Integrative Conservation

Session outline:

The snow leopard range includes 12 countries. The vast Tibetan Plateau and high mountains in western China shelter about 60% of the global snow leopard population and habitat. Hear from Lu Zhi in this recording, as she shares her experiences and learnings from 16 years of snow leopard research and conservation practice in China.

Speaker bio:

Professor Li Zhu
Professor, School of Life Sciences & Institute of Ecology, Peking University
Executive Director, Center for Nature and Society, Peking University
Advisory Board member of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)
Founder, Shan Shui Conservation Center

Lu Zhi's work is multi-disciplinary, and deals with complex sustainability issues for the Chinese society. Her field projects include the ecosystem services of forests and grasslands, community-based conservation, practical solutions to the coexistence of wildlife and humans, and the natural history and conservation strategies of endangered species such as the giant panda and the snow leopard. In recent years, her focus has been on the interaction of natural ecosystems with human socio-economic-cultural systems and local community-based conservation, as well as mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in urban and farmland systems.

Botanic gardens play a crucial role in plant conservation, taxonomic research, horticultural studies, public education, and the appreciation of natural history. They can significantly contribute to addressing these issues.

Tropical botanic gardens face unique challenges compared to the temperate gardens. They must manage a greater diversity of species, mobilize resources and funding effectively, and create impactful public awareness initiatives. In Southeast Asia, these efforts are particularly challenging due to the diverse range of cultures, languages, and practices across different countries, making it essential to tailor approaches that resonate with each unique community.

Insufficient support in terms of funding, skilled personnel, and infrastructure development presents significant barriers to establishing effective botanic gardens in less developed or developing countries within Southeast Asia. Political instability, corruption, and weak enforcement of conservation policies further exacerbate biodiversity loss.

To overcome these challenges, it is essential to foster stronger collaborative initiatives among regional and global botanical institutions, NGOs, universities, botanical networks, and relevant private sectors. Immediate action is required to harness these partnerships and drive meaningful change.

Speaker bio:

Dr Nura Abdul Karim
Deputy Director of Library, Training, and External Relations, Singapore Botanic Gardens

Dr Nura Abdul Karim holds a PhD in Science (Horticulture) from the University of Western Australia and has over 25 years of experience at the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG), where she has held various roles, including Research Officer in the Singapore Herbarium, Plant Records Manager, and Deputy Director of SBG Living Collections. Currently, as Deputy Director of Library, Training, and External Relations, she is directing initiatives to modernize the library facilities through an integrated management system and a digitalization project for archived materials. She enhances awareness of the Gardens' collections by collaborating with the National Library Board (Singapore) and the Biodiversity Heritage Library (USA). Additionally, she manages international collaborations and trains staff and volunteers as docents. Dr. Nura is also a key member of the Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens (SEABG) Network and is one of the SBG representatives on the International Advisory Council of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). She has collaborated with BGCI to develop several training workshops and courses co-organized for the Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens (SEABG) Network.

Topic 1: The place of megafauna within the frugivore community

Terrestrial megafauna are often considered to fulfil important roles as seed dispersers in tropical forests. However, megafauna are far less frugivorous than many of the other fruit-eating animals sharing the same habitats, raising questions over the extent to which forest plants might rely on them for dispersal. In this session, Dr McConkey will compare three parameters related to effective seed dispersal (seed size, dispersal distance, degree of frugivory) between megafauna and other fruit-eating mammals to more accurately identify which parameters might be uniquely fulfilled by megafauna. Using community-wide data from four ecosystems across tropical SE Asia, she will further evaluate the comparative community-level role of megafauna, to identify their “place” or importance among other fruit-eating mammals within the same communities.

Topic 2: Primates, pesticides and palm oil: an integrative One Health approach to foster wildlife-friendly plantation management in Malaysia

The cultivation of oil palm is widely implicated in the decline of Malaysian wildlife populations. Endangered pig-tailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina) frequently enter plantations surrounding their remaining forest habitat where they forage for diverse food. Despite perception as crop pest, our research suggests that macaques actually function as a biological pest control by actively hunting plantation rats. However, the use of plantations poses significant risks to these primates. We observed impacts on the health of our study population, such as congenital morphological deformities, vaginal tumours, and cases of infertility, and an exceptionally high mean infant mortality rate of nearly 60% over 10 years. The reasons for this high mortality are likely manifold, but we hypothesize that the frequent exposure to agricultural chemicals used in the plantations may play a significant role. Indeed, our pilot data indicate chemical effects, as evidenced by changes in the chemical profiles of macaques following herbicide exposure. Besides pesticides directly applied to plantations, the high consumption of plantation rats may pose health impacts through parasites and other zoonotic pathogens. In these shared spaces, human-primate interactions pose significant risks to for both actors through the potential transmission of zoonotic diseases. Our pilot data on the macaques’ gut microbiome revealed a greater diversity and richness of potentially pathogenic bacteria in macaque groups that more frequently interact with humans. The ‘One Health’ concept addresses this complex interplay between humans, animals, and the environment, recognizing that the health of these three pillars is inextricably linked. Building on this concept, Dr Ruppert will present the ongoing research of her lab and outline a potential way forward to develop an integrative strategy that mitigates the impact of anthropogenic activities on the health of wildlife, humans, and the environment, exemplified by the shared oil palm landscape in Malaysia.

Speaker bios:

Dr. Kim McConkey
The National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

Kim is broadly interested in mammal communities and the ecological roles they perform across tropical Asia and the Pacific. She has conducted research in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, and Tonga, focusing mostly on seed dispersal roles performed from a variety of mammal taxa. Kim holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has been researching largely as an independent researcher over the last two decades; she is currently affiliated with BIOTEC in Thailand.

