African conservation scientists in the diaspora are still a largely untapped resource for conservation efforts in Africa. Institutions that harbor diaspora scientists from Africa should view their ...presence, motivation, and skills as an excellent opportunity to build strong bridges with the continent and undercut parachute science. Yet, parachute science is still the prominent way of doing conservation science in Africa and it can be difficult to escape, even for Africans working abroad and conducting research in their home countries. Espousing an alternative model to parachute science is possible, but it requires conscious effort and systemic changes at all scales (individual, departmental, universities). In this perspective, we describe six situations that help illuminate the layers of factors that diaspora African researchers must navigate while building cross‐continental collaborations in the absence of adequate institutional support. They include the questioning of our “local‐ness,” accusations of nepotism, over‐explaining our intentions and dealing with the demand for “ground‐breaking and globally relevant research.” We propose actions and best practices for harnessing the potential of diaspora faculty to build meaningful, equitable and long‐term research collaborations with partners in Africa.
Water, food and energy are at the core of human needs and there is a boundless complex cycle among these three basic human needs. Ecosystems are in the center of this nexus, since they contribute to ...the provision of each component, making it imperative to understand the role of ecosystems in securing food, water and energy for human well-being. In this study we aimed to map and assess water provisioning services and associated benefits to support the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus by taking into account environmental flow requirements for riverine ecosystems using the hydrological model Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). We developed a framework that includes indicators of renewable water (capacity of ecosystem to provide water) and water use (service flow) and we applied it in the Danube river basin over the period 1995–2004. Water scarcity indicators were used to map the possible water scarcity in the subbasins, and analyze the spatial match of water availability and water use. The results show that modelling is instrumental to perform the integrated analysis of the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus; and that spatial mapping is a powerful tool to display environmental availability of water provisioning and regulatory services delivered by ecosystems, and can support the nexus analysis.
•Efficient water management requires spatial knowledge of water availability and use•We develop an approach for assessing and mapping water provisioning services•We implement the approach in the Danube river basin.•The approach can support assessments and policies related to the ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus
•EU Biodiversity Strategy demands Member States to map and value ecosystem services in their national territories by 2020.•We question whether the conceptual basis behind valuation techniques matters ...when the purpose of valuation is conservation.•It is important to make a difference between the theoretical approaches of environmental economics and ecological economics.•It is important to distinguish the valuation of economic consequences from the monetization of environmental consequences.•We present a case study to show the practical implication of this approach.
Several international initiatives have highlighted the need to prove the relevance of ecosystem services in monetary terms in order to make a comprehensive and compelling case for conservation of biodiversity. The different approaches and frameworks used so far have shown that there is no economic or monetary estimate of ecosystems or ecosystem services with absolute validity: any valuation exercise is always context-related and the theoretical rationale behind the applied valuation technique does matter. This study presents an approach for assessing ecosystem services in monetary terms to support conservation policies at the regional and continental scale. First we briefly review the foundation of environmental and ecological economics, second we explore the differences between economic models and the application of valuation techniques, third we try to pick the difference between the mainstream economic valuation approach and the translation of biophysical models’ outcomes in monetary terms. Then we present and discuss a methodology suitable for associating a monetary cost to ecosystem services when the purpose addresses conservation policies. In order to provide a contribution, we show a practical case study on water purification in the northern Mediterranean region.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the European Union have set a target of restoring 15% of degraded ecosystems by 2020 with the aim of conserving biodiversity and enhancing the supply ...of ecosystem services. This target must be implemented alongside other similar targets aimed at reducing the number of threatened habitat and species as assessed under the Birds and Habitats directives. However, there are several uncertainties associated with achieving these targets including the benefits of restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, the contribution required from member states and the effect of different restoration scenarios on target achievement. In this study, we evaluate options that exist for meeting an EU‐wide 15% restoration target while conserving habitats and species and enhancing ecosystem services. We explored the effects of different restoration scenarios on the percentage of threatened habitat and species secured. Lastly, we explored the effects of including financial cost into the prioritization procedure. Focusing restoration efforts on habitats with inadequate conservation status in the reporting of the Habitats Directive provides the largest benefit for species and ecosystem services. If the restoration target is set at 10% for habitat and species with inadequate or most threatened conservation status, and at 2% for all ecosystem services, about 18% of EU ecosystems should be restored to meet these targets. When the target is set at 15% of habitat and species and 3% of all ecosystem services, results showed that France hosts the highest percentage of identified priority areas (13%) followed by Spain and Finland with about 11% and Sweden with 9%. However, these numbers change when financial cost is included alongside other criteria, with France containing 35% of all areas identified. Synthesis and applications. These results suggest that to achieve the greatest benefits, funding for restoration should be directed towards habitats with inadequate conservation status rather than to species. Countries with larger areas of threatened habitat and lower restoration costs may offer better opportunities to meet targets, but including cost at the EU level may result in unequal burden sharing among countries.
