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Rotational fishery closures could enhance coral recovery in systems with alternative states Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Andrew Rassweiler, Lee M. Wall
Rotational closures have potential fisheries benefits, yet their impact on coral cover is unknown. Research has shown that permanent closures can protect herbivorous fish, indirectly benefiting corals, but these observations may not apply when closed periods alternate with fishing. Here, we examine how rotational closures affect coral, focusing on systems with the potential to switch between alternative
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Correction to: Using nonhuman culture in conservation requires careful and concerted action Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-06
Carvalho, S., Wessling, E. G., Abwe, E. E., Almeida-Warren, K., Arandjelovic, M., Boesch, C., Danquah, E., Diallo, M. S., Hobaiter, C., Hockings, K., Humle, T., Ikemeh, R. A., Kalan, A. K., Luncz, L., Ohashi, G., Pascual-Garrido, A., Piel, A., Samuni, L., Soiret, S., Sanz, C., & Koops, K. (2022). Using nonhuman culture in conservation requires careful and concerted action. Conservation Letters, e12860
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Improving well‐being and reducing deforestation in Indonesia's protected areas Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Courtney Leslie Morgans, Sophie Jago, Noviar Andayani, Matthew Linkie, Michaela G. Y. Lo, Sonny Mumbunan, Freya A. V. St. John, Jatna Supriatna, Maria Voigt, Nurul L. Winarni, Truly Santika, Matthew J. Struebig
Protected areas (PAs) are central to sustainability targets, yet few evaluations explore outcomes for both conservation and development, or the trade‐offs involved. We applied counterfactual analyses to assess the extent to which PAs maintained forest cover and influenced well‐being across >31,000 villages in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesia. We examined multidimensional aspects of well‐being, tracking
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Assessing the value of citizen scientist observations in tracking the abundance of marine fishes Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Dan A. Greenberg, Christy V. Pattengill‐Semmens, Brice X. Semmens
The state of biodiversity for most of the world is largely enigmatic due to a lack of long‐term population monitoring data. Citizen science programs could substantially contribute to resolving this data crisis, but there are noted concerns on whether methods can overcome the biases and imprecision inherent to aggregated opportunistic observations. We explicitly test this question by examining the temporal
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Tropical field stations yield high conservation return on investment Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Timothy M. Eppley, Kim E. Reuter, Timothy M. Sefczek, Jen Tinsman, Luca Santini, Selwyn Hoeks, Seheno Andriantsaralaza, Sam Shanee, Anthony Di Fiore, Joanna M. Setchell, Karen B. Strier, Peter A. Abanyam, Aini Hasanah Abd Mutalib, Ekwoge Abwe, Tanvir Ahmed, Marc Ancrenaz, Raphali R. Andriantsimanarilafy, Andie Ang, Filippo Aureli, Louise Barrett, Jacinta C. Beehner, Marcela E. Benítez, Bruna M. Bezerra
Conservation funding is currently limited; cost‐effective conservation solutions are essential. We suggest that the thousands of field stations worldwide can play key roles at the frontline of biodiversity conservation and have high intrinsic value. We assessed field stations’ conservation return on investment and explored the impact of COVID‐19. We surveyed leaders of field stations across tropical
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Maw money, maw problems: A lucrative fish maw fishery in Papua New Guinea highlights a global conservation issue driven by Chinese cultural demand Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Yolarnie Amepou, Andrew Chin, Simon Foale, Glenn Sant, Olivia Smailes, Michael I. Grant
Fish maw (teleost swim bladder) is a dried seafood product valued highly by Chinese cultures in East Asia, though global supply chains are poorly understood. Here, we describe the rapid development of a fish maw fishery in a low‐income nation to illustrate how globalization can affect sustainability. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), fish maw developed into a fishery valued at ∼$831,000 USD annually between
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US wildlife trade data lack quality control necessary for accurate scientific interpretation and policy application Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Bruce J. Weissgold
International wildlife trade data are frequently used by government agencies, conservation organizations, and scientific researchers to study and protect species from overexploitation and prevent the spread of invasive species and introduction of zoonotic pathogens. Inaccurate data can lead to mistaken conclusions by researchers, the development of unsuccessful remedial conservation actions, and provide
