Exploring social contracts of disaster risk through twitter narratives during a major storm

Social contracts are evolving relationships between the government and the public; they describe the rights and responsibilities of each party in catastrophic hydroclimatic events. As the climate crisis unfolds disaster losses continue to increase and the need for new infrastructure is becoming more apparent. Research suggests that incorporating Nature-based Solutions (NbS) into infrastructure adaptations may reduce exposure and loss and improve social well-being. While researchers and policy makers push for NbS, it is unclear whether they adequately recognize contemporary social contracts and whether these contracts are shifting sufficiently to accept the differences. We operationalize social contracts and test a conceptual approach through analysis of tweets before, during and after Hurricane Ida. Our results indicate a social contract of inequalities manifested through experience, perceptions and expectations of citizens. There is a great deal of uncertainty and feelings of insecurity about the public’s perception of government response and resource provisions. Although our results indicated a gap in public perception of NbS, uncertainty about the effectiveness of conventional infrastructure was expressed. Public expectations include an evolving social contract that addresses the challenges related to inequalities while also adapting to climate change. We discuss how this twitter data can be used to understand the role of social contracts in responding to disaster risk and infrastructure adaptation and how inadequacies in current protection measures can inform potential use of NbS.

Complementary functions of created wetlands along river channels and rice paddies in floodplain biodiversity conservation

The creation of wetlands along river channels, or inter-levee floodplain wetlands (ILWs), increases the cross-sectional area of rivers for flood control and is an effective nature-based solution (NbS) that is expected to achieve both flood control and biodiversity conservation in floodplains in riverine areas in Japan. To clarify the differences in habitat functions between ILWs and rice paddy fields, we surveyed the species assemblage and habitat usage of aquatic animal assemblages in ILWs and nearby rice paddies in the Nobi Plain of central Japan. Rana japonica bred in the ILWs, and taxon numbers of Odonata larvae and aquatic Hemiptera were greater in ILWs than in rice paddies. Fish taxa were also more abundant in the ILWs. ILWs were characterized mainly by taxa with a preference for permanent water bodies in their life history, whereas Dryophytes japonicus, Pelophylax porosus brevipodus, and Fejervarya kawamurai inhabited and bred mainly in the rice paddies, and the number of taxa of aquatic Coleoptera was also higher. The assemblages in the rice paddies were characterized by pioneer taxa with a preference for temporary waters as their primary breeding sites. Our results show that the creation of ILWs for flood control and the maintenance of rice paddies could help to conserve the original floodplain biodiversity through the complementarity of these different wetland types.

For resilient rural shorelines: reviewing Nature-based Solutions for flood risk reduction in small coastal communities

Coastal flood risk poses a serious, existential threat to shoreline populations around the world both now and in the future. Unsurprisingly, global decision makers are considering their options – one of these being Nature-based Solutions – for effective disaster risk reduction which specifically targets coastal flooding. While strides have been made in the field of Nature-based Solutions for coastal flooding, much of this attention has been directed towards the urban setting, with a wealth of scholastic documentation to support this notion. The sizeable rural populations scattered throughout the world’s small coastal communities, meanwhile, have been largely neglected in academic literature. Without this information, it is impossible to properly capture the full potential of Nature-based Solutions in (global) flood risk modelling endeavours or understand their role in the future of equitable disaster risk reduction. In light of this gap, we have reviewed the limited amount of existing literature from around the world involving the implementation and effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions in small coastal communities. We analysed 28 peer-reviewed studies to gather common themes and insights about the barriers and opportunities unique to these rural shorelines. Takeaways we have identified include a near consistent scarcity of resources (e.g., technical, financial, institutional) to implement disaster risk reduction measures; an abundance of space and opportune land use regimes which make Nature-based Solutions a highly plausible option; amplified nature contributions to people leading to larger benefits reaped from investments into Nature-based Solutions; and the presence of local knowledge regarding societal norms, climate patterns, and ecosystem capabilities. We argue that these four common themes point to the fact that more attention must be given to coastal flooding-focused Nature-based Solutions in the rural setting. As such, we present this collation as a starting point for future projects of similar setting and scope. We also recommend improving benefit-cost analysis methods as well as including local knowledge and other perspectives in future global assessments of coastal flood risk.

