To Conserve Nature in the Anthropocene, Half Earth Is Not Nearly Enough

Ellis, Erle C.

doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2019.10.009

Cited by 49 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…In particular, it allows for the protection of very large amounts of forest in some areas, sufficient to maintain species that cannot persist in human‐dominated landscapes. However, to successfully preserve most forest species, the 50% global conservation rule must be applied on a per‐forest‐type basis, that is we need to preserve 50% of each forest type in each ecoregion (Ellis 2019). In many areas, this would require massive restoration efforts to replace the forest that has already been lost, for example Brazilian Atlantic forest (Ribeiro et al .…”

Section: How Much Forest Needs To Be Maintained In a Landscape?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

et al. 2020

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Agriculture and development transform forest ecosystems to human-modified landscapes. Decades of research in ecology have generated myriad concepts for the appropriate management of these landscapes. Yet, these concepts are often contradictory and apply at different spatial scales, making the design of biodiversity-friendly landscapes challenging. Here, we combine concepts with empirical support to design optimal landscape scenarios for forest-dwelling species. The supported concepts indicate that appropriately sized landscapes should contain ≥ 40% forest cover, although higher percentages are likely needed in the tropics. Forest cover should be configured with c. 10% in a very large forest patch, and the remaining 30% in many evenly dispersed smaller patches and semi-natural treed elements (e.g. vegetation corridors). Importantly, the patches should be embedded in a high-quality matrix. The proposed landscape scenarios represent an optimal compromise between delivery of goods and services to humans and preserving most forest wildlife, and can therefore guide forest preservation and restoration strategies.

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Section: How Much Forest Needs To Be Maintained In a Landscape?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

et al. 2020

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“…A substantial component of the Agreement's goal for reduction and mitigation of emissions is associated with changes in land management and land use practices (IPCC, 2019; UNFCCC, 2015). Protected area designation forms one element of a broader strategy that must include improved management of the majority of lands and oceans of the planet managed by humans (Ellis, 2019; Locke et al, 2019).…”

Section: The Global Context: Protected Area and Mitigation Targets In International Treatiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maximizing the effectiveness of national commitments to protected area expansion for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem carbon under climate change

Carroll

Ray

2021

Global Change Biology

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Global commitments to protected area expansion should prioritize opportunities to protect climate refugia and ecosystems which store high levels of irrecoverable carbon, as key components of an effective response to biodiversity loss and climate change. The United States and Canada are responsible for one‐sixth of global greenhouse gas emissions but hold extensive natural ecosystems that store globally significant above‐ and below‐ground carbon. Canada has initiated a process of protected area network expansion in concert with efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, and acknowledged nature‐based solutions as a key aspect of climate change mitigation. The US, although not a party to global biodiversity conventions, has recently committed to protecting 30% of its extent by 2030 and achieving the UNFCCC Paris Agreement's mitigation targets. The opportunities afforded by these dual biodiversity conservation and climate commitments require coordinated national and regional policies to ensure that new protected areas maximize biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation opportunities. We address how global commitments can best inform national policy initiatives which build on existing agency mandates for regional planning and species conservation. Previous analyses of global conservation priorities under climate change have been tenuously linked to policy contexts of individual nations and have lacked information on refugia due to limitations of globally available datasets. Comparison and synthesis of predictions from a range of recently developed refugia metrics allow such data to inform planning despite substantial uncertainty arising from contrasting model assumptions and inputs. A case study for endangered species planning for old‐forest‐associated species in the US Pacific Northwest demonstrates how regional planning can be nested hierarchically within national biodiversity‐focused adaptation and nature‐based mitigation strategies which integrate refugia, connectivity, and ecosystem carbon metrics to holistically evaluate the role of different land designations and where carbon mitigation and protection of biodiversity's resilience to climate change can be aligned.

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“…Globally prominent examples of major acrossborder asymmetries in land use include the border between North and South Korea, between Israel and its neighboring Lebanon and the Palestinian authority, and between the Dominican Republic and Haiti; in all cases reflecting an interplay between distinctive colonial histories and mayor differences in recent socio-economic development. Systematizing the analysis of across-border land system differences should expand our understanding of the effect of borders on planetary functioning during the Anthropocene (Ellis 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land systems’ asymmetries across transnational ecoregions in South America

et al. 2021

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The landscape configuration of socio-ecological land systems results from the interaction between the environmental conditions (relatively homogeneous within ecoregions) and country-level management and land-use decisions. However, social, land-use and sustainability research disciplines often study each independently. We used Euclidean distance analyses of five indicators of land systems functioning to explore the geographical patterns of across-border human-induced asymmetries in transnational ecoregions of South America. The most asymmetric transnational ecoregions occurred in the tropical rainforest biome which also showed the widest range of asymmetry values compared to other biomes. In contrast, transnational ecoregions in montane grasslands showed comparatively little asymmetries, and tropical dry forests showed intermediate asymmetry values. This pattern indicates that major asymmetries occur in land systems located in productive biomes with a comparatively recent history of development, whereas mature socio-ecosystems with a long history of human land use are more homogeneous across borders. In some cases, asymmetries may stabilize as a consequence of reinforcing feedbacks that promote contrasting land-use decisions across borders, including, for example, the establishment of protected areas, or the promotion of agro-industrial activities. Transnational socio-ecological land systems can be used to evaluate alternatives for sustainable development because they highlight the influence of institutions under different governance regimes in defining the spatial configuration and ecological properties of regions. We invite land-use and sustainability scientists to consider political border interactions as valuable “natural experiments” to better understand the interrelations between biophysical and political systems in defining planetary geographical-ecology in the Anthropocene.

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To Conserve Nature in the Anthropocene, Half Earth Is Not Nearly Enough

Cited by 49 publications

References 15 publications

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

Designing optimal human‐modified landscapes for forest biodiversity conservation

Maximizing the effectiveness of national commitments to protected area expansion for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem carbon under climate change

Land systems’ asymmetries across transnational ecoregions in South America

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