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Realizing “30 × 30” in India: The potential, the challenges, and the way forward Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-02 Asmita Sengupta, Manan Bhan, Saloni Bhatia, Atul Joshi, Shyama Kuriakose, K. S. Seshadri
Of the goals and targets specified by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Target 3, often referred to as “30 × 30,” has garnered widespread attention globally. In this paper, we critique India's potential to meet this target. We find that with its vast network of ecosystems that are under some form of protection and through the recognition of other effective area-based conservation
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The biodiversity adaptation gap: Management actions for marine protected areas in the face of climate change Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-28 Vincenzo Corelli, Kristina Boerder, Karen L. Hunter, Isabelle Lavoie, Derek P. Tittensor
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a crucial component of international biodiversity conservation commitments, yet are increasingly affected by climate change. No synthesis or analysis exists of the specific on-the-ground management actions that have been taken by MPA managers in response to climate change. Here, we extract, evaluate, classify, and analyze adaptation responses from 646 existing, English-language
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Benchmarking fish biodiversity of seaports with eDNA and nearby marine reserves Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-25 Stéphanie Manel, Laetitia Mathon, David Mouillot, Morgane Bruno, Alice Valentini, Gilles Lecaillon, Anais Gudefin, Julie Deter, Pierre Boissery, Alicia Dalongeville
Coastal areas offer a diversity of habitats providing refugia and nursery for fish, promoting their biodiversity and associated contributions to people. Yet, natural coastlines are replaced by artificial infrastructures such as seaports and the influence of this artificialization on fish biodiversity remains poorly known. Here, we assessed fish biodiversity indicators using environmental DNA metabarcoding
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Advances and shortfalls in applying best practices to global tree-growing efforts Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-22 Spencer C. Schubert, Katherine E. Battaglia, Christina N. Blebea, Cole J. P. Seither, Helena L. Wehr, Karen D. Holl
As global tree-growing efforts have escalated in the past decade, copious failures and unintended consequences have prompted many reforestation best practices guidelines. The extent to which organizations have integrated these ecological and socioeconomic recommendations, however, remains uncertain. We reviewed websites of 99 intermediary organizations that promote and fund tree-growing projects to
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Small mice create big problems: Why Predator Free New Zealand should include house mice and other pest species Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-11 Araceli Samaniego, Andrea E. Byrom, Markus Gronwald, John G. Innes, James T. Reardon
Predator Free 2050 (PF2050) is a government initiative aiming to eradicate selected invasive mammals (mustelids, rats, and possums) from New Zealand (NZ) by 2050. Selecting which of 32 introduced mammal species to include has received little evaluation, yet targeting a few species often results in perverse ecological outcomes given interactions within the invasive guild. We explore how PF2050 could
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Collaborative fisheries research reveals reserve size and age determine efficacy across a network of marine protected areas Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-03 Shelby L. Ziegler, Rachel O. Brooks, Lyall F. Bellquist, Jennifer E. Caselle, Steven G. Morgan, Timothy J. Mulligan, Benjamin I. Ruttenberg, Brice X. Semmens, Richard M. Starr, Joe Tyburczy, Dean E. Wendt, Andre Buchheister, Jose R. Marin Jarrin, Christina Pasparakis, Salvador J. Jorgensen, Jennifer A. Chiu, Jordan Colby, Connor L. Coscino, Leon Davis, Francine de Castro, Jack T. Elstner, Christopher
A variety of criteria may influence the efficacy of networks of marine protected areas (MPA) designed to enhance biodiversity conservation and provide fisheries benefits. Meta-analyses have evaluated the influence of MPA attributes on abundance, biomass, and size structure of harvested species, reporting that MPA size, age, depth, and connectivity influence the strength of MPA responses. However, few
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Bycatch in drift gillnet fisheries: A sink for Indian Ocean cetaceans Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2024-01-03 Brianna Elliott, Jeremy J. Kiszka, Sylvain Bonhommeau, Umair Shahid, Rebecca Lent, Lauren Nelson, Andrew J. Read
In 1992, the UN banned the use of large-scale pelagic driftnets on the high seas (UNGA Resolution 46/215). Three decades later, however, drift gillnets remain one of the primary fishing gears in the Indian Ocean, accounting for approximately 30% of tuna catches in this ocean. Recent estimates indicate that several million small cetaceans have been killed in Indian Ocean gillnets over the past few decades
