Global Framework Research Articles

Hunting indicators for community-led wildlife management in tropical Africa

Engaging local communities is pivotal for wildlife conservation beyond protected areas, aligning with the 30 × 30 target of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We assessed the effectiveness of 33 offtake indicators, derived from hunter declarations, in monitoring the status and extent of degradation of hunted wildlife sourced from camera trap surveys and faunal composition analysis. The rodents:ungulates ratio in offtake and the mean body mass of total offtake emerged as practical and robust indicators of faunal degradation within hunting systems, with significant potential for broader application in similar tropical forest environments. Our findings provide a blueprint for managing and conserving natural resources in tropical regions through community-based initiatives. Involving local stakeholders ensures sustainable wildlife use and fosters ownership and responsibility. This study advances conservation efforts, bridging scientific rigor with community engagement for effective biodiversity preservation.

Enabling equitable and affordable access to novel therapeutics for pandemic preparedness and response via creative intellectual property agreements.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the current purely market-driven approaches to drug discovery and development alone are insufficient to drive equitable access to new therapies either in preparation for, or in response to, pandemics. A new global framework driven by equity is under negotiation at the World Health Organization to support pandemic preparedness and response. Some believe that the global intellectual property (IP) system itself is part of the problem and propose a purely Open Science approach. In this article, we discuss how existing IP frameworks and contractual agreements may be used to create rights and obligations to generate a more effective global response in future, drawing on experience gained in the COVID Moonshot program, a purely Open Science collaboration, and the ASAP AViDD drug discovery consortium, which uses a hybrid, phased model of Open Science, patent filing and contractual agreements. We conclude that 'straight to generic' drug discovery is appropriate in some domains, and that targeted patent protection, coupled with open licensing, can offer a route to generating affordable and equitable access for therapy areas where market forces have failed. The Extended Data contains a copy of our model IP policy, which can be used as a template by other discovery efforts seeking to ensure their drug candidates can be developed for globally equitable and affordable access.

Still standing: important reflections on the global IP framework in times of crisis

Still standing: important reflections on the global IP framework in times of crisis

Design of Entire-Flight Pinpoint Return Trajectory for Lunar DRO via Deep Neural Network

Lunar DRO pinpoint return is the final stage of manned deep space exploration via a lunar DRO station. A re-entry capsule suffers from complicated dynamic and thermal effects during an entire flight. The optimization of the lunar DRO return trajectory exhibits strong non-linearity. To obtain a global optimal return trajectory, an entire-flight lunar DRO pinpoint return model including a Moon–Earth transfer stage and an Earth atmosphere re-entry stage is constructed. A re-entry point on the atmosphere boundary is introduced to connect these two stages. Then, an entire-flight global optimization framework for lunar DRO pinpoint return is developed. The design of the entire-flight return trajectory is simplified as the optimization of the re-entry point. Moreover, to further improve the design efficiency, a rapid landing point prediction method for the Earth re-entry is developed based on a deep neural network. This predicting network maps the re-entry point in the atmosphere and the landing point on Earth with respect to optimal control re-entry trajectories. Numerical simulations validate the optimization accuracy and efficiency of the proposed methods. The entire-flight return trajectory achieves a high accuracy of the landing point and low fuel consumption.

Business education and its paradoxes: Linking business and biodiversity through critical pedagogy curriculum

AbstractThe Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, launched during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December 2022, encourages governments, companies and investors to publish data on their nature‐related risks, dependencies and impacts. These disclosures are intended to drive businesses to recognise, manage and mitigate their reliance on ecosystem goods and services. However, there is a ‘biodiversity blind spot’ that is evident for most organisations and business schools. Business education rarely addresses the root causes of biodiversity loss, such as the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. As the dominant positioning of Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG) presents biodiversity in anthropocentric instrumental terms inadequate for addressing ecosystem decline, we posit that a more progressive and transformative ecocentric education through ecopedagogy and ecoliteracy is needed. Both approaches include the development of critical thinking about degrowth, the circular economy and conventional stakeholder theory to include non‐human stakeholders. Using comparative case studies from Northumbria University, the University of Hong Kong and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we illustrate how business education can be transformed to address biodiversity loss, providing theoretical guidance and practical recommendations to academic practitioners and future business leaders.