Dr. Nadine Ruppert
Primate Research and Conservation Lab, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Dr Ruppert is the current vice-president of the Malaysian Primatological Society and a Senior Lecturer in Zoology at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). She holds a BSc and MSc in Tropical Biology & Animal Ecology from University Würzburg, Germany and a PhD in Mammalogy from USM, leading the Macaca Nemestrina Project and supervising other primate projects in USM. She is exploring the role of primates in anthropogenically shaped landscapes and ways to conserve them. She am also a member of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group – Asia and Section for Small Apes.

Extreme climatic events (ECEs) can result in severe negative effects on animal species. As ECEs are increasing in frequency and intensity, and anthropogenic pressures continue to escalate, it is imperative to identify the most vulnerable.

In this session, Professor Eric Ameca will:

• Provide an overview of the effects that ECEs can have on species, and how those with low adaptive capacity and high sensitivity may experience population loss and increased risk of extinction.
• Present the findings of global assessments on species vulnerability to ECEs and an assessment of risk of exposure to high magnitude impacts from climate and human pressures.
• Provide clarity on the potential of different species within an area to cope with ECEs through vulnerability assessments, which can inform the development of effective conservation and management strategies.

Speaker bio:

Eric Ameca
Professor, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University

Eric is a Principal Investigator at Key Lab for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering at Beijing Normal University. His research focuses on understanding emergent threats to biodiversity from climate change and anthropogenic pressures. His contributions have helped establish a blueprint for assessing the consequences of extreme climatic events on primate species, identifying the most vulnerable to these phenomena, and applying this knowledge to better inform Red List assessments of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Eric has a joint PhD from Imperial College London and the Institute of Zoology, the Zoological Society of London. He is Steering Committee Member of the IUCN Climate Change Specialist Group (Impacts theme co-lead) as well as member of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group (Madagascar Section) and China Species Specialist Group.

The challenges of implementing conservation science into policy remains a hinderance to the maximizing the impact of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). In this discussion, Dr. Rodrigo Medellín will share case studies of research projects that have become official federal government programs in Mexico and discuss the role of conservation professionals in bridging the gap between academia and policymakers, liaising with the governmental, civil society and private sectors to create lasting impact.

Jaguars:
Recently, Mexico became the first range-state of jaguars to develop a clear estimate of how many of them inhabit the country. ‘The National Jaguar Conservation Strategy’ is now in place and is already being replicated and adopted in other range states in Latin America.

Bighorn Sheep:
The Mexican population is listed under Appendix-II, and its sustainable harvest has become the heart and soul of a strong conservation and development program for the Seri indigenous group. This case serves as inspiration for initiatives that seek to prove that Appendix II can improve the livelihoods of local communities and serve as a driver for profitable sustainable trade and successful conservation.

Bats:
Bats represent around one-fourth of Mexico’s mammals, and they include critically endangered species. The lesser long-nosed bat has been a focal species for Dr Medellín’s research, and after 30 years of work it was recently delisted from Mexico’s Endangered Species List, as a result of the implementation of out-of-the-box mainstreaming conservation policies. This stunning recovery required lots of research, education, and specific conservation actions, and its success now allows tequila lovers to rejoice with a bat-friendly drink!

Speaker bio:

Dr. Rodrigo Medellín is Senior Professor at the Institute of Ecology, UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), and he focuses on conservation of mammals with emphasis on applied and policy-driven science. His work has led to creating new protected areas and recovering endangered species among others. He is an established leader in the field of conservation and was President of the Society for Conservation Biology (2013-2015) and CoChair of the CITES Animals Committee (2002-2012). He has been advisor to Mexico´s federal government on wildlife issues since 2000 and is Co-Chair of the IUCN Bat Specialist Group, Scientific Councilor of the Convention on Migratory Species, Founding Director of the Latin American Network for Bat Conservation, and creator of Global South Bats, a network of bat scientists in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Global cooperation on biodiversity conservation remains weak, financial mechanisms are inadequate and cooperation on global supply chains is poor and under-enforced.

Join Jeffrey Sachs as he discusses possible new approaches to global cooperation for biodiversity conservation in several contexts, including the tropical rainforests, major rivers, agricultural supply chains, and ocean fisheries.

Speaker: Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University

Professor Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development. He is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including debt crises, hyperinflations, the transition from central planning to market economies, the control of AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, the escape from extreme poverty, and the battle against human-induced climate change.

Deforestation and forest restoration are important processes of land-use change involving forest ecosystems, and have major implications for the fate of global biodiversity. To manage the negative impacts of deforestation and reap the benefits promised by forest restoration, it is key to understand how biodiversity responds to these processes and the factors underlying potential variations in such responses. It is also key to understand the barriers and opportunities in guiding these processes toward lessened impacts and improved benefits for biodiversity, critically by addressing the drivers of land-use change. In this talk, I will present some of our work on these two issues, including insights gained from global syntheses on the varied biodiversity impacts of agricultural deforestation, and from fieldwork on the biodiversity outcomes of forest restoration programs that are driven by timber production or other ecosystem service goals.

Speaker: Fangyuan Hua, Assistant Professor, Peking University

Fangyuan Hua is a conservation ecologist at Peking University in China. Her research aims to aid the conservation and restoration of forest biodiversity, particularly under the land-use demands of agricultural and forestry production. Research in her lab focuses on two broad themes: (1) understanding how the ecology of wild species and their assemblages responds to human alterations of forest ecosystems; (2) identifying practical options for conservation interventions, particularly by assessing the synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity and other important demands on land – including agricultural and timber production as well as other ecosystem services such as carbon storage.

