The loss of natural habitats is a major threat to biodiversity, and protected area designation is one of the standard responses to this threat. However, greater understanding of the drivers of habitat loss and of the circumstances under which protected areas succeed or fail is still needed. We use visual assessment of satellite images to quantify land-cover change over periods of up to 30 years in and around a matched sample of protected and unprotected Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) in Africa. We modelled the annual survival of forests and other natural land covers as a function of a range of environmental and anthropic predictors of plausible drivers. The best-supported model indicated that survival rates of natural land cover were highest in steeper areas, at higher altitudes, in areas with lower human population densities and in areas where the cover of natural habitats was already higher at the start of the period. Survival rates of natural land cover in protected areas were, on average, around twice those in unprotected areas, but the differences between them varied along different environmental gradients. The overall survival rates of both protected and unprotected forests were significantly lower than those of other natural land-cover types, but the net benefit of protection, in terms of the absolute difference in rates of loss between protected and unprotected sites, was higher in forests. Interaction terms indicated that as slope and altitude increased, the natural protection offered by topography increasingly nullified the additional benefits of legislative protection. Furthermore, protected area designation offered reduced additional benefits to the survival of natural land cover in areas where rates of conversion were higher at the start of the observation period. Variation in the impacts of protected area status along different environmental gradients indicates that targets to improve the world's protected area network, such as Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, need to look beyond simple area-based metrics. Our methods and results contribute to the development of a protocol for prioritizing places where protection is likely to have the greatest effect.

The equitable sharing of benefits from natural resources is a key target of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Trade in its native species is one way in which a country can potentially benefit from its natural resources, and even small-scale traders can now access global markets online. However, little is known about the extent of benefit sharing for many products, and the extent to which the appropriate processes and permits are being used. We surveyed online trade in a lucrative and widely sold product in Southeast Asia (horticultural orchids) to assess the extent of access and benefit sharing. In total, 20.8% (n = 1120) of orchid species from the region were being sold. Although seven out of ten countries were trading, five had very little or no trade in their native species, and the majority of recently described endemic species being traded from non-range states had no reported Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora exports from their country of origin. We suggest that addressing access and benefit-sharing gaps requires wider recognition of the problem, coupled with capacity building in the countries currently benefitting least: Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. The priority should be to increase botanical capacity and enable these countries to better control the commercialization and trade of their native species.

The illegal wildlife trade is covert by nature, and thus is often challenging to study. Seizure data is traditionally the most common means to gain insight into the trade for many species. Online media-sourced seizure records were applied to study the illegal trade of Siamese rosewood (Dalbergia cochinchinensis), one of 33 timber species of hongmu (rosewood), which is logged to produce luxury products predominantly for Chinese markets. Despite recent international pressure to strengthen the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regulations, illegal trade of Siamese rosewood is prevalent in its range states. This paper will explore seizure reports in Thai online media and analyse spatial, temporal and other factors that potentially explain the trade. Between January 2014 and April 2016, 835 independent seizures were reported in 37 of 76 provinces in Thailand. Seizures occurred mostly in the north-eastern and eastern provinces with higher numbers of seizures closer to the border. The number of seizure reports decreased over time, and the average number of logs seized per seizure was consistent over the 28-month study period. Inadequate domestic legislation is a key factor facilitating the trade. Improvements are needed to the legislation and enforcement ahead of implementing other regional timber-specific initiatives and regulations. In this specific context, CITES also appears to be unacknowledged and ineffective in hampering the Siamese rosewood trade. Importantly, we find that using media-sourced seizure data is highly apt in Thailand's context, considering Thailand's sensitive political state and the prevalence of trade in other non CITES-listed rosewood species. The approach demonstrated here is applicable to many other wildlife species.

