China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sets to create connections and build infrastructure across Eurasia, Asia, and parts of the African continent in its initial phase and is the largest ...infrastructure project of all time. Any infrastructure project on this scale will necessarily pass through ecofragile regions and key biodiversity areas (KBAs). This creates an imperative to identify possible areas of impact and probable effects on conservation values to facilitate adaptive planning and to mitigate, minimize, or avoid impacts. Using the highest resolution route maps of the BRI available, I overlaid the proposed road and rail routes on KBAs, protected areas, and predicted biodiversity hotspots for over 4138 animal and 7371 plant species. I also assessed the relationship between the proposed route with the distribution of mines across BRI countries and the proportion of deforestation and forest near routes. Infrastructure, especially mining, was clustered near the proposed route; thus, construction and development along the route may increase the size and number of mines. Up to 15% of KBAs were within 1 km of proposed railways. Thus, planned and probable development along the routes may pose a significant risk to biodiversity, especially because the majority of KBAs are unprotected. Many biodiversity hotspots for different taxa were near the route. These hotspots varied between taxa, making systematic management and environmental impact assessments an effective strategy for at least some taxa. A combination of planning and mitigation strategies will likely be necessary to protect the most important areas for biodiversity proximal to development, especially in currently unprotected KBAs and other regions that need protection. A fuller assessment of trade‐offs between conservation and other values will be necessary to make good decisions for each project and site being developed, including potentially modifying parts of the route to minimize impacts. Modification or foregoing of infrastructure may be needed if stakeholders consider the conservation costs too high.
Article impact statement: Mitigating consequences to biodiversity of the largest ever global infrastructure project requires site‐based solutions and impact assessment.
Conocimiento y Reducción de los Impactos Ambientales de la Iniciativa del Cinturón y Ruta
Resumen
La Iniciativa del Cinturón y Ruta (BRI, en inglés) de China busca crear conexiones y construir infraestructura a lo largo de Eurasia, Asia y partes del continente africano en su fase inicial y es el proyecto infraestructural más grande de todos los tiempos. Cualquier proyecto infraestructural a esta escala pasará obligatoriamente a través de regiones con fragilidad ecológica y áreas importantes para la biodiversidad (KBA, en inglés). Esto genera una necesidad por identificar las áreas de posible impacto y los efectos probables sobre los valores de conservación para facilitar la planeación adaptativa y mitigar, reducir o evitar los impactos. Usé los mapas de ruta de la BRI con la mayor resolución disponible para sobreponer las rutas propuestas de ferrocarriles y carreteras sobre las KBA, las áreas protegidas y los puntos calientes de biodiversidad pronosticados para más de 4138 especies de animales y 7371 especies de plantas. También evalué la relación entre la ruta propuesta con la distribución de minas a lo largo de los países en la BRI y la proporción de deforestación y bosques cerca de las rutas. La infraestructura, en especial la de minas, estuvo agrupada cerca de la ruta propuesta; por lo tanto, la construcción y el desarrollo a lo largo de la ruta podrían incrementar el tamaño y el número de minas. Hasta el 15% de las KBA estarían dentro de 1 km de distancia de las vías ferrocarrileras propuestas. Así, el desarrollo planeado y probable a lo largo de las rutas puede presentar un riesgo significativo para la biodiversidad, especialmente porque la mayoría de las KBA no está protegida. Muchos puntos calientes para la biodiversidad están cerca de la ruta. Estos puntos calientes variaron entre taxones, lo que hace que el manejo sistémico y las evaluaciones de impacto ambiental sean una estrategia efectiva para por lo menos algunos taxones. Una combinación de estrategias de planeación y mitigación probablemente será necesaria para proteger las áreas más importantes para la biodiversidad próximas al desarrollo, especialmente en las KBA que actualmente se encuentran sin protección y en otras regiones que requieren protección. Una evaluación más completa de compensaciones entre la conservación y otros valores será necesaria para tomar buenas decisiones para cada proyecto y sitio en desarrollo, incluyendo la potencial modificación de partes de la ruta para reducir los impactos. La modificación o renuncia a la infraestructura puede ser necesaria si los accionistas consideran que los costos de conservación son demasiado elevados.
