Irisa Khan’s Post

🌿 Nature-based Solutions (NbS) like conservation is proving effective, enhancing biodiversity in two-thirds of global cases. 🌏 Restoring habitats and controlling invasive species are crucial actions for combating biodiversity loss and boosting ecosystem resilience. 🐥 💡 Find out more:

Protecting just 1.2% of Earth’s land could save most-threatened species, says study   Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species.   From Argentina to Papua New Guinea, the team of researchers identified 16,825 sites that should be prioritised for conservation in the next five years to prevent imminent extinctions of animals and plants found nowhere else. This study is focused on how imminent extinctions can be averted, not on everything that would be needed to restore nature on Earth. Scientists say that more than expanding protected areas is needed to prevent the destruction of biodiversity and maintain ecosystems crucial to human societies. In 2020, the researchers identified half of the Earth’s land surface that, if protected, would reverse biodiversity loss and enhance natural carbon removal. In 2022, governments pledged to protect 30% of the planet for nature as part of the UN biodiversity targets, among more than 20 aiming to halt the rampant loss of nature around the world by the end of this decade. According to the UN, 16.6% of the world’s land surface and inland waters are protected, and many governments are in the process of deciding where to expand conservation areas. However, the study found that governments were often failing to safeguard the biodiverse areas that were most urgently in need of protection. The authors estimated that just 7% of sites in new protected areas between 2018 and 2023 were home to the most threatened species. https://lnkd.in/geEgGuVF

Protecting 1.2% of Earth’s land would stop ‘sixth great extinction,’ scientists say. Using six levels of biodiversity data, the scientists mapped the entire planet to identify remaining habitats for rare and threatened species. They combined satellite images with maps of existing conservation areas to identify unprotected biodiversity hotspots, which they termed Conservation Imperatives. These hotspots serve as a global blueprint to guide regional and national conservation planning efforts. https://lnkd.in/gXaVvneP

"A study published April 25, in the journal Science provides the strongest evidence to date that not only is nature conservation successful, but that scaling conservation interventions up would be transformational for halting and reversing biodiversity loss—a crisis that can lead to ecosystem collapses and a planet less able to support life" #animals #flora #fauna #nature #biodiversity #biodiversityloss #biodiversitycrisis #conservation #environment #ecosystemhealth

A new study finds that nature conservation efforts are effective in improving biodiversity and slowing its decline. Conservation actions such as managing invasive species and implementing forest management plans have demonstrated positive outcomes in ecosystems worldwide. Despite the challenges, research provides evidence that investing in conservation yields tangible results, offering hope for the future of our planet's biodiversity. Success Stories Florida: Managing invasive predators boosted nesting success for turtles and terns. Congo Basin: Deforestation was 74% lower with forest management plans. Amazon: Protected areas had less deforestation and smaller fires. Idaho: Breeding and releasing Chinook salmon increased their population. #Conservation #Biodiversity #keeplearning 

Areas of future conservation value With Nigel Dudley I have just published a think piece in the fine journal "Oryx." We make the case that area-based conservation has most often focused on current, or past, biodiversity values with little attention to how these values could change. In a world where such change in increasingly common we propose a "future conservation area" descriptor that would supplement existing IUCN protected area management categories and governance types. Application would mainly be to areas that are currently neither protected areas nor other effective area-based conservation measures but have the potential to become important conservation areas in the medium term. You can find the article at:  https://lnkd.in/eGDBvJ27

First-of-its-kind study shows that conservation actions are effective at halting and reversing biodiversity loss https://lnkd.in/gJnPAeyM

First-of-its-kind study definitively shows that conservation actions are effective at halting and reversing biodiversity loss

Thank you Melissa Cristina Márquez for sharing. We need this. Catastrophic ecological doom is NOT a foregone conclusion. Our collective choices, investments, inactions, actions, ELECTIONS, and practices matter. Today, I am working on drafting a case study in county-wide policies and investments to reverse racially and socioeconomically inequitable green space distribution. I interviewed people - not celebrities grandstanding and pontificating, but people - making a tangible difference to improve storm water management and green space for communities that have long suffered neglect and disinvestment. If putting together this demonstrative story helps other municipalities do the same, we have made a difference. For people and for other species. Don't let anyone - including those writing catchy headlines who have no stake in your work - tell you what you do doesn't matter. Conservation matters. Urban planning matters. Resource use matters. The actions we take to bring us closer to balance with the natural world (of which we ARE a part) matter. #conservation #policy #programs #consulting #purpose #meaning

#GoodClimateNews Sharing this morning’s uplifting story thanks to Anthropocene Magazine, which spotlighted that the first (yes, the first) planet-wide analysis has proven that conservation efforts are paying off. The key takeaway here is that effort and investment in conserving biodiversity is not just a little better than not acting; it’s in fact, many times greater. This statement is steeped in deep research. A team looked at 186 different studies & compared 665 metrics related to biodiversity. 45% of the metrics had improved.  Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gi9r2xnG