Reduce Biodiversity Loss Research Articles

The classified peri-urban forest of Kua from Burkina Faso must not be declassified for ecological reasons

Densification of urban areas and rapid urbanization result in land scarcity in the Sahelian cities of West Africa. Therefore, urban greenspaces are increasingly coveted for socio-economic development. This is the case of the peri-urban forest of Kua in Burkina Faso which has been subject of controversies between ecologists and decision makers who intended to declassify this forest for hospital project. The lack of ecological evidence on this forest fueled the dichotomous conflicts between environment protection and urban planning. Hence, this study aimed to assess the ecological characteristics of the peri-urban forest of Kua. Dendrometric measurements of 2993 individuals were performed in 106 plots across the peri-urban forests of Kua and Dindéresso. We computed and compared tree diversity metrics, structural parameters and carbon stocks between the two forests. The findings revealed a γ–diversity of 40 woody species from 38 genera and 16 families in Kua forest. Through the diversity metrics, we found that the peri-urban forest of Kua exhibited lower tree diversity than the peri-urban forest of Dindéresso (p-value < 0.05). Similarly, tree density was significantly lower (p-value < 0.05) in Kua (212.446 ± 291.65 ind. ha−1) than in Dindéresso (378.461 ± 298.89 ind. ha−1). However, carbon stock was two times significantly higher (p-value < 0.05) in Kua (26.21 ± 31.27 Mg.ha−1) than in Dindéresso (13.389 ± 15.95 Mg.ha−1), highlighting the high potential of this forest in carbon sequestration. This study demonstrated that the peri-urban forest of Kua – despite its lower tree diversity and density – constitutes important carbon pools and sinks. Therefore, this forest must not be declassified, but should rather be reinforced through management plans and conservation actions. To sustain urban development, land management policies promoting the conservation of greenspaces are required to reduce biodiversity loss and carbon emissions in urban centers.

Using comparative extinction risk analysis to prioritize the IUCN Red List reassessments of amphibians

AbstractAssessing the extinction risk of species based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (RL) is key to guiding conservation policies and reducing biodiversity loss. This process is resource demanding, however, and requires continuous updating, which becomes increasingly difficult as new species are added to the RL. Automatic methods, such as comparative analyses used to predict species RL category, can be an efficient alternative to keep assessments up to date. Using amphibians as a study group, we predicted which species are more likely to change their RL category and thus should be prioritized for reassessment. We used species biological traits, environmental variables, and proxies of climate and land‐use change as predictors of RL category. We produced an ensemble prediction of IUCN RL category for each species by combining 4 different model algorithms: cumulative link models, phylogenetic generalized least squares, random forests, and neural networks. By comparing RL categories with the ensemble prediction and accounting for uncertainty among model algorithms, we identified species that should be prioritized for future reassessment based on the mismatch between predicted and observed values. The most important predicting variables across models were species’ range size and spatial configuration of the range, biological traits, climate change, and land‐use change. We compared our proposed prioritization index and the predicted RL changes with independent IUCN RL reassessments and found high performance of both the prioritization and the predicted directionality of changes in RL categories. Ensemble modeling of RL category is a promising tool for prioritizing species for reassessment while accounting for models’ uncertainty. This approach is broadly applicable to all taxa on the IUCN RL and to regional and national assessments and may improve allocation of the limited human and economic resources available to maintain an up‐to‐date IUCN RL.

A comprehensive analysis to optimizing national-scale protected area systems under climate change

With the intensification of climate change, incorporating climate information into protected areas planning has become crucial in reducing biodiversity loss. However, the current natural reserve system in China does not take climate information into account. Therefore, we assessed the effectiveness of existing protected areas through climate refuge and connectivity rankings, and Zonation software was used to identify the ecological priority zone in China by combining climate indicators and human footprint. The results show that the current natural protected areas in China have certain limitations in dealing with climate change, and some protected areas may struggle to maintain their value in biodiversity conservation under climate change. Moreover, China still has lots of important areas that can maintain biodiversity under climate change, but most of them are not covered by protected areas. The results provide support for the planning of China's nature protected area system in response to climate change.