摘要
中国的 “一带一路” 倡议 (BRI) 是有史以来规模最大的基础设施项目, 其目标是在欧亚大, 亚洲和非洲大陆部分地区建立互联互通和基础设施建设。如此大规模的基础设施项目必定会经过生态脆弱区和生物多样性重要区域, 这就迫切需要确定可能对生物多样性保护价值产生影响的区域和可能产生的影响, 以便进行适应性规划, 尽量减轻、减少或者避免工程施工对生物多样性带来的不良影响。本文利用覆盖生物多样性重要区域 (KBAs) 和保护区拟建公路和铁路的 “一带一路” 高分辨率路线图, 预测沿线的生物多样性热点地区有超过 4138 种动物和 7371 植物种类。本文还评估了 “一带一路” 沿线各国拟建路线上矿山的分布和路线附近毁林和森林比例之间的关系。基础设施, 特别是采矿业, 成群分布在在拟建路线附近。因此, 沿线的建设和开发可能会增加矿山的规模和数量, 而多达 15% 的 KBAs 就位于拟建铁路 1 公里以内, 从而, 沿线规划和未来发展, 也许会给当地生物多样性造成严重的影响。拥有许多不同类群的生物多样性热点地区都在这条路线附近, 而其中还有许多 KBAs 都还未受到保护, 这些生物多样性热点在不同的类群之间存在差异, 因此, 系统的管理和对环境影响进行评估, 至少对某些类群来说是一种有效的策略 。为了保护 近期开发最重要的生物多样性地区, 尤其是目前未受到保护以及其他需要保护的地区, 对其采取统筹规划和缓解措施将会是必要的策略。为了对每一个正在开发的项目和地点做出正确的决策, 有必要对生物多样性保护和其他各种价值之间的权衡进行更全面的评估, 这包括需要修改部分路线以尽量减少对生物与环境的影响。如果计划中的基础设施建设会造成严重的生物多样性丧失, 那么就必须要重新考虑。
Wildlife trade Hughes, Alice C.
Current biology,
10/2021, Volume:
31, Issue:
19
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Global trade of wildlife is a major driver of species decline. The trade in wildlife actually plays a much larger role in our daily lives than many people realize, and its use and legality are ...surprisingly complex. Wildlife trade includes the trade of any organism, including fungi, plants and animals, sourced from the wild. This comprises thousands of wild species, including over 7600, or nearly one quarter, of terrestrial vertebrate species. Trade in wildlife is worth billions annually via commercial fishing at $180 billion, timber at $227 billion and fashion at $2.5 billion — in addition to largely unquantified trade for meat, medicine, ornamental use and pets. Wildlife trade, such as that of ivory, is the subject of intense public debate, international regulation and criminal prosecution, while trade of other species is more often overlooked. How wildlife trade is regulated and what is legal and illegal varies both between and within taxonomic groups and depends on where and how trade occurs. Wildlife trade across most sectors has increased since monitoring began, for example, between 1996 and 2018 the global fish market rose from $40 billion to $180 billion, wood from $65 billion to $137 billion and reptile leather for fashion trade from $140 million to $600 million. In concert, the annual number of trades legally traded through CITES has also grown, from under 5000 transactions in 1977 to peaking at over 1.3 million in 2015, with shipment size increasing in parallel and seizures of illegally traded species showing similar trends. Balancing the needs of people for livelihood generation, especially with access and benefit-sharing rights, with the impact on species survival remains difficult. Issues like the role of trophy and sports hunting within conservation remain a topic of debate in the conservation community. Finding approaches that enable long-term species survival, are equitable and do not undermine livelihoods is a constant challenge.
Alice Hughes introduces the dimensions of wildlife trade.
Ecosystems services (ES) assessment is a significant scientific topic recognized for its potential to address sustainability issues. However, there is an absence of science-policy frameworks in land ...use planning that lead to the ES science being used in policy. China's Ecological Redline Policy (ERP) is one of the first national policies utilizing multiple ES, but there is no standardized approach for working across the science-policy interface. We propose a transdisciplinary framework to determine ecological redline areas (ERAs) in Shanghai using: ES, biodiversity and ecologically fragile hotspots, landscape structure, and stakeholder opinions. We determine the five criteria to identify ERAs for Shanghai using multi-temporal, high resolution images (0.5 m) and biophysical models. We examine ERP effectiveness by comparing land use scenarios for 2040. Compared to alternative land uses, ES increase significantly under the ERP. The inclusion of ES in spatial planning led stakeholders to increase terrestrial habitat protection by 174% in Shanghai. Our analysis suggests that strategic planning for ES could reduce tradeoffs between environmental quality and development.
