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1st draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework released
On 12 July 2021, the 1st draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework debuted. This comes ahead of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in October, to develop the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. With 21 action targets [...] read more
On the misuse of nature-based carbon ‘offsets’
Nature-based solutions (NbS*) are being misused for greenwashing. Promoting NbS as carbon 'offsets' while continuing business as usual in fossil fuel use is not a solution to climate change. In fact, it can encourage continued or even increased fossil fuel consumption leading to more emissions o [...] read more

Multi-dimensional well-being associated with economic dependence on ecosystem services in deltaic social-ecological systems of Bangladesh

Adams et al. 2020 This paper investigates the relationship between ecosystem services and poverty in the south and south-west coastal zone of Bangladesh. To account for the complex nature of poverty, the authors used two different poverty measures: material poverty (inability of a household to meet the cost of basic needs), and life satisfaction (head of [...] Read more
April 21, 2020

Protecting wetlands for people: Strategic policy action can help wetlands mitigate risks and enhance resilience

Endter-Wada et al. 2020 The authors of this paper propose national wetland commissions to coordinate protection, management and restoration of wetlands across national, regional and state borders. The wetland commission could be modeled on river and lake commissions, which have facilitated cooperatation, and brought together technical expertise and funding to enable management of water resources across boundaries. [...] Read more
April 16, 2020

Coffee agroforestry systems capable of reducing disease-induced yield and economic losses while providing multiple ecosystem services

Cerda et al. 2020 Agroforestry is a nature-based approach to agricultural production, with great potential for providing sustainable food security. This study looks at ecosystem services and disease in 61 smallholder coffee plots in Turrialba, Costa Rica. The authors found the six coffee agroforestry systems with the most promise for reducing losses to disease, whilst providing [...] Read more
April 14, 2020

Achieving cost‐effective landscape‐scale forest restoration through targeted natural regeneration

Crouzeilles et al. 2020 This paper quantifies the potential for natural regeneration across deforested areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. By identifying socioeconomic and environmental factors that correlate with areas that regenerated naturally between 1996 and 2015, the authors identified 21.6 million hectares of land in the Atlantic Forest region that are likely to be suitable [...] Read more
March 27, 2020

The Global Flood Protection Benefits of Mangroves

Menendez et al. 2020 This paper estimates the economic value of mangrove forests for flood mitigation at the highest resolution to-date – for every 20km of mangrove coastline globally. The authors find that mangroves provide over $65 billion in flood protection, and prevent 15 million people from being flooded every year. Loss of mangroves worldwide would [...] Read more
March 19, 2020

Key reasons why tree planting so often fails

Duguma et al. 2020 World Agroforestry This paper provides a detailed overview of the major underlying challenges for successful forest and woodland restoration. The authors highlight 5 key challenges: 1) Performance indicators for forest restoration projects are often the number of trees planted or the area covered – this does not account for the fact that many [...] Read more
March 13, 2020

Working on the boundaries — How do science use and interpret the nature-based solutions concept?

Hanson et al. 2020 Over the last decade, ‘nature-based solutions’ (NbS) has emerged as a key concept in environmental science. This article assesses a range of factors to better understand how the concept works at the interface of science and policy. The authors conducted a structured, qualitative review of 112 scientific peer-reviewed publications using the term NbS. They [...] Read more
March 4, 2020

Ecosystem-based tsunami mitigation for tropical biodiversity hotspots

Wanger et al. 2020 Tsunamis have claimed over 260,000 lives this last century, making them the most deadly of natural hazards. In 2018, a tsunami devastated the Indonesian city of Palu and in response the government is planning to build a 7km long, 3.2m high sea wall. This paper suggests a hybrid coastal protection strategy for [...] Read more
February 27, 2020

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

Tew et al. 2019 Cultural ecosystem services are recognised as important, but are notoriously difficult to define, measure and assign value to. This study of Thetford forest in the east UK uncovered the relationship between cultural values and land management practices, whilst controlling for the influence of landscape features, such as rivers and roads. The authors [...] Read more
February 11, 2020

Ecosystem-based Adaptation: A review of the constraints

Nalau et al. 2018 Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is the preferred approach for adapting to climate change in the least developed and developing countries, in part because it has the capacity to address adaptation of both ecosystems and livelihoods simultaneously. This review paper looks at existing literature on the constraints on EbA use, categorised into: economic constraints, [...] Read more
February 11, 2020

Recent divergence in the contributions of tropical and boreal forests to the terrestrial carbon sink

Tagesson et al. 2020 This paper used satellite data on land cover and a dynamic global vegetation model to estimate the impact of human land use and land cover changes (LULCC) on the contribution of different habitat types to the terrestrial carbon sink between 1992 and 2015. The authors found that tropical and boreal forests contributed [...] Read more
February 11, 2020

Governance principles for community-centered conservation in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Armitage et al. 2019 Conservation Science and Practice It is well established that Nature-based Solutions are often more effective if they are designed and implemented in a way that aligns with the perspectives and needs of local stakeholders. Community-centred conservation follows the same principle and some of the research in this area can be applied to [...] Read more
February 11, 2020

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