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The workshop “Transdisciplinary Research on Biodiversity, Steps towards Integrated Biodiversity Research” was organized on 14-15 November 2011 in Brussels by the German-based Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) in cooperation with the European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS) and the Belgian Biodiversity Platform.
The workshop was a follow up of the EPBRS summit “Positive Visions for Biodiversity” organized in November 2010, and its aim was to explore ways to further increase the capacities of transdisciplinary biodiversity research in Europe. It brought together researchers and experts, representatives and decision-makers from European institutions and research funding agencies, as well as members from civil society and the private sector.
Participants discussed and identified in working groups key research topics and the added value of transdisciplinary approaches for three main themes of the “Positive Visions for Biodiversity” summit:
1/ The integration of biodiversity into every part of life
2/ Values and behaviours to a more harmonious way of life
3/ Governance that is more transparent and effective and that balances global and local responsibilities.
During the final plenary panel discussion, participants highlighted recommendations for promoting transdisciplinary biodiversity research:
➢ Scientists have a role to play in raising awareness on the importance of biodiversity as a transdisciplinary issue.
➢ Environmental policy representatives at national and European level have to open up to and interact with other sectors to better advocate for global biodiversity agreements and mobilize more funding for transdisciplinary research on biodiversity.
➢ There is a need for scientists who are interested in comunicating and advocating. The biodiversity community needs people who are able to bridge between worlds, both science and advocacy, to get transdisciplinary biodiversity topics on European research agendas.
➢ Scientific academic training should provide means and opportunities to train these new professionals to become the “in-between” links. Current educational and insitutional frameworks need to be adapted to provide such training and career opportunities.
➢ Innovation should be understood in a broader sense than technology and products with market value. Research is needed on innovative ways to increase sustainable use, recycling of natural resources and learning from natural processes.
➢ The biodiversity community needs to reinforce its identity and build up larger influential groups to be able to advocate more efficiently at national and European levels.
Among the main barriers to developing and implementing an efficient transdisciplinary research on biodiversity issues, the current trends in European research agendas to focus on technological and product oriented research is particularly detrimental. Improving advocacy on biodiversity and the implementation of transdisciplinary biodiversity research will be critical for the next decade to ensure the necessary knowledge for informing political decisions.
Large carnivores often impact human livelihoods and well‐being. Previous research has mostly focused on the negative impacts of large carnivores on human well‐being but has rarely considered the positive aspects of living with large carnivores. In particular, we know very little on people's direct experiences with large carnivores like personal encounters and on people's awareness and tolerance toward their exposure to large carnivores. Here, we focus on the wolf (Canis lupus), and report on a phone survey in Germany. We examined whether encounters with wolves were positive or negative experiences and quantified people's awareness and tolerance related to their exposure to wolves. We found that the majority of people reported positive experiences when encountering wolves, regardless of whether wolves were encountered in the wild within Germany, in the wild abroad, or in captivity. The frequency of encounters did not affect the probability to report positive, neutral, or negative experiences. Moreover, people in Germany expressed a high tolerance of living in close vicinity to wolves. These findings are novel and important because they highlight the positive aspects of living in proximity with large carnivores in human‐dominated landscapes.
The Eastern Steppe of Mongolia is one of the world's largest mostly intact grassland ecosystems and is characterised by a close coupling of societal and natural processes. In this ecosystem, mobility is one of the key characteristics of wildlife and human societies alike. The current economic development of Mongolia is accompanied by extensive societal transformation and changes in nomadic lifestyles, which potentially affects the unique steppe ecosystem and its biodiversity. The changing lifestyles are mainly characterised by rural-urban migration, resulting in reduced mobility of herders and their livestock, and presumably affecting wildlife. The question is how mobility can be fostered under these transformation processes. Time is pressing as a new generation is born which is growing up in urban environments and with new skill sets but a potential loss of the tight connection to nature and the nomadic lifestyle.
Klimaschutz- und Anpassungsmaßnahmen : Zielkonflikte und Synergien mit dem Biodiversitätsschutz
(2015)
Der Klimawandel ist eine der größten Herausforderungen der Gegenwart und seine Auswirkungen auf Natur, Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft werden vielfach untersucht. Minderungs- wie auch Anpassungsmaßnahmen sind somit ein wichtiges Handlungsfeld geworden. Während der Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die Biodiversität bereits seit Längerem Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen ist, rücken nun auch mögliche Folgen von Klimaschutz- und Anpassungsmaßnahmen auf die biologische Vielfalt in den Fokus der Forschung: So ist eine generelle Treibhausgasreduktion zwar prinzipiell förderlich, jedoch kann die Umsetzung der hierfür notwendigen Maßnahmen zu Zielkonflikten mit dem Biodiversitätsschutz führen. Gleichwohl gibt es Herangehensweisen, die Synergien beider Bereiche erkennen lassen.