The issue of language barriers has long been recognised in scientific communities. Historically, this issue has been perceived as the “English” barrier faced primarily by non-native English speakers, resulting in the lack of a concerted effort to solve the problem from within scientific communities. However, recent advances in research on language barriers in science have revealed that this is a multi-faceted problem that can severely hinder the advance of science and its contribution to addressing global challenges including the biodiversity crisis.

In this presentation, Tatsuyo Amano will discuss how language barriers can impede evidence-based conservation of global biodiversity in three major ways: barriers to (1) the global synthesis of scientific evidence scattered across different languages, (2) the application of English-language evidence to local decision making in countries where English is not widely spoken, and (3) the generation of scientific evidence by non-native English speakers.

Speaker: Tatsuya Amano, UQ Amplify Senior Lecturer, School of the Environment, Deputy Director - Research, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, Australia

Tatsuya is working on understanding changes in global biodiversity and providing scientific evidence for its conservation. Through his work and his background as a conservation scientist originally from Japan, he has become increasingly interested in, and is committed to, unveiling the importance and consequences of language barriers in conservation and more broadly in science.

Pairwise plant-frugivore interactions build up into mega-diverse networks involving dozens and even hundreds of interacting species. Because seed dispersal is serviced by multiple species, studies focusing only on pairwise interactions will underestimate levels of biodiversity required to maintain multifunctional networks.

The loss of biodiversity in these assemblages entails losses of key functional services, and some of these losses may remain cryptic, i.e., their consequences are undetected well after the loss.

Join us as we explore several recent study cases documenting the extinction of seed dispersal interactions, and the loss of associated services that may occur well before the partner species become extinct.

Gain insight into:

• Last-generation sequencing (DNA barcoding) to identify species-specific contributions to the seed shadows and estimate demographic and genetic influences derived from interactions.

• Why most seed dispersal mutualisms show a high functional complementarity among frugivore species in terms of seed deposition at different habitats, perches and distance sectors, cross-habitat seed fluxes, dispersal distances and canopy-cover dependency.

• How the full functionality of the seed dispersal mutualism relies in this complementarity across a high diversity of partners, and how disruptions of these mutualisms driven by anthropogenic factors may remain subtle and undetected despite being pervasive for ecosystem functioning.

What does becoming ‘Nature Positive’ mean, and how can it realistically be achieved?

Tuesday 9 January 2024
London 08:30-10:00 / Berlin 09:30-11:00 / New Delhi 14:00-15:30 / Beijing 16:30-18:00

The term ‘nature positive’ is becoming ubiquitous in the discourse around how best to achieve the systemic transformations that are needed to restore nature. But such terms can become so generic that they lead to greenwashing, and soon fall out of favor with both conservationists and wider society.

Join Professor Dame E.J. Milner-Gulland as she proposes a way forward that can support systemic transformation, defining ‘nature positivity’ with a focus on setting SMART outcome targets, quantitative baselines, and robust, transparent monitoring of progress, and highlighting where rapid progress is needed to support this operationalization, so that the term ‘nature positive’ moves from aspiration to delivery.

Webinar takeaways:

• ‘Nature positive’ is a widely used term, but poorly defined, often with little real-world impact
• Setting SMART outcome targets, quantitative baselines, and robust monitoring of progress can help organizations and governments to work towards genuine ‘nature positivity’

Speaker: Professor Dame E.J. Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford, UK

Professor Milner-Gulland is Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford; a group of around 40 researchers covering a range of research areas within the broad area of understanding, predicting and mitigating biodiversity impacts, and monitoring and evaluating conservation interventions for their social and biodiversity outcomes. This includes large programs on food systems, Nature Positive transitions, the wildlife trade, and social justice and equity. She is the Chair of the UK Government's Darwin Expert Committee and sits on numerous international and national-level expert groups. She has two Honorary Doctorates, has won four awards for her research, and was made a Dame of the British Empire for services to international conservation in the 2023 King's Birthday Honors.

Lessons from 25 years of studying human-elephant conflict and coexistence in Eastern and Southern Africa

Tuesday 5 December 2023
London 08:30-10:00 / Berlin 09:30-11:00 / New Delhi 14:00-15:30/ Beijing 16:30-18:00
Zoom ID: 312 430 8960, Passcode: 666666

Discussion summary

Historically, industrialization, capitalism, and affluence have contributed to the emissions that are warming the planet’s atmosphere. As humanity starts to grapple with the Herculean challenge of decarbonisation, should economic growth be abandoned to stand a chance of success? Would this lead to a better society, especially in already rich nations, freeing them from pointless consumerism? Growth for Good takes these legitimate concerns as a starting point to draw the reader on a journey into the socioeconomic, evolutionary, historical and cultural origins of the growth imperative. Growth is underpinned by the human quest for self-determination, contributes to peaceful conduct of politics and international relations, and the very way our society is organized: capitalism. Ditching it would not only prove impractical, but would exacerbate conflict within and between societies. Growth for Good draws a credible agenda to enrol capitalism in the fight to stave off climate catastrophe, detailing a plan involving an activist government, proactive business, and engaged citizens.

Speaker

Richard Hoare
Independent consultant. Member of IUCN’s African elephant and IUCN’s Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Specialist Groups, Zimbabwe

Dr Richard Hoare is a wildlife veterinarian with a PhD in interactions between humans and African elephants. He formed and led the first working group on human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group and over 20 years has overseen many of its outputs to assist wildlife managers with HEC and to help African elephant range states to develop national management plans to conserve the species effectively. He has published numerous scientific papers on the behaviour and management of 'problem elephants' and continues to encourage wide collaboration with experts in other taxa who work with all forms of HWC.