Ecological restoration is suggested as a tool to mitigate environmental problems caused by urbanization, but its utility may be hampered by conflict between ecological design and neighbouring communities’ needs. We explore this issue by comparing vegetation diversity and structure in a 21-year-old urban reforestation project in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil, with a nearby reference forest, and we assessed popular perceptions about the project. Overall, density and basal area of canopy trees in the restoration plantation reached 73% and 46%, respectively, of the values found in the reference forest, but ground cover by exotic grasses was substantially higher in the planted forest. Rarefied species richness was similarly high in the plantation forest (59 species) and in the remnant forest (69 species), but species composition was markedly different. The human legacy on restoration diminished with time, reflected in the higher proportion of species and individuals of late-successional, native and not-planted species in the seedling community of the plantation forest. While community perceptions of reforestation were positive and both use and non-use values were reported, interviewees reported little involvement in the development of the project, which could have contributed to synergies between ecological and social outcomes.

In the Arctic, rapid climate change has kindled efforts to delineate and project the future of important habitats for marine birds and mammals. These animals are vital to subsistence economies and cultures, so including the needs of both animals and hunters in conservation planning is key to sustaining social-ecological systems. In the northeast Chukchi Sea, a nearshore corridor of open water is a major spring migration route for half a million eider ducks that are hunted along the landfast ice. Zoning areas for industrial activities or conservation should consider both eider habitat and hunter access to those habitats from the variable ice edge. Based on benthic sampling in 2010‒2012, a model of eider foraging energetics and satellite data on ice patterns in April and May 1997‒2011, we mapped the range of positions of the landfast ice edge relative to a given dispersion of habitat suitable for eider feeding. In some sectors, feeding areas were too limited or too far from landfast ice to provide regular hunting access. In other sectors, overlap of the ice edge with eider feeding habitat was quite variable, but often within a consistent geographic range. Areas accessible to hunters were a small fraction of total eider habitat, so areas adequate for conserving eiders would not necessarily include areas that meet the hunters’ needs. These results can inform spatial planning of industrial activities that yield cash income critical to subsistence hunting in less developed locations. Our study provides an approach for mapping ‘subsistence conservation areas’ throughout the Arctic and an example for such efforts elsewhere.

Tigers are among the most at-risk large carnivores and the South China tiger is the most threatened tiger subspecies. Reintroduction programmes are one strategy to re-establishing extirpated populations. China is committed to restoring wild South China tigers, but uncertainty remains about factors constraining these efforts. The aim of this study was to query conservation and reintroduction professionals about their attitudes and concerns and to provide guidance regarding a possible tiger reintroduction effort in South Central China. We carried out a global survey of 287 scholars and practitioners involved with wildlife reintroduction and conservation. We received responses from 68 (23.7%) respondents. More than 70% supported a potential South China tiger reintroduction effort, but many expressed concerns over planning and implementation, adherence to International Union for Conservation of Nature reintroduction guidelines and elimination of underlying threats. Respondents generally believed that China has the capacity to carry out such a programme, but may not have the experience or socio-political environment to address the issues facing human populations; 62% of respondents suggested a plausible release site should be greater than 2000 km2. To our knowledge, this is the first survey related to a potential large carnivore reintroduction programme in Asia; it has implications for future reintroduction and recovery programmes in Asia and globally.

National protected areas (NPAs) often exhibit biodiversity representation bias, do not adequately protect priority conservation areas (PCAs), and fail to meet conservation goals. Protected area (PA) discourse assumes private PAs (PPAs) are more systematically established than NPAs. The Chilean conservation community has proposed an integrated national–private PA network (IPAN) so PPA benefits can remedy NPA shortcomings. However, there has been no recent assessment of Chilean PPA ecoregion representation or data to support the usefulness of spending valuable resources creating an IPAN. Using the most recent Chilean private and national PA data, this study conducted a terrestrial ecoregion gap analysis under two scenarios. Scenario 1 assessed NPAs and nature sanctuaries. Scenario 2 assessed the IPAN. Both scenarios showed representation bias and failure to adequately protect PCAs or meet conservation goals. The IPAN fell short of expectations because PPAs exhibited bias similar to NPAs. The findings refute PA discourse by upending traditional beliefs regarding PPA effectiveness, and they identify a need to more critically assess the benefits of PPAs and IPANs on a country-by-country basis.

