One of our members is helping operate a 550 acre restoration project in Mexico. They have a proven method from 3km away by Dr. Lopez Portillo. One of their major challenges is how to measure biodiversity to assess their results as the restoration progresses. They are not just targeting carbon - but biodiversity, ecosystem services, and community integration.
Alma Grande is a Holistic project looking to generate awareness of the importance of mangroves in Mexico. It is led by a group of young people, scientists, private-land owners, and local communities who are gravely concerned about climate change and the biodiversity loss crisis.
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Endangered Wildlife OÜ has developed a database which can measure the worth of most animals by their location and multiply factors from aesthetics, to ecosystem services. This Biodiversity Valuation process which tries to take into account species value, hedge value, carbon value, aesthetic value, environment value, cultural value, etc to calculate a credible data-backed value which can be used to show the (negative) tradeoff of economic development.
They seem to have had some success consulting and convincing companies to make a difference to conserve biodiversity too. The interplay of earth processes and people. A little bit of ecology, a little bit of longtermism, a lot of research into how things happen. It traces water, carbon, nitrogen, and our own atoms through the biosphere and into the geosphere. Written by Fin Moorhouse.
From farmed animal welfare to biodiversity, the graduates of the Global Innovation Exchange, a partnership between University of Washington and China’s Tsinghua University, have developed some impressive technology to make the world a better place. "A smart motion-sensing camera dubbed Diversita that uses machine learning on the edge (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-azure-enables-a-new-wave-of-edge-computing-here-s-how/) to photograph and identify different wildlife species. The camera, which can identify 5,000 species within the device, integrates with an online platform that analyzes data in real time and notifies the user when animals are detected, eliminating the time-consuming process of manually poring over huge numbers of images to spot animals. The device uses a species-classification model developed under Microsoft’s AI for Earth (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-for-earth) initiative, which harnesses the Microsoft cloud and AI tools to address global environmental challenges. Team member Benjamin Keller says the device has potential for a broad range of uses by researchers and conservationists, including invasive species removal, enclosure monitoring, genetic sampling and protected area management." Section 3: Ecosystem Collapse is particularly relevant, but the article also goes into overpopulation and resource depletion.
Kaiho suggests that if we continue to reduce our GHG emissions (leading to a 3°C warming by 2100), the average animal species loss will reach 10-15 % between the years 2060-2080 or a maximum of 33 % in the worst case. The author suggests this would be sufficient to avert an ecosystem collapse with catastrophic impacts, that could happen if we continued burning fossil fuels or engaged in a nuclear war. However, "ecosystem collapse" is only operationalized as the extinction of 20-50 % of animal species. Although it's a common meme that e.g. keeping the biodiversity loss under 10 % is necessary for civilization, the aforementioned reviews haven't found evidence such a tipping point exists. Biodiversity targets may be harder than previously thought due to the time delay of environmental repercussions according to this article by the BBC.
"Ambitious targets to halt the decline in nature may already be slipping out of reach, a study suggests. Scientists say the effects of climate change and habitat loss on animal populations have been underestimated. ... The scientists found that past modelling work had largely ignored time lags of decades before the effects of drivers such as climate change and habitat loss kick in. This means we may be further down the line towards biodiversity loss than we thought." Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse Insects are essential for life as we know it. As they become more scarce, our world will slowly grind to a halt; we simply cannot function without them. Drawing on the latest ground-breaking research and a lifetime's study, Dave Goulson reveals the shocking decline of insect populations that has taken place in recent decades, with potentially catastrophic consequences. He passionately argues that we must all learn to love, respect and care for our six-legged friends. Eye-opening, inspiring and riveting, Silent Earth is part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for a greener planet. It is a call to arms for profound change at every level - in government policy, agriculture, industry and in our own homes and gardens. Although time is running out, it is not yet too late for insect populations to recover. We may feel helpless in the face of many of the environmental issues that loom on our horizon, but Goulson shows us that we can all take simple steps to encourage insects and counter their destruction. MongaBay has several promising topics as part of their Conservation Effectiveness initiative. Conservationists need to make decisions. Easily accessing the available evidence on what has worked and where is crucial - just as it is important to be able to see what has not worked so well. Conservation Effectiveness is an ongoing science-journalism initiative focused on investigating which conservation strategies work or not, and under what circumstances.
Their interactive dashboard cites scientific papers "for" and "against" each area as well as the geographic location of the paper's research. The Hidden Universe: Adventures in Biodiversity by Alexandre Antonelli was recommended recently. The author is the director of the Gotheburg Global Biodiversity Center. This brief, lucid book by the Director of Science at Royal Botanical Gardens takes you on an unforgettable tour of the natural world, showing how biodiversity - the rich variety of life in the world and in our own backyards - provides both the source and the salvation of our existence. Combining inspiration stories and the latest scientific research, Alex Antonelli reveals the wonders of biodiversity at a genetic, species and ecosystem level - what it is, how it works, and why it's the most important tool in our battle against climate change.
With simplicity and clarity, The Hidden Universe shows you not only what's at stake, but what can be done (and is already being done) to protect and restore biodiversity around the world. It marks the arrival of a bold new voice in popular science. Desertification has been a buzzword for years now. For example the Sahara is expanding into the Sahel, in the process of desertification. It is usually used as a direct synonym for "land degradation." This article challenges that approach and critiques how the term has been wielded against landscapes and people. In our conversation, Rosetta points out the problematic roots and uses of the word “desertification”—which is tied to the presumptive conclusion of drylands as “unproductive” landscapes needing to be fixed. Even though the United Nations states that drylands are associated with food insecurity and economic poverty, I was more curious to critique the confounding factors of land access, land privatization and borders preventing open migration, and intensive and flood irrigation-dependent agriculture not suited to such bioregions.
The podcast interview with Rosetta Elkin can be heard here. |