He has worked in varied conservation positions in many African countries, including almost a decade in the Serengeti, Tanzania and is a member of four IUCN specialist groups. He is based in Zimbabwe where he is active in the fields of elephant research, human wildlife conflict with elephants and carnivores, and wildlife capture and veterinary training. His present geographic focus is the Zimbabwe component of the massive Kavango Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA –TFCA) region, spanning five southern African countries.

Discussion summary

Habitat loss and unsustainable exploitation are two of the primary threats to wildlife – alleviating their impacts requires coordinating local actions with global strategies. Here I describe how hunting affects species and ecosystems in Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystems, tropical forests, and how emerging techniques can help ensure harvest sustainability. I also address challenges to recent global efforts to increase protected area coverage and landscape connectivity and discuss how these strategies, if used well, can both mitigate habitat loss and enhance climate resilience.

Speaker

Jedediah Brodie
Craighead Chair of Conservation, University of Montana
Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Jedediah Brodie is a conservation ecologist who studies mammals, plants, and their interactions through field work around the world but with a particular focus on tropical Asia, where he as worked for the last 25 years. Jedediah was a Fulbright Research Scholar, a David Smith Conservation Fellow, and is an elected councilor for the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation. His work focuses on landscape connectivity for large mammals, bushmeat hunting, and climate change resilience. Jedediah works closely with governments, NGOs, local communities, and many other partners to plan, designate, and support wildlife corridors and conservation areas in Borneo and mainland Asia.

Vanishing point: What are the prospects for conservation of freshwater biodiversity in tropical East Asia?

Tuesday 10 October 2023
London 09:30-11:00 / Berlin 10:30-12:00 / New Delhi 14:00-15:30/ Beijing 16:30-18:00

Discussion summary

Freshwater ecosystems are global hotpots of biodiversity: they cover <1% of the Earth’s surface, yet host almost 10% of animal species, including one third of vertebrates. They also experience multiple, sustained and pervasive human impacts that range from pollution and contamination by a host of substances, the destructive effects of river-bed sand mining, and increased drought intensity caused by global warming. Unsurprisingly, then, fresh waters are hotspots of endangerment. Their biota has undergone a ‘great thinning’ in abundance, a ‘great shrinking’ in body size, and a ‘great mixing’ or homogenization of species that were formerly isolated. In densely-populated tropical East Asia, widespread challenges to human water security have been accompanied by impoverishment of freshwater animals. Ongoing environmental transformation is rapid: water-engineering schemes intended to boost economic development and decarbonize industrial development - as along the Yangtze and Mekong - will degrade riverine habitats, further imperiling biodiversity. While such projects deliver undeniable benefits for some human stakeholders, they put livelihoods at risk in places where people are heavily dependent on provision of services from rivers. Apparently, then, the benefits accruing from intact and biodiverse freshwater ecosystems do not constitute sufficient basis to ensure their preservation. Under these circumstances, what are the prospects for conservation of freshwater biodiversity in tropical East Asia?

Speaker

David Dudgeon
Emeritus Professor of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong, China

David Dudgeon is Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong where he has spent four decades researching and writing about the streams and rivers of monsoonal East Asia, and the animals that live in and around them. His work ranges over a variety of topics from the ecology of macroinvertebrates and small fishes, through manipulative field experiments that examine predation, competition and grazing in streams, to studies of food webs and the impacts of climate change, as well as broader-scale analyses concerning the conservation of freshwater biodiversity. Dudgeon’s books include Tropical Asian Streams (1999), The Ecology and Biodiversity of Hong Kong (2005), and an edited collection, Tropical Stream Ecology (2008). More recently, he wrote Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation, published by Cambridge University Press in 2020, and Threatened Freshwater Animals of Tropical East Asia (Routledge) that appeared in 2023. Dudgeon has served on the editorial boards of several international journals, and was formerly Editor-in Chief of Freshwater Biology. He is a Trustee and Executive Council member of the World Wildlife Fund (Hong Kong).

Growth for Good: Reconciling prosperity and planet

Tuesday 5 September 2023
London 09:30-11:00 / Berlin 10:30-12:00 / New Delhi 14:00-15:30/ Beijing 16:30-18:00

Discussion summary

Historically, industrialization, capitalism, and affluence have contributed to the emissions that are warming the planet’s atmosphere. As humanity starts to grapple with the Herculean challenge of decarbonisation, should economic growth be abandoned to stand a chance of success? Would this lead to a better society, especially in already rich nations, freeing them from pointless consumerism? Growth for Good takes these legitimate concerns as a starting point to draw the reader on a journey into the socioeconomic, evolutionary, historical and cultural origins of the growth imperative. Growth is underpinned by the human quest for self-determination, contributes to peaceful conduct of politics and international relations, and the very way our society is organized: capitalism. Ditching it would not only prove impractical, but would exacerbate conflict within and between societies. Growth for Good draws a credible agenda to enrol capitalism in the fight to stave off climate catastrophe, detailing a plan involving an activist government, proactive business, and engaged citizens.

Speaker

Alessio Terzi
Economist at the European Commission
Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po and HEC Paris

Alessio Terzi is an economist at the European Commission and an Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po and HEC Paris. He is also the author of Growth for Good: Reshaping Capitalism to Save Humanity from Climate Catastrophe (Harvard University Press, 2022). His area of expertise centres on sustainable growth, and he was involved in the development of the European Green Deal. His work has been featured in several high-profile media outlets, including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Alessio holds a PhD from the Hertie School in Berlin and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Food security and biodiversity conservation. Trade-offs or synergies?