EXISTENTIAL RISK FROM TRANSFORMATIVE AI: AN ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE

The prospective arrival of transformative artificial intelligence (TAI) will be a filter for the human civilization – a threshold beyond which it will either strongly accelerate its growth, or vanish. Historical evidence on technological progress in AI capabilities and economic incentives to pursue it suggest that TAI will most likely be developed in just one to four decades. In contrast, theoretical problems of AI alignment, needed to be solved in order for TAI to be “friendly” towards humans rather than cause our extinction, appear difficult and impossible to solve by mechanically increasing the amount of compute. This means that transformative AI poses an imminent existential risk to the humankind which ought to be urgently addressed. Starting from this premise, this paper provides new economic perspectives on discussions surrounding the issue: whether addressing existential risks is cost effective and fair towards the contemporary poor, whether it constitutes “Pascal’s mugging”, how to quantify risks that have never materialized in the past, how discounting affects our assessment of existential risk, and how to include the prospects of upcoming singularity in economic forecasts. The paper also suggests possible policy actions, such as ramping up public funding on research on existential risks and AI safety, and improving regulation of the AI sector, preferably within a global policy framework.

The different facets of biodiversity

The different facets of biodiversity Professor F. Guillaume Blanchet from Université de Sherbrooke explores the various aspects of biodiversity and the challenge involved in monitoring it. During the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP15), the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted. This framework has given prized mediatic attention to biodiversity as a topic that needs to be given the same importance as climate change. Arguably, the most publicized part of the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework was defined by media from around the world as the 30 by 30 target.

Naval forces operational environment. Flexibility and strategic adaptability

In the dynamic scene of naval operations, constant adaptation and innovation are imperative to meeting the challenges and opportunities of technological advances, geopolitical changes and environmental considerations. This article aims to explore the multidimensional landscape of the naval operational environment, offering original insights and solutions to enhance naval capabilities and cooperation on a regional and global scale. From the forefront of technological innovation, onboard unmanned systems integration and artificial intelligence-based decision-making, to strategic adaptability in response to geopolitical dynamics, the study explores the complex interplay between naval strategy and emerging trends, with environmental considerations taking centre stage. The article argues for a collaborative global naval framework, highlighting the importance of international cooperation in addressing common maritime challenges. This framework envisages the creation of alliances, initiatives and partnerships to foster collective security, promote environmental protection and ensure the peaceful use of the world’s oceans. The main objective is to highlight the intersections between technological advances, strategic flexibility, environmental factors and international cooperation in shaping the future of naval operations. Overall, the study aims to engage a diverse audience comprising policymakers, maritime military leaders, researchers, academics and stakeholders involved in maritime security, defence and environmental protection.

Expanding Protected Areas Globally Post-2020: A Critical Perspective from Thailand, with Implications for Community Forestry

ABSTRACT The Convention on Biological Diversity’s post-2020 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) includes targets to formally protect thirty percent of Earth by 2030 and stimulate financialization of biodiversity conservation. This paper foregrounds potential risks and limitations of the GBF in Thailand. It examines the historical context of state-run protected areas, including their role in facilitating state territorialization and dispossession, political and cultural persecution, and deleterious economic agendas. It then shows that implementation in Thailand could displace residents of more than 200 villages and supplant roughly forty percent (3,951 square kilometers) of all state-registered community forest lands, which provide various livelihood, cultural, and conservation benefits. The paper challenges three assumptions: that parties to the Convention will recognize the rights and agency of Indigenous Peoples and local communities; that state-run protected areas are managed for biodiversity conservation and not for economic growth; and that perpetual economic growth and modernization are compatible with conservation. Effective and equitable conservation in Thailand and elsewhere requires more socially and ecologically responsive community rights-based approaches that empower (rather than supersede) customary institutions and transcend unsustainable political-economic imperatives for privatization and perpetual economic growth.

The Effects of Ocean Governance on Marine Economic Development from an Environmental Optimization Perspective

The oceans and seas are vital resources for human life and fundamental to global economic growth. With the expansion of globalization and increasing demand for resource exploitation, the ocean economy has emerged as a critical support for economic growth and a significant concern for many. However, the exploitation of marine resources often leads to ecological damage and environmental pollution, seriously threatening the long-term viability of the marine economy. Measures must be implemented to balance ecological protection and economic development for sustainable growth in the marine sector. This investigation synthesizes over a decade’s worth of data from various coastal cities, incorporating insights from national databases, international reports, and scholarly articles, resulting in an analysis of more than 500 data points. Through the application of a rigorous quantitative approach and a dual fixed-effect model, the study delves into the dynamics between ocean governance and economic development. By analyzing a broad and representative dataset, the research provides an exhaustive overview of global ocean governance frameworks and the current state of the marine economy. The statistical analyses unveil the complexity and diversity of factors influencing the development and governance of marine economies. This paper explores the interplay between marine economic development and ocean governance, evaluating the impact of governance on marine economic progression within the context of environmental optimization. Furthermore, it proposes policy interventions aimed at fostering the sustainable growth of marine economies, ensuring the conservation of marine ecosystems, and pursuing overarching long-term global growth ambitions.