Trawling activities are considered to be one of the main sources of disturbance to the seabed worldwide. We aimed to disentangle the dominance of environmental variations and trawling intensity in order to explain the distribution of diversity patterns over 152 sampling sites in the French trawl fishing-ground, the Grande Vasière. Using a towed underwater video device, we identified 39 taxa to the finest taxonomic level possible, which were clustered according to their vulnerability to trawling disturbance based on functional traits. Using generalized linear models, we investigated whether the density distribution of each vulnerability group was sensitive to trawling intensity and habitat characteristics. Our analyses revealed a structuring effect of depth and substratum on community structure. The distribution of the more vulnerable group was a negative function of trawling intensity, while the distributions of the less vulnerable groups were independent of trawling intensity. Video monitoring coupled with trait-based vulnerability assessment of macro-epibenthic communities might be more relevant than the traditional taxonomic approach to identifying the areas that are most vulnerable to fishing activities in conservation planning.

Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia have exhibited declines in marine survival over the last 40 years. While the cause of these declines is unknown, multiple factors, acting cumulatively or synergistically, have likely contributed. To evaluate the potential contribution of a broad suite of drivers on salmon survival, we used qualitative network modelling (QNM). QNM is a conceptually based tool that uses networks with specified relationships between the variables. In a simulation framework, linkages are weighted and then the models are subjected to user-specified perturbations. Our network had 33 variables, including: environmental and oceanographic drivers (e.g., temperature and precipitation), primary production variables, food web components from zooplankton to predators and anthropogenic impacts (e.g., habitat loss and hatcheries). We included salmon traits (survival, abundance, residence time, fitness and size) as response variables. We invoked perturbations to each node and to suites of drivers and evaluated the responses of these variables. The model showed that anthropogenic impacts resulted in the strongest negative responses in salmon survival and abundance. Additionally, feedbacks through the food web were strong, beginning with primary production, suggesting that several food web variables may be important in mediating effects on salmon survival within the system. With this model, we were able to compare the relative influence of multiple drivers on salmon survival.

Conservationists have adopted community-based conservation (CBC) strategies to support landscape conservation programmes in East Africa, and these projects often involve community development assistance in exchange for a commitment to dedicating a portion of community lands for conservation management. There is, however, a dearth of empirical evidence assessing the effectiveness of CBC conservation programmes. This paper uses sub-metre-resolution satellite imagery to measure land-use change on four Kenyan group ranches that had created CBCs. Each ranch underwent a common participatory planning process that established a land-use plan involving three management zones: conservation, livestock grazing and settlement/cultivation. Using a satellite image time series, we recorded threat-based development – anthropogenic modification of natural areas and the density of structures – for each ranch. We found that CBCs with tourism lodges were more effective at controlling development than the CBCs without a lodge, particularly in the conservation zones and, to a lesser degree, in the grazing zones. We conclude that our use of very-high-resolution satellite imagery offers conservationists a cost-effective, fast and replicable approach to measuring CBC land-use change and that CBC projects can lead to positive conservation results.

Climate variables are commonly used to predict suitability for species occurrence, but local processes, such as landscape changes, may affect habitat suitability. We identified levels of exposure to deforestation of suitable climatic areas for eight bat species in the Brazilian Cerrado and explored how sensitivity to land-use changes could reduce their persistence. We created scenarios of sensitivity to land-use changes using theoretical species persistence thresholds to natural vegetation loss in landscapes (70%, 50% and 30% of loss). We also assessed sensitivity to land-use changes using empirical data. Species are under higher exposure to land-use changes in the southern Cerrado, a region more affected by humans due to its proximity to major urban areas. Changes in land use in the Cerrado mostly affect Myotis nigricans, Artibeus cinereus and Platyrrhinus lineatus. Empirically derived scenarios encountered significant thresholds at 50% of natural vegetation loss in landscapes for Artibeus lituratus and P. lineatus. Deforestation has already affected a half of the Cerrado area, but in terms of possibly vulnerable suitable areas, a larger proportion has been lost, amounting to up to 80% of the suitable area. We propose that information on species-specific sensitivity thresholds to habitat loss and on the exposure of suitable landscapes to land-use changes can be useful to assessing species vulnerability.