Mapping the risk reduction benefits of coral reef conservation – Hawaii case study

Effective disaster risk reduction measures are vital to coastal communities around the world. While nature-based solutions provide coastal communities with a promising alternative to traditional engineering-based solutions; these solutions are often overlooked by communities when planning and implementing disaster risk reduction measures. This study builds upon the literature that demonstrates the effectiveness of coral reef conservation to mitigate coastal flood risk. Our approach utilizes freely available tools and data to quantify the economic value of coral reef conservation for the Hawaiian Islands. We explore a scenario that depicts coastal flooding if the upper 1 m of the coral reef were to be lost. The study analyzes the Average Annual Loss (AAL) and losses avoided based on a series of 4 coastal flood scenario return periods with and without coral reefs. This case study finds that the preservation of the upper 1 m of coral reefs for the main islands of Hawaiʻi provides the state with $629 million in annual losses avoided to buildings. A hot spot analysis of the losses avoided identifies areas where conservation efforts could be prioritized. Our findings provide additional support to the use of nature-based solutions as an effective disaster risk reduction measure, and provides communities and stakeholders with a methodology that can be implemented using readily available data and tools.

Modelled effectiveness of NbS in reducing disaster risk: Evidence from the OPERANDUM project

The use of nature-based solutions (NbS) to address the risks posed by hydro-meteorological hazards have not yet become part of the mainstream policy response, and one of the main reasons cited for this, is the lack of evidence that they can effectively reduce disaster risk. This paper addresses this issue, by providing model-based evidence from five European case studies which demonstrate the effectiveness of five different NbS in reducing the magnitude of the hazard and thus risk, in present-day and possible future climates. In OAL-Austria, the hazard is a deep-seated landslide, and the NbS analysed is afforestation. Modelling results show that in today’s climate and a landcover scenario of mature forest, a reduction in landslide velocity of 27.6 % could be achieved. In OAL-Germany, the hazard is river flooding and the NbS analysed is managed grazing with removal of woody vegetation. Modelling results show that the NbS could potentially reduce maximum flood water depth in the near-future (2031–2060) and far-future (2070–2099), by 0.036 m and 0.155 m, respectively. In OAL-Greece, the hazard is river flooding, and the NbS is upscaled natural storage reservoirs. Modelling results show that in a possible future climate the upscaled NbS show most potential in reducing the total flooded area by up to 1.26 km2. In OAL-Ireland, the hazard is surface and river flooding, and the NbS is green roofs. Results from a modelled upscaling analysis under two different climate scenarios show that both maximum flood water depth, and total flooded area were able to be reduced. In OAL-UK, the hazard is shallow landslides, and the NbS is high-density planting of two different tree species. Modelling results under two different climate scenarios show that both tree species were able to improve slope stability, and that this increased over time as the NbS matured. The significance of these results is discussed within the context of the performance of the NbS over time, to different magnitude events, impact with stakeholders in engendering wider support for the adoption of the NbS in the OALs, and the uncertainty in the modelling analyses.

Cost-benefit and equity analysis of nature-based solutions in Haiti, India, Indonesia and Uganda

This study performs an economic efficiency and equity analysis of four recent Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR) interventions in Haiti, India, Indonesia, and Uganda. Our analysis aims at contributing to the development of methodological best practices for assessing both the economic-effectiveness and the distributional impacts of nature-based solutions, with a particular focus on marginalized or underserved communities. Nature-based solutions (NbS) are emerging as possible strategies to mitigate disaster risk while providing additional benefits to biodiversity and sustainable economic growth. However, there is limited scientific evidence about the cost-effectiveness and equity outcomes of NbS. For each ecosystem-based intervention examined we performed an economic efficiency assessment through a quantitative cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Our estimates show that at the 5th year since the project implementation, the interventions in Haiti and India generated positive net benefits, assuming hazard-related yearly losses in properties and GDP per capita in the project areas as low as 0.5 %. We observe the same outcomes in Indonesia and Uganda at the 10th year since the project implementation, assuming yearly losses equivalent to 1 % or higher and adopting a 3 % discount rate. When we include additional benefits from carbon capture and sequestration and pollution reduction the CBA net benefits estimates are positive at the 10th year mark for every discount rate adopted. Extensive qualitative interviews of local stakeholders corroborate the CBA results and provide insights on the numerous additional benefits experienced, which in the future could be measured and monetized if monitored over time. A qualitative analysis of the distributional effects of the interventions was performed to complement the economic efficiency assessment. This equity analysis indicates an enhancement in inclusivity, economic equality, participation, and capacity building among local stakeholders. In particular, the Eco-DRR interventions implemented resulted in significant education, health, safety and economic improvements for women, children, and economically vulnerable members of the local communities.

