Protection and Management of Species, Habitats, Ecosystems and Landscapes: Current Trends and Global Needs

Panayotis Dimopoulos,Ioannis P Kokkoris

doi:10.3390/f11121244

Abstract

Human well-being and the prerequisite sustainable environmental management are currently at stake, reaching a bottleneck when trying to cope with (i) the ever-growing world population, (ii) the constantly increasing need for natural resources (and the subsequent overexploitation of species, habitats, ecosystems, and landscapes) and (iii) the documented and on-going impacts of climate change. In developed societies, the concern about environmental protection is set high in the public dialogue, as well as to management and policy agendas. The recently constituted Intergovernmental Science—Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) urges transformative changes for technological, economic, and social factors aiming to tackle both direct and indirect drivers of biodiversity loss. By this, the role of conservation and management practices for the environment is characterized as a crucial and top issue and should deal with (a) promoting best practices from the local to the global level, (b) identifying spatial and temporal knowledge gaps, (c) multidisciplinary aspects for sustainable management practices, (d) identifying and interpreting the role of stakeholders and socio-economic parameters in the decision-making process, and (e) methods and practices to integrate the concept of ecosystem services into natural capital assessment and accounting, conservation and management strategies. Modern literature highlights that land-use change and prioritization, restoration of natural areas, cultural landscape identification and maintenance, should be considered to the top of the scientific and policy agenda, as well as to the epicenter of novel awareness-raising strategies for the environment in the near future.

Highlights

During the last two decades our understanding about how ecosystems and the relevant biodiversity attributes interact with human society has been scientifically increased, highlighting their importance to the quality of life and human well-being [1]
Important initiatives triggered science—policy interactions worldwide, based on the results of multidisciplinary approaches and case studies, e.g., [2,3]. The importance of this interaction and co-existence of biodiversity, ecosystems in good condition and socio-economic prosperity is recently studied by the Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, under the Intergovernmental Science—Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) initiative [4]; the relevant summary of the assessment was approved in 2019, by more than 130 Governments, which constitute the Members of IPBES [1]
Even more multidisciplinary studies are published during the last decade [14], indicating an increased trend; numerous future-projection assessments are provided from global (e.g., [15,16,17]) to local level (e.g., [18,19]), based mainly on climatic and/or management scenarios, aiming to support decision making and policy needs for a sustainable management drafting

Summary

Introduction

During the last two decades our understanding about how ecosystems and the relevant biodiversity attributes interact with human society has been scientifically increased, highlighting their importance to the quality of life and human well-being [1]. Important initiatives triggered science—policy interactions worldwide, based on the results of multidisciplinary approaches and case studies, e.g., [2,3].

Results

Conclusion