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The global food system accelerates biodiversity loss, which in turn undermines the resilience and sustainability of food production. Strategic, coordinated action across the food system’s diverse actors and networks is essential to drive structural change and reverse biodiversity loss.
Why do academics and practitioners volunteer to participate in global scientific assessments for decision-making, such as the IPCC or IPBES? There are many barriers, but also benefits, both personal and scientific, for those who become authors, encourages Daniela Schmidt.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s new financial mechanism to fund conservation efforts involves for-profit users of biodiversity-derived genetic data contributing to the Cali Fund. This global fund promises benefits for biodiversity, Indigenous people and local communities while maintaining open data, but relies on action from countries and businesses.
Highly skilled scientists who live and work outside of their country of origin build capacity in their home countries from afar. In this Comment, we argue that these ‘scientific diasporas’ have great potential to advance progress in biodiversity conservation.
Maintaining human well-being in an era of biodiversity loss requires understanding the role of biodiversity in ecosystem function. We argue that absolute abundance can drive ecosystem function and that this measure should be considered alongside traditional measures of biodiversity.
Traditional, top-down governance approaches alone will not bend the curve of biodiversity loss, and must be combined with small-scale interventions that can spark systemic change. Mobilizing behaviour change towards biodiversity-positive practices is as a promising leverage point, but requires a nuanced understanding of how people perceive and value nature.
Spatial conservation prioritization offers a scientific framework for decision-making, yet its practical uptake remains limited. Here, I argue that incorporating social and political dimensions into conservation prioritization — rather than focusing solely on technical and economic aspects — would enhance progress towards biodiversity targets by ensuring closer alignment with real-world governance dynamics.