Co-designing a toolkit for evidence-based decision making in conservation: Processes and lessons

Improving the effectiveness of conservation practice requires better use of evidence.
Since 2004, researchers from the Conservation Evidence group (University of Cambridge) have engaged with over 1100 named practitioners, policymakers, funders and other academics from across the world to identify needs and develop a range of principles, tools and resources to embed evidence in decision making. The goal of this engagement (the Conservation Evidence Programme) was to deliver improved conservation practice leading to benefits for nature and society. Together, we developed a theory of change with five key strategies for delivering change, alongside a freely available Evidence Toolkit to support decision makers in achieving that change.

The authors describe the toolkit, a collection of freely available tools and resources developed by the collaborative programme, and how co-design, employing different levels of partner engagement, enabled its development.

Reflecting on our experiences highlighted a number of insights and recommendations, including the need to identify where deep engagement is a necessary condition for success; the importance of collective agreement of the roles of different partners; the need to consider how to facilitate uptake of new tools or practices, particularly where that requires changes to organisational practices or culture; and the importance of establishing processes/channels for ongoing engagement with stakeholders, with a willingness to be flexible and open to incorporating new suggestions and perspectives as needed.

The Conservation Evidence Programme has enabled practitioners, funders and policymakers to become part of a network of forward-thinking organisations that is working collaboratively to help drive more effective conservation practice through improved evidence use.

The governance of nature-based solutions in the city at the intersection of justice and equity

On the one hand the Special Issue provides a diagnosis of the justice implications embedded in recent efforts to renature cities. Placed in the breadth of existing scholarship, it aims to explore the type of socio-environmental contradictions and contestations emerging through the deployment of nature-based solutions in a range of geographies. On the other hand, this Special Issue works towards shaping a prognosis, or a potential future for the governance of nature-based solutions, that brings social justice, indigenous knowledge and more-than-human thinking into the design and execution of projects on nature-based solutions. More generally, this Special Issue contributes to the growing literature in critical urban geography, planning and ecology on how different types of ‘natures’ are deployed and instrumentalized to defend dominant economic representations. Yet, for nature-based solutions to truly stand up to their promise, the logic and apparatus of urban development need to be decoupled from the ‘growth-at-all-costs’ mental cage by exploring degrowth narratives, for example as only then can environmental justice in its various manifestations be sought, defended and unfolded.

Nature-based solutions implementation: barriers and enablers

In water sector, nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognized as solutions to address societal challenges, while simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. NBS contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation, to increase flooding resilience of cities, reduce pollution, support biodiversity restoration, and enable ecosystems services provision. However, the implementation of nature-based water management solutions remains slow for several reasons. First, NBS are still novel concept, relatively unknown for many water-related stakeholders, necessitating more insight efforts to generalize their adoption. Moreover, concerns exist over their reliability, cost-effectiveness, and their long-term performance. Alongside those concerns, financial and governance barriers to implementing NBS exist, exhibiting additional needs for further research. Least but not last, technical barriers can also represent impediments in NBS implementation. In this communication, we consolidate the NBS definition comparatively to related infrastructures, such as natural, green or hybrid systems and synthesize the knowledge related to research and operational outcomes from fullscale implementation of nature-based water management solutions with the aim to identify delivered benefits but also potential drawbacks and requirements for a successful implementation. At the end, the ways to overcome the identified barriers and research recommendations are presented with the aim to foster the NBS implementation within water governance and urban planning sectors.

NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO BUILD CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN INFORMAL AREAS

The world is warming at an unprecedented pace and humaninduced climate change has already caused widespread adverse impacts on people and nature (IPCC, 2022e). There are already observed increases in frequency and intensity of climate and weather extremes in every inhabited region of the world, including heat waves, heavy precipitation events that cause flooding, drought and fire and this is expected to intensify (IPCC, 2022e). Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals has been inhibited and the most vulnerable people are disproportionately affected (IPCC, 2022e). This is only the beginning as global temperatures will continue to rise until at least the middle of the 21st century in all currently possible emission scenarios. If deep emission cuts do not occur, the temperature will rise at least 2.1°C to 3.5°C or even up to 5.7°C by the end of the century (IPCC, 2021).

Establishing a biocultural heritage territory to protect Kenya’s Kaya Forests: mid-term project workshop

Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), in collaboration with IIED, is implementing the project ‘Establishing a biocultural heritage territory to protect Kenya’s Kaya Forests’ in the Rabai Mijikenda community. Rabai sub-county forms part of the Coastal Forests global biodiversity hotspot, currently under threat. The project aims to conserve biodiversity and genetic resources in four sacred Kaya forests and across the landscape. It also aims to enhance livelihoods and establish a community institution for collective governance of the Rabai Biocultural Heritage Territory.

The mid-term project workshop brought together the community and key government agencies to review progress and challenges with establishing a collectively governed biocultural heritage territory in Rabai and develop strategies to address them.

Diverse values of nature for sustainability

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.

Diverse values of nature for sustainability

Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.

Reverse the Cerrado’s neglect

The Cerrado biome in Brazil is the most biodiverse savannah in the world1 and has a key role in stabilizing both the local and the global climate, storing carbon and providing fresh water to the country2. Yet, the Cerrado has little protection and is being converted for agriculture at an alarming rate. Recently released official data reveal that, in 2022, deforestation in the biome rose for the third consecutive year3. The area cleared was 25% higher than the previous year, reaching 10,689 km² (ref. 3), rivalling the rates of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (12,479 km²), despite the Cerrado being only half the size3. Almost three-quarters of that conversion took place in the MATOPIBA agricultural frontier, where nearly 25% of Cerrado’s soybean harvest is planted4. The current high rates of conversion even jeopardize the future of agricultural production in the Cerrado. The loss of the Cerrado has contributed to extreme climate events over the past decade5, which increased surface-sensible heat flux, reduced evapotranspiration and crop yields and threatened the feasibility of multi-cropping systems6, as well as exacerbated land concentration and farmers’ indebtedness.

Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions in City Planning: Examining Scale, Focus, and Visibility as Drivers of Intervention Success in Liverpool, UK

Nature-based solutions (NBS) have been central to the European Union’s drive to address climate change, ecological degradation, and promote urban prosperity. Via an examination of the Horizon 2020-funded URBAN GreenUP project in Liverpool, this paper explores mainstreaming NBS in city planning. It uses evidence from pre- and post-intervention surveys with Liverpool residents and interviews with local business, environmental, government, and community sector experts to illustrate how a complex interplay of scale, location, focus, and visibility of NBS influences perceptions of the added value of NBS. This paper highlights the requirement that NBS interventions be bespoke and responsive to the overarching needs of residents and other stakeholders. Moreover, we underscore the importance of expert input into the design, location, and maintenance of NBS and call for these key drivers of successful delivery to be better integrated into work programs. This paper also notes that the type and size of NBS interventions impact perceptions of their value, with smaller projects being viewed as less socially and ecologically valuable compared to larger investments. We conclude that while small-scale NBS can support climatic, health, or ecological improvements in specific instances, strategic, larger-scale, and more visible investments are required to accrue substantive benefits and gain acceptance of NBS as a legitimate and effective planning tool.