Bridging the cultures of research and practice: The global evolution of Sesame Street’s playful problem-solving curriculum

ABSTRACT Traditionally, theory and practice are treated as separate silos when designing educational media, or at best, as theory informing practice in a one-way relationship. The relationship between theory and practice, however, is most productive when seen as reciprocal, existing in an iterative relationship with each influencing the other in turn. This paper reflects on the Sesame Street production and research described earlier in this special section, drawing lessons and implications for future theory and research. Implications are also drawn for future productions of Sesame Street and its international co-productions, extensions into ancillary media, and, more broadly, educational media in general, informed by a global advisory panel and the development of a global theoretical framework for future multiplatform content creation. Beyond informing Sesame Workshop’s approach to creativity and playful problem solving, this paper offers a model for media makers seeking to bridge the research-practice gap.

GGW-BDF: an online tool for using earth observation and Chinese ecosystem restoration experiences in support of the Great Green Wall initiative

ABSTRACT The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) establish a fresh global framework for evaluating the development agenda, emphasizing prosperity, growth, inclusivity, and transparency while safeguarding our planet Earth. Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) represents a clear target for assessing the achievement of SDG 15.3. In response to the shortcomings of the African Great Green Wall initiative with respect to LDN monitoring, reporting, and intervention, we developed an online tool, the Great Green Wall Big Data Facilitator (GGW-BDF), based on earth observation data (e.g. SDGSAT-1), cutting-edge big data analysis technologies, and Chinese experience in combating desertification, to support the implementation of the African Great Green Wall initiative. The GGW-BDF comprises an LDN data portal, desertification control knowledge, and e-learning resources. This study highlights the functionality of this tool to support stakeholders across countries in monitoring LDN while providing the successful technoloiges to restore degraded or barren land. The contributions of the GGW-BDF are very useful in supporting the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall (PAGGW), and will hopefully be continuously upgraded for being a part of the federated toolbox of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) LDN Flagship.

Feasibility of Monitoring Global Breast Cancer Initiative Framework Key Performance Indicators in 21 Asian Countries

Feasibility of Monitoring Global Breast Cancer Initiative Framework Key Performance Indicators in 21 Asian Countries

Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and ensuring populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity. The major advantage of these indicators is that they can be estimated with or without DNA-based data. However, demonstrating their feasibility requires addressing the methodological challenges of using data gathered from diverse sources, across diverse taxonomic groups, and for countries of varying socio-economic status and biodiversity levels. Here, we assess the genetic indicators for 919 taxa, representing 5271 populations across nine countries, including megadiverse countries and developing economies. Eighty-three percent of the taxa assessed had data available to calculate at least one indicator. Our results show that although the majority of species maintain most populations, 58% of species have populations too small to maintain genetic diversity. Moreover, genetic indicator values suggest that IUCN Red List status and other initiatives fail to assess genetic status, highlighting the critical importance of genetic indicators.

Optimization framework for multi-fidelity surrogate model based on adaptive addition strategy—A case study of self-excited oscillation cavity

This study proposes a multi-fidelity efficient global optimization framework for the structural optimization of self-excited oscillation cavity. To construct a high-precision multi-fidelity surrogate model to correlate the structural parameters of a self-excited oscillation cavity with the gas precipitation and energy consumption characteristics by effectively fuzing the information of different fidelity levels, choosing different correlation functions and hyper-parameter estimation methods, and learning the correlation between the data. The optimization framework determines various sampling methods and quantities by calculating the minimum Euclidean distance between sample points and sensitivity index. To enhance computational efficiency, a multi-fidelity sample library is established by utilizing both precise and coarse computational fluid dynamics grids. The expected improvement criterion-based algorithm for global optimization is employed as an additive strategy to incorporate additional data points into the model. This approach considers both local and global search of the model, thereby enhancing sample accuracy while reducing computation time. Moreover, the utilization of the highly generalized Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) for identifying the Pareto optimal solution set enhances convergence speed. The proposed optimization framework in this study achieves a remarkable level of model accuracy and provides optimal solutions even with a limited sample size. It can be widely used in engineering optimization problems.