Viticulture and the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): Historical overview, current situation and future perspective

AbstractThe grapevine is one of the most important perennial fruit crops worldwide. The historical stability of winegrowing methods has spanned almost 3000 years since the introduction of viticulture in Europe. However, in the last 70 years, the wine sector in the Europe has experienced substantial transformations. These changes are attributed to the widespread adoption of mechanisation and industralisation in the 1950s and the establishment of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The growing concern for the environment and climate change in the European Union (EU) has significantly influenced the successive reforms of the CAP. These reforms have resulted in the acquisition of new commitments to protect the environment, mitigate climate change and reduce biodiversity loss over the years. In this work, we carried out a critical analysis of the most relevant aspects of the new CAP and address the regulatory framework of organic agriculture in the EU as a tool for improving the sustainability of vineyards. Currently, Spain is the country with the largest vineyard area in the world, reaching 964,000 hectares. This represents 13% of the world's vineyards and 30% in the EU, which demonstrates the importance of this crop in Europe. Due to its relevance, we focused our critical analyses of the new CAP on Spain as a case study. The latest reform of the CAP, applicable for the period 2023‐2027, is the most ambitious in environmental terms and includes instruments such as reinforced conditionality, eco‐schemes and payments for agri‐environment–climate commitments. Finally, we propose that by integrating concepts and management strategies from current organic and regenerative viticulture together with historical strategies derived from treatises and classic authors across a wide range of societies and cultures, the goals of the new CAP can be successfully met. This will contribute to reuniting the past, the present and the future of viticulture for a more nature‐based winemaking.

Using density surface models to assess the ecological effectiveness of a protected area network in Tanzania

AbstractGiven recent global endeavors to increase protected area coverage, it is crucial to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of various area‐based conservation strategies in effectively reducing biodiversity loss. Here, we investigated the responses of wildlife populations to different protection levels and environmental variables at the landscape scale in the Katavi–Rukwa Ecosystem, western Tanzania. To this end, we conducted line distance sampling surveys and counted the dung of six target mammal species (elephant, giraffe, buffalo, zebra, topi, and hartebeest) along foot transects within areas differing in protection levels (from strict to less‐strictly protected: national park, game reserve, forest reserve, game‐controlled area, and unprotected areas). Based on these dung counts, we modeled the spatial distribution of these six mammal species using a species‐specific density surface modeling framework. We found consistent effects of protection level and land use variables on the spatial distribution of the target mammal species: dung densities were highest in the national park and game reserves, intermediate in less‐strictly protected areas, and lowest in unprotected areas. Beyond species‐specific environmental predictors for dung densities, our results highlight consistent negative associations between dung densities of the target species and distance to cropland and avoidance of areas in proximity to houses. Our findings underpin differences in ecological effectiveness of protected areas within one ecosystem. Protection level and land use play crucial roles in moderating the spatial distribution of all considered mammal species. Our findings suggest that a landscape approach needs to guide effective conservation across the entire protection gradient of the Katavi–Rukwa Ecosystem.

Assessment of programme level costs and benefits of implementing nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation in smallholder agricultural systems.

Abstract Background: Climate change poses a serious threat to the world's 475 million smallholder farms and to the ability to feed the world's growing population. Climate-driven natural hazards, such as droughts, floods, pests, invasive plants and diseases, are increasingly impacting yields and damaging the natural resource base upon which farmers' livelihoods depend, while also threatening the return and impact capacity of private and public agricultural investments (IPCC, 2021). Apart from being extremely vulnerable to climate change, agriculture is one of the largest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for around a quarter of all emissions annually (IPCC, 2019). Nature-based solutions (NBS) are "actions to protect, conserve, restore, sustainably use and manage natural or modified terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems which address social, economic and environmental challenges effectively and adaptively, while simultaneously providing human well-being, ecosystem services, resilience and biodiversity benefits" (UNEA/EA.5/Res.5). NBS can therefore be considered as a systemic solution that offers multiple benefits, including sustainable agriculture, mitigating and adapting to climate change and reducing biodiversity loss. To meet the challenges of decarbonizing the agricultural sector, enabling it to adapt to climate change, and to function in a nature-positive way, it is critical to look at ways for making NBS accessible, affordable and scalable, particularly for smallholder farmers. As a first step, this research aims to understand the extent to which the costs and benefits of supporting NBS in the agri-food sector have been evaluated and how effective nature-based solutions have been in delivering environmental, social and economic benefits for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Investigating the planning efficiency of species richness- and complementarity-based algorithms in data deficient areas

