Peer-reviewed publications

Outdoor recreation is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world and provides many benefits to people. Assessing possible negative impacts of recreation is nevertheless important for sustainable management. Here, we used camera traps to assess relative effects of various recreational activities—as compared to each other and to environmental conditions—on a terrestrial wildlife assemblage in British Columbia, Canada. Across 13 species, only two negative associations between recreational activities and wildlife detections were observed at weekly scales: mountain biking on moose and grizzly bears. However, finer‐scale analysis showed that all species avoided humans on trails, with avoidance strongest for mountain biking and motorized vehicles. Our results imply that environmental factors generally shaped broad‐scale patterns of wildlife use, but highlight that recreational activities also have detectable impacts. These impacts can be monitored using the same camera‐trapping techniques that are commonly used to monitor wildlife assemblages.

Indo-Pacific lionfish have become invasive throughout the western Atlantic. Their predatory effects have been the focus of much research and are suggested to cause declines in native fish abundance and diversity across the invaded range. However, little is known about their non-consumptive effects, or their effects on invertebrates. Lionfish use shelters on the reef, thus there is potential for competition with other shelter-dwelling organisms. We demonstrate similar habitat associations between invasive lionfish, native spiny lobsters (Panulirus argus) and native long-spined sea urchins (Diadema antillarum), indicating the potential for competition. We then used a laboratory experiment to compare activity and shelter use of each species when alone and when lionfish were paired with each native species. Spiny lobsters increased their activity but did not change their shelter use in the presence of a lionfish, whilst long-spined sea urchins changed neither their activity nor shelter use. However, lionfish reduced their shelter use in the presence of spiny lobsters and long-spined sea urchins. This study highlights the importance not only of testing for the non-consumptive effects of invasive species, but also exploring whether native species exert non-consumptive effects on the invasive.

Biodiversity research is replete with scientific studies depicting future trajectories of decline that have failed to mobilize transformative change. Imagination and creativity can foster new ways to address longstanding problems to create better futures for people and the planet.

Jurisdictional approaches have become popular in international forums as promising strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and to guarantee sustainable commodity supply. Yet, despite their growing popularity, up to now, there is little consensus on how such approaches should move forward in specific jurisdictions. In this paper we examine two contrasting municipal-level case studies in the eastern Amazonian state of Para where jurisdiction-wide efforts are underway to reduce deforestation. By developing detailed environmental governance timelines since 2005, conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants, analyzing municipal deforestation trends, plus extensive examination of project reports, governmental documents and other secondary sources, this paper performs two main analyses. First, it characterizes the processes in each municipality by linking the context and the environmental governance timeline to deforestation trends. Second it provides a systematic comparison of processes based on (1) the role of the government, (2) multi-stakeholder participation and inclusiveness, (3) adaptive governance, (4) horizontal and vertical coordination, and (5) alignment of public and private (supply-chain) initiatives. In so doing, this article answers some of the imperative questions on how to implement and improve jurisdictional approaches aimed at halting deforestation in the tropics.

Humanity is on a deeply unsustainable trajectory. We are exceeding planetary boundaries and unlikely to meet many international sustainable development goals and global environmental targets. Until recently, there was no broadly accepted framework of interventions that could ignite the transformations needed to achieve these desired targets and goals. As a component of the IPBES Global Assessment, we conducted an iterative expert deliberation process with an extensive review of scenarios and pathways to sustainability, including the broader literature on indirect drivers, social change and sustainability transformation. We asked, what are the most important elements of pathways to sustainability? Applying a social–ecological systems lens, we identified eight priority points for intervention (leverage points) and five overarching strategic actions and priority interventions (levers), which appear to be key to societal transformation. The eight leverage points are: (1) Visions of a good life, (2) Total consumption and waste, (3) Latent values of responsibility, (4) Inequalities, (5) Justice and inclusion in conservation, (6) Externalities from trade and other telecouplings, (7) Responsible technology, innovation and investment, and (8) Education and knowledge generation and sharing. The five intertwined levers can be applied across the eight leverage points and more broadly. These include: (A) Incentives and capacity building, (B) Coordination across sectors and jurisdictions, (C) Pre‐emptive action, (D) Adaptive decision‐making and (E) Environmental law and implementation. The levers and leverage points are all non‐substitutable, and each enables others, likely leading to synergistic benefits. Transformative change towards sustainable pathways requires more than a simple scaling‐up of sustainability initiatives—it entails addressing these levers and leverage points to change the fabric of legal, political, economic and other social systems. These levers and leverage points build upon those approved within the Global Assessment's Summary for Policymakers, with the aim of enabling leaders in government, business, civil society and academia to spark transformative changes towards a more just and sustainable world.

Connectivity conservation is aimed at sustaining animal movements and ecological processes important to ecosystem functioning and the maintenance of biodiversity. However, connectivity conservation plans are typically developed around a single species and rarely empirically evaluated for their relevance to others, thereby limiting our understanding of how connectivity requirements differ across species. We used an omnidirectional application of circuit theory and GPS data from six species to evaluate connectivity at multiple scales for multiple species within the world's largest transfrontier conservation landscape in southern Africa. We evaluated the effects of linear barriers, natural habitat types and anthropogenic land use on movement. We identified multispecies connectivity hotspots as areas where current flow was concentrated or channelled through pinch points. To evaluate surrogate species for connectivity, we evaluated the correspondence among single‐species connectivity across the entire landscape and also examined whether a more localized corridor for African savanna elephant Loxodonta africana captured high multispecies connectivity values. Connectivity models revealed many intact areas across the landscape with diffuse current flow, but also evidence that fences, rivers, roads and areas of anthropogenic use acted as strong barriers to movement—particularly in the case of fences, which completely blocked female elephant movement. Tests of correspondence among single‐species connectivity models revealed spotted hyaena and African wild dog as the strongest surrogate species of connectivity. Female elephants were found to be the weakest surrogate species of connectivity at the landscape scale. However, focusing within a localized elephant corridor revealed the areas of concentrated or channelled connectivity for most species in our study. Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that the single‐species focus permeating connectivity literature may result in conservation plans that poorly conserve the connectivity needs of co‐occurring species. Our study also highlights the importance of testing the efficacy of surrogate species for connectivity at multiple scales. We recommend evaluating multispecies connectivity to prioritize areas for conservation that safeguard the connectivity needs of multiple species of conservation concern.

