Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the governance of biodiversity conservation

Gallo-Cajiao, Eduardo; Dolšak, Nives; Prakash, Aseem; Mundkur, Taej; Harris, Paul G.; Mitchell, Ronald B.; Davidson, Nick C.; Hansen, Birgita D.; Woodworth, Bradley K.; Fuller, Richard A.; Price, Melissa R.; Petkov, Nicky; Mauerhofer, Volker; Morrison, Tiffany H.; Watson, James; Chowdhury, Sayam U.; Zöckler, Christoph; Widerberg, Oscar; Yong, Ding; Klich, Daniel; Smagol, V. M.; Piccolo, John; Biggs, Duan

doi:10.3389/fcosc.2023.989019

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…The combined impact of Russia's war and climate change reverberates throughout the Earth system. The war is interrupting global biodiversity conservation efforts and thus harming climate change mitigation, given that Russia has more carbon‐sequestering forest and peatlands in need of protection than any other country (Gallo‐Cajiao et al, 2023). In 2022, 20% of all Ukrainian nature conservation areas had also been affected (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2022).…”

Section: Climate Change Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Russia in a changing climate

Javeline,

Orttung,

Robertson

et al. 2023

WIREs Climate Change

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Climate change will shape the future of Russia, and vice versa, regardless of who rules in the Kremlin. The world's largest country is warming faster than Earth as a whole, occupies more than half the Arctic Ocean coastline, and is waging a carbon‐intensive war while increasingly isolated from the international community and its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Officially, the Russian government argues that, as a major exporter of hydrocarbons, Russia benefits from maintaining global reliance on fossil fuels and from climate change itself, because warming may increase the extent and quality of its arable land, open a new year‐round Arctic sea route, and make its harsh climate more livable. Drawing on the collective expertise of a large group of Russia‐focused social scientists and a comprehensive literature review, we challenge this narrative. We find that Russia suffers from a variety of impacts due to climate change and is poorly prepared to adapt to these impacts. The literature review reveals that the fates of Russia's hydrocarbon‐dependent economy, centralized political system, and climate‐impacted population are intertwined and that research is needed on this evolving interrelationship, as global temperatures rise and the international economy decarbonizes in response.This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > National Climate Change Policy Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > National Reviews Trans‐disciplinary Perspectives > Regional Reviews

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Section: Climate Change Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Russia in a changing climate

Javeline,

Orttung,

Robertson

et al. 2023

WIREs Climate Change

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“…Typically, population trends are assessed in breeding areas, where birds are linked to their nesting sites, allowing reliable estimates of breeding numbers (Reif 2013). However, access to some breeding areas, such as the Arctic, presents logistical and political challenges (Gallo-Cajiao et al 2023, Koivurova and Shibata 2023). As a result, population trends for these species are often estimated in non-breeding areas where birds aren’t tied to specific locations (Robinson et al 2005, JIa et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quick-quick-slow: the foxtrot migration and dynamic non-breeding range of the Arctic raptor

Pokrovsky

Curk

Dietz

et al. 2023

Preprint

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To conserve bird species threatened by climate change, it is important to understand how environmental factors affected by climate change, such as snow cover, impact their ranges. While this problem is fairly well understood for breeding areas, it remains poorly understood for non-breeding areas. In non-breeding areas, seasonal cycles can strongly influence the distribution of resources during winter. If birds adapt to such changes, they may result in seasonal and directional movement of birds within their non-breeding range. In this case, birds would experience a unique migration pattern - rapid migration between breeding and non-breeding habitats versus a slow migration pattern within their non-breeding range. Their non-breeding range would therefore be dynamic, with potentially important consequences for our understanding of population densities and non-breeding ranges. Between 2013-2021, we tracked 43 adult Rough-legged buzzards with solar GPS-GSM loggers. We analyzed their behavior, determined whether the birds showed any directional return migrations during the non-breeding season, and evaluated the differences between the slow migration within their winter range and the quick migration between breeding and non-breeding areas. We also analyzed the vegetation cover of the areas crossed during quick and slow migrations and the role of snow cover in winter migrations. Our findings revealed that after a quick fall migration through the taiga zone, Rough-legged buzzards continue to migrate during the non-breeding season, albeit at a slower pace across the wooded fields they select as habitat. They avoid complete snow cover and move to escape the progression of the snow cover line from northeast to southwest and back during the winter. As a consequence, Rough-legged buzzards have a dynamic winter range. Thus, the migration pattern of these birds comprises alternating quick and slow phases, resembling the foxtrot dance, which we have named the foxtrot migration pattern. Due to this pattern, their winter range displays a dynamic shift of the seasonal center of the population distribution over 1000 km towards the southwest and back throughout the winter. Our study uncovered a novel bird migration pattern postulated to exist before but poorly understood. This foxtrot migration likely occurs in many migratory species inhabiting winter areas with pronounced seasonal cycles. Our findings have implications for conservation efforts in the Anthropocene, where environmental factors such as snow cover can change rapidly and have cascading effects on bird migration. We recommend presenting dynamic winter ranges in species descriptions and range maps so ecologists can use them to develop effective conservation strategies.

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