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What is the risk of overcollecting for translocation? An opportunistic assessment of a wingless grasshopper Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-12-31 Michael R. Kearney, Hiromi Yagui, Ary A. Hoffmann, Ben L. Phillips
Translocation is an increasingly used tool in conservation management, but there is a risk that source populations are overcollected. The risk depends critically on the detection probability and the source population size. We quantified this risk for a wingless grasshopper population in a patch of remnant habitat in suburban Melbourne that was condemned to be cleared for housing development. We collected
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The fear factor—Snakes in Africa might be at an alarming extinction risk Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-12-31 Harith Farooq, Jonas Geldmann
Snakes in Africa are responsible for over 20,000 deaths annually, their indiscriminate killing. As a result, snakes are vulnerable to human population increases even at low intensities. Thus, the predicted doubling of Africa's population by 2050 is likely to pose a disproportionate threat to snakes compared to other taxa. Here we quantify the current and future overlap of snake distributions and human
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Decisive conservation action in areas beyond national jurisdiction is urgently required for seabird recovery in the face of global change Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Moses F. Gee, Caio F. Kenup, Igor Debski, Alexandra Macdonald, Graeme A. Taylor, Rohan H. Clarke, Stefano Canessa, John G. Ewen, Johannes H. Fischer
Areas beyond national jurisdiction, or the high seas, are vital to life on Earth. However, the conservation of these areas, for example, through area-based management tools (ABMTs), is challenging, particularly when accounting for global change. Using decision science, integrated population models, and a Critically Endangered seabird (Kuaka; Pelecanoides whenuahouensis) as a case study, we evaluated
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Conflict between cultural development and wildlife conservation: A potential threat to Reeves's pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-23 Xinming Li, Bochi Wang, Jing Zhang, Geoffrey W. H. Davison, Nan Wang
Reeves's pheasant feathers are used to make headgears for the Chinese opera—Xiqu; however, this posed a considerable threat to the bird's population before it was banned from hunting/trade. It is unclear whether Xiqu-troupes currently use feathers from wild or captive breeding; therefore, we investigated their source and scale of feather utilization. Through interviews, we clarified the current status
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Remote seamounts are key conservation priorities for pelagic wildlife Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-20 Christopher D. H. Thompson, Jessica J. Meeuwig, Alan M. Friedlander, Enric Sala
The pelagic ocean is Earth's largest habitat, constituting 99% of the global biosphere by volume, directly or indirectly supporting most marine life, and supplying the majority of fish consumed by humans (Game et al., 2009; Pauly et al., 2002). However, the world's pelagic fauna is globally declining largely as a result of unsustainable fishing (Pauly & Zeller, 2016). Industrial fishing has reduced
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Testing a conservation compromise: No evidence that public wolf hunting in Slovakia reduced livestock losses Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-17 Miroslav Kutal, Martin Duľa, Alisa Royer Selivanova, José Vicente López-Bao
Variation in the legal status and management of wolves (Canis lupus) across EU Member States provides a good opportunity to test the effectiveness of different practices to reduce livestock losses. This opportunity for testing is particularly useful for lethal interventions, as they are among the most controversial actions within the large carnivore management toolbox. We aimed to test a conservation
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What is the value of biotic seed dispersal in post-fire forest regeneration? Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-09 José Benedicto-Royuela, José Miguel Costa, Ruben Heleno, Joaquim S. Silva, Helena Freitas, Pedro Lopes, Sara Beatriz Mendes, Sérgio Timóteo
World forests face many threats, including wildfires, with tremendous ecological, social, and economic implications. Mediterranean ecosystems have evolved in the presence of fire, but changes to fire regimes associated with other global changes pose new challenges to postfire community regeneration. Forest regeneration largely depends on plant adaptations to survive wildfires or on the recolonization
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Patch-scale edge effects do not indicate landscape-scale fragmentation effects Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-09 Lenore Fahrig