Species distribution data are critical information sources when it comes to implementing the multiple Aichi Targets set by the international Convention on Biological Diversity. Although there have been international-scale efforts to aggregate distribution data, the magnitudes and locations of the gaps in biodiversity knowledge remain unclear. In this study, we use a large database, including over 200 000 species occurrence records, to identify knowledge gaps in biodiversity inventories for nine animal taxa in a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot. Spatial modelling methods were employed to relate the completeness of inventories to population, road and protected area density. The completeness of faunistic inventories was correlated with the amount of protected areas, roads and population density. Despite more than 200 years of faunistic sampling, knowledge of the distributions of most animal taxa is still limited, especially for invertebrates. As the window of opportunity for achieving Aichi Targets 11 and 19 begins to close, means of filling such knowledge gaps are required. We argue that a combination of quantitative tools and citizen science data collection programmes may help inform conservation decisions.

We estimated visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a variety of environmental attributes in a protected area of the Atacama Desert, a biodiversity hotspot in northern Chile. By using a choice experiment, WTP was estimated for the protection of the following attributes: animals (mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds), pollinating insects, plants (cacti and woody shrubs), soil quality and pristine landscapes. Visitors placed economic value on all of the attributes. The marginal mean WTP/visitor for the single levels of variation in the attributes ranged from US$4 (for supporting research on foxes) to US$26 (for maintaining soil quality) per visitor per month. These results can contribute to deciding which attributes are likely to be successful at raising funds for conservation. Our approach may be relevant to protected areas of the world with high conservation values, little funding and a lack of large, charismatic species.

In the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia, Orthodox Christian churches provide habitats for plants that have become rare in the surrounding agricultural landscapes. The objective of this paper is to investigate why and how the local clergy and laypeople protect and promote woody plants within their sacred spaces. Interviews at 11 churches in the Debark District of North Gonder generated a list of 47 woody species, of which most are rare in the rest of the landscape. Three tree species (indigenous cedar, Juniperus procera; indigenous olive, Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata; and exotic Eucalyptus globulus) were identified as most important. While cedar and olive are symbols of tradition and witnesses to church history, eucalyptus is a source of income and alternative material for church construction and repair. A significant proportion of indigenous species within Debark's church forests were said to have been planted, including cedars and olives. Knowledge that these species are cultivated enhances the conservation value of these forests by inspiring local people to continue planting trees and shrubs. In addition to serving as refugia for rare species, Ethiopia's church forests nurture the knowledge necessary to promote plant diversity in the rest of the landscape and serve as archetypes for community-driven conservation.

Recent evidence has shown that most tropical species are declining as a result of global change. Under this scenario, the prevalence of tolerant species to disturbances has driven many biological communities towards biotic homogenization (BH). However, the mechanisms that drive communities towards BH are not yet thoroughly understood. We tested effects of recurring wildfires on woody species richness and composition in six seasonally flooded Amazonian forests and whether these fires reduce species composition (i.e., taxonomic homogenization) over short periods of time. Our results show that these forests are undergoing taxonomic homogenization in response to recurring fire events. Species richness decreased as a result of local extinctions and floristic similarity increased among forest communities. Fire was selecting tolerant (‘winner’) species and eliminating the more sensitive (‘loser’) species. BH leads to biodiversity erosion, which can deeply alter ecosystem processes such as productivity, nutrient cycling and decomposition, resulting in important consequences for conservation.

Engaging adolescents is critical to encouraging future climate change adaptation and mitigation behaviours. Adolescents are typically more receptive to climate change messages than adults, but educators and communicators need research-based strategies for optimizing engagement, including information about what factors are most influential in changing behaviours. To better understand how communication with teachers, friends and family, climate change knowledge and climate change concern predict climate change behaviour, we administered a survey to a random sample of middle school students in North Carolina, USA (n = 1371). We measured climate change behaviour with a multi-item scale asking respondents about energy conservation, alternative transportation and engagement with environmental issues. We found that climate change concern and discussing climate change with family and friends predicted climate change behaviour. We also found that students from urban, high socioeconomic status schools were more likely to engage in climate change behaviour than students in urban, low socioeconomic status schools or rural schools. These results suggest that education efforts should leverage communication with family and friends in programming designed to encourage climate change behaviour. Further, efforts to promote climate change behaviour among low socioeconomic status urban and rural adolescents may be warranted, but would benefit from further investigation into the ideological, physical and knowledge-based drivers of behaviour differences documented in this study.