Efficient conservation planning is a necessary approach for protecting endangered species with deficient distribution data and reducing biodiversity loss. Richness- and complementarity-based algorithms can improve conservation planning efficiency to different degrees, but differences in planning efficiency caused by data availability and algorithms are often disregarded and require clarification. Here, we classified endangered, endemic, and national key protected plant species based on their occurrence data availability for species distribution modeling. We implemented species richness- (SRA), species number complementarity- (SNCA) and species value complementarity-based algorithms (SVCA) to identify priority conservation areas (PCAs) in the Southeast Himalaya Biodiversity Priority Conservation Area. We established six scenarios and compared their planning efficiencies. The spatial distribution of PCAs and their conservation efficiency varied depending on data availability and optimization algorithms. The 17%, 30%, and 45% PCAs identified in the six scenarios differed in geographical pattern, whereas differences in species occurrences had less effect on their conservation efficiency. Specifically, the PCAs identified by using species with sufficient data as surrogates captured species with high conservation value. Additionally, SNCA was better suited for capturing species number, and SVCA was more cost-effective for protecting species area and species of high conservation value, but SRA distribution pattern presented less fragmented and well-connected. Nevertheless, 50.11% area of the optimized PCAs remained uncovered by existing protected areas. Our analysis reveals the influence of species occurrence data availability, and algorithms on planning efficiency, and provides a cost-effective solution for improving planning efficiency and optimizing protected area network in data deficient areas.

Groundwater is a hidden global keystone ecosystem.

Groundwater is a vital ecosystem of the global water cycle, hosting unique biodiversity and providing essential services to societies. Despite being the largest unfrozen freshwater resource, in a period of depletion by extraction and pollution, groundwater environments have been repeatedly overlooked in global biodiversity conservation agendas. Disregarding the importance of groundwater as an ecosystem ignores its critical role in preserving surface biomes. To foster timely global conservation of groundwater, we propose elevating the concept of keystone species into the realm of ecosystems, claiming groundwater as a keystone ecosystem that influences the integrity of many dependent ecosystems. Our global analysis shows that over half of land surface areas (52.6%) has a medium-to-high interaction with groundwater, reaching up to 74.9% when deserts and high mountains are excluded. We postulate that the intrinsic transboundary features of groundwater are critical for shifting perspectives towards more holistic approaches in aquatic ecology and beyond. Furthermore, we propose eight key themes to develop a science-policy integrated groundwater conservation agenda. Given ecosystems above and below the ground intersect at many levels, considering groundwater as an essential component of planetary health is pivotal to reduce biodiversity loss and buffer against climate change.

Intangible Heritage to Strengthen Local Water Management

Can intangible cultural heritage (ICH) help to reduce biodiversity loss and and water shortages related to climate change? Can it contribute to managing water shortages and surpluses on a local level? This article argues that some useful forms of intangible, “living” heritage offer valuable knowledge and practices that can serve as adaptive strategies in a changing environment. Binding practitioners to a specific place and to each other and connecting past and future generations, ICH can bring local knowledge and experience into the work field. The examples introduced here include grassland irrigation, water milling and hedge-laying: all used in the past, replaced by new inventions (e.g. fertilizers, new techniques for grinding grains and barbed wire taking the place of hedges respectively), and reintroduced because of their potential role in water management and ability to help create a climate-robust landscape. The valuable insights and practices of “citizen scientists” using these traditional techniques are too often overlooked by policy makers and academics.

Ecological refugia enhance biodiversity and crop production in dryland grain production systems

Meeting global food demand while reducing biodiversity loss will require strategies that quantify and minimize conservation and production tradeoffs in agroecosystems. Ecological refugia (non-crop habitat patches) were identified in three dryland grain production systems in the Northern Great Plains and assessed for their capacity to enhance biodiversity, crop yield, and crop quality. A radial design of six 100–200 meter transects originating from the refugia and extending into crop fields was used to assess trends in plant and arthropod diversity with increasing distance from the refuge center. Plant species diversity significantly declined with distance from established refugia into crop fields in all years sampled and from a newly established refuge by the third year of data collection. Arthropod taxon diversity declined significantly with distance from refugia on two organic farms but not on a conventional farm. Fields with a refuge hosted a higher abundance of arthropods belonging to Coleoptera than fields without a refuge. Distance from refuge was the most important variable explaining grain yield and grain quality in a random forest model. Yield significantly declined with distance from refugia while grain nutritional quality, based on protein content, iron concentration, and polyphenol concentration, significantly increased with distance from refugia. Overall, ecological refugia enhanced farmland biodiversity and provided tradeoffs for marketable crop production. Moving forward, ecological refugia could serve as a multi-objective conservation practice to integrate food production and conservation goals in agroecosystems.

