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  Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Global Land-Use Implications »

  Recent climate talks in Bali have made progress toward action on deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, within the anticipated post-Kyoto emissions reduction agreements. As a result of such action, many forests will be better protected, but some land-use change will be displaced to other locations. The demonstration phase launched at Bali offers an opportunity to examine potential outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Research will be needed into selection of priority areas for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation to deliver multiple benefits, on-the-ground methods to best ensure these benefits, and minimization of displaced land-use change into nontarget countries and ecosystems, including through revised conservation investments.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  CITES and the livelihoods of the poor »

  Recent CITES decisions that accepted an obligation to take into account the impacts of CITES listings on the livelihoods of the poor, have some affinities with the ‘Do no harm’ approach to the livelihoods of the poor. The process will produce guidelines and rapid assessment tools. If these guidelines and tools are to be effective they will need to take account of the context-specific nature of solutions in this area. The CITES case provides lessons for other international conservation institutions whose activities affect the livelihoods of the poor at the local level.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Marine Ecoregions of the World: a bioregionalization of coast and shelf areas »

  Here we report on a new global system for coastal and shelf areas: the Marine Ecoregions of the World, or MEOW, a nested system of 12 realms, 62 provinces, and 232 ecoregions. This system provides considerably better spatial resolution than earlier global systems, yet it pre serves many common elements and can be cross - referenced to many regional biogeographic classifications. The designation of terrestrial ecoregions has revolutionized priority setting and planning for terrestrial conservation; we anticipate similar benefits from the use of a coherent and credible marine system.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Biodiversity Trends and Threats in Europe - Can We Apply a Generic Biodiversity Indicator to Forests? »

  At the 9th meeting of the SBSTTA of the CBD a recommendation was made to begin testing of five biodiversity indicators in order to measure progress towards the 2010 target. This paper considers one of these indicators for Pan-Europe. The basic principle of the index is to calculate the average trend in abundance of a set of ecosystem-representative species. The index is considered to be generic, i.e. applicable to all ecosystem types including forests. It can produce both headline messages for high-level policy and communication, and detailed information for in-depth analysis. This paper describes the conceptual framework of the index and explores the data availability for the index in Pan-Europe.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Measuring social impacts in conservation: experience in using the most significant change method »

  Here we describe a method for standardizing the collection and analysis of stories of change that originated in, and is commonly employed by, the development sector. Trials of the use of the Most Significant Change method in a range of Fauna & Flora International's partnership projects revealed not only its value as a monitoring tool alongside more familiar surveys and quantitative data collection but also as a participatory management tool that improved staff capacity and project adaptive management and responsiveness.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Conservation of biodiversity and research needs in the UK Dependent Territories »

  The 13 distant Dependent Territories of the UK are known to be rich in biodiversity but baseline biological and ecological information for most of the Dependencies remains incomplete. Lack of species and ecosystem inventory data currently hinders development of biodiversity conservation strategies which are needed at a time of intense development pressures.

  There is a need for further collaborative research in many subject areas, including those indicated, and for researchers to ensure that their studies are planned to include local consultation and to ensure that their results are made available to local interests.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Gulf Requiem »

  The Gulf War has been described by the media as 'the world's greatest environmental catastrophe' - is it? Unequivocally, no - locally disastrous but globally of little significance. Certainly compared with such invidious and irreversible global-scale events such as the loss of tropical forests or climate change, it is very small beer indeed. The Kuwaiti authorities have political reasons to encourage this exaggeration, and it is supported by some conservationists in order to obtain funding. Clearly the environment has become a propaganda weapon. The Gulf War is a timely reminder of hte essential need to develop a more balanced and better informed basis if the credibility of the conservation movement is to be consolidated. The key must lie in a rational and objective analysis of the facts rather than in speculation and exaggeration. We cannot afford to cry wolf.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  100 questions of importance to the conservation of global biological diversity »

  We identified 100 scientific questions that, if answered, would have the greatest impact on conservation practice and policy. Representatives from 21 international organizations, regional sections and working groups of the Society for Conservation Biology, and 12 academics, from all continents except Antarctica, compiled 2291 questions of relevance to conservation of biological diversity worldwide.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Coral reefs and mangroves: implications from the tsunami one year on »

  The countries affected by the 2004 Asian tsunami contain the most diverse and extensive coral reefs and mangroves of the Indian Ocean, and some of the richest in the world. Not only are these ecosystems among the most threatened in the world, they also provide numerous essential ecosystem services.

  It is thus not surprising that reefs and mangroves received widespread attention after the tsunami, with three principal questions posed: Are the tsunami's impacts on reefs and mangroves a further threat to their future survival? Did reefs and mangroves play a role in shoreline protection and reduce structural damage and human mortality? How could reconstruction efforts include actions to maintain these ecosystems and reduce further threats to them?

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Biodiversity Conservation: Challenges Beyond 2010 »

  The continued growth of human populations and of per capita consumption have resulted in unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s biological diversity, exacerbated by climate change, ocean acidification, and other anthropogenic environmental impacts. We argue that effective conservation of biodiversity is essential for human survival and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Despite some conservation successes (especially at local scales) and increasing public and government interest in living sustainably, biodiversity continues to decline. Moving beyond 2010, successful conservation approaches need to be reinforced and adequately financed. In addition, however, more radical changes are required that recognize biodiversity as a global public good, that integrate biodiversity conservation into policies and decision frameworks for resource production and consumption, and that focus on wider institutional and societal changes to enable more effective implementation of policy.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers