A critical step to design wildlife mitigating measures is the identification of roadkill hotspots. However, the effectiveness of mitigations based on roadkill hotspots depends on whether spatial aggregations are recurrent over time, spatially restricted, and most importantly, shared by species with diverse ecological and functional characteristics. We used a functional group approach to map roadkill hotspots for mammalian species along the BR-101/North RJ, a major road crossing important remnants of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. We tested if functional groups present distinct hotspot patterns, and if they converge into the same road sectors, in that case, favoring optimal mitigating actions. Roadkill rates were monitored and recorded between October/2014 and September/2018 and species were classified into six functional groups based on their home range, body size, locomotion mode, diet, and forest-dependency. Hotspots along the roads were mapped for comparison of spatial patterns between functional groups. Results demonstrated that the roadkill index varied idiosyncratically for each functional group throughout the months and that no group presented seasonality. Seven hotspots were shared by two or more functional groups, highlighting the importance of these road stretches to regional mammal fauna. Two of the stretches are associated with aquatic areas extending from one side of the road to the other, and the remaining are connected to patches of native vegetation on both sides. This work brings a promising approach, yet hardly used in ecological studies on roads to analyze roadkill dynamics, assigning more importance to ecological instead of taxonomical characteristics, normally used to identify spatiotemporal patterns.

Hydropower plants represent one of the greatest threats for freshwater fish by fragmenting the habitat and avoiding the species dispersal. This type of dispersal barrier is often disregarded when predicting freshwater species distribution due to the complexity in inserting the species dispersal routes, and thus the barriers, into the models. Here, we evaluate the impact of including hydroelectric dams into species distribution models through asymmetrical dispersal predictors on the predicted geographic distribution of freshwater fish species. For this, we used asymmetrical dispersal (i.e., AEM) as predictors for modeling the distribution of 29 native fish species of Tocantins-Araguaia River basin. After that, we included the hydropower power plant (HPP) location into the asymmetrical binary matrix for the AEM construction by removing the connections where the HPP is located, representing the downstream disconnection a dam causes in the fish species dispersal route. Besides having higher predicted accuracy, the models using the HPP information generated more realistic predictions, avoiding overpredictions to areas suitable but limited to the species dispersal due to an anthropic barrier. Furthermore, the predictions including HPPs showed higher loss of species richness and nestedness (i.e., loss of species instead of replacement), especially for the southeastern area which concentrates most planned and built HPPs. Therefore, using dispersal constraints in species distribution models increases the reliability of the predictions by avoiding overpredictions based on premise of complete access by the species to any area that is climatically suitable regardless of dispersal barriers or capacity. In conclusion, in this study, we use a novel method of including dispersal constraints into distribution models through a priori insertion of their location within the asymmetrical dispersal predictors, avoiding a posteriori adjustment of the predicted distribution.

Active management such as prescribed fire and thinning can restore savanna and prairie ecosystem to maintain a full suite of ecosystem services and create suitable habitat for wildlife species such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Active management comes with the cost of management and acceptance of management tools. The south-central transitional ecoregion of the USA, which otherwise was a mixture of forest, savanna, and tallgrass prairie, is increasing in woody plant dominance due to the exclusion of fire and other anthropogenic factors. Deer hunting is a vital source of revenue generation to offset the landowner’s management cost in the region. We studied Oklahoma landowners’ perceptions regarding active and sustainable management of forest and rangeland for deer habitat using two established theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as well as expanded theories adding moral norms. We analyzed mailed survey data using structural equation modeling. We found that subjective norms and perceived behavior control significantly affected deer hunting intention when moral norms were introduced into the model. Attitudes independently significantly affected intentions of deer hunting but have negative relations with the intentions. The study suggested that landowners have positive social pressure and were interested in active management but associated financial burden and risk could be shaping negative attitudes.