Kindness in Architecture: The Multispecies Co-Living and Co-Design

The research’s main objective is to explore and encourage modes of architectural practice that can foster multispecies co-living to reduce biodiversity loss and increase the quality of life for both human and nonhuman inhabitants of architecture. This is achieved through conceptual discussions, comprehensive architectural case studies and work-based design explorations that support cross-species co-living in the context of Eastern Norway (Østlandet)—a geographical region of south-eastern Norway consisting of the counties Vestfold, Telemark, Viken, Oslo and Innlandet. A pluralistic method builds on analytical, critical and work-based explorative studies consisting of two parts: (a) historical and contemporary case studies in Norway that support modes of cross-species co-living and (b) design explorations by the second author investigating the operational potential of kindness in architecture. The notion of kindness in this research is built upon an understanding of the amalgam of concepts: solidarity, kinship and being kind, explained in the article’s introduction. The potential for designing with and for nonhumans to reinvigorate modes of co-living and support existing habitats is investigated, focusing on the ways three bird species relate to a specific building in Eastern Norway due to their habitat needs in the region: Cyanistes caeruleus, Eurasian blue tit (blåmeis in Norwegian); Passer montanus, Eurasian tree sparrow (pilfink in Norwegian); and Delichon urbicum, northern or common house martin (taksvale in Norwegian). The research contributes to ongoing discussions within architectural discourse regarding multispecies inhabitation and architecture’s role in the current biodiversity crisis and provides insight into both historical and contemporary/ongoing design solutions for multispecies co-living.

Behavioral interventions to reduce unintentional non-native plants introduction: Personal factors matter

To reduce biodiversity loss, human behavioral change is crucial. However, there has been a significant paucity of effective conservation behavioral interventions, which help establish evidence-based policymaking and lead to the understanding of intervention effectiveness mediators. This study focused on preventing the unintentional introduction of non-native species by examining the effectiveness of four behavioral interventions using an experiment and a questionnaire. The interventions sought to induce footwear cleaning, which reduces non-native species introduction via footwear, at a cleaning station. Responses were considerably heterogeneous across interventions—that is, nudging visitors toward the cleaning station using foot-stamps placed on the ground had the largest impact, while providing procedural knowledge also had a significant effect. Further, the impact of these two interventions differed greatly depending on the degree of individuals' knowledge and/or personalized involvement in the unintentional introduction process. To maximize the impact of and improve interventions, we suggest accounting for the personal factors of the targeted individuals.

Projected impacts of climate change on the habitat of Xerophyta species in Africa

Climate change poses a serious long-term threat to biodiversity. To effectively reduce biodiversity loss, conservationists need to have a thorough understanding of the preferred habitats of species and the variables that affect their distribution. Therefore, predicting the impact of climate change on species-appropriate habitats may help mitigate the potential threats to biodiversity distribution. Xerophyta, a monocotyledonous genus of the family Velloziaceae is native to mainland Africa, Madagascar, and the Arabian Peninsula. The key drivers of Xerophyta habitat distribution and preference are unknown. Using 308 species occurrence data and eight environmental variables, the MaxEnt model was used to determine the potential distribution of six Xerophyta species in Africa under past, current and future climate change scenarios. The results showed that the models had a good predictive ability (Area Under the Curve and True Skill Statistics values for all SDMs were more than 0.902), indicating high accuracy in forecasting the potential geographic distribution of Xerophyta species. The main bioclimatic variables that impacted potential distributions of most Xerophyta species were mean temperature of the driest quarter (Bio9) and precipitation of the warmest quarter (Bio18). According to our models, tropical Africa has zones of moderate and high suitability for Xerophyta taxa, which is consistent with the majority of documented species localities. The habitat suitability of the existing range of the Xerophyta species varied based on the climate scenario, with most species experiencing a range loss greater than the range gain regardless of the climate scenario. The projected spatiotemporal patterns of Xerophyta species help guide recommendations for conservation efforts.

Climate change as a trigger for desertification and possible alternatives to reduce biodiversity loss

Climate change as a trigger for desertification and possible alternatives to reduce biodiversity loss