Negative landscape-scale fragmentation effects are often inferred from negative patch-scale edge effects. I tested this cross-scale extrapolation using two evaluations. First, I searched for studies that estimated the direction of both a patch-scale edge effect and a landscape-scale fragmentation effect. The directions were concordant and discordant in 55% and 45% of cases, respectively. Second, I
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What starts with laughter ends in tears: Invasive alien species regulations should not hinder scientific research Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Agata Pietrzyk-Kaszyńska, Agnieszka Olszańska, Kamil Najberek, Rafał Maciaszek, Wojciech Solarz
Biological invasions represent one of the major threats to the world's biodiversity. National and international efforts are taken to address the complexity and dynamic of invasions in legislation. However, based on the Polish experience of implementing the European Union's regulation on invasive alien species (IAS), we suggest that an unclear and disorganized process of law implementation results in
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Adopt digital tools to monitor social dimensions of the global biodiversity framework Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Diogo Veríssimo, Thomas F. Johnson, Joseph W. Millard, Uri Roll
1 INTRODUCTION The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) envisions harmonious coexistence with nature. Realizing this vision depends on effectively monitoring progress toward the GBF's goals and targets. However, the GBF's current monitoring framework (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2022) has fundamental gaps. Of its 27 goals and targets, only nine have a complete set of headline
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Scrutinizing the impact of policy instruments on adoption of agricultural conservation practices using Bayesian expert models Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-03 Angela J Dean, Rachel Eberhard, Umberto Baresi, Anthea Coggan, Felicity Deane, Evan Hamman, Kate J. Helmstedt, Barton Loechel, Diane Jarvis, Helen Mayfield, Lillian Stevens, Bruce Taylor, Karen Vella
Policy instruments—such as regulation, financial incentives, and agricultural extension—are commonly applied by governments to promote sustainable agricultural practices and tackle ecosystem degradation. Despite substantial investment, little data are available to gauge the impact of evolving policy mixes. We constructed a Bayesian network model to explore relationships between policy instruments,
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Fish aggregating devices could enhance the effectiveness of blue water marine protected areas Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-11-01 Michael Bode, Edward T. Game, Alex Wegmann, Kydd Pollock
In the past two decades, drifting fish aggregation devices (FADs) have revolutionized pelagic fisheries, and are now responsible for the majority of tuna purse seine catches. Here, we argue that by taking advantage of the same proven aggregative properties, FADs could be used to enhance the benefits provided by blue water marine protected areas (MPAs). Using models of commercially targeted fish populations
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Fisheries outcomes of marine protected area networks: Levels of protection, connectivity, and time matter Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-31 Charlotte Sève, Mokrane Belharet, Paco Melià, Antonio Di Franco, Antonio Calò, Joachim Claudet
Establishing large networks of fully protected marine protected areas (MPAs) is challenging because of displacement costs for fisheries. The use of partially protected areas is often proposed as an alternative. However, how conservation and fisheries outcomes of MPA networks are mediated through time by the level of protection remains uncertain. Here we use a metapopulation model of a commercially
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Online wildlife trade in species of conservation concern Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-27 Andrea Soriano-Redondo, Haider Alwasiti, Ritwik Kulkarni, Ricardo A. Correia, Sofiya Bryukhova, Nermalie M. Lita, Lodigario A. Rigor, Darwin R. Tejerero, Theresa M. Tenazas, Enrico Di Minin
Online wildlife trade is widespread and affects thousands of species. Yet, attempts to quantify online wildlife trade have mainly focused on a few platforms and taxonomic groups. Here, we study the prevalence of wildlife trade using automated data collection and filtering methods. We analyze trade across five digital platforms and 156 animal and plant species of conservation concern from a global biodiversity
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A global analysis reveals a collective gap in the transparency of offset policies and how biodiversity is measured Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-27 Erica Marshall, Darren Southwell, Brendan A. Wintle, Heini Kujala