This article defines the term valorization of biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) measures, as distinguished from their valuation, and underpins it with an assessment of private valorization examples along the agri-food value chain. Valorization incentivizes measures for promoting BES, while valuation refers to its quantification. Valuation can be a step of valorization but is not indispensable. In scientific literature, the terms valorization and valuation are often used interchangeably. In addition, there is a lack of research on private options versus conventional, public policy options. Therefore, we searched for private valorization options primarily in public sources (gray literature and websites). This led to the identification of four clusters (markets for voluntary services, labeling, and certification, environmental management/CSR, and tradable permits and quotas). Based on these clusters the options were assessed from a legal and systems dynamics perspective. In addition, the viability of selected valorization options in different future scenarios was examined. The analysis revealed a wide range of private valorization options, which in contrast to public policy options that focus almost entirely on the production stage, are spread across the agri-food value chain. Their suitability differs under different future scenarios, legal and systems conditions.

Many regions worldwide face soil loss rates that endanger future food supply. Constructing soil and water conservation measures reduces soil loss but comes with high labor costs. Multi-objective optimization allows considering both soil loss rates and labor costs, however, required spatial data contain uncertainties. Spatial data uncertainty has not been considered for allocating soil and water conservation measures. We propose a multi-objective genetic algorithm with stochastic objective functions considering uncertain soil and precipitation variables to overcome this gap. We conducted the study in three rural areas in Ethiopia. Uncertain precipitation and soil properties propagate to uncertain soil loss rates with values that range up to 14%. Uncertain soil properties complicate the classification into stable or unstable soil, which affects estimating labor requirements. The obtained labor requirement estimates range up to 15 labor days per hectare. Upon further analysis of common patterns in optimal solutions, we conclude that the results can help determine optimal final and intermediate construction stages and that the modeling and the consideration of spatial data uncertainty play a crucial role in identifying optimal solutions.

Global-scale ecological changes and intensifying habitat destruction and have caused alarming declines in wildlife populations, resulting in a great need for concerted efforts towards their conservation. Despite this, animals are frequently overlooked in restoration and management initiatives and therefore populations often do not reassemble following disturbance without re-establishing habitat that meets their abiotic and biotic requirements. However, restoration ecologists broadly lack insight into the physiological mechanisms that can govern the responses of fauna to environmental change and management. Therefore, we conducted a literature search for studies reporting a mechanistic understanding of faunal habitat suitability and selection in restored landscapes to deliver an updated perspective on the integration of animal ecophysiology and restoration ecology. Of the 75,442 studies that we identified discussing ecological restoration in the last 50 years, only 8,627 (11.4%) did so in the context of fauna from which 912 studies (1.2%) examined habitat selection, 35 studies (0.05%) integrated physiology and only 15 studies (0.02%) explored thermal biology, despite temperature being one of the most pervasive drivers of physiological functioning. To combat this, we developed a conceptual framework that can guide restoration ecophysiology and promote innovative, multidisciplinary research through an established adaptive management structure. While physiological tools and approaches are currently underutilised in restoration practice, integrating them into ecological restoration, and environmental management more broadly, will offer exciting new opportunities to describe, explain and predict the responses of fauna to environmental change occurring, and that yet to come.

Grazing by domestic livestock is the most widespread use of public lands in the American West (USA) and their effects on climate change and ways to mitigate those effects are of interest to land managers, policy makers, and the broader public. Kauffman et al. (2022a) provided a meta-analysis of the ecosystem impacts, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and social costs of carbon (SCC) associated with livestock grazing on public lands in the western USA. They determined that GHG emissions from cattle on public lands equaled 12.4 million t CO2e/year. At the scale of land use planning utilized by federal agencies, GHG emissions associated with allocated livestock numbers will typically exceed US Environmental Protection Agencies’ reporting limits (25,000 t) for certain industrial greenhouse gas emitters. As such, these are essentially unreported sources of GHG emissions from public lands. Using the US government’s most recent SCC estimate of $51/t, Kauffman et al. (2022a) determined the total SCC of cattle grazing on public lands to be approximately $264–630 million/year. However, recent advances in the determination of SCC reveal this is to be an underestimate. Using the latest science results in an estimated SCC of $1.1–2.4 billion/year for grazing on public lands. Furthermore, the SCC borne by the public exceeds the economic benefits to private livestock permittees by over $926 million/year. Cessation of public lands grazing is an environmentally and economically sound mitigation and adaptation approach to addressing the climate crisis; an approach that will also facilitate restoration of the myriad of ecosystem services provided by intact wildland ecosystems.