Smart orchard design improves crop pollination

Abstract More sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices, including ecological intensification, are needed to reduce biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. We evaluated the potential of ecological intensification through the enhancement of pollination services in an intensively managed and insect‐pollinated crop, Macadamia integrifolia. We compared the effects and importance of agronomic practices that include agronomic input (i.e. irrigation and managed honeybees), orchard design requiring no external inputs (i.e. spatial orchard structure) and landscape factors in 10 South African macadamia orchards. In comparison to experimental pollinator exclusion, insect pollination increased the initial and final nut set by 304% and 23%, respectively. However, nut set was pollination limited as hand pollination further improved nut set. Flower visitation rates increased with the cover of semi‐natural habitats in the surrounding landscape (1 km radius). This effect was outperforming the effect of the number of managed honeybee colonies, as agronomic practice. Initial nut set increased with orchard design and flower visitation rates. Perpendicular orientation of the planted macadamia rows towards the semi‐natural habitats increased initial nut set more than threefold compared to parallel row orientation. The initial nut set was 80% higher at the edge to semi‐natural habitats than in the orchard centre. In contrast, agronomic practices, such as irrigation, did not increase initial nut set. Final nut set depended on the preconditions of the initial nut set, additionally, high altitudes and the position in the centre of the orchard had positive effects. Synthesis and applications: Pollination services were prerequisites for high yields in macadamia and could be improved without further agronomic input. Especially, the orchard design, that is, spatial arrangement of tree rows and semi‐natural habitats at local and landscape scales, was more important to boost insect pollination and the initial development of macadamia nuts than agronomic practices, such as high levels of irrigation. Considering the urgency to reduce the environmental impacts of agricultural production, we highlight the high potential of ecological intensification by a smart orchard design and the restoration and conservation of semi‐natural habitats in the orchards and their surrounding landscape.

Holistic valuation of Nature-Based Solutions accounting for human perceptions and nature benefits

When assessing strategies for implementing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), it is paramount to identify and quantify all benefits for securing better, informed decisionmaking. Nevertheless, there appears to be a lack of primary data for linking the valuation of NBS sites with the preferences and attitudes of people interacting with them and their connection to supporting efforts to reduce biodiversity loss. This is a critical gap, as the socio-cultural context of NBS has been proven to play a big role in NBS valuation, especially for their non-tangible benefits (e.g. physical and psychological well-being, habitat enhancements, etc.). Consequently, through cocreation with the local government, we co-designed a contingent valuation (CV) survey to explore how the valuation of NBS sites may be shaped by their relationship with the users and the specific respondent and site characteristics. We applied this method to a case study of two distinct areas located in Aarhus, Denmark, with notable differences related to their attributes (e.g. size, location, time passed since construction). The esults obtained from 607 households in Aarhus Municipality show that the personal preferences of the respondent are the most relevant driver of value, surpassing both the perceptions linked to the physical features of the NBS and the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. Specifically, the respondents attributing most importance to nature benefits were the ones assigning a higher value to the NBS and being willing to pay more for an improvement of the nature quality in the area. These findings highlight the relevance of applying a method assessing the interconnections between human perceptions and nature benefits to ensure a holistic valuation and purposeful design of NBS.

Quantitative environmental DNA metabarcoding shows high potential as a novel approach to quantitatively assess fish community

The simultaneous conservation of species richness and evenness is important to effectively reduce biodiversity loss and keep ecosystem health. Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has been used as a powerful tool for identifying community composition, but it does not necessarily provide quantitative information due to several methodological limitations. Thus, the quantification of eDNA through metabarcoding is an important frontier of eDNA-based biomonitoring. Particularly, the qMiSeq approach has recently been developed as a quantitative metabarcoding method and has attracted much attention due to its usefulness. The aim here was to evaluate the performance of the qMiSeq approach as a quantitative monitoring tool for fish communities by comparing the quantified eDNA concentrations with the results of fish capture surveys. The eDNA water sampling and the capture surveys using the electrical shocker were conducted at a total of 21 sites in four rivers in Japan. As a result, we found significant positive relationships between the eDNA concentrations of each species quantified by qMiSeq and both the abundance and biomass of each captured taxon at each site. Furthermore, for seven out of eleven taxa, a significant positive relationship was observed between quantified DNA concentrations by sample and the abundance and/or biomass. In total, our results demonstrated that eDNA metabarcoding with the qMiSeq approach is a suitable and useful tool for quantitative monitoring of fish communities. Due to the simplicity of the eDNA analysis, the eDNA metabarcoding with qMiSeq approach would promote further growth of quantitative monitoring of biodiversity.

