Peer-reviewed publications

Mounting environmental crises and the persistent factors driving them require a reconsideration of conservation approaches. Participatory monitoring and evaluation (PME) is increasingly valued as a way for Indigenous peoples and local community actors to lead or engage in conservation activities that directly affect them. While research shows that PME can yield favorable outcomes for communities (e.g., knowledge co-production, social learning, and trust building) and for conservation, practical insights are scattered. Here we draw from the literature and discussions with professionals in the field, to distill practical guidance for the design, implementation, and support of PME in conservation. This perspective highlights three themes for effective PME: navigating collaborations, working within local and diverse cultural contexts, and co-managing PME resources (including resources needed for PME and generated by PME). We recommend that practitioners and organizations, including our own, engage with these focal areas by: reflecting on the purpose of PME, learning from relevant experiences, strengthening capacity for PME collaborations, and supporting PME through innovative and flexible financing. We see these actions as leverage points to promote effective PME and advance inclusive approaches to biodiversity conservation.

As climate change, resource overexploitation, and pollution leave ever more lead to ever more devastating outcomes, ocean ecosystems, economies, and people are all affected. With coasts on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic, Canada faces a formidable challenge in building resilient, sustainable oceans and supporting the communities that rely on them. Sea Change reports on the OceanCanada Partnership, a multidisciplinary project to take stock of what we know about Canada’s oceans, construct possible scenarios for coastal regions, and create a national dialogue and vision. Three themes emerge from this impressive synthesis of social, cultural, economic, and environmental research: ocean change, access to ocean resources, and ocean governance. Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and practitioners focus on finding solutions to rapid environmental and social transformation, outlining the implications for legislation, and offering policy recommendations. Increasingly, civil society will have to advocate for oceans, and Sea Change will empower the voices of those who take up that task.

Large-scale marine protected areas (LSMPAs, >100,000 km2) account for over half of the global ocean under protection, yet little is known about their outcomes for people. We conducted a review of the peer-reviewed literature to identify studies that investigated human well-being outcomes from forty-four (44) LSMPAs worldwide. Sixty-four (64) peer-reviewed articles were identified, which analyzed well-being outcomes in 18 of the 44 LSMPAs. For LSMPAs where human well-being outcomes have been studied, outcomes were highly variable and LSMPAs with more than three studies had both positive and negative outcomes. Fifty-two (52) percent of human well-being outcomes reported were positive, while 42 percent were negative, and 6 percent showed no change. Results highlight diverse domains of human well-being as the subject of studies, indicating that as increasing attention is placed on human well-being and MPAs, more aspects of social outcomes are being investigated. However, the scientific literature also left important variables of human well-being understudied, including the differentiated outcomes that LSMPAs can impart on race, gender, social class, and diverse cultural groups. Our review is a first step towards synthesizing existing knowledge but highlighted that our understanding is nascent. Future studies are needed that focus on understanding the differentiated impacts of LSMPAs across different social groups and that examine the processes that lead to different human well-being outcomes. With global commitments to protect 30 % of the oceans driving ongoing interest in LSMPA establishment, it is crucial to gain a better empirical understanding of the effect of LSMPAs on human well-being.

Circadian rhythms are a mechanism by which species adapt to environmental variability and fundamental to understanding species behavior. However, we lack data and a standardized framework to accurately assess and compare temporal activity for species during rapid ecological change. Through a global network representing 38 countries, we leveraged 8.9 million mammalian observations to create a library of 14,587 standardized diel activity estimates for 445 species. We found that less than half the species’ estimates were in agreement with diel classifications from the reference literature and that species commonly used more than one diel classification. Species diel activity was highly plastic when exposed to anthropogenic change. Furthermore, body size and distributional extent were strongly associated with whether a species is diurnal or nocturnal. Our findings provide essential knowledge of species behavior in an era of rapid global change and suggest the need for a new, quantitative framework that defines diel activity logically and consistently while capturing species plasticity.

Marine protected and conserved areas (MPCAs) are promoted as an ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approach to increase community and ecosystem resilience to climate change. However, traditional approaches to MPCA design typically do not consider climate risk or habitat condition under a climate threat. We used the Great Sea Reef (GSR) in Fiji as a case study to develop a land–sea prioritization framework that links modeled sediment runoff from rainfall during extreme cyclone events to the probability of coral reefs being in good condition. We incorporated this information in an MPCA prioritization scenario intending to achieve 90% certainty of good-condition coral cover under cyclone risk while minimizing cost to fishers and meeting ecosystem conservation targets. We explored the trade-offs between sites selected for protection, the relative opportunity cost to fishers, and the representation of conservation feature targets between the MPCA scenario that included cyclone risk and a baseline scenario that did not. The cyclone risk scenario's best solution required larger areas of protection (5% more GSR area) than the baseline scenario and additional protection in areas with moderate to high probability of good-condition coral cover. Some areas prioritized for protection in the cyclone risk scenario had relatively high turbidity. Large sections around Vanua Levu were consistently selected for protection across both prioritization scenarios due to high concentrations of all ecosystem conservation features, particularly sea turtle feeding grounds. Overall, the cyclone risk MPCA design had a higher fisher opportunity cost but protected a larger amount of ecosystem conservation features and buffered against habitat condition uncertainty. We explored the potential outcomes of expanding on threat-avoidance and cost-effective conservation prioritization by including habitat responses to threats in the prioritization process. Our findings can inform MPCA design during EbA planning in regions at risk from climate change.