Because the Anthropocene by definition is an epoch during which environmental change is largely anthropogenic and driven by social, economic, psychological and political forces, environmental social scientists can effectively analyse human behaviour and knowledge systems in this context. In this subject review, we summarize key ways in which the environmental social sciences can better inform fisheries management policy and practice and marine conservation in the Anthropocene. We argue that environmental social scientists are particularly well positioned to synergize research to fill the gaps between: (1) local behaviours/needs/worldviews and marine resource management and biological conservation concerns; and (2) large-scale drivers of planetary environmental change (globalization, affluence, technological change, etc.) and local cognitive, socioeconomic, cultural and historical processes that shape human behaviour in the marine environment. To illustrate this, we synthesize the roles of various environmental social science disciplines in better understanding the interaction between humans and tropical marine ecosystems in developing nations where issues arising from human–coastal interactions are particularly pronounced. We focus on: (1) the application of the environmental social sciences in marine resource management and conservation; (2) the development of ‘new’ socially equitable marine conservation; (3) repopulating the seascape; (4) incorporating multi-scale dynamics of marine social–ecological systems; and (5) envisioning the future of marine resource management and conservation for producing policies and projects for comprehensive and successful resource management and conservation in the Anthropocene.

Laws are crucial tools to protect wetlands. How these laws are written has important implications for conservation. We assessed all wetland terms and definitions in Brazilian legislation to identify whether legislation uses any generic terms to represent several or all types of wetlands and to determine if definitions with clear descriptors exist that can easily be used to identify wetland systems. A total of 116 local wetland-related terms and 21 wetland definitions were found in Brazilian legislation. A direct Portuguese translation of the term ‘wetlands’ was found only once in the New Forest Code. The insertion of the term ‘wetlands’ in the New Forest Code has important practical implications for the conservation, since all different Brazilian wetland types would be represented by the generic term ‘wetlands’. The existence of a definition of the term ‘wetlands’ associated with attributes of water and biota in Federal legislation will help environmental technicians to identify wetland systems and to recognize different wetland types. The insertion of this definition in the New Forest Code would make it clear that the drainage of any wetland type – large or small – is prohibited, and those who do so would be breaking Brazilian environmental law.

Bivalves are among the main groups of invasive freshwater species, with the Asian clam genus Corbicula in particular being widely distributed. While global studies have focused on Corbicula fluminea (Müller, 1774), the invasive potential of Corbicula largillierti (Philippi, 1844) and Corbicula fluminalis (Müller, 1774) is still unknown. The spread of invasive species may be intensified by climate change. We estimated and compared environmentally suitable areas for these species under hypothetical climate scenarios, generating global maps of invasion risk. We found large climatically suitable areas for C. largillierti and C. fluminalis (under species distribution models) and that their invasive potential is currently underestimated. The analysis revealed many areas in which changing climate may favour the invasion of Corbicula spp.

Protected areas have been established historically in residual places where the potential for extractive uses is low, implying that places at risk are usually under-protected. Argentina is no exception, with few protected areas established in productive regions that are prone to conversion. Here, using reptiles as a study group and considering the most important human threats in north-western Argentina, we estimated priority conservation areas where we expect species to persist in the face of climate change and land conversion. Protected areas cover no more than 9% of the study region, but represent less than 15% of reptile distributions. There are great opportunities for improving the conservation status in the region by protecting only 8% more of north-western Argentina, with the level of species protection inside the protected area network increasing almost four-fold, reaching 43% of species distributions on average and 59% of the distributions of threatened reptiles. Fortunately, the highest diversity of reptiles in the region does not match the places targeted for agriculture expansion. Our findings suggest that future prioritization schemes should embrace other groups that are especially diverse in the Chaco ecoregion, which overlaps with our study area.