Palm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero ...hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25%), housing conditions (18%) and land grabbing (16%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33%) and employment (19%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.
•Palm oil trade has both positive and negative impacts on human wellbeing.•Palm oil trade improves livelihoods of local communities by improving their incomes.•Negative social impacts of palm oil trade are overwhelming and ongoing.•Both smallholders and agro-industries contribute to positive and negative impacts.•Palm oil certification standards need to urgently address social impacts.
Palm oil (PO) producing countries are expanding oil palm cultivated areas to meet growing demands at the expense of tropical forests and the ecosystem services (ES) they provide. Current responses to ...the growing call for sustainable PO trade are based on environmental impacts such as deforestation, partly because most social impacts have not been studied. These responses are based on information from Asia and South America since little has been done in Africa. This study fills these gaps by synthesizing the impacts of PO trade on ES from peer-reviewed and gray literature. Our case study is Cameroon, which harbors part of the Congo basin forest and experiences fast deforestation rates. Fifty-three sources of literature were used for this study (53% peer-reviewed and 47% gray literature). We found that oil palm cultivation was reported to negatively affect 15 ecosystem services in 147 instances (85%) and positively affect seven ecosystem services in 25 instances (15%). The majority of negative impacts were on carbon sequestration and climate regulation (20%), habitat quality (13%) and genetic diversity (13%). The most positive impact was on food provision (8%). These results highlight the trade-offs between food provision and other ES. While current policy responses have focused on environmental impacts, many negative social impacts are associated with PO trade that should be addressed within new policy tools.
Scientific work on ecosystem services has been growing globally as well as in Africa. Human dependence on provisioning ecosystem services in particular is mostly acknowledged in developing countries ...like those in Africa, where many people are poor and reliant on natural resources. The reliance of communities on natural resources in Africa varies from place to place as aridity, vegetation and socio-economic conditions change. In the humid and forested areas in the west and central parts of Africa, food and raw materials coupled with agriculture are important ecosystem services while in the dryer arid and semi-arid countries in southern and northern Africa, tourism, water and grazing are priorities. Overexploitation of resources coupled with large scale agriculture threatens both ecosystem services and livelihoods. The need to safeguard ecosystem services is urgent. There are some efforts to safeguard ecosystem services in Africa. However, realizing benefits to livelihoods still faces serious challenges due to climate change, recent land grabbing and urbanization. These challenges are compounded by the land tenure situation in Africa. Whilst policy goals have been established at both the international and national levels the implementation of such policies and likelihood of them leading to sustainable land management for delivery of ecosystem services remains a key challenge.
► Africa is diverse in terms of vegetation and aridity as well as ecosystem services. ► Unsustainable resource use and large scale agriculture threatens ecosystem services. ► There are efforts to safeguard ecosystem services through conservation policies. ► Scientific work on ecosystem services has grown and South Africa is leading the way. ► Future challenges include urbanization, climate change and land grabbing.