Spatial scale selection for informing species conservation in a changing landscape

AbstractIdentifying the relevant spatial scale at which species respond to features in a landscape (scale of effect) is a pressing research need as managers work to reduce biodiversity loss amid a variety of environmental challenges. Until recently, researchers often evaluated a subset of potential scales of effect inferred from previous studies in other locations, often based on different biological responses and environmental variables. These approaches, however, can create uncertainty as to whether relevant spatial scales were identified, and whether the effects of environmental variables at scale were accurately estimated. Identifying scales of effect is particularly relevant for the greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), a sagebrush‐obligate species of conservation concern requiring large areas of intact sagebrush cover (Artemisia spp.) for habitat. We demonstrate the application of a scale selection approach that jointly estimates the scale of effect and the effect of sagebrush cover on trends in population size using counts from 584 sage‐grouse leks in southwestern Wyoming (2003–2019) and annual estimates of sagebrush cover from a remote sensing product. From this approach, we estimated a positive effect of mean sagebrush cover with a 95% probability that the scale of effect occurred within 5.02 km of leks. In an average year, we found that lower levels of sagebrush cover within these estimated scales could support increasing trends in sage‐grouse population size when populations were small, but higher levels of sagebrush cover were needed to sustain growing populations when populations were larger. With standardized monitoring and annual estimates of vegetation from remote sensing, this scale selection approach can be applied to identify relevant scales for other populations, species, and biological responses such as demography and movement.

An urban cast of characters: Landscape use and cover influencing mammal occupancy in an American midwestern city

With future human population growth concentrating in urban areas, cities are working to counterbalance ecological disturbances resulting from development by incorporating green space that supports greater biodiversity. An initial line of inquiry into designing wildlife-inclusive green space involves evaluating landscapes that are associated with the habitat use of urban species. In this study, we utilized occupancy modeling to estimate select terrestrial mammal presence in a fast-growing mid-sized midwestern city to determine possible taxa-specific associations with multiple land use and cover variables, specifically those associated with higher degrees of human activity. Using motion-triggered infrared trail cameras over eight seasons from winter 2017 to fall 2018, we applied a single-species, single-season stacked design to estimate occupancy for eight urban dwelling mammals. Taxa-specific models contained one of three possible detection variables (null, percent green space, or percent impervious surface) and combinations of three species-specific variables, natural and anthropogenic. We hypothesized that large species, coyote (Canis latrans) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), would exhibit the most positive association to natural land cover and the most negative association to anthropogenic land cover. We also hypothesized that small and medium sized species, eastern cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus), gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), raccoon (Procyon lotor), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), would demonstrate a neutral association to land cover type, anthropogenic or natural. Our results indicated that the presence of anthropogenic features rather than any particular natural land cover may be driving wildlife distribution in our study area, as none of our species demonstrated a positive association to natural land cover (percent recreation, residential yards, vacant land, or woodland). Species with a wide range of body sizes, showed a negative association with residential yards, indicating that this type of green space may be an unnecessary or unsuitable subsidizing resource in our study area. With our results in mind, we recommend increasing the amount of natural or less manicured green space to offset the intensity of impervious surface as well as encouraging the establishment of native vegetation in existing and newly constructed residential development to better connect urban green space and residential yards to larger adjoining tracts of natural landscapes. For our study area and other cities in similar phases of development, these suggestions may be essential first steps to reduce biodiversity loss and strengthen community ecology as urban areas continue to grow.

Understanding the socio-economic and environmental impacts of Ghana's change in economic status on the upstream cocoa supply chain

PurposeChange in the economic status of a low-income country is accompanied by an expected increase in investment and economic activities along with land degradation and biodiversity loss. This study aims to explore Ghana's transition from a low-income to a lower-middle income economy, and the impact of the accompanying rise in extractive activities on the upstream cocoa supply chain (CSC) and its supporting ecosystem.Design/methodology/approachThe author conducted interviews and made critical observations on Ghana's upstream CSC. Grounded theory (GT) and system dynamics (SD) methodologies were employed to extract and analyze themes from the data gathered. Causal loop diagrams were derived from the analyzed data to provide insight into the possible long-term structural behavior of the upstream CSC due to the change in Ghana's economic status.FindingsThe findings suggest that continuous increase in land capture by open-cast mining and logging concessionaires, poor environmental law enforcement and farmer discontentment could cause a decline in cocoa production and biodiversity.Originality/valueThis research could stimulate the identification of a most effective alternative policy (such as agroecological farming) to improve the living standards of upstream CSC partners and reduce biodiversity loss. The models herein could serve as a learning/demonstration tool for researchers, academia and policymakers when brainstorming students, or during stakeholder (community/society) engagement/consultation sessions, to discuss policy decisions and their consequences. The model approach could also be helpful when designing strategic land-use policies. This could improve understanding of the complex interdependent relationships and the consequences of land degradation, loss of biodiversity and rural livelihood from a system thinking perspective.