AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-28DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02145-5
Veronica Strang, Johannes M Luetz
{"title":"Eco-pilgrimages: Linking humans, heritage, and hydrology.","authors":"Veronica Strang, Johannes M Luetz","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02145-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02145-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the last century, the health of aquatic ecosystems around the world has reached critical levels. In the UK, waterways are severely polluted, and yet many wells and springs are still venerated as 'sacred'. This article presents 'eco-pilgrimages' as a sustainability strategy to connect key heritage sites through ecological corridors. This aims, simultaneously, to strengthen biodiversity; to enable immersive historical and ecological education; to contribute to human well-being; and to provide more effective flood amelioration in river catchment areas.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143522323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-28DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02147-3
Victoria Reyes-García, Sebastian Villasante, Karina Benessaiah, Ram Pandit, Arun Agrawal, Joachim Claudet, Lucas A Garibaldi, Mulako Kabisa, Laura Pereira, Yves Zinngrebe
{"title":"The costs of subsidies and externalities of economic activities driving nature decline.","authors":"Victoria Reyes-García, Sebastian Villasante, Karina Benessaiah, Ram Pandit, Arun Agrawal, Joachim Claudet, Lucas A Garibaldi, Mulako Kabisa, Laura Pereira, Yves Zinngrebe","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02147-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02147-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Economic sectors that drive nature decline are heavily subsidized and produce large environmental externalities. Calls are increasing to reform or eliminate subsidies and internalize the environmental costs of these sectors. We compile data on subsidies and externalities across six sectors driving biodiversity loss-agriculture, fossil fuels, forestry, infrastructure, fisheries and aquaculture, and mining. The most updated estimates suggest that subsidies to these sectors total between US$1.7 and US$3.2 trillion annually, while environmental externalities range between US$10.5 and US$22.6 trillion annually. Moreover, data gaps suggest that these figures underestimate the global magnitude of subsidies and externalities. We discuss the need and opportunities of building a baseline to account for the costs of subsidies and externalities of economic activities driving nature decline. A better understanding of the complexity, size, design, and effects of subsidies and externalities of such economic sectors could facilitate and expedite discussions to strengthen multilateral rules for their reform.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143522330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-26DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02150-8
Zebensui Morales-Reyes, Jomar M Barbosa, José A Sánchez-Zapata, Irene Pérez-Ibarra
{"title":"Farmer perceptions of the vulnerabilities