While international trade in agricultural commodities can spur economic development especially where governance is strong, there are also concerns about the local impacts of commodity production and ...their distribution on the environment and on people. The sustainable development goals (SDGs), though seeing trade as a means to support their achievement, recognise the need to address potential negative social and environmental impacts. It is therefore important to assess the contribution of international trade to the SDGs in commodity production areas. The environmental impacts of commodity production are widely acknowledged, but much less is known about its social impacts, and how this affects poverty reduction objectives across different dimensions. Impacts on human wellbeing and equity depend on a multitude of factors, including resources, systemic conditions and outputs of production. Through a broad literature review on soy, coffee, cocoa and palm oil, we show how studies have addressed different aspects of these factors and their impacts. The paper demonstrates how efforts by actors in global supply chains are related to a large number of SDGs and their targets. We link the social impacts and factors to the SDGs and a list of potential indicators and variables to guide operationalisation of assessments in new empirical studies.
Sub‐Saharan Africa is increasingly viewed as an important area for oil palm cultivation and expansion. Palm oil is a commodity that can help developing countries like Cameroon attain their ...sustainable development goals (SDGs) targets through poverty alleviation (SDG 1) and by providing revenue to smallholder farmers to buy a variety of food thereby reducing hunger. However, due to the many negative environmental and social consequences, the sector needs to be made more sustainable. In this study, we set out to unpack the complexities including costs and benefits for smallholder farmers to practice sustainable palm oil production. We use both gray and peer‐reviewed literature, conversational interviews with smallholder farmers and managers of certified palm oil mills, and a workshop with smallholders in Cameroon. We found that smallholders face several challenges including weak land tenure rights, the use of poor‐quality seeds and low‐yielding oil palms, and a lack of skills, expertise, and access to financing. Certification could help alleviate some of the challenges by providing access to financing, training to improve yields, access to better seedlings, and increased access to higher value markets. However, the certification cost is very high compared to the income from oil palm cultivation for most farmers. Farmers will therefore need considerable assistance from organizations and brokers to remain financially viable. Our study provides important insights to countries such as the EU, United Kingdom, and United States that are in the process of adopting legislation to regulate deforestation associated with imports of key commodities such as palm oil.
Land-cover change has been identified as one of the most important drivers of change in ecosystems and their services. However, information on the consequences of land cover change for ecosystem ...services and human well-being at local scales is largely absent. Where information does exist, the traditional methods used to collate and communicate this information represent a significant obstacle to sustainable ecosystem management. Embedding science in a social process and solving problems together with stakeholders are necessary elements in ensuring that new knowledge results in desired actions, behavior changes, and decisions. We have attempted to address this identified information gap, as well as the way information is gathered, by quantifying the local-scale consequences of land-cover change for ecosystem services in the Little Karoo region, a semiarid biodiversity hotspot in South Africa. Our work is part of a stakeholder-engaged process that aims to answer questions inspired by the beneficiaries and managers of ecosystem services. We mapped and quantified the potential supply of, and changes in, five ecosystem services: production of forage, carbon storage, erosion control, water flow regulation, and tourism. Our results demonstrated substantial (20%–50%) declines across ecosystem services as a result of land-cover change in the Little Karoo. We linked these changes in land-cover to the political and land-use history of the region. We found that the natural features that deliver the Little Karoo’s ecosystem services, similar to other semiarid regions, are not being managed in a way that recognizes their constraints and vulnerabilities. There is a resulting decline in ecosystem services, leading to an increase in unemployment and vulnerability to shocks, and narrowing future options. We have proposed a way forward for the region that includes immediate action and restoration, mechanisms to fund this action, the development of future economic activity including tourism and carbon markets, and new ways that the science–stakeholder partnership can foster these changes. Although we acknowledge the radical shifts required, we have highlighted the opportunities provided by the resilience and adaptation potential of semiarid regions, their biodiversity, and their inhabitants.
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