Abstract Wildlife trade is a key driver of the biodiversity crisis. Unregulated, or under-regulated wildlife trade can lead to unsustainable exploitation of wild populations. International efforts to ...regulate wildlife mostly miss ‘lower-value’ species, such as those imported as pets, resulting in limited knowledge of trade in groups like reptiles. Here we generate a dataset on web-based private commercial trade of reptiles to highlight the scope of the global reptile trade. We find that over 35% of reptile species are traded online. Three quarters of this trade is in species that are not covered by international trade regulation. These species include numerous endangered or range-restricted species, especially hotspots within Asia. Approximately 90% of traded reptile species and half of traded individuals are captured from the wild. Exploitation can occur immediately after scientific description, leaving new endemic species especially vulnerable. Pronounced gaps in regulation imply trade is having unknown impacts on numerous threatened species. Gaps in monitoring demand a reconsideration of international reptile trade regulations. We suggest reversing the status-quo, requiring proof of sustainability before trade is permitted.
The unprecedented pandemic of pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in China and beyond has had major public health impacts on a global scale 1, 2. Although bats are regarded as the ...most likely natural hosts for SARS-CoV-2 3, the origins of the virus remain unclear. Here, we report a novel bat-derived coronavirus, denoted RmYN02, identified from a metagenomic analysis of samples from 227 bats collected from Yunnan Province in China between May and October 2019. Notably, RmYN02 shares 93.3% nucleotide identity with SARS-CoV-2 at the scale of the complete virus genome and 97.2% identity in the 1ab gene, in which it is the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 reported to date. In contrast, RmYN02 showed low sequence identity (61.3%) to SARS-CoV-2 in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and might not bind to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Critically, and in a similar manner to SARS-CoV-2, RmYN02 was characterized by the insertion of multiple amino acids at the junction site of the S1 and S2 subunits of the spike (S) protein. This provides strong evidence that such insertion events can occur naturally in animal betacoronaviruses.
•Metagenomic analysis identified a novel coronavirus, RmYN02, from R. malayanus•RmYN02 was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the virus genome•Two loop deletions in RBD may reduce the binding of RmYN02 with ACE2•RmYN02 contains an insertion at the S1/S2 cleavage site in the spike protein
Zhou et al. report a bat-derived coronavirus, RmYN02, which is the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the virus genome reported to date. RmYN02 contains an insertion at the S1/S2 cleavage site in the spike protein in a similar manner to SARS-CoV-2. This suggests that such insertion events can occur naturally in animal betacoronaviruses.
Spatial patterns of biodiversity are inextricably linked to their collection methods, yet no synthesis of bias patterns or their consequences exists. As such, views of organismal distribution and the ...ecosystems they make up may be incorrect, undermining countless ecological and evolutionary studies. Using 742 million records of 374 900 species, we explore the global patterns and impacts of biases related to taxonomy, accessibility, ecotype and data type across terrestrial and marine systems. Pervasive sampling and observation biases exist across animals, with only 6.74% of the globe sampled, and disproportionately poor tropical sampling. High elevations and deep seas are particularly unknown. Over 50% of records in most groups account for under 2% of species and citizen‐science only exacerbates biases. Additional data will be needed to overcome many of these biases, but we must increasingly value data publication to bridge this gap and better represent species' distributions from more distant and inaccessible areas, and provide the necessary basis for conservation and management.
Despite the discovery of animal coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2, the evolutionary origins of this virus are elusive. We describe a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 bat samples collected from a ...small geographical region in Yunnan province, China, between May 2019 and November 2020. We identified 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2-related and three SARS-CoV-related viruses. Rhinolophus pusillus virus RpYN06 was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the genome, although it possessed a more divergent spike gene. The other three SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses carried a genetically distinct spike gene that could weakly bind to the hACE2 receptor in vitro. Ecological modeling predicted the co-existence of up to 23 Rhinolophus bat species, with the largest contiguous hotspots extending from South Laos and Vietnam to southern China. Our study highlights the remarkable diversity of bat coronaviruses at the local scale, including close relatives of both SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV.
