Oxford University ecologists have co-devised a new framework to classify how biodiversity credit operators define what a unit of nature is. The new analysis demonstrates the challenges involved with devising a biodiversity credit market to fund nature recovery, and the risks of relying too heavily on ‘offsetting.’ We can’t avoid all impacts of human activity…
“If I had the support of the government, I would never have stopped fishing,” says Yiorgos Charalambous, a Cypriot from a fishing family who left the sea in 2015 when he needed more money to support his family. Although he also knitted nets for the fishermen, he has had to look for a second job…
New research has revealed less than a quarter of the remaining tropical rainforests around the globe can safeguard thousands of threatened species from extinction. The research, co-authored by The University of Queensland’s Professor James Watson, evaluated the global availability of structurally intact, minimally disturbed tropical rainforests for more than 16,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles,…
Connectivity and maintenance measures support wild bees in limestone quarries A research team at the University of Göttingen, Germany’s Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) in Rhede, and the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig has investigated the importance of limestone quarries for wild bee conservation. Diverse landscapes with good connectivity between quarries and calcareous grasslands proved…
You can know a lot of things about birds just by the shape of their wings. A seafaring albatross, stretching out its sail-like airfoils, lives a very different life from a ground-dwelling antpitta with its long legs and short, stubby wings that it uses in rare, short bursts of flight. But can bird wing shape…
A new study suggests that a more complex understanding of how wealth and biodiversity are linked may help communities with little wealth achieve the levels of diversity typically associated with more affluent areas. Researchers have long understood that areas with more wealth tend to have higher biodiversity, a phenomenon known as the “luxury effect.” However,…
Reforms needed to ensure the protection of all pollinator species, our food systems and biodiversity as a whole A new study reveals alarming risks that pesticides pose to ground-nesting bees, which are crucial for pollination and food production. As agriculture increasingly relies on pesticides to protect crops, the unintended consequences for these essential pollinators are…
A new study shows that increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used to improve the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils. As the agricultural sector strives to reduce its carbon footprint, promoting biodiversity in agricultural practices could be the key to more sustainable and climate-friendly food production systems. As agricultural expansion and intensive farming…
When Isabella Dalla Ragione assesses a Renaissance painting, she doesn’t immediately notice the brushstrokes or the magnificence of the imagery. The first thing she notices is the fruit. On a spring day earlier this year, I stride with Dalla Ragione into the National Gallery of Umbria, in a 14th-century stone castle built atop the hillside city of…
A review of 47,282 tree species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that more than one third are at risk of extinction CLIMATEWIRE | More than a third of the world’s tree species are at risk of extinction, according to findings by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group said…