Nowadays the prediction and change of waste-related behaviors represent a key topic for scholars and policy makers. The theoretical mainstays applied to waste separation behavior, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Norm Activation Model and the Value Belief Norm, do not include the construct of goal in their formulation. Other goal-focused theories, such as the Goal Systems Theory (GST), lack applications on separation behavior. Recently, Ajzen and Kruglanski (2019) have proposed the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit (TRGP) which combines TPB and GST. Considering TRGP has the potential to offer further insights on human behavior and, to our knowledge, there is no application of TRGP to recycling behavior yet, this paper analyses waste separation behavior of households in Maastricht and Zwolle (The Netherlands) under the lens of TRGP. Although waste separation behavior represents a kind of habitual behavior, this paper highlights the influence of goals and motivation on intention to separate waste. Furthermore, it offers some indications to promote behavior change and some suggestions for future research directions.

Most experimental studies on common pool resource usage focus on situations in which actors are in symmetric positions when they use the resource. Many real-world cases do not fit this scenario because users are in asymmetric positions regarding their ability to benefit from the resource. Examples range from irrigation systems to climate change mitigation. Moreover, while there is large evidence on the effects of communication on social dilemmas, few studies focus on different modes of communication. We compare the effects of unstructured and structured communication on the provision of an infrastructure for a common pool resource and appropriation of the provided resource. Structured communication applied rules that are based on the ideals of democratic deliberation. Participants made contribution and appropriation decisions in an incentivized experiment. In the experiment, both communication and deliberation increased contributions in comparison to a baseline. Interestingly, deliberation attenuated the effect of the player position more than communication. Our results suggest that deliberation may be useful for overcoming asymmetric commons dilemmas in the field.

NbS have gained substantial attention in the academic literature recently as a potential approach for simultaneously tackling environmental issues and addressing societal challenges. Drylands, which are among the world’s most vulnerable areas to the impacts of climate change and cover a little less than the half of the global terrestrial surface, were the focus of this study. We conducted a systematic literature review to explore the potential opportunities for the application of NbS in rural drylands across the globe. We go on to specifically consider the possibility of applying selected NbS approaches in the Aral Sea region of Uzbekistan, as a case study of a dryland ecosystem illustrating major environmental and social challenges. We highlight which NbS show the most promise in the Aral Sea region and conclude with a discussion of existing gaps in the literature on NbS in drylands, and opportunities for further research.

A critical question is whether agroecology can promote climate change mitigation and adaptation outcomes without compromising food security. We assessed the outcomes of smallholder agricultural systems and practices in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) against 35 mitigation, adaptation, and yield indicators by reviewing 50 articles with 77 cases of agroecological treatments relative to a baseline of conventional practices. Crop yields were higher for 63% of cases reporting yields. Crop diversity, income diversity, net income, reduced income variability, nutrient regulation, and reduced pest infestation, indicators of adaptative capacity, were associated with 70% or more of cases. Limited information on climate change mitigation, such as greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration impacts, was available. Overall, the evidence indicates that use of organic nutrient sources, diversifying systems with legumes and integrated pest management lead to climate change adaptation in multiple contexts. Landscape mosaics, biological control (e.g., enhancement of beneficial organisms) and field sanitation measures do not yet have sufficient evidence based on this review. Widespread adoption of agroecological practices and system transformations shows promise to contribute to climate change services and food security in LMICs. Gaps in adaptation and mitigation strategies and areas for policy and research interventions are finally discussed.

Advancing environmental health literacy in support of environmental management requires inclusive science communication, especially with environmental justice communities. In order to understand experiences of environmental practitioners in the realm of science communication, the Center for Oceans and Human Health and Climate Change Interactions at the University of South Carolina conducted two studies on science communication and research translation with the center’s researchers and partners. This qualitative case study follows up with a select group of environmental practitioners on emergent themes from the initial work. It explores the specific topics of understanding, trust, and access and how those can become barriers or facilitators of public engagement with environmental activities and decision making. The authors conducted seven in-depth qualitative interviews with center partners whose work focuses on environmental water quality and impacts on human and environmental health. Key results indicate that the public may have limited understanding of scientific processes, establishing trust takes time, and access should be incorporated into the design of programs and activities to ensure broader reach. Findings from this research are relevant to other partner-engaged work and environmental management initiatives and provide insights on experiences, practices, and actions for equitable and effective stakeholder engagement and collaborative partnerships.

Water storage reservoirs alternately inundate and expose the drawdown zones, limiting riparian vegetation that provides wildlife habitats and contributes to the aquatic food-web. To characterize plant distributions and hydrogeomorphic associations, we inventoried quadrats in transects extending from the full-pool (FP) margin, downwards 12 m through the drawdown zones at sites around the Duncan Reservoir in British Columbia, Canada. Among the 69 plant species, black cottonwoods (Populus trichocarpa), willows (primarily Salix sitchensis) and other trees and shrubs occurred sparsely, rarely extending below 2 m below FP. Perennial herbaceous plants, especially horsetail (Equisetum arvense) and sedges (primarily Carex utriculata), were most common, extending down ~5 m below FP, and ruderal annual plants occurred sparsely at greater depths. Vegetation Cover and Species Richness were correlated with environmental factors, with (1) Elevation being highly influential, reflecting inundation duration and depth. (2) Position, longitudinal location, reflected greater vegetation diversity downstream of the reservoir. (3) Finer Substrate texture was favorable to retain moisture, but coarse sediments would resist erosion. (4) Shallow Slope was favorable to reduce drainage and included finer sediments. (5) Distance from the FP shoreline could reflect seed source proximity. Stepwise linear modeling with combined environmental factors accounted for ~30% of the variation in Vegetation Cover and Richness, and Canonical Correspondence Analysis revealed plant groupings relative to the environmental influences. At this and other storage reservoirs, regimes that reduce the frequency and duration of inundation could promote vegetation in locations with suitable environmental conditions in the upper drawdown zones, thus providing ecosystem enhancement.

Mitigation activities, whether at the personal level relating to lifestyle or on the professional level, especially in the agriculture sector, are widely encouraged by scientists and policymakers. This research empirically analyses the association between agricultural experts’ perceptions about climate change and their intention to implement climate change mitigation. Based on survey data, individuals’ reported intention to implement personal and professional mitigation behavior is explained using a conceptual model. The structural equation modeling results suggest that the new ecological paradigm (NEP), institutional trust, and risk salience indirectly influence climate change mitigation intentions. The findings indicate that risk perception, personal efficacy, responsibility, belief in climate change occurring, and low psychological distance trigger a significantly greater intention to support personal and professional mitigation behaviors. However, the research framework is much stronger at predicting the intention to mitigate climate change in professional affairs compared to personal activities. The findings suggest that hypothetical distance factors only have a moderating effect on the relationship between higher climate change environmental values, institutional trust, risk salience, and mitigation intention. This paper analytically explores the regulating role of risk perception, hypothetical distance, personal efficacy, and responsibility between institutional trust, risk salience, and the NEP as independent concepts and intention to personal and professional mitigation behaviors as dependent variables. The findings of the study have important implications for encouraging personal and professional mitigation behaviors.