Climate change is expected to dramatically alter the distribution of many marine megafauna, impacting the people and economies that depend upon them. We build on the recent literature by developing a framework to describe the effects these changes will have on marine megafauna. With the goal to assist policymakers and grass roots organizers, we identify three illustrative pathways by which climate change drives these range shifts: (1) effects on habitat and shelter, (2) impacts on reproduction and disease, and (3) changing distribution of sources of food. We examine non-climate factors that may constrain or enable megafauna to adapt, creating winners and losers both for the species and the people dependent upon them. Finally, we comment on what management strategies exist at international and local scales that could help mitigate these impacts of climate change so that we, as a global community, can ensure that marine megafauna and people can best co-exist in a changing world.

The environmental costs of human activities (Steffen et al., 2007) and the social and psychological costs of overconsumption and materialism (Dittmar et al., 2014) underscore the importance of identifying whether and how individuals can reduce their consumption while improving their well-being. Interest in this ‘double dividend’ (Alfredsson et al., 2018; Jackson, 2008) was sparked by evidence of a threshold beyond which additional GDP or household income has little impact on well-being, happiness or life satisfaction (Easterlin et al., 2010; Kahneman and Deaton, 2010; though see Pouwels et al., 2008 for evidence that the positive effect of income on well-being may be underestimated). This literature was coupled with evidence that materialist values and the desire for higher income are associated with lower well-being and life satisfaction (Diener and Seligman, 2004; Kasser, 2017) to suggest that sustainable consumption may not require sacrifice and may, in fact, be rewarding. Recent studies have explored the double dividend at the macro-level by measuring the environmental efficiency of well-being (EWEB) (Dietz et al., 2009; Knight and Rosa, 2011), or carbon intensity of well-being (Jorgenson and Givens, 2015) to identify nations with high levels of well-being despite relatively small environmental impacts. Other studies have measured EWEB at the household (Ambrey and Daniels, 2017) or individual level (Claborn and Brooks, 2019), explored correlations between subjective well-being and carbon emissions (Andersson et al., 2014; Verhofstadt et al., 2016), and examined whether involvement in voluntary simplicity movements is associated with higher life satisfaction (Alexander and Ussher, 2012; Rich et al., 2017). These and other individual- or household-level studies have found mixed evidence for the double-dividend (see also Verhofstadt et al., 2016; Vita et al., 2019; Schmitt et al., 2018), which suggests that double-dividend relationships are complex, and limitations in existing research may have made it difficult to detect specific tradeoffs and synergies between sustainable consumption and well-being. More specifically, existing studies have tended to use aggregate measures of consumption (e.g., transportation and shelter) and/or unidimensional measures of well-being (e.g., one-item measurement) and have generally not accounted for how local socio-cultural context, such as norms and culture, may shape the relationship between sustainable consumption and well-being. With this study, we address the above shortcomings and examine whether and which sustainable consumption behaviors are associated with higher well-being, and whether these relationships depend on one's socio-cultural context. We sample two neighborhoods to assess differences in local contextual factors. We also examine whether residents' income, rather than neighborhood context, influences the relationship between sustainable consumption and well-being. We define sustainable consumption as behaviors that contribute to a smaller ecological footprint relative to more environmentally impactful alternatives. Included in this conceptualization are “curtailment” behaviors (e.g. purchasing fewer material goods like clothing or electronics; Karlin et al., 2014), “efficiency” behaviors (e.g. driving a more fuel-efficient vehicle), and behaviors intended to reduce waste (e.g. recycling paper and plastic).

COVID-19 is exposing the fragility of the goals adopted by the United Nations — two-thirds are now unlikely to be met.

Healthy rivers provide a broad range of services that benefit economies and communities but the concepts of water security, as well as water management in practice, have tended to focus on a narrow set of those services. Accomplishing the diverse objectives bundled under water security—including water quantity and quality, linkages with food security, risk management and ecosystem conservation—will require a more holistic valuing of rivers’ services coupled with policies and mechanisms to maintain and restore those values. Rivers have typically been viewed as sources of water to support irrigation, water supply or hydropower. While the water that rivers provide often has immense value to economies—and thus it is this role where rivers are well represented within frameworks for water security—rivers provide a diverse range of other services that encompass, but extend beyond, water as a resource that can be defined by volume or quality. These services can also produce vital benefits for economies and communities and they are generated by rivers as complex biophysical systems, not just as conduits for delivering water. Examples of these services include fisheries, floodplains that reduce flood risk, sediment delivery to deltas, and components of the channel network that regulate water quantity and quality. Concepts such as natural capital and ecosystem services are intended to better value these services, however the valuations produced are often not effectively integrated into decisions or management. Although rigorous science provides an important foundation for embedding the value of rivers within water security, translating those values into management and policy will require the communication of river values into terms and numbers that matter to key audiences and the assembly of coalitions to translate value into action.