Monday 4 September 2023
London 08:00-09:30 / Berlin 09:00-10:30 / New Delhi 12:30-14:00/ Beijing 15:00-16:30

Discussion summary

Negotiated under the presidency of China, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework pledges to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss by protecting 30% of land and of oceans by 2030. While China is committed to biodiversity conservation, it is equally concerned about maintaining high levels of domestic food production. In this event, we will discuss the relationship between food production and biodiversity conservation. While these two challenges are typically believed to involve a trade-off, agriculture, if managed well, can also make an important contribution to biodiversity. Sustainable farming practices and nature-based solutions as well as the protection of old crop varieties and the expansion of agro-forestry systems are some of the areas where we are seeing synergies between food security and biodiversity. Under the auspices of the Sino-German Agricultural Centre (DCZ), this DCZT TALKS webinar will bring together experts from China and Germany to discuss the relationships between biodiversity, land use patterns, and agricultural functions.

Panelists

	Teja Tscharntke University of Göttingen, Germany Teja Tscharntke has been Professor of Agroecology at the University of Göttingen since 1993. He made his Master in both sociology and biology in Marburg and Gießen, did his doctorate in Hamburg and habilitated in Karlsruhe. His research focuses on landscape perspectives on biodiversity patterns and associated ecosystem services of temperate and tropical regions, especially biological pest control, pollination and quantitative food webs. He has a strong interest in multidisciplinary studies integrating socio-economic and ecological analyses. He is "Highly Cited Researcher" on the Web of Science (since 2015) with an h-index of 158 (google scholar, 24.8.23) and has been honored (2020) by the Royal Entomological Society (Award for Insect Conservation), the British Ecological Society (Marsh Award for Ecology) and the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Honorary Medal 2021).
	Martin Welp Professor of Socioeconomics & Communication at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development, Germany Martin Welp holds a Research Professorship for Social-ecological Transformations with Focus on Asia. He is head of the International Master Study Programme Global Change Management (M.Sc.) and member of the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management. Prior to his current position, he was a senior researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). His area of expertise is global environmental change with a particular focus on socio-economic dimensions and human well-being. His current research projects explore transformation and change management in the context of social-ecological systems - particularly related to agriculture, agro-forestry, water and rural development.
	Qin Tianbao Wuhan University, China Qin Tianbao serves as a Professor at China Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies, Wuhan University; Director of the Research Institute of Environmental Law (RIEL); Director of the Research Center of the Supreme Court of China on Environmental Adjunction Theory; Member and Vice Chair of the Compliance Committee of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS; Member of Committee on Conflicts of Interest of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). He was Vice Dean for the School of Law and was Deputy Chief Judge of the Environmental Chamber of the Supreme Court of China. He finished his Doktorarbeit (doctoral dissertation) at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Frankfurt in Germany and obtained his Dr. iur degree from Wuhan University. Currently, he is concentrating his research on law and policy concerning biodiversity and biotechnology, water and ocean, climate change and energy, environment and health, and transboundary environmental issues.
	Wang Ze'en Foodthink, China Wang Ze'en is the editor and researcher of Foodthink, a grassroot NGO and China’s leading voice on sustainable food and agriculture. Her area of expertise centers on traditional pastoralism and farmland biodiversity. She has been co-leading Agrobiodiversity Conservation Action Plan under UN Decade Challenge together with Shan Shui Conservation Center since 2022. Ze’en held a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Chinese University of Hong Kong and served as a Yale-China Teaching Fellow in 2019-2020.

Moderator

Harald Schneider Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China Prof Harald Schneider’s current research interest is focused on genomic mechanisms shaping the evolutionary history of land plant diversity since the colonisation of land and their survival in the Anthropocene. He promotes integrative research approaches with the aim of incorporating state-of-the-art research, together with the knowledge accumulated during centuries of botanical exploration of the world. During his research career, he contributed to many important publications reporting results that are now part of every textbook on plant taxonomy and diversity. Originally trained as a botanist in Germany and Switzerland—including obtaining his PhD at the University of Zurich—he held positions at many famous academic institutions such as the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Georg August Universitaet at Goettingen, Duke University at Durham, University of California at Berkeley, and the Natural History Museum at London before joining XTBG. Currently, he serves as Associate Editor of Integrative Conservation.

The magnitude of biodiversity and its decline: are we in a sixth mass extinction event?

Tuesday 1 August 2023
London 07:30-9:00 / Berlin 08:30-10:00 / New Delhi 12:00-13:30/ Beijing 14:30-16:00

Discission Summary

Dramatic increases in estimates of the number of species on Earth, loss of tropical forests, and estimated extinction rates in the 1980s were key drivers for the ‘biodiversity crisis’. Some suggested there could be 30 million or even 100 million species on Earth and that species loss was 10% per decade.  The debate on global species estimates has largely focused on insects. In the last decade, new methods of estimating global species richness have been developed and existing ones improved through the use of more appropriate statistical tools and new data. The mean of most of these new estimates suggest that globally there are 5.5 million species of insects and that previous estimates of 30 million species or more are statistically unlikely. With only 1 million insect species named, this suggests that 80% are undiscovered. Unbiased DNA studies of previously well-studied insect faunas indicate that 1-2% of species may be truly cryptic. Some have suggested we are at the beginning of a sixth mass extinction event. With increasing pressure on insects can we name the remaining undescribed species before they go extinct?