Soil carbon sequestration programmes are a way of offsetting GHG emissions, however, it requires agricultural landholders to be engaged in such initiatives for carbon offsets to occur. Farmer engagement is low in market-based programmes for soil carbon credits in Australia. We interviewed long-term practitioners (n = 25) of rotational grazing in high-rainfall lands of New South Wales, Australia to understand their current social-ecological system (SES) of soil carbon management (SCM). The aim was to identify those components of the SES that motivate them to manage soil carbon and also influence their potential engagement in soil carbon sequestration programmes. Utilising first-tier and second-tier concepts from Ostrom’s SES framework, the interview data were coded and identified a total of 51 features that characterised the farmers’ SES of SCM. Network analysis of farmer interview data revealed that the current SES of SCM has low connectivity among the SES features (30%). In four workshops with interviewed farmers (n = 2) and invited service providers (n = 2) the 51 features were reviewed and participants decided on the positioning and the interactions between features that were considered to influence SCM into a causal loop diagram. Post-workshop, 10 feedback loops were identified that revealed the different and common perspectives of farmers and service providers on SCM in a consolidated causal loop diagram. Defining the SES relationships for SCM can identify the challenges and needs of stakeholders, particularly farmers, which can then be addressed to achieve local, national and international objectives, such as SCM co-benefits, GHG reduction, carbon sequestration targets and SDGs.

Natural resource management (NRM) increasingly relies on communicative measures to enable reframing in intractable conflicts. Reframing occurs when disputants change their perceptions of a conflict situation, and/or their preferences for dealing with it. However, the types of reframing possible, and the conditions under which they can occur, remain unclear. Through an inductive and longitudinal analysis of a mine establishment conflict in northern Sweden this paper explores to what extent, how, and under what conditions reframing can occur in intractable NRM conflicts. The findings reveal the difficulty in achieving consensus-oriented reframing. Despite multiple dispute resolution efforts, the disputants’ perceptions and preferences became increasingly polarized. Nonetheless, the results suggest that it is possible to enable reframing to the extent that all disputants can understand and accept each other’s different perceptions and positions, i.e., meta-consensus. Meta-consensus hinges on neutral, inclusive, equal, and deliberative intergroup communication. However, the results show that intergroup communication and reframing are significantly informed by institutional and other contextual factors. For example, when implemented within the formal governance system in the investigated case, intergroup communication lagged in quality and did not contribute to meta-consensus. Moreover, the results show that reframing is strongly influenced by the nature of the disputed issues, actors’ group commitments, and the governance system’s distribution of power to the actors. Based on these findings, it is argued that more efforts should focus on how governance systems can be configurated so that high-quality intergroup communication and meta-consensus can be enabled and inform decision making in intractable NRM conflicts.

Although 30 years have passed since the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted in 1992, few attempts have been made to evaluate its impact on protected areas. This study investigates the relationship between participation in the CBD and conservation effort in member countries, using an original dataset of 169 countries from 1992 to 2015. Our measure of conservation effort is the percentage of a country’s terrestrial area under protection, which is the primary mechanism for achieving the CBD’s conservation as distinct from its sustainable use or access and benefit-sharing objectives. We consider how protected area expansion relates to membership of the CBD, and a set of socio-economic and political variables that measure both the opportunity cost of conservation and national responsiveness to the demand for public goods. We find a positive and significant relationship between the area under protection, membership of the CBD, and a dummy for the Aichi biodiversity targets-Nagoya protocol. We also find that the area under protection is negatively related to measures of economic development and education (proxies for the opportunity cost of conservation), and positively associated with forest area (a proxy for species richness and endemism). We conclude that, at least for this measure of conservation effort, the CBD has had a significant impact, albeit moderated in predictable ways by the opportunity cost of conservation.