Offsetting policies have increased worldwide, utilizing a range of biodiversity metrics to compensate for development impacts. We conducted a global analysis of offset legislation by reviewing policies from 108 countries, which have voluntary offsets, or which require offsets by law. We sought to understand how well biodiversity metrics and offset currencies are documented in current policies. Where
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Industry and conservation goals are complementary for the most valuable fishery in the United States under climate-driven life history changes Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Noah Hunt, Ellen Pikitch, Burton Shank, Cameron T. Hodgdon, Yong Chen
Crustaceans, which are highly susceptible to the effects of climate change, are critical for food security worldwide. Yet, management rarely evaluates the performance of alternative regulatory strategies under climate-driven life history change. This limits the development of climate-ready management plans, undermining fisheries sustainability. We compared the performance of alternative minimum legal
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Invasion trends: An interpretable measure of change is needed to support policy targets Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Melodie A. McGeoch, Yehezkel Buba, Eduardo Arlé, Jonathan Belmaker, David A. Clarke, Walter Jetz, Richard Li, Hanno Seebens, Franz Essl, Quentin Groom, Emili García-Berthou, Bernd Lenzner, Carsten Meyer, Joana R. Vicente, John R. U. Wilson, Marten Winter
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) calls for a 50% reduction in rates of invasive alien species establishment by 2030. However, estimating changes in rates of introduction and establishment is far from straightforward, particularly on a national scale. Variation in survey effort over time, the absence of data on survey effort, and aspects of the invasion process itself interact
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The effectiveness of UK protected areas in preventing local extinctions Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-10-03 Alexandra S. Gardner, David J. Baker, Jonathan R. Mosedale, Kevin J. Gaston, Ilya M. D. Maclean
Protected areas (PAs) are a core component in global efforts to prevent further declines in biodiversity. We examine whether the United Kingdom's PA portfolio has reduced local extinctions of breeding birds and consider how the characteristics of different PA designations may have affected conservation outcomes. We use breeding bird atlas data to calculate the proportion of species in each 10 × 10-km
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Phylogenetic relationships of invasive plants are useful criteria for weed risk assessments Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-09-26 D. M. Buonaiuto, Annette E. Evans, Matthew E. Fertakos, William G. Pfadenhauer, Justin Salva, Bethany A. Bradley
Risk assessments are conservation tools used to prevent the introduction of invasive species. Many assessments ask whether a taxon has invasive close relatives, but it is unclear whether this phylogenetic information is useful, and which taxonomic scales (e.g., genus, family) are most predictive of risk. Combining phylogenetic clustering analyses with models predicting invasion risk, we found invasive
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Operation mercury: Impacts of national-level armed forces intervention and anticorruption strategy on artisanal gold mining and water quality in the Peruvian Amazon Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-09-19 Evan N. Dethier, Miles R. Silman, Luis E. Fernandez, Jorge Caballero Espejo, Sarra Alqahtani, Paúl Pauca, David A. Lutz
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), a wealth-generating industry in many regions, is nonetheless a global challenge for governance and a threat to biodiversity, public health, and ecosystem integrity. In 2019, the Peruvian government mobilized a targeted, large-scale armed intervention against illegal ASGM, which has caused deforestation and water resource degradation in this Tropical Biodiversity
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Explicit incentives increase citizen science recordings Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-09-07 Florian Diekert, Stefan Munzinger, Gaby Schulemann-Maier, Laura Städtler
From tracking land-use change to biodiversity loss, citizen science data have become a cornerstone for conservation. However, policymakers must understand the “data-generating process” to make good use of existing citizen science data and encourage the production of useful new data. We analyze data from the two largest German online platforms for ecological observations to explore and quantify the
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Issue Information Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-08-29
Cover description: The hunting of birds, such as this Madagascar white eye (Zosterops maderaspatanus), is common in rural Madagascar, affecting human wellbeing and, for some species, long-term population viability.