Speaker

Nigel E Stork

Professor Emeritus, Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University, Australia

Nigel Stork is an insect ecologist and was a pioneer of forest canopy studies using insecticides and industrial cranes. After studying at the University of Manchester, he became a curator at London’s Natural History Museum in 1980 and was a lead author on UNEP’s Global Biodiversity Assessment and the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Moving to Australia in 1995, he led the national Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre. He worked at James Cook University, Melbourne University and Griffith University before retiring in 2016. Professor Stork has had a long involvement with the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation as a Council Member, President and is an Honorary Fellow. His current research is on the impact of drought on tropical insect communities and on insect declines in the tropics.

Growing disparity in global conservation research capacity and its impact on biodiversity conservation

Discussion summary

Building conservation research capacity (CRC), especially in developing countries, has been proposed to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Yet, a global evaluation of CRC and its impact on biodiversity conservation is lacking. We analyze over 177,000 scientific papers from major conservation journals published after 2000, we derived six indicators of CRC and monitored their changes for the 193 United Nations member countries. We found that while CRC expectedly varied globally, the disparity in CRC between the top and bottom echelons grew over time. While most CRC indicators improved biodiversity conservation status (i.e., the IUCN Red List Index) in high-CRC countries, only the number of collaborating countries had a positive impact for low-CRC countries. Therefore, building CRC must be a top conservation priority, and high-CRC countries must lend greater support for low-CRC countries through meaningful collaborations and funding truly collaborative research in low-CRC developing countries.

Speaker

Tien Ming Lee Professor at Sun Yat-sen University, China Tien Ming Lee is a Professor at the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University since 2017, where he is also a PI at the State Key Lab of Biological Control. He has published over 80 SCI papers in journals such as Nature, Science, Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, Nature Ecology and Evolution, One Earth and others. He is also on the editorial board of journals such as Journal of Applied Ecology, Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters, PLoS Biology and PLoS Sustainability and Transformation. He is interested in issues related to conservation science, socioecological systems, climate change, global change, sustainable resource management, sustainable consumption and low-carbon lifestyle.

Online panel on Human-Wildlife Conflicts and Coexistence — current and future perspectives

Discussion summary

Human-wildlife conflicts are wicked socio-ecological problems that can rarely be solved. They can pose grave problems for the safety and livelihoods of human communities, as well as for the conservation of conflict-prone wildlife species. Global interest on how to manage human-wildlife conflicts to promote coexistence is gaining unprecedented momentum. At the end of 2022, human-wildlife conflicts were explicitly included in Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; and in March-April 2023, the IUCN’s Specialist Group on Human-Wildlife Conflicts and Coexistence (HWCC) organized the first international conference exclusively dedicated to this topic. In this context, the June 2023 Integrative Conservation Webinar Series will host an online panel with three leading conservation scientists in this area. The panel will discuss our current understanding of what are and what causes human-wildlife conflicts, how to promote coexistence, and what to expect for human-wildlife interactions in decades to come.

Panelists

	Dr Alexandra Zimmermann Chair, IUCN Specialist Group on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Senior Research Fellow, WildCRU, University of Oxford Senior Advisor on Human-Wildlife Conflict, World Bank Alexandra Zimmermann is the founding Chair of the Specialist Group. She has worked on human-wildlife conflicts around the world for 20 years involving many different communities in conflicts over elephants and lions in India, tigers in Nepal, bears in Bolivia, jaguars across Latin America, armadillos in Brazil, and fruit bats in Mauritius. She specializes in conflict analysis, negotiation, mediation, policy and training. Her work focusses on interdisciplinary approaches to addressing underlying social causes of conflict and designing community-led solutions. Alexandra is also a Senior Advisor with the Global Wildlife Programme at the World Bank, assisting with policy and capacity building for conflict mediation at national and intergovernmental levels, and a Senior Research Fellow at WildCRU, University of Oxford, working with doctoral and postdoctoral researchers on various aspects of HWC.
	Professor Lu Zhi Professor of Conservation Biology, School of Life Sciences and Institute of Ecology, Peking University Executive Director, Peking University Center for Nature and Society Founder, Shanshui Conservation Center Vice President of China Women's Association for Science and Technology (CWAST) Advisory Board, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 Professor Lu Zhi is a conservationist in China whose work covers multiple-disciplinary researches and bridges academic research and practices. She has studied ecology and conservation of endangered species in southwest China and on the Tibetan Plateau, such as the giant panda and the snow leopard as well as their interactions with human activities. She has led initiatives on community-based conservation and citizen sciences in both rural and urban contexts and promote economic incentives, cultural values and policy improvements in order to seek opportunities of coexistence between human and nature. She involved in conservation policy making at regional and national levels, and is an active member of international conservation discussions.
	Dr Vidya Athreya Director and Head - Science and Conservation at WCS-India Dr. Vidya Athreya joined WCS-India in 2013. She obtained her MS in Ecology from Pondicherry in 1993 and a MSc in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Iowa, USA in 2000. Dr. Athreya obtained her doctorate from Manipal University in 2012 for her thesis, ‘Conflict resolution and leopard conservation in a human dominated landscape’. Based in Pune, Vidya has been studying human-leopard conflict in Maharashtra for the past decade. She also works closely with Protected Area managers and the public to mitigate conflicts involving big cats. Vidya has been working in landscapes of Western Maharashtra where leopards share spaces with humans. Vidya was awarded the Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award in 2011, TN Koshoo Memorial Award in 2012 and the Maharana Udai Singh Award in 2013. To know more about her work, please visit: www.projectwaghoba.com.