Globally, forest landscape restoration (FLR) is gaining ground, alongside other forms of restoration under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. In most cases, projects and initiatives fail to consider human dimensions that influence the processes and outcomes of the restoration effort. These dimensions refer to how and why humans value natural resources; how humans want resources to be managed; and how humans affect or are affected by natural resource management decisions. Using the model of the forest transition curve that shows the trajectory from loss of forests to restored forests, we discuss how FLR intersects in different ways with this transition curve. We conclude that: 1) definitions and their implications are a fundamental challenge for FLR; 2) there is an intrinsic interdependence between people and forests that varies across spatial and temporal scales and that is mediated by institutions; 3) power differentials among stakeholders create imbalances in restoration; 4) conflicts around restoration result from differing interests, power and values. Equitable and durable restoration requires a much greater inclusion of human dimensions along all steps of the process.

Evaluating how emergent technologies can complement traditional methods fordetecting wildlife is particularly valuable when population management is based on detection based metrics for rare or cryptic species of conservation need. The black-footed ferret (ferret; Mustela nigripes) is an Endangered species whose rarity and behavior (e.g. semi-fossorial and nocturnal) challenge our ability to monitor individuals and assess the status of populations. Here, we evaluated how applying the emergent technologies associated with thermal-infrared cameras can be used to detect ferrets in a reintroduced population on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, Blaine County, Montana, USA. We conducted nighttime surveys for ferrets using thermal-infrared cameras mounted to a tower and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We recorded 7 ferret observations using a stationary tower at a rate of 0.43 observations per survey hour. At least 5 individual ferrets were observed using this method for a rate of 0.31 individuals observed per survey hour.Similarly, we recorded 8 ferret observations using UAVs for an observation rate of 0.41 observations per survey hour. At least 6 individual ferrets were observed using this method for a rate of 0.31 individuals observed per survey hour. Our findings suggest that the use of thermal-infrared cameras could benefit conservation and management efforts for the ferret or other similar species, providing a tool for detecting these elusive species that creates less disturbance to the landscapeand alleviates potential navigation challenges associated with ground-based survey methods. The use of thermal-infrared cameras deployed as described here could therefore serve to complement traditional survey techniques for this Endangered species.

The risk that locally successful nature conservation may be shifting problems elsewhere can no longer be ignored

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) presents a growing challenge to conservation and development worldwide. WWF and experts on human-wildlife coexistence strategies have responded to this challenge by developing a holistic, globally applicable, approach to HWC management that can be tailored to specific local, regional or national contexts. Its framework addresses the complexity of essential HWC management and long-term coexistence strategies and is implemented in a structured, yet contextualised, step-by-step sequence by a team of facilitators and multiple stakeholders. The C2C: Conflict to Coexistence Approach centres on four principles, four outcomes, and six HWC management elements that are to be implemented in an integrated way. It is currently undergoing testing in diverse pilot sites across three continents and demonstrating positive initial results. Here, we share the framework and methodology of the approach and initial results and experiences from these pilot sites.

Inequity is ubiquitous in the ocean, and social equity receives insufficient attention in ocean governance and management efforts. Thus, we assert that proponents of sustainability must center social equity in future ocean governance, to address past social and environmental injustices, to align with international law and conservation policy, and to realize objectives of sustainability. This obligation applies across all marine policy realms, including marine conservation, fisheries management, climate adaptation and the ocean economy, in all socio-political contexts and at different geographical scales. Indeed, many governmental, non-governmental, and philanthropic organizations are striving to advance social equity across their ocean sustainability focused agendas, policies, programs, initiatives, and portfolios. To date, however, there has been limited attention to how to meaningfully assess status and monitor progress on social equity in ocean governance (aka “ocean equity”) across different marine policy realms. Here, we contribute to ongoing efforts to advance ocean equity through providing guidance on five steps to develop bespoke, fit to purpose and contextually appropriate assessment and monitoring frameworks and approaches to measure status of and track changes in ocean equity. These steps include: 1) Clearly articulating the overarching purpose and aim; 2) Convening a participatory group and process to co-design the assessment framework; 3) Identifying important objectives, aspects and attributes of social equity to assess; 4) Selecting and developing indicators, methods, and measures; and 5) Collecting, analyzing and evaluating data. Then, we discuss four subsequent steps to take into account to ensure that assessments lead to adaptations or transformations to improve ocean equity. These steps include: 1) Communicating results to reach key audiences, to enable learning and inform decision-making; 2) Deliberating on actions and selecting interventions to improve ocean equity; 3) Ensuring actions to improve ocean equity are implemented; and, 4) Committing to continual cycles of monitoring, evaluation, learning and adapting at regular intervals. Following these steps could contribute to a change in how oceans are governed. The diligent pursuit of ocean equity will help to ensure that the course towards a sustainable ocean is more representative, inclusive and just.