Enabling Women as Key Actors in Nature-based Solutions

This paper aims to better understand the role of rural women in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and to provide insights on how to support them. The gender dimension remains underexplored in the literature on NbS. Most studies focus on the biophysical and technical aspects of NbS and their global and transboundary scales of impact. The studies that do investigate the social aspects, such as opportunity costs and poverty impacts, tend to treat households as a congruent unit, bypassing intrahousehold and gender dynamics. Research shows that the success of NbS hinges on the inclusion of critical stakeholders, including women.

This paper explores four NbS approaches—natural climate solutions (NCS), forest landscape restoration (FLR), ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), and payments for ecosystem services (PES)—using a gender lens. Complementing the general review of NbS approaches, the paper conducts three deep dives on PES projects from around the world, highlighting in both cases the different factors that enable or bar rural women from effectively participating and benefiting from interventions. The paper then provides high-level recommendations for enabling conditions and practices for a more gender-responsive approach to NbS necessary for climate-resilient, sustainable agroecosystems.

The primary outcome sought by this research is to support the donor community, development practitioners, and policymakers in designing and implementing NbS policies and programs that promote rural women’s agency as key stakeholders in NbS.

Support of residents for sustainable tourism development in nature-based destinations: Applying theories of social exchange and bottom-up spillover

This study examines how residents of nature-based tourism destinations become supportive of sustainable tourism development based on an integrated theoretical framework that combines social exchange theory and bottom-up spillover theory. A survey of 364 residents in Jechon City, South Korea measured their perceptions of tourism impacts using a neutral-phrase questionnaire (non-forced approach). Results from structural equation modeling showed that residents perceive tourism as having a significant positive impact on material and non-material aspects of their lives, which leads to overall quality of life and support for sustainable tourism development. The integration of social exchange theory and bottom-up spillover theory proved to be a useful framework in predicting residents’ support for sustainable tourism development. The study results suggest that to foster local residents’ support for sustainable tourism development, planners should consider the impact of tourism on material and non-material aspects of residents’ lives, emphasize environmental considerations, and focus on long-term benefits.

Evaluating the impact of nature-based solutions

The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks.

Heavy reliance on private finance alone will not deliver conservation goals

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework envisages an increasing reliance on large-scale private finance to fund biodiversity targets. We warn that this may pose contradictions in delivering conservation outcomes and propose a critical ongoing role for direct public funding of conservation and public oversight of private nature-related financial mechanisms.

Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation

Despite efforts to promote sustainable agriculture, food and agricultural production remain the main driver of global biodiversity loss. However, where food production conflicts with biodiversity conservation and which products and countries contribute the most has not been as comprehensively assessed. Based on spatial models of farming and conservation priority areas, we estimate how production and consumption of 48 agricultural commodities driven by 197 countries may conflict with conservation priorities for 7,143 species. This study provides a quantitative basis to better understand and manage the large-scale transformative changes between humanity and nature through decisions concerning food consumption, production, and trade.

Demand for food products, often from international trade, has brought agricultural land use into direct competition with biodiversity. Where these potential conflicts occur and which consumers are responsible is poorly understood. By combining conservation priority (CP) maps with agricultural trade data, we estimate current potential conservation risk hotspots driven by 197 countries across 48 agricultural products. Globally, a third of agricultural production occurs in sites of high CP (CP > 0.75, max = 1.0). While cattle, maize, rice, and soybean pose the greatest threat to very high-CP sites, other low-conservation risk products (e.g., sugar beet, pearl millet, and sunflower) currently are less likely to be grown in sites of agriculture–conservation conflict. Our analysis suggests that a commodity can cause dissimilar conservation threats in different production regions. Accordingly, some of the conservation risks posed by different countries depend on their demand and sourcing patterns of agricultural commodities. Our spatial analyses identify potential hotspots of competition between agriculture and high-conservation value sites (i.e., 0.5° resolution, or ~367 to 3,077km2, grid cells containing both agriculture and high-biodiversity priority habitat), thereby providing additional information that could help prioritize conservation activities and safeguard biodiversity in individual countries and globally. A web-based GIS tool at https://agriculture.spatialfootprint.com/biodiversity/ systematically visualizes the results of our analyses.

