilderness Areas are important reservoirs of biodiversity, and their value increases as unprotected wildlands are developed. However, in recent years some writers have argued that Wilderness preservation is counterproductive to good wildlife management. Upon closer examination, it can be shown that: (1) most of the ecological arguments against Wilderness are unsubstantiated or inaccurate: and (2) the Wilderness Act provides sufficient flexibility to address the major management issues that are likely to arise in Wilderness Areas

High conservation value or high confusion value? Sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation in the tropics

Green labeling of products that have been produced sustainably is an emerging tool of the environmental movement. A prominent example is the Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies timber that is harvested to manage and maintain forests defined as having High Conservation Value (HCV). The criteria for HCV are now being applied to four rapidly expanding crops in the tropics: oil palm, soy, sugarcane, and cacao. However, these criteria do not provide adequate protection for biodiversity when applied to agriculture. The only criterion that provides blanket protection to forests is one that protects large expanses of habitat (≥20,000-500,000 ha, depending on the country). Absent of other HCVs, the collective clearing of forest patches below these thresholds could result in extensive deforestation that would be sanctioned with a green label. Yet such forest patches retain much biodiversity and provide connectivity within the agricultural matrix. An examination of forest fragments in biodiverse countries across the tropics shows that future agricultural demand can be met by clearing only forest patches below a 1,000 ha threshold. We recommend the development of a new HCV criterion that recognizes the conservation value of habitat patches within the agricultural matrix and that protects patches above 1,000 ha. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

COVID-19: Analogues and lessons for tackling the extinction and climate crises

As environmental scientists working in countries whose COVID-linked deaths already exceed their military casualties from all campaigns since 1945, we believe there are significant messages from the handling of this horrific disease for efforts addressing the enormous challenges posed by the ongoing extinction and climate emergencies

Going, Going, Gone: Is Animal Migration Disappearing

Many of the world's migratory animals are in decline. This essay explores the unique scientific and political challenges of protecting migratory species while they are still common

Gaps and weaknesses in the global protected area network for safeguarding at-risk species

Protected areas are essential to biodiversity conservation. Creating new parks can protect larger populations and more species, yet strengthening existing parks, particularly those vulnerable to harmful human activities, is a critical but underappreciated step for safeguarding at-risk species. Here, we model the area of habitat that terrestrial mammals, amphibians, and birds have within park networks and their vulnerability to current downgrading, downsizing, or degazettement events and future land-use change. We find that roughly 70% of species analyzed have scant representation in parks, or occur within parks that are affected by shifts in formal legal protections or are vulnerable to increased human pressures. Our results also show that expanding and strengthening park networks across just 1% of the world’s land area could preserve irreplaceable habitats of 1191 species that are particularly vulnerable to extinction

No Place for Predators?: Time and again, advancing civilization has set people against large carnivores. On the front lines of Washington State, wildlife biologists hope that knowledge can trump fear, and ultimately lead to détente.

When voters in Washington State banned hound hunting with an eye to protecting cougars, they unwittingly triggered a chain of events that wildlife biologists are still trying to understand

Climate Change: Helping Nature Survive the Human Response

Climate change poses profound, direct, and well-documented threats to biodiversity. A significant fraction of Earth’s species is at risk of extinction due to changing precipitation and temperature regimes, rising and acidifying oceans, and other factors. There is also growing awareness of the diversity and magnitude of responses, both proactive and reactive, that people will undertake as lives and livelihoods are affected by climate change. Yet to date few studies have examined the relationship between these two powerful forces. The natural systems upon which people depend, already under direct assault from climate change, are further threatened by how we respond to climate change. Human history and recent studies suggest that our actions to cope with climate change (adaptation) or lessen its rate and magnitude (mitigation) could have impacts that match—and even exceed—the direct effects of climate change on ecosystems. If we are to successfully conserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services in a warming world, considerable effort is needed to predict and reduce the indirect risks created by climate change

Climate change: Helping nature survive the human response

Climate change poses profound, direct, and well-documented threats to biodiversity. A significant fraction of Earth\u27s species is at risk of extinction due to changing precipitation and temperature regimes, rising and acidifying oceans, and other factors. There is also growing awareness of the diversity and magnitude of responses, both proactive and reactive, that people will undertake as lives and livelihoods are affected by climate change. Yet to date few studies have examined the relationship between these two powerful forces. The natural systems upon which people depend, already under direct assault from climate change, are further threatened by how we respond to climate change. Human history and recent studies suggest that our actions to cope with climate change (adaptation) or lessen its rate and magnitude (mitigation) could have impacts that match-and even exceed-the direct effects of climate change on ecosystems. If we are to successfully conserve biodiversity and maintain ecosystem services in a warming world, considerable effort is needed to predict and reduce the indirect risks created by climate change. ©2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

From rainforest to oil palm plantations: shifts in predator population and prey communities, but resistant interactions

Anthropogenic habitat change can dramatically alter biotic communities in tropical landscapes. Species that persist in human dominated landscapes are therefore likely to modify the way they interact. Although human impacts on community composition are relatively well studied, changes in species interactions are less well documented. Here we assess how logging of rainforest and conversion to oil palm plantations affects the populations of the ant-specialist giant river toad (Phrynoidis juxtaspera), and the availability and composition of its ant prey. We measured canopy cover as an estimate for the degree of disturbance and found that toad abundance decreased with increasing disturbance, and that retaining riparian vegetation should therefore help conserve this species. Both abundance and species richness of local ground-foraging ants increased with disturbance, and ant community composition was altered. Despite these changes, composition of ants consumed by toads was only weakly affected by habitat change, with the exception of the invasive yellow crazy ant (Anoplolepis gracilipes), which was positively selected in oil palm plantations. This suggests that predator–prey interactions can be mostly maintained with habitat disturbance despite shifts in the community composition of potential prey, and even that some predators are capable of exploiting new prey sources in novel ecosystems

Tree plantations displacing native forests: The nature and drivers of apparent forest recovery on former croplands in Southwestern China from 2000 to 2015

China is credited with undertaking some of the world's most ambitious policies to protect and restore forests, which could serve as a role model for other countries. However, the actual environmental consequences of these policies are poorly known. Here, we combine remote-sensing analysis with household interviews to assess the nature and drivers of land-cover change in southwestern China between 2000–2015, after China's major forest protection and reforestation policies came into effect. We found that while the region's gross tree cover grew by 32%, this increase was entirely due to the conversion of croplands to tree plantations, particularly monocultures. Native forests, in turn, suffered a net loss of 6.6%. Thus, instead of truly recovering forested landscapes and generating concomitant environmental benefits, the region's apparent forest recovery has effectively displaced native forests, including those that could have naturally regenerated on land freed up from agriculture. The pursuit of profit from agricultural or forestry production along with governmental encouragement and mobilization for certain land uses – including tree planting – were the dominant drivers of the observed land-cover change. An additional driver was the desire of many households to conform with the land-use decisions of their neighbors. We also found that households' lack of labor or financial resources, rather than any policy safeguards, was the primary constraint on further conversion of native forests. We conclude that to achieve genuine forest recovery along with the resulting environmental benefits, China's policies must more strongly protect existing native forests and facilitate native forest restoration. Natural regeneration, which thus far has been grossly neglected in China's forest policies, should be recognized as a legitimate means of forest restoration. In addition, social factors operating at the household level, notably the pursuit of profit and conformation to social norms, should be harnessed to promote better land-cover, biodiversity, and environmental outcomes. More generally, for China and other countries to succeed in recovering forests, policies must clearly distinguish between native forests and tree plantations