Ambio最新文献

In recent years, nature-based interventions (NBIs) designed to address mental wellbeing and ecological concerns have increased markedly. Yet, evaluating the efficacy of these initiatives-both as a sector and individually-often remains a challenge. In particular, despite often sharing common aims of promoting wellbeing and nature connectedness, individual initiatives are often small, fragmented, and lack the expertise that would allow for effective programme evaluation at both the sector and programme level. Fortunately, these three challenges can be easily addressed through the implementation of an evaluation tool (i.e. standardised survey and dashboard) relying upon crowdsourced data from these otherwise-fragmented initiatives. Here, we use nature connectedness data from an evaluation tool developed by Natural England as a proof-of-concept for this approach. Our illustrative findings show that by pooling data from several initiatives with common aims, the tool is able to produce useful sector-wide insights which would have been otherwise undetectable by any NBI's individual evaluation efforts due to sample size and fragmentation. In our discussion, we (a) demonstrate how the insights from our analyses are consistent with the literature (and, therefore, indicative of success as a proof-of-concept) and (b) discuss how the tool can be enhanced and best implemented for practical benefit to individual programmes and the sector. We also provide an improved version of the standardised survey used for the present illustration in supplemental material.

Climate change is expected to cause latitudinal and elevational shifts in where crops can grow, with major consequences for land use, rural livelihoods and biodiversity. Shifts in agroforestry systems can be especially transformative, as this alters tree cover. We used semi-structured interviews and vegetation surveys to investigate the patterns, drivers, consequences and future trajectories of an upward shift of Arabica coffee agroforestry within its native range in the Afromontane mountains. We observed a climate-, income- and crop raiding-driven upward shift of coffee production into a novel elevational range, with positive feedback mechanisms enhancing the future adoption of agroforestry. Forest and open-land-derived agroforests showed similar woody plant species richness and large overlaps in community composition. Open-land-derived coffee agroforestry is, and is expected to increasingly be, the dominant coffee agroforestry type in the novel range, with positive implications for tree cover, biodiversity and ecosystem services in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

In light of growing mental health challenges globally, understanding the positive impacts of nature on mental wellbeing is more important than ever. However, the impacts of one of the most common intentional human-wildlife interactions, feeding wild birds, are not well understood. We surveyed 3658 participatory scientists in the USA and Canada who take part in Project FeederWatch to examine associations between wellbeing and bird feeding. Quantitative data showed that most respondents thought feeding and observing birds had a positive impact on their wellbeing over six months of participation, even when other events in their lives did not. Qualitative data revealed that feeding and observing birds positively impacted respondent wellbeing through their emotions, engagement with the activity, and creating a sense of meaning. These findings suggest linkages between bird feeding and positive mental health, while underscoring a need for further research on the mechanisms through which these linkages operate.

Integrating ecological trap theory and niche construction reveals a specific and underexamined category: self-induced traps, in which an organism's own construction decouples the cues guiding its choices from outcomes. Self-induced traps are expected to be rare because selection eliminates construction when costs rebound on the constructor. Traps persist when costs escape this correction, being delayed in time, displaced onto others or other geographies, or hidden below thresholds. Humans are distinctive because our construction extends to the information environment: We build not only the material conditions that degrade outcomes but also the signal environment through which those outcomes would need to be detected. This creates a stacked trap in which proxy rewards reinforce engagement while viability feedback is blocked. Applied to the Anthropocene traps that define the polycrisis, the framework supplies the perceptual mechanism sustaining lock-in and frames solutions towards repairing cue-outcome relationships at the environmental level.

Scaling up investment in ecosystems is a national and international public policy priority. Evaluations of the total amount spent have been severely criticised, with a lack of transparent reporting, especially of private finance flows, a known limitation. We provide a country-wide snapshot of investment in nature in the UK based on publicly available data, estimating total annual nature finance flows in the UK of ~£1.15bn. Public investment in agri-environment (£389.1m) and grant schemes (£314.8m) accounted for over 60% of identified flows. Private financial flows (£142.4m) consisted of corporate philanthropy (£71.5m), return-seeking investment and loans (£50.7m), and credit and unit purchases (£20.2m). Estimated flows from NGOs and philanthropic grants totalled £388.5m. Interactions between flows mean double counting must be considered when summing. We find major public transparency gaps in nature finance flows, undermining efforts to understand the both the extent of nature finance flows and their effectiveness for nature recovery.

