Conservation Letters

Linking Amazon deforestation to reduced rainfall Researchers used process-based models in an exploration of how deforestation is feeding back to change rainfall levels. In particular, we were interested in the impact of Amazon land use change on rai...

🌧️🌳 How does Amazon deforestation reshape rainfall patterns in the region?

New research using process‑based modelling attributes at least 50% of rainfall decline to the loss of rainforest cover within the basin and upstream regions.

See our new blog post: www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...

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Infographic with an underwater photo split between lush green seagrass (left) and bare sandy seafloor (right). IPBES logo top right reads "Science and Policy for People and Nature." Large white text: "Seagrass Meadows – Lost over 10% Every decade, 1970–2000." Bottom text: "IPBES Global Assessment reveals critical marine decline impacting biodiversity and climate resilience."

Marine ecosystems, from coastal to deep sea, now show the influence of human actions, with coastal marine ecosystems showing both large historical losses of extent and condition as well as rapid ongoing declines.

Let’s act to restore what’s been lost. 🌊🌱

Happy World #Seagrass Day!

Excited to share the first paper of my PhD project where we looked at how changes in legal protection have influenced the population dynamics of wolves in the US 🐺

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@consletters.bsky.social

Bonobo (Pan paniscus)

It was during wildlife data collection as part of the Tshuapa Corridor Initiative. A wonderful #community-based #Bonobo #conservation project in the DR. Congo.
@congobasinitiative.bsky.social @cbi-ucla.bsky.social @consletters.bsky.social @nature.org @cafisecretariat.bsky.social @lasfdp.bsky.social

Poaching African lions for black market could pose existential threat Trade in lion bones, skin and teeth is intensifying across Africa, researchers warn poaching could become a defining threat to the species.

Deliberate, organized #poaching for body parts now “represents an intensifying challenge to lion conservation, compounding other threats, many of which are also growing in intensity." #wildlifecrime

@ecologicalsociety.bsky.social @amfisheriessoc.bsky.social @society4conbio.bsky.social @consletters.bsky.social

Tag us with our handle if you post about your #conservationLetters article. So that we can share the news!

Compounding Impacts of Extreme Climate Events on European Birds Under Climate Change When multiple simultaneous or successive extreme climatic events occur, compound impacts can follow, where the effects of one event worsen the impacts of another. Surprisingly, the risks that these c...

Compounding risks of climate change: the authors "assess European birds’ historical exposure to multiple extreme events and identify where and how the risk of compound events will change under different emissions scenarios". doi.org/10.1111/con4...
Spoiler alert: compounding increases risk ☹️

Citizen Science Offers Untapped Potential for Conservation Through Research Flexibility The dynamic nature of research prioritization calls for flexibility in conservation research, yet there are many barriers to research flexibility. This article proposes that citizen science offers un...

If you're interested in citizen science, check out doi.org/10.1111/con4... for some thoughts on how it can contribute!

Blue Spots: A Novel Framework to Leverage Non‐Extractive Economies for Ocean Conservation The concept of biodiversity hotspots has long guided spatial conservation planning. Although many marine-protected areas (MPAs) overlap with ecological hotspots, they often face resistance when they ...

New rsch on blue spots ("...areas where socio-economic conditions already favor conservation") used simulations in Cabo Pulmo NP to show that protecting these areas could increase tourism revenues by >70% over 10 yrs, + avoid opportunity costs of business-as-usual degradation doi.org/10.1111/conl...

Our systematic overview of how rewilding is practiced in Europe has been published in @consletters.bsky.social. We found five distinct strategies differing in goals, interventions, and people's role as part of the rewilding process.

Read more here👇
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Who Let the Frogs out? Illicit and Unregulated Species Translocations Click on the article title to read more.

Short piece in @consletters.bsky.social exploring social, cultural, political and ecological apsects of illicit and unregulated species translocations - what others (not me, due to homophone errors) might call guerilla rewilding. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Protecting Brazil and Indonesia’s tropical forests requires political will, law enforcement and public pressure How Brazil and Indonesia have cut down on deforestation.

Public write up of our recent @consletters.bsky.social paper.

"Our results were clear: across both countries, our experts judged that #political will and #law enforcement were by far the most important factors for protecting #forests...

theconversation.com/protecting-b...

You'll hopefully notice and find useful the new infographic on our web site at conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/... ... designed to help you decide which SCB journal would be most suited for your next brilliant article on conservation science.

Large Biodiversity Monitoring Gaps Remain Across Europe @consletters.bsky.social conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Naming It Is Not Enough: An Orienting Map for Understanding Conservation's Entanglement With Power Power is frequently acknowledged in conservation as a limiting factor, something to be cited, problematized, or managed, less frequently is it engaged with as a lived, situated, and multidimensional ...

Naming It Is Not Enough: An Orienting Map forUnderstanding Conservation’s Entanglement With Power @consletters.bsky.social conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Now What? The Conundrum of Successful Recovery of Wolves and Other Species for European Conservation The recent decision to downlist the wolf from a “strictly protected” to “protected” status in the Bern Convention and Habitats Directive marks a turning point for European conservation. While reflect...