Das Papier bietet einen Überblick über Maßnahmen des Klimaschutzes und der Klimawandelanpassung in den Bereichen Wald- und Forstwirtschaft, Moore, Landwirtschaft, nachwachsende Rohstoffe, Fließgewässer, Küsten und Meere. Diese werden mit Blick auf ihre möglichen (sowohl förderlichen als auch abträglichen) Auswirkungen auf die Biodiversität vorgestellt. Mit dieser problemorientierten Diskursfeldanalyse soll ein Beitrag geleistet werden, potentielle Zielkonflikte von Klima- und Biodiversitätsschutz zu erkennen und Synergien zu fördern.
Despite various policy and management responses, biodiversity continues to decline worldwide. We must redouble our efforts to halt biodiversity loss. The current lack of policy action can be partly linked to an insufficient knowledge base regarding the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Biodiversity research needs to incorporate both social and ecological factors to gain a deeper understanding of the interrelations between society and nature that affect biodiversity. A transdisciplinary research approach is crucial to fulfilling these requirements. It aims to produce new insights by integrating scientific and nonscientific knowledge. Several measures need to be taken to strengthen transdisciplinary social-ecological biodiversity research: Within the science community: firstly, scientists themselves must promote transdisciplinarity; secondly, the reward system for scientists must be brought into line with transdisciplinary research processes; and thirdly, academic training needs to advocate transdisciplinarity. As for research policies, research funding priorities need to be linked to large scale biodiversity policy frameworks, and funding for transdisciplinary social-ecological research on biodiversity must be increased significantly.
Demographic change is supposed to be the most important indirect driver for changing biodiversity. In this article, a systematic review of 148 studies was conducted to examine the scientific evidence for this relationship and to identify potential gaps in research. We explored the spatial distribution of studies, the categories addressed with respect to biodiversity and demographic change, and the ways in which their relationships were conceptualised (spatially and temporally) and valued. The majority of studies were carried out in Africa, Europe and North America. Our analysis confirms the trend that demographic phenomena were mostly found to negatively influence biodiversity. However, a considerable number of studies also point towards impacts that were context dependent, either positive or negative under certain circumstances. In addition to that we identified significant gaps in research. In particular, there is a lack of addressing (1) other demographic aspects such as population decline, age structure or gender differences, (2) spatial variability of, e.g. human population growth, (3) long-term effects of demographic processes, and (4) the context dependency (e.g. regulations/law enforcement, type of human activities, and choice of scale or proxy). We conclude there is evidence that the relationship between biodiversity and demographic change is much more complex than expected and so far represented in research. Thus, we call for a social–ecological biodiversity research that particularly focusses on the functional relation between biodiversity and human activities, namely the different types, context, and interdependent dynamics (spatial and temporal) of this complex relation.
The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is currently spreading across Europe, facilitated by climate change and global transportation. It is a vector of arboviruses causing human diseases such as chikungunya, dengue hemorrhagic fever and Zika fever. For the majority of these diseases, no vaccines or therapeutics are available. Options for the control of Ae. albopictus are limited by European regulations introduced to protect biodiversity by restricting or phasing out the use of pesticides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or products of genome editing. Alternative solutions are thus urgently needed to avoid a future scenario in which Europe faces a choice between prioritizing human health or biodiversity when it comes to Aedes-vectored pathogens. To ensure regulatory compliance and public acceptance, these solutions should preferably not be based on chemicals or GMOs and must be cost-efficient and specific. The present review aims to synthesize available evidence on RNAi-based mosquito vector control and its potential for application in the European Union. The recent literature has identified some potential target sites in Ae. albopictus and formulations for delivery. However, we found little information concerning non-target effects on the environment or human health, on social aspects, regulatory frameworks, or on management perspectives. We propose optimal designs for RNAi-based vector control tools against Ae. albopictus (target product profiles), discuss their efficacy and reflect on potential risks to environmental health and the importance of societal aspects. The roadmap from design to application will provide readers with a comprehensive perspective on the application of emerging RNAi-based vector control tools for the suppression of Ae. albopictus populations with special focus on Europe.