Forestry is commonly framed through biophysical metrics - canopy cover, timber yields, carbon stocks - defined by global standards that travel into national policies. These definitions frequently displace the lived landscapes in which forests are sustained. This perspective article argues for a conceptual shift: recognizing the everyday work of care and organizing - often unpaid, often feminized, that bring into being and sustain forest landscapes - as central to forest governance. Drawing on research across the Global South and North, I show how technocratic forest definitions and program architectures overlook social reproduction, spiritual values, and affective ties, thereby fueling conflict, eroding legitimacy, and weakening outcomes. I propose an agenda for just forestry that (i) values care work in forests and communities, (ii) recognizes informal organizing in decision-making, (iii) embraces plural values associated with forestry, and (iv) adopts a systemic lens that entails coordination with sectors beyond forestry as well as across scales, from local governance to international climate programs. Reframing forests as lived landscapes - entangled with everyday practices, identities, and relationships - does more than correct blind spots - it offers practical pathways for durable stewardship under climate and biodiversity crises.

Since ash dieback was reported in Sweden in 2001, the invasive fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus has caused mortality of Fraxinus excelsior, threatening biodiversity, ecosystem functions, landscapes, and hundreds of associated species. This perspective reviews more than a decade of conservation efforts led by Rädda Asken ("Save the Ash"), a citizen science initiative launched in 2013 without dedicated state funding. Public engagement identified nearly 1300 putatively resistant trees, enabled clonal propagation, and established conservation and breeding infrastructure. Research showing that resistance is heritable supports breeding and restoration. However, fragmented financing and limited national coordination have restricted progress. Key uncertainties concern the durability of resistance, maintenance of genetic diversity, secondary pathogens, and the threat of Agrilus planipennis. Sweden's experience demonstrates both the value and limitations of grassroots conservation efforts. Future recovery of ash and its associated biodiversity will require sustained investment in breeding and research, in addition to a coordinated, long-term restoration programme that supports implementation, monitoring and adaptive management.

Other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) serve as an important tool to recognise diverse areas for their contributions to conservation, yet implementation remains slow. A key barrier to implementation is the lack of engagement with stakeholders who manage these areas and thus uncertainty about how best to secure their participation. We interviewed stakeholders representing different land uses that could be candidate OECMs in Australia, to capture their perspectives on OECMs and the factors that may motivate or deter their engagement. Stakeholder responses revealed an openness to and interest in OECMs, although many questions that are critical to their participation were raised. Concerns around long-term obligations and conflict between different management objectives were recurrent limitations to engagement. The opportunity for wider recognition of conservation efforts and increased social licence were key motivating factors. Important differences between stakeholder groups indicate that tailored strategies may improve engagement, which is a critical step in progressing OECMs.

How close are we to achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs)? No one really knows. As the world enters the countdown to 2030, uncertainty remains. Progress remains fragmented, hindered by data gaps, opaque governance, and politicization that limits scientific communication and real-time policy adaptation. Limitations reveal the need to rethink how sustainability is measured, reported, and governed. Using the SDGs, we argue that monitoring systems fail to capture real-time dynamics, leaving humanity rudderless amid sustainability crises. In an era of big data, future sustainability agendas must evolve into adaptive, data-integrated frameworks capable of continuous feedback and adjustment. However, weaknesses in progress measurement and reporting are not only technical. They also reflect data politics, because decisions over which indicators count, who produces them, how they are validated, and whose infrastructures and funding sustain them are shaped by power relations that may influence what becomes visible and what remains unmeasured.

Human-wildlife interactions present both challenges and opportunities across Europe. Managing these interactions often requires decisions that fall between reactive (taking action after a problem arises) and proactive (anticipating and preventing negative impacts) management. This study examines factors influencing public attitudes toward proactive and reactive wildlife management in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom), based on an online survey of 2400 participants. We relied on the cognitive hierarchy framework to explain relationships between management attitudes and factors such as wildlife value orientations, risk perceptions, and perceptions of red deer (Cervus elaphus L.). Attitudes toward wildlife management were generally shaped by value orientations and risk perception. Mutualism was associated with support for proactive wildlife and human protection, whereas domination was associated with reactive and proactive management aimed at protecting human interests. Higher perceived risk further increased support for proactive management strategies. These results provide practical insights into how public attitudes relate to wildlife management.