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•Four novel SARS-CoV-2-related viruses were identified in rhinolophid bats•RpYN06 is the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in most of the virus genome•A high diversity of bat coronaviruses was present in a very small geographic area•Ecological modeling reveals a broad range of rhinolophid bats in parts of Asia
A study of 411 bat samples collected in Yunnan province, China between 2019 and 2020 yields 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four viruses highly related to SARS-CoV-2 and three to SARS. The closest relative to SARS-CoV-2 infects a species of bats that is found in regions that extend from South Laos and Vietnam to southern China.
Insects are the focus of many recent studies suggesting population declines, but even invaluable pollination service providers such as bees lack a modern distributional synthesis. Here, we combine a ...uniquely comprehensive checklist of bee species distributions and >5,800,000 public bee occurrence records to describe global patterns of bee biodiversity. Publicly accessible records are sparse, especially from developing countries, and are frequently inaccurate throughout much of the world, consequently suggesting different biodiversity patterns from checklist data. Global analyses reveal hotspots of species richness, together generating a rare bimodal latitudinal richness gradient, and further analyses suggest that xeric areas, solar radiation, and non-forest plant productivity are among the most important global drivers of bee biodiversity. Together, our results provide a new baseline and best practices for studies on bees and other understudied invertebrates.
•Bees show a rare bimodal latitudinal gradient with highest richness at mid-latitudes•Xeric and temperate zones host higher richness than tropical areas•Plant productivity and richness are important drivers when forests are excluded•A global bee species richness reconstruction is presented for the first time
A modern, quantitative synthesis on bee distribution and its drivers at a global scale. Orr et al. show that bees exhibit a rare bimodal pattern of higher species richness at mid-latitudes, based on their great success in xeric and some temperate areas, further supported by a driver analysis. Bee species richness is also reprojected worldwide.
With the ongoing sovereign debt and biodiversity crises in many emerging economies, applications of debt-for-nature swaps as a dual solution for sovereign debt and nature conservation have been ...re-emerging. We analyze how debt-for-nature swaps (DNS) can be scaled to protect biodiversity priority areas and reduce debt burden. We build a dataset for biodiversity conservation and debt restructuring in 67 countries at risk of sovereign debt distress and show that they hold over 22% of global biodiversity priority areas, 82.96% of which are unprotected. Furthermore, we show that for 35 of the 67 countries, using conservative cost estimates, 100% of unprotected biodiversity priority areas could be protected for a fraction of debt; for the remaining countries, applying DNS would allow the protection of 11–13% of currently unprotected biodiversity priority areas. By applying interdisciplinary research combining fundamental biodiversity and economic data and methods merging, the research contributes methodologically and practically to the understanding of debt-for-nature swaps for emerging economies.
The study is conducted to facilitate conservation of migratory wader species along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, particularly to 1) Identify hotspots of wader species richness along the flyway ...and effectively map how these might change between breeding, non-breeding and migratory phases; 2) Determine if the existing network of protected areas (PA) is sufficient to effectively conserve wader biodiversity hotspots along the EAAF; 3) Assess how species distribution models can provide complementary distribution estimates to existing BirdLife range maps.
We use a species distribution modelling (SDM) approach (MaxEnt) to develop temporally explicit individual range maps of 57 migratory wader species across their annual cycle, including breeding, non-breeding and migratory phases, which in turn provide the first biodiversity hotspot map of migratory waders along the EAAF for each of these phases. We assess the protected area coverage during each migration period, and analyse the dominant environmental drivers of distributions for each period. Additionally, we compare model hotspots to those existing range maps of the same species obtained from the BirdLife Internationals' database.
Our model results indicate an overall higher and a spatially different species richness pattern compared to that derived from a wader biodiversity hotspot map based on BirdLife range maps. Field observation records from the eBird database for our 57 study species confirm many of the hotspots revealed by model outputs (especially within the Yellow Sea coastal region), suggesting that current richness of the EAAF may have been underestimated and certain hotspots overlooked. Less than 10% of the terrestrial zones area (inland and coastal) which support waders are protected and, only 5% of areas with the highest 10% species richness is protected.
The study results suggest the need for new areas for migratory wader research and conservation priorities including Yellow Sea region and Russian far-East. It also suggests a need to increase the coverage and percentage of current PA network to achieve Aichi Target 11 for Flyway countries, including giving stronger consideration to the temporal dynamics of wader migration.
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