Provocative but very necessary argument in @consletters.bsky.social on rethinking politics and definitions in carnivore conservation in Europe, moving away from crisis mode now that meta-populations are healthy. By @hannalp.bsky.social and von Essen
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Naming It Is Not Enough: An Orienting Map for Understanding Conservation's Entanglement With Power Power is frequently acknowledged in conservation as a limiting factor, something to be cited, problematized, or managed, less frequently is it engaged with as a lived, situated, and multidimensional ....

New in Conservation Letters: a guide to understanding power relations in conservation science. "A cross-cutting matrix enables users to trace how their own position shapes what they see, do, and make possible in conservation contexts" doi.org/10.1111/conl...

New paper from the #SteppesinHarmony workshop! Great collab with my favourite scientists in steppe bird ecology and some experts in scenario analysis. Thread below
@consletters.bsky.social

👉 Full article here: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

"It is insulting that the commitment to the term rewilding is stronger than the commitment to reconciliation & truth-telling...At a time when we need empowerment, the label of rewilding does nothing but strip it from us."

Thought-provoking piece by Michael-Shawn Fletcher in @consletters.bsky.social

Leaves of different Aloe species that were intercepted by customs at London Heathrow Airport. Near-impossible to tell which species they are due to lack of diagnostic morphological characters.

How do you identify plants without flowers, fruits or other diagnostic features? DNA barcoding is your solution! But not all plants are easily barcoded.. I spent several years @rbgkew.bsky.social to develop this for Aloe vera + relatives. Out now in @consletters.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1111/conl...

Title, authors’ names, and abstract from a paper about an index developed to predict the effects of climate-driven disruption in a network of marine protected areas along the eastern coast of Canada

Climate change is increasingly changing biological communities posing marine conservation challenges. Irvine et al. created a climate ecological disruption index that can inform conservation efforts to “build ecological resilience in a warming world” @consletters.bsky.social‬ doi.org/10.1111/conl...

Perverse market incentives related to the desirability of rare items are pushing the European eel to extinction, by favoring its exploitation despite extreme scarcity
@consletters.bsky.social @ebdonana.bsky.social @azti.bsky.social
See thread below
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Note that APC is officially "Article Processing Charge" in publisherese

It was great to meet so many of our authors at #ICCB in Brisbane! Just a reminder for those for whom publication costs may be a barrier: we offer APC (article publishing cost) waivers to authors from less wealthy countries, and have some latitude to help SCB members w/o funding.

Resolving Uncertainties in the Legality of Wildlife Trade to Support Better Outcomes for Wildlife and People Wildlife use and trade support the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide but also threaten thousands of species. Legal instruments, when effectively designed and implemented, can help regulate ...

New paper just published in @consletters.bsky.social ‼️

Our perspective explores the legal uncertainties in wildlife trade, and how to resolve them 🦜

A product of @iccs.bsky.social Interdisciplinary Conservation Network, this works draws insights from a brilliant group of ECRs and mentors

Timeline of events creating four common threads between Japan's withdrawal from the IWC and the ten SADC countries’ suggested withdrawal from CITES: changing organizational ethos, polarization amongst members creating contradictory social orders, influence of non-state actors trumping scientific guidance, and loss of decidability for dissenting nations that causes disenfranchisement. Wildlife illustrations in this figure were contributed by Lalain Iqbal Khan (Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University).

📢 New in @consletters.bsky.social

Protect the Integrity of CITES: Lessons From Japan's IWC Withdrawal
by Cheung&al doi.org/10.1111/conl...

Can elephans learn from whales? We think conservation policy can: effective wildlife trade governance requires international cooperation, not polarization

🍄 🧪🌍 #CitizenScienceMonth ends today, so I thought I'd share our review published last year in @consletters.bsky.social "The Power of Citizen Science to Advance Fungal Conservation"
#citizenscience #conservationscience #conservation #ICYMI

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

To save nature, AI needs our help AI is a computing tool. It can process and interrogate huge amounts of data, expand human creativity, generate new insights faster and help guide important decisions. It's trained on human expertise, ...

To save nature, #AI needs our help:
"People may believe AI tools will be the answer to all their problems, but it's important to understand that they're only as good as the data they've been trained on."
Paper from @consletters.bsky.social
🌍🍄🐛🦑

What Is(n't) Environmental Stewardship? Eliciting Unspoken Assumptions Using Fisheries as a Model Environmental stewardship is often invoked as a net social good and an approach for achieving equitable and sustainable conservation outcomes, but it is rarely defined explicitly in management settin...

What Is(n't) Environmental Stewardship? 🦺🐟🌿

Now out & open access in @consletters.bsky.social

#fishes #oceanoptimism #conservation

Collaborative effort with @fisheriesprof.bsky.social, @valeriosbra.bsky.social, @rarlinghausfish.bsky.social et al.

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