Biodiversity’s contributions to sustainable development

Blicharska, Małgorzata; Smithers, R.; Mikusiński, Grzegorz; Rönnbäck, Patrik; Harrison, Paula A.; Nilsson, Måns; Sutherland, William J.

doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0417-9

Cited by 156 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 154 publications

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“…Biodiversity has been linked to critical processes and functions in ecosystems [6,7], and to people's well-being and health [8,9]. For instance, biodiversity supports food production, which may reduce poverty, and urban vegetation may enhance citizens' mental state [10,11]. Biodiversity further provides people with educational opportunities and other enriching ways of interacting with nature [12][13][14][15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the Role of Biodiversity in Laypeople’s Lives: The View of Communicators

Hooykaas

Smeets

2020

Sustainability

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Biodiversity is a fundamental part of sustainable development, yet it is threatened by numerous factors associated with human population growth. The current lack of broad-based support for biodiversity conservation may be explained by the widening gap between people and nature. In order to conserve biodiversity, people should be engaged in biodiversity, yet it is not yet clear what potential is present in highly urbanized environments. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve biodiversity communicators in the Netherlands, a highly urbanized country, and used their perceptions and experiences to explore motivations, opportunities and challenges for expanding the role of biodiversity in people’s lives in an increasingly urban world. Overall, the interviewees perceived the current role of biodiversity in laypeople’s lives to be too limited, but they were positive about the potential to expand the role. Based on communicators’ perceptions potential lies in a combination of direct exposure to biodiversity outdoors, the media, and education. Furthermore, strategically designed communication is also expected to play an essential part in opening people’s eyes for biodiversity. The results are valuable both at national and international levels, as they can motivate and aid professionals operating in urbanized contexts at reaching out to their audiences about biodiversity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding the Role of Biodiversity in Laypeople’s Lives: The View of Communicators

Hooykaas

Smeets

2020

Sustainability

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“…However, they live relatively close to wellpreserved environments covered by the rich Amazon tropical forest. Clearly, there is a contrast between the abundance of contributions provided by nature and poverty, a situation that has already been discussed [51]. The major results obtained here are important to understand how these communities perceive nature, the types of interactions they establish with it, and, due to these interactions, the benefits and problems reported by them.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…However, they live relatively close to well-preserved environments covered by the rich Amazon tropical forest. Clearly, there is a contrast between the abundance of contributions provided by nature and poverty, a situation that has already been discussed [51].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of Nature’s Contributions to People in Rural Communities in the Eastern Amazon

et al. 2020

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Nature’s contributions to people (NCP) are increasingly being considered in decisions by policy-makers because of their relevance to the well-being of people. Learning the value of nature from the perception of communities can help to define priorities and to guide the development of public policies for environmental conservation. The objective of this study was to analyze the perception of the importance, benefits, and problems of NCP among residents of five rural communities, and their opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, considering their socioeconomic characteristics. The method consisted of conducting questionnaire-based, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with a sample of 214 randomly selected households in five rural communities of Parauapebas (Pará, Eastern Amazon). We used appropriate statistical tests for data analysis. The main results show that the communities were highly homogeneous and that 52% of the households had low income (below a minimum wage of USD 250). A high proportion of respondents gave the highest importance to all categories of NCP (2/3 of respondents for material, 3/4 for non-material, and 4/5 for regulating NCP). The most commonly mentioned benefits of NCP referred to subsistence or livelihood and quality of life (40% of total mentions). Environmental degradation problems were the most cited (38% of total mentions). Almost all respondents stated that they had a positive opinion about the protected areas of the municipality, despite underusing them. This study is relevant because it analyses, for the first time, the perceptions of NCP among residents of rural communities in the Eastern Amazon, an essential aspect for decision-and public policy-making.

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“…Biodiversity supports the fulfillment of all of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Sachs et al 2019;Blicharska et al 2019). Biodiversity's economic dimensions and links to ecosystem services have been well reported (Ninan 2009;Kumar 2009), and rich biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is required to deliver the full benefits of ecosystems (Soliveres et al 2016).…”

Section: Protected Areas Support Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Today's protected areas: supporting a more sustainable future for humanity

McNeely

2020

Integr. Zool.

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Nature provides significant benefits to people, especially those living in and around protected areas. Ecosystem services from protected areas include producing wild food, supporting biodiversity and water cycles, regulating climate, and providing cultural services like better health, tourism, and legacy for future generations. In economic terms, the flows of ecosystem services provided by protected areas are worth hundreds of billions of dollars each year, well justifying the costs of managing these sites, but protected areas are suffering from environmental problems such as impacts from human population growth, rural poverty, growing demands for natural resources, land use change that degrades ecosystem productivity, invasive non-native species that harm natural ecosystems, and climate change that is affecting all ecosystems. Addressing these linked challenges will require mobilizing all parts of the economy, including the protected area estate. For example, protected areas can take a leadership role in rural development, expand the conservation estate to half of the planet through connectivity and improved management of more of the non-agricultural land, enhance the prominent role of protected areas in contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, encourage productive research on applying modern technology to protected areas management, seek broader private sector participation in conserving biodiversity and ecosystem services, and include protected areas as relevant parties in relevant trade and other international negotiations. When protected area managers embrace this broader role, they will find enthusiastic public support for this contribution to a sustainable human society.

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Biodiversity’s contributions to sustainable development

Cited by 156 publications

References 154 publications

Expanding the Role of Biodiversity in Laypeople’s Lives: The View of Communicators

Expanding the Role of Biodiversity in Laypeople’s Lives: The View of Communicators

Perception of Nature’s Contributions to People in Rural Communities in the Eastern Amazon

Today's protected areas: supporting a more sustainable future for humanity

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