Safe and just Earth system boundaries

The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently. Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries (ESBs) for climate, the biosphere, water and nutrient cycles, and aerosols at global and subglobal scales. We propose ESBs for maintaining the resilience and stability of the Earth system (safe ESBs) and minimizing exposure to significant harm to humans from Earth system change (a necessary but not sufficient condition for justice). The stricter of the safe or just boundaries sets the integrated safe and just ESB. Our findings show that justice considerations constrain the integrated ESBs more than safety considerations for climate and atmospheric aerosol loading. Seven of eight globally quantified safe and just ESBs and at least two regional safe and just ESBs in over half of global land area are already exceeded. We propose that our assessment provides a quantitative foundation for safeguarding the global commons for all people now and into the future.

Loss and damage finance should apply to biodiversity loss

Global biodiversity loss has been disproportionately driven by consumption of people in rich nations. The concept of ‘loss and damage’ — familiar from international agreements on climate change — should be considered for the effects of biodiversity loss in countries of the Global South.

A global conservation basic income to safeguard biodiversity

Biodiversity conservation supporting a global sustainability transformation must be inclusive, equitable, just and embrace plural values. The conservation basic income (CBI), a proposed unconditional cash transfer to individuals residing in important conservation areas, is a potentially powerful mechanism for facilitating this radical shift in conservation. This analysis provides comprehensive projections for potential gross costs of global CBI using spatial analyses of three plausible future conservation scenarios. Gross costs vary widely, depending on the areas and populations included, from US$351 billion to US$6.73 trillion annually. A US$5.50 per day CBI in existing protected areas in low- and middle-income countries would cost US$478 billion annually. These costs are large compared with current government conservation spending (~US$133 billion in 2020) but represent a potentially sensible investment in safeguarding incalculable social and natural values and the estimated US$44 trillion in global economic production dependent on nature.

Science and the legal rights of nature

Laws that establish legal rights for nature are being pursued in a growing number of countries to protect the environment. The success or failure of these rights-of-nature laws can depend in large part on how scientific concepts and expertise have been used to develop, interpret, and implement them. Epstein et al. reviewed key scientific aspects of rights-of-nature laws and the use of science in court decisions that have interpreted them. They examined the “right to evolve” to illustrate challenges in applying scientific concepts in rights-of-nature laws and identify some possible solutions.

A Balancing Act for Brazil’s Amazonian States: An Economic Memorandum

Brazil’s nine Amazonian states, here collectively referred to as Amazônia, include some of the world’s richest ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest and parts of the Cerrado savanna and Pantanal wetlands. The region is also among Brazil’s poorest socioeconomically. As a result, sustainable, inclusive development of Amazônia calls for raising living standards while protecting natural forests. A Balancing Act for Brazil’s Amazonian States: An Economic Memorandum explores how a recalibrated development approach can achieve these goals. In the shorter term, there is an urgent need to halt deforestation–a massive destruction of natural wealth that poses risks to the climate and economy. Amazônia is Brazil’s deforestation hot spot, and the Amazon rainforest is approaching tipping points into broad and permanent forest loss. Reversing the recent increase in deforestation requires stronger land and forest governance, including land regularization and more effective law enforcement. In the longer term, both Brazil and Amazônia need a new growth model. This model would be anchored in productivity rather than resource extraction and it would diversify the export basket beyond commodities. A more balanced structural transformation requires the lagging urban sectors, such as manufacturing and services, to step up to promote economic growth, reduce pressure on the agricultural frontier, and generate jobs for Brazil and Amazônia’s largely urban populations. The public-good value of Amazônia’s forests could generate conservation finance linked to verifiable reductions in deforestation. Such financing would support a new development approach, combining forest protection, productivity, balanced structural transformation, sustainable production techniques (including the bioeconomy), and other measures to address the needs of Amazônia’s urban and rural populations. This approach must also heed the needs and interests of Amazônia’s traditional communities. Given both the value and the fragility of Amazônia’s ecosystems, coupled with considerable socioeconomic local needs, the stakes are high—for Amazônia, Brazil, and the world.