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Foraging mode affects extinction risk of snakes and lizards, but in different ways Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-08-29 Simon Baeckens, Shai Meiri, Richard Shine
What factors render a species more vulnerable to extinction? In reptiles, foraging mode is a fundamental ecological dimension: some species actively search for immobile prey, whereas others ambush mobile prey. Foraging mode is linked to diet, morphology, movement ecology, and reproductive output, and hence plausibly might affect vulnerability to threatening processes. Our analyses of data on 1543 taxa
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Who cares about monarch butterflies? Comparing US State Wildlife Action Plans 2015–2025 Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-08-24 Katie M. Harris, Damon M. Hall, Deborah L. Finke
In 2023, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the iconic North American monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) as Vulnerable due to population declines. Yet, in the United States, there are no national laws protecting monarchs. In 2020, the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that monarchs are “warranted” for US Endangered Species listing, although this listing was “precluded”
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Threatened fauna protections compromised by agricultural interests in Australia Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-08-18 Jayden E. Engert, Robert L. Pressey, Vanessa M. Adams
Australia is a global leader in land clearing and biodiversity loss. The overwhelming majority of land clearing within Australia and, globally, is driven by agricultural conversion. The importance of agricultural lands also leads to the concentration of habitat protection in landscapes that do not support productive land uses, which might contribute to species conservation in marginal habitat. Using
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Toward more equitable ecosystem investment programs—Adaptation and equity are central to the design and functioning of successful water funds Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-08-08 Leah L. Bremer, Kate A. Brauman, Marta Echavarría
Projects designed to incentivize ecosystem management for societal benefits are becoming increasingly popular and are often touted as win–win solutions for social and environmental challenges. Yet, there are important concerns about the equity and justice implications of these programs, and there is strong evidence that a lack of attention to justice can exacerbate or create inequities. We focus on
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Rubber's inclusion in zero-deforestation legislation is necessary but not sufficient to reduce impacts on biodiversity Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-30 Eleanor Warren-Thomas, Antje Ahrends, Yunxia Wang, Maria M. H. Wang, Julia P. G. Jones
Agricultural commodity production is a major driver of tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss. Natural rubber from Hevea brasiliensis, a valuable commodity without viable substitutes, has recently been included in the European Union (EU) deforestation regulation that aims to halt imports of goods containing embedded deforestation. Sustained growth in demand for rubber is driven by increasing
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Principles for climate resilience are prevalent in marine protected area management plans Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-28 Cori Lopazanski, Bergen Foshay, Jessica L. Couture, Daniel Wagner, Lee Hannah, Emily Pidgeon, Darcy Bradley
Climate change is threatening marine systems, and its widespread and dynamic effects are creating challenges for designing and managing marine protected areas (MPAs). The majority of recommendations for climate-resilient MPAs focus on enhancing ecological resilience to disturbance and updating management strategies to respond as changes occur. Here, we assess how existing recommendations for climate
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Shark-dust: Application of high-throughput DNA sequencing of processing residues for trade monitoring of threatened sharks and rays Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-19 Andhika P. Prasetyo, Joanna M. Murray, Muh. Firdaus A. K. Kurniawan, Naiara G. Sales, Allan D. McDevitt, Stefano Mariani
Illegal fishing, unregulated bycatch, and market demand for certain products (e.g., fins) are largely responsible for the rapid global decline of shark and ray populations. Controlling trade of endangered species remains difficult due to product variety, taxonomic ambiguity, and trade complexity. The genetic tools traditionally used to identify traded species typically target individual tissue samples