International Human Rights Law: Enforcement Mechanisms and Challenges in a Globalized World

The abstract provides an overview of international human rights law, examining its enforcement mechanisms and the challenges it faces in an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. the evolution of human rights law, the role of international organizations, and the complexities of ensuring compliance and accountability in diverse cultural, political, and legal contexts. International human rights law serves as a cornerstone of the global legal framework, promoting fundamental rights and freedoms for all individuals regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, or social status. The abstract delves into the origins of human rights law, tracing its development from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to various international treaties, conventions, and customary norms.

From colonialism to international aid: Social protection in former French colonies in sub‐Saharan Africa, 1890–2020

AbstractThis article examines social protection pathways in the former French colonies in sub‐Saharan Africa. We identify five steps to understanding the patterns and dynamics of social protection in these countries that provide evidence of its exogenous construction. First, we characterize the main developments in social protection systems and policies from their inception, covering the colonial era to the present, underlining the role of colonial legacy and the global social policy framework. Second, we document the similarity of national social protection trajectories and lack of national ownership of the policy problem markedly that characterizes social protection pathways.

Understanding the impact of climate change on Bhutanese school communities: Challenges and responses

Climate change is intensifying the risks faced by children’s lives, as well as impacting their learning and education. How school communities in Bhutan are dealing with issues related to climate change is largely uncharted. This study examined how Bhutanese schools have been affected by the changing climate and how they were responding to it. The data sources included interviews with school principals, teachers, and district education officers, as well as observations, and document analysis. The global comprehensive school safety framework, along with a whole school approach to climate action framed the results of this study. Findings included that schools experienced multiple climate impacts and shocks affecting their children’s health, education, and the school system itself. Adaptation and mitigation measures including climate change education have yet to gain traction at the sector and school’s level. Schools, however, have attempted some actions such as through disaster management, and participatory environmental conservation and green school initiatives. Social capital was critical in filling the resource gap for initiating environmental and climate change actions, carried out through collective school, community, and student-based activities. Human capacities, policy and institutional structures, technical capacities, and capital (cultural and economic) constraints as well as slow mainstreaming into local development processes impeded efforts to build climate-resilient schools, including practices to contribute to greenhouse gases reduction. This study not only shed light on how climate change was affecting schools and children but also provided strong evidence for policymakers and relevant agencies to scale up interventions to enhance adaptation and mitigation practices.

Alcohol-associated liver disease and public health policies.

Alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) rates have increased substantially in the United States (US) and elsewhere around the globe. These increases are largely the result of increases in alcohol use. While there are many levels at which alcohol use interventions can be implemented in order to reduce alcohol use and its negative health consequences, public policy initiatives have emerged as a powerful way to intervene across a population. In this narrative review, we will review major US national as well as worldwide alcohol related public health policies with a particular focus on describing how such policies have influenced rates of ALD and its complications and outcomes. We will describe global alcohol public health policy frameworks, review key alcohol policy models, describe existing notable policies and their impacts, and highlight gaps in ALD policy literature where further research and policy interventions could reduce rates mortality from ALD.

Effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution in resolving investment disputes in developing countries: Analysis of ICSID cases in Indonesia and Nigeria

This article analyzes the impact of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) on improving the investment environment in Indonesia. Indonesia seeks to enhance legal certainty and create a favorable climate for investors, both local and foreign, by incorporating Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) into its legal system. This will provide an efficient and non-judicial method for settling investment issues. This approach is further solidified by the state's adoption of the ICSID Convention via Law No. 5 of 1968, which provides a dependable arbitration mechanism for the resolution of disputes involving foreign investors and the state. The convergence of ADR principles and ICSID regulations not only corresponds to global benchmarks but also reflects the cultural ethos of "musyawarah mufakat" in Indonesia, which advocates for peaceful resolutions. Attracting investment, sustaining economic growth, and participating in regional and global trade frameworks are all dependent on these legal mechanisms being successful. There are far-reaching consequences for Indonesia's long-term economic development, and this research emphasizes the critical significance of legal frameworks in preserving investor trust.