Multistakeholder platforms (MSPs) are increasingly applied in environmental governance as institutions to collectively negotiate challenges, opportunities, and policy options in contested landscapes. However, their contributions and effectiveness depend on how stakeholders perceive and frame the role of MSPs in addressing social and environmental challenges. Despite this dependence, stakeholder perceptions of MSPs are currently under-researched. Hence this empirical study carried out in Zambia’s Kalomo District asks: how do stakeholder groups perceive the role of MSPs in addressing landscape challenges, given the context of the dual land tenure system, and what does this imply for the implementation of integrated landscape approaches? This study uses Q-methodology to analyze the perceptions of purposefully selected stakeholders from state institutions, civil society organizations, land users, and others familiar with existing MSPs at the district and village levels. The findings reveal three narratives. The first one presents MSPs as institutions that foster dialogue. The second narrative foregrounds the role of the government and private sector, despite acknowledging the diversity of stakeholders in MSPs. In this narrative, MSPs should focus on supporting market-driven solutions to resolve landscape challenges. The third narrative recognizes power imbalances and considers MSPs as institutions to identify policy gaps and needs. The first two narratives are positioned in Dryzek’s discourse classification as environmental problem-solving, while the third inclines toward green radicalism. Despite this divergence, there was consensus that MSPs have the potential to harmonize policies in a dual governance system and encourage dialogue between stakeholders to reconcile landscape challenges.

The impact of rainwater harvesting systems on biodiversity in hyperarid North African areas has not been assessed to date despite its demonstrated usefulness. The present study investigated this impact by considering the richness of wintering birds (RWB) in the Tataouine region (pre-Saharan Tunisia). We used data from three sets of variables—rainwater harvesting system type, microhabitat conditions, and topography—to determine the best predictors causing variation in the RWB by means of generalized linear mixed models. Our results show that the jessour system is the most attractive for the wintering bird species, followed by the tabia system, and lastly by the control areas. In the jessour system, RWB is influenced positively by slope and shrub cover and quadratically by tree cover, whereas this richness is affected positively by the extent of the herbaceous layer in the tabia system. In the control areas, RWB is negatively affected by elevation and quadratically affected by tree cover. Variation partitioning (VP) analysis reveals that (i) space is the most robust factor explaining the RWB in control areas (adj. R2 = 0.15, p = 0.001), (ii) microhabitat is central in the tabia system (adj. R2 = 0.10, p = 0.001), and (iii) the shared fraction between microhabitat and space is relevant in the jessour systems (adj. R2 = 0.20). Specific management actions, especially preserving, maintaining, and promoting these traditional systems, are suggested to improve the attraction of wintering bird species to the Tataouine region. The implementation of a scientific watch system is recommended to understand how changes take place in such an arid environment.

Although ambitious, forest landscape restoration (FLR) is still very high on global climate change mitigation and adaptation research and policy agendas. The scientific literature highlights the importance of institutions and actors’ collaboration for achieving the intended outcomes. Despite these diffuse indications, a comprehensive understanding of the role played by different types of actors and institutions in shaping FLR outcomes is missing. This hinders the definition of an actor-cum-institutions research agenda for FLR, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet, in this region, different actors with diverse interests shape FLR practices. Likewise, formal and informal institutions are known to collide frequently. Hence, this paper addresses the lacunae by systematically reviewing FLR actors’ interests and power manifestations and the typologies of institutions linked to FLR outcomes in SSA. The review further defines future research agendas on actors and institutions in SSA. The following lessons can be drawn from the review of 75 peer-reviewed journal articles: First, while exogenous actors are interested more in the ecological benefits of FLR, endogenous actors are interested in economic ones. Second, exogenous actors mostly use (dis-)incentives and coercion to shape the behavior of endogenous actors in FLR. Finally, while the exogenous formal institutional typology produces positive and negative ecological, economic, political, and sociocultural FLR outcomes, the endogenous formal and informal institutions produce only positive outcomes. Future studies should identify actors’ compliance levels of the exogenous and endogenous formal and informal typologies of institutions. Future studies should also analyze the effectiveness of FLR-linked institutions towards ensuring successful FLR.