The 30% solution is neither necessary nor sufficient

Discussion summary

At COP 15, nations considered the aspirations for the next decade in terms of stemming the loss of biodiversity. The problem is easy to state: human actions are driving species to extinction 1000 times faster than species originate [1]. Will expanding protected areas from the current 17% of the land surface to 30% help? Current protected areas are predominantly in cold, hot, or remote places, but surprisingly enough are in the right places. They protect the ranges of the most vulnerable species better than one might expect by chance [2] globally and in China [3]. Expanding protected areas into more wilderness will not greatly benefit biodiversity. The details matter — we need quality, not quantity. For some places, such as the Amazon, much more than 30% will be needed. Moreover, existing protected areas are fragmented and aspirations to restore nature must reconnect those fragments — the point of what Saving Nature does [4].

Speaker: Stuart Pimm Doris Duke Professor of Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, USA Stuart Pimm holds the Doris Duke Chair of Conservation at Duke University and is the 2019 International Cosmos Prize laureate. His scientific, teaching, and academic accomplishments alone put him among the leading conservation biologists in the world today. Through his engagement with Saving Nature, www.savingnature.org, an NGO he founded, Pimm applies conservation science to prevent biodiversity loss. Combined with his inspirational leadership of practical conservation and his tireless advocacy for biodiversity, this makes him a leading light for environmentalists everywhere. Pimm has written over 350 scientific papers, many of them in PNAS, Science, and Nature and four books including The Balance of Nature: Ecological Issues in the Conservation of Species and Communities, (1991) and The World According to Pimm, a Scientist Audits the Earth, (2001). There are three closely intertwined aspects to Pimm’s conservation: (1) his leadership in understanding the large-scale patterns of biodiversity loss, (2) his practical work and (3) his engagement with policymakers, managers, the public and the media. The first sets the global priorities for where he works, the second implements the science, the last engages those who can effect needed changes.

The need for bold nature retention targets to drive effective biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene

Discussion summary

Humanity is exerting unprecedented pressure on the natural environment, driving a biodiversity extinction and climate crisis and placing strain on natural resources. Understanding the spatial distribution and growing dominance of different human pressures is vital for ambitious global goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. I will discuss recent advances in human pressure mapping, bringing together a number of global studies that assess how expanding human pressures are affecting progress towards global conservation progress. I will use this to frame the conservation challenge facing nations, and make the case for an urgent shift away from simplistic area-based targets (such as 30 by 30) to retention targets that aim to ensure those areas that are most important for biodiversity conservation (ranging from sites that stop extinction to those that still retain intact species assemblages and ecological function) are conserved. We can identify these places and also assess their likely risk of loss, which should be used to prioritise site-based conservation action. We still have time to ‘bend the curve’ back for biodiversity but this can only happen with an evidence-based strategy based on what species and ecosystems need in the face of expanding human pressures and the changing climate.

Speaker: James Watson University of Queensland, Australia Professor James Watson is a Professor of Conservation Science at The University of Queensland where he leads two research groups: the Green Fire Science research group (www.greenfirescience.com), whose mission is to do policy oriented research aimed directly at improving the outcomes of conservation around the world and the Research and Recovery of Endangered Species (RARES) Group (raresgroup.com.au) whose mission is to work with partners to do applied research that is linked directly to the practice of site based rare species conservation. James has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers on conservation related matters, often with a focus on ways to communicate the species extinction crisis and solutions to it, the likely impacts of climate change and assessing the role of area-based strategies, like protected areas. He has worked with numerous governments, industry and conservation NGOs over the past two decades, undertaking applied conservation practice and policy in many countries. He served on the United Nation’s IPBES Data and Knowledge Task Force between 2016-2020 and was global president of the Society of Conservation Biology. He is a Research Fellow for the United Nation’s Environment Program, a Senior Technical expert for the United Nations Development Program’s Global Programme on Nature for Development. He serves on the science committees of BirdLife Australia, Bush Heritage Australia and SUBAC. He is a mad keen birdwatcher.

Achieving zero extinction for land plants

Discussion summary

Despite the importance of plants for people and the threats to their future, plant conservation receives far less support than vertebrate conservation. Plants are much cheaper and easier to conserve than animals, but, although there are no technical reasons why any plant species should become extinct, inadequate funding and the shortage of skilled people has created barriers to their conservation. These barriers include the incomplete inventory, the low proportion of species with conservation status assessments, partial online data accessibility, varied data quality, and insufficient investment in both in and ex situ conservation. Machine learning, citizen science, and new technologies could mitigate some of these problems, but we need to set national and global targets of zero plant extinction to attract greater support.

Speaker

Richard T. Corlett Emeritus Professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, CAS, China Honorary Research Fellow at Kew Royal Botanical Garden, UK. Richard Corlett was born in London and studied botany at the University of Cambridge. He then did a PhD in Plant Ecology at the Australian National University, with fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. He subsequently lived and worked in the East Asian tropics for 40 years, first at Chiang Mai University (1980-82), then NUS (1982-87, 2008-2012), HKU (1988-2008), and XTBG (2012-2021). His research focused on ecology and conservation in tropical East Asia, and the impacts of climate change. In addition to numerous scientific papers, he has written several books, including The Ecology of Tropical East Asia (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2019). He was a lead author for the 2013 IPCC climate change report and the IPBES Regional Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Asia-Pacific. He now lives back in London, but is still an emeritus professor at XTBG an honorary research fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Respondent

Kwek Yan Chong Senior Researcher at the Singapore Botanic Gardens of the National Parks Board Kwek Yan Chong is a Senior Researcher at the Singapore Botanic Gardens of the National Parks Board, where he coordinates a Tropical Forest Ecology Research Programme anchored by a Long-Term Forest Ecological Monitoring project that maintains a network of permanent forest plots in Singapore’s nature reserves and parks. His research interests are in vegetation ecology, urban ecology, and invasion ecology.