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Essential planetary health workers: Positioning rangers within global policy Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-14 Sue Stolton, Hannah L. Timmins, Nigel Dudley, Olga Biegus, Chris Galliers, William Jackson, Marianne Kettunen, Barney Long, Madhu Rao, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Cristina Romanelli, Tim Schneider, Andrew Seidl, Rohit Singh, Matt Sykes
Our planet is facing increasing challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, poverty, and many other problems closely linked to a deteriorating environment. Meanwhile, one of our most important assets, rangers working in protected and conserved areas responsible for managing large tracts of the planet's lands and waters, are often underutilized, underrecognized and underequipped. They
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Successful eradication of invasive American bullfrogs leads to coextirpation of emerging pathogens Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-10 Blake R. Hossack, David Hall, Catherine L. Crawford, Caren S. Goldberg, Erin Muths, Brent H. Sigafus, Thierry Chambert
Interventions of the host–pathogen dynamics provide strong tests of relationships, yet they are still rarely applied across multiple populations. After American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) invaded a wildlife refuge where federally threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs (R. chiricahuensis) were reintroduced 12 years prior, managers launched a landscape-scale eradication effort to help ensure continued
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Risky business: Protecting nature, protecting wealth? Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-07-07 Audrey Irvine-Broque, Jessica Dempsey
Finance is a precondition for many of the activities that harm ecosystems, but how to address this underlying driver of biodiversity loss remains a topic of debate. This paper reviews the Task Force on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), a corporate-led effort that aims to identify how changes to biodiversity may create financial risks for companies and investors. This approach is also promoted
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Issue Information Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-28
Cover description: This photograph shows Purdon Dam, in Zimbabwe’s Nyanga National Park, with Mount Nyangani (Zimbabwe’s highest point) in the background. Nyanga National Park is one of Zimbabwe’s oldest protected areas. It contains numerous artefacts and stone structures built by the Ziwa people who inhabited it in the 15th–17th centuries. In more recent times, Nyanga National Park was part of Cecil
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Toward a pluralistic conservation science Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-28 Graeme S. Cumming, Zoe G. Davies, Joern Fischer, Reem Hajjar
This editorial reflects on the history of the conservation movement, the strong continuing influence of its colonial past, and the counter-emergence of a more pluralistic and respectful worldview. Conservation Letters seeks to support and foster an ethical and inclusive discipline of conservation that discards elements of its colonial and racist history. This will involve broadening the disciplinary
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Drivers and sustainability of bird hunting in Madagascar Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-20 Cortni Borgerson, Richard J. Bankoff, Christopher D. Golden, Be Noel Razafindrapaoly, Be Jean Rodolph Rasolofoniaina, Delox Rajaona, Elison Pascal, Peter De Angelo, Dominic A. Martin
Bird conservation depends on robust data on the densities of and threats to each species, and an understanding of the choices and incentives of bird hunters. This first comprehensive study of bird hunting and its effects in Madagascar uses 8 years of data on 87 bird species to determine bird densities and hunting pressure, incentives, choices, methods, spatial variation, and sustainability on the Masoala
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Nature and equity Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Priya Shyamsundar, Paula Marques, Elizabeth Smith, James Erbaugh, Madlyn Ero, David Hinchley, Robyn James, Craig Leisher, Alexis Nakandakari, Liliana Pezoa, Luke Preece, Guilherme Prezotti
Complex challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and global inequality may require intertwined solutions forged through the frame of “Nature and equity.” This timely frame responds to growing calls for conservation to deliver fair outcomes to people and offers strategic value for meeting environmental goals. To clarify how and why approaches that support nature and equity may emerge,
