Biodiversity encompasses the variety of life on Earth across all levels—genes, species, and ecosystems. It is vital for maintaining ecosystem services, ensuring resilience against environmental changes, and supporting human well-being. However, biodiversity is under unprecedented threat from multiple fronts, primarily driven by anthropogenic activities. Habitat destruction and fragmentation stand as the most significant threats to biodiversity. The expansion of agricultural land, urban development, logging, and mining activities results in the loss and fragmentation of habitats, critically affecting species survival.
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- Anthropocene boosters and the attack on wilderness conservation
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- Hunting, fishing and farming remain the biggest threats to wildlife
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- Conservation and Poverty Reduction
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- World Database on Protected Areas
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- Paiva, Paula Fernanda Pinheiro Ribeiro, et al. Deforestation in protect areas in the Amazon: a threat to biodiversity. Biodiversity and Conservation 29 (2020): 19-38.
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- Half Earth Project. E.O. Wilson
- Top-down and grassroots. Tropical Conservation Fund
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- Why we need biodiversity in our quest to save forests and climate
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- Conservation of adaptive potential and functional diversity: integrating old and new approaches
- Conservation genetics in a globally changing environment: present problems, paradoxes and future challenges
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- Horton, K.G., La Sorte, F.A., Sheldon, D. et al. Phenology of nocturnal avian migration has shifted at the continental scale. Nat. Clim. Chang. 10, 63–68 (2020).
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- Svenning, J. C. (2020). Rewilding should be central to global restoration efforts. One Earth, 3(6), 657-660.
- Lamperty, T., Chiok, W. X., Khoo, M. D., Amir, Z., Baker, N., Chua, M. A., ... & Luskin, M. S. (2023). Rewilding in Southeast Asia: Singapore as a case study. Conservation Science and Practice, 5(3), e12899.
- Svenning, J. C. (2020). Rewilding should be central to global restoration efforts. One Earth, 3(6), 657-660.
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Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
Small Population Phenomenon
- Wilcox, B. A., & Murphy, D. D. (1985). Conservation strategy: the effects of fragmentation on extinction. The American Naturalist, 125(6), 879-887.
- California Condor Recovery Plan
- Move It? A framework and ranking system for assisted colonization
- Arora, N., Nater, A., van Schaik, C. P., Willems, E. P., van Noordwijk, M. A., Goossens, B., ... & Kuze, N. (2010). Effects of Pleistocene glaciations and rivers on the population structure of Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(50), 21376-21381.
Landscape Ecology
- Clark, W. (2010) Principles of Landscape Ecology. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):34.
Economics Restoration Ecology
Tools
- Conservation Evidence
- Conservation Standards
- National Geographic MapMaker: Biodiversity Hotspots
- World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA)
- Conservation Gateway: Nature Conservancy
- Biodiversity Intactness Index
- Map of Life
- Issues Facing Our Planet - IUCN Briefs
- Tropical Field Guides from the Field Museum
- Macaulay Library - High quality bird calls
- Habitat suitability modeling, linkage design, and corridor modeling
- Handbook of Biological Statistics
- Global Forest Change 2000–2013 Data Download
- Global Forest Watch. Tool to view forest loss (logging) over time.
- EstimateS: Statistical estimation of species richness.
- Miradi: Share new cloud-based software system that enables conservation practitioners #monitor #conservation projects
- Protected Planet: Interactive map of protected areas and species overall.
- RAMAS Software. Spatial analysis with Population Viability Analysis
- TEAM (Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring Network). Long-term monitoring data.
- VORTEX - Population viability analysis software.
Conservation Biology Lectures and Podcasts
- Managing impacts on nature with economics
- Shared Planet (BBC): a series exploring the complex interface between a growing human population and wildlife
- Mongabay Newscast: News and inspiration from nature's frontline.
- Andrew Balmford and Stephen Polasky: An Economist and Ecologist Walk Into A Bar
- Jon Erickson: "CRASH COURSE" in Ecological Economics
Technology in the Field
- Eavesdrop on forest sounds to effectively monitor biodiversity, researchers say
- Jahn, O., Ganchev, T. D., Marques, M. I., & Schuchmann, K. L. (2017). Automated sound recognition provides insights into the behavioral ecology of a tropical bird. PloS one, 12(1), e0169041.
Conservation Biology News
- Llama Pack Project in Sacred Valley, Peru
- 10 hour boat ride down the Madre de Dios river, which feeds the Amazon. Incredible adventures including seeing several monkey species, a tapir, a gigantic hollow strangler fig tree, and trees full of macaws
- Part I: Has big conservation gone astray? Part II: How big donors and corporations shape conservation goals. Part III: Conservation today, the old-fashioned way. Part IV: Conservation’s people problem. Part V: Epilogue: Conservation still divided, looking for a way forward
- Why Climate Change Isn’t Our Biggest Environmental Problem, and Why Technology Won’t Save Us
- Where Your Cat Goes May Blow Your Mind | National Geographic
- Ebola vaccine shows promise for gorillas and chimps. A small trial suggests that a vaccine against Ebola could protect gorillas and chimps from the deadly disease.
- Why function is catching on in conservation: Counting what species do is becoming as important as counting how many there are.
- Original article: Biodiversity moves beyond counting species: Ecologists are increasingly looking at how richness of traits — rather than number of species — helps set the health of ecosystems.
- American beekeepers lost 33 percent of bees in 2016-17
- Has the Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction Already Arrived? Nature
- Large conservation gains possible for global biodiversity facets. Original article and Review article
- An evolving IUCN Red List needs to be both innovative and rigorous (commentary)
- The Tragedy of the Commons
- Newly released data suggest that rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon has reached the highest level since 2009.
- A brand new article in National Geographic about how our resource use is unsustainable. @National Geographic
- Gold-mining in the Madre de Dios
- Massive effort to save the Amazon is failing even in ‘protected’ areas
- Impact of gun-hunting on monkey species and implications for primate conservation on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea
- Habitat fragmentation is associated to gut microbiota diversity of an endangeredprimate: implications for conservation
- In unprecedented move, Michelin adopts zero deforestation for rubber sourcing
- Conservation and People
- Poachers Are Killing Andean Camels for Their Wool
- New monkey species discovered right here in the Madre de Dios: Urubamba brown titi, Callicebus urubambensis
- Captured fog used to re-vegetate coastal Peruvian deserts
- Logging of mahogany in Peru. Interactive map
- Can scientists clone a rhinoceros?
- Push to save endangered Florida Panther prompts new payment program to increase habitat
- Amazon gold rush destroying huge swaths of rainforest
- Peru's carbon quantified: Economic and conservation boon
- How saving West African forests might have prevented the Ebola epidemic
- Conservationists propose Dracula Reserve in Ecuador. Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Biodiversity Hotspot