Online Panel: Reflecting on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
— significance, implications, and hurdles

Discussion summary

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF) agreement has received a large amount of attention. For example, a German newspaper published a commentary titled ‘The day humanity decided to save Earth’. Of course, not everyones expectations were full filled and the published text is shaped by the carefulness required in any international dialog. Given the significance of the KMGBF, Integrative Conservation wants to provide a platform to discuss the delivery of the targets outlines in the pathway toward biodiversity conservation outlined in the statement. In this month’s Integrative Conservation Webinar Series we will hold an online panel discussion with three outstanding conservation scientists who attended the COP-15 meeting in Montreal in December 2022 and who will discuss the their views on KMGBF’s significance, implications, and hurdles.

Panelists

	Dezhu Li Professor at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Director of Germplasm Bank of Wild Species in Southwest China Professor Dezhu Li has been engaged in plant taxonomy and phylogeny research for a long time, and has made systematic contributions to the study of taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution of bamboo plant. He has lead the research on plant DNA barcoding and new generation flora, analyzing the early evolution history of angiosperms, and revealing the origin of the geographical pattern of representative groups in East Asia flora. He also lead the establishment of Asia’s largest and world-class germplasm bank of wild species and a germplasm system preserving seeds, isolated materials and DNA banks, and established the standard procedure of collecting and preserving of tens of thousands of wild plant seeds in China. In 2021, he won the Outstanding Contribution Award of the third ‘Wu Zhengyi Botany Award’.
	Alice Hughes Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong Dr. Alice Hughes is a conservation biologist based in Asia. Alice holds board positions for around 7 ecological societies and 2 NGOS and works through these to build conservation capacity in upcoming conservationists and to try to implement conservation science and help guide conservation on regional scales. Her research aims to understand patterns of biodiversity and drivers of biodiversity change, with an aim to inform more rigorous & appropriate conservation. She and her team use a wide variety of approaches and tools for anything from understanding species biogeography, to developing monitoring tools or understanding interactions. She currently also has projects on threatened ecosystems (especially karst) to understand biodiversity patterns & develop effective conservation & management approaches. Editorial Board Member of Integrative Conservation.
	Binbin Li Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences of the Environmental Research Center at Duke Kunshan University Dr. Binbin Li's research focuses on loss of biodiversity, endangered and endemic species conservation such as giant pandas, priority setting and management of protected areas, and promotion of innovative technology, markets and policies to solve conservation problems and local community development. Dr. Li’s work covers the identification of conservation priorities and national parks in China, impacts of One Belt One Road on biodiversity, giant panda conservation and management via Footprint Identification Technique (FIT), impacts of oil palm and rubber plantations on biodiversity in Southeast Asia, influence of national environmental policies on human-wildlife conflicts, and behavioral study of endemic species. She is also a member of the IUCN SSC Small Mammal Specialist Group. Dr. Li is engaged in science communication and nature education. She is a signed nature photographer at Swild in China. During 2013-2015, she served as a science advisor for Disney nature documentary “Born in China”. She is devoted in using photography, social media, drama, and other art formats to promote conservation science in the public. EC50-One of the fifty scientific explorers changing the world, Explorers Club 2021. Associate Editor of Integrative Conservation.

Moderator

Harald Schneider Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China Professor Harald Schneider’s current research interest is focused on genomic mechanisms shaping the evolutionary history of land plant diversity since the colonisation of land and their survival in the anthropocene. He promotes integrative research approaches with the aim of incorporating state-of-the-art research, together with the knowledge accumulated during centuries of botanical exploration of the world. During his research carrier, he contributed to many important publications reporting result that are now part of every textbook on plant taxonomy and diversity. Originally trained as a botanists in Germany and Switzerland—including obtaining his PhD at the University of Zurich—he held positions at many famous academic institutions such as the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Georg August Universitaet at Goettingen, Duke University at Durham, University of California at Berkeley, and the Natural History Museum at London before joining XTBG. Currently, he served as Associate Editor of Integrative Conservation.

Integrating Genomics and Conservation to Safeguard Plant Diversity

Discussion summary

By reviewing currently available plant genome resources, this study takes forward arguments to integrate genomics into our efforts to protect plant diversity and the natural resources provided as a cornerstone to achieve “Harmony with Nature”. The rapidly increased number of reference plant genomes provides a remarkable resource to support the conservation of threatened species. Unfortunately, only some species requiring protection have their genome or the genome of a closely related species generated yet. Thus, efforts are needed not only to utilise the already available reference genomes but also to expand the coverage of the reference genomes across all branches of the tree-of- life. To enhance the impact of genomics in our efforts to maintain plant diversity, special focus should be given to threatened species and key- corner species of major habitats considered to be under threat, such as the rainforest of Southeast Asia.

Speaker: Harald Schneider Center for Integrative Conservation (CIC), Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China Prof. Harald Schneider’s current research interest is focused on genomic mechanisms shaping the evolutionary history of land plant diversity since the colonisation of land and their survival in the anthropocene. He promotes integrative research approaches with the aim of incorporating state-of-the-art research, together with the knowledge accumulated during centuries of botanical exploration of the world. During his research carrier, he contributed to many important publications reporting result that are now part of every textbook on plant taxonomy and diversity. Originally trained as a botanists in Germany and Switzerland—including obtaining his PhD at the University of Zurich—he held positions at many famous academic institutions such as the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Georg August Universitaet at Goettingen, Duke University at Durham, University of California at Berkeley, and the Natural History Museum at London before joining XTBG. Currently, he served as associate editor of Integrative Conservation.