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The perils of measuring biodiversity responses to habitat change using mixed metrics Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Mingxin Liu, Xinran Miao, Fangyuan Hua
Existing quantitative syntheses on how biodiversity responds to anthropogenic habitat change appear to sometimes mix different biodiversity metrics in drawing inferences. This “mixing metrics” practice, if prevalent, would considerably bias our understanding of biodiversity responses and render uninterpretable conclusions. However, the prevalence of this practice remains unknown, and the bias it potentially
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Rewilding giant tortoises engineers plant communities at local to landscape scales Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-06-01 Washington Tapia Aguilera, James P. Gibbs
Trophic rewilding is increasingly being used to promote megafauna reintroductions to island ecosystems, yet ecosystem response to population restoration once megafauna reintroduction occurs remains understudied. In this study of a population of Galapagos giant tortoises reintroduced to an arid island, tortoise exclosures monitored over an 8-year-long period revealed that, in response to the presence
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Climate change and energy crisis drive an unprecedented EU environmental law regression Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-05-25 C. Javier Durá-Alemañ, Marcos Moleón, Juan M. Pérez-García, David Serrano, José A. Sánchez-Zapata
Evidence indicating that human-induced climate change has caused widespread adverse impacts on nature and people is overwhelming (IPCC, 2022). Transitioning to a renewable energy production model is essential to reduce fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions (Gielen et al., 2019). Unfortunately, renewable energy production is not exempt from adverse biodiversity impacts (Serrano et al., 2020)
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Land-cover and land-use change trajectory hopping facilitates estate-crop expansion into protected forests in Indonesia Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-05-10 Yu Xin, Laixiang Sun, Matthew C. Hansen
Protected areas (PAs) have been regarded as a critical strategy to protect natural forest (NF) and biodiversity. Estate-crop expansion is an important driver of deforestation in Indonesia. Yet, little is known regarding the temporal dynamics of PA effectiveness in preventing estate-crop expansion into NF. We employ Cox proportional hazard models and their extensions to characterize the dynamics of
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Monitoring status and trends in genetic diversity for the Convention on Biological Diversity: An ongoing assessment of genetic indicators in nine countries Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-05-03 Sean Hoban, Jessica M. da Silva, Alicia Mastretta-Yanes, Catherine E. Grueber, Myriam Heuertz, Margaret E. Hunter, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz-Vinas, Keiichi Fukaya, Fumiko Ishihama, Rebecca Jordan, Viktoria Köppä, María Camilla Latorre-Cárdenas, Anna J. MacDonald, Victor Rincon-Parra, Per Sjögren-Gulve, Naoki Tani, Henrik Thurfjell, Linda Laikre
Recent scientific evidence shows that genetic diversity must be maintained, managed, and monitored to protect biodiversity and nature's contributions to people. Three genetic diversity indicators, two of which do not require DNA-based assessment, have been proposed for reporting to the Convention on Biological Diversity and other conservation and policy initiatives. These indicators allow an approximation
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Issue Information Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-04-27
Cover description: A collared lioness rolls on her back in Senegal’s Niokolo Koba National Park. This lioness and five others are the first lions collared in the Park by Panthera in an ambitious effort to recover the Critically Endangered species. This lioness was given the nickname ‘Flo,’ and with her collared sister in the background, these lionesses now form the largest of the Park’s prides. Among
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Integrated systematic planning and adaptive stakeholder process support a 10-fold increase in South Africa's Marine Protected Area estate Conserv. Lett. (IF 8.5) Pub Date : 2023-04-24 Kerry Jennifer Sink, Amanda Talita Lombard, Colin Graham Attwood, Tamsyn-Claire Livingstone, Hedley Grantham, Stephen Dale Holness
South Africa sought to implement an ecologically representative Marine Protected Area (MPA) network to achieve biodiversity and fisheries management goals with least impact on offshore stakeholders. The result was the declaration of a spatially efficient network representing 131 of 150 marine ecosystem types (87%) in 5.4% of ocean area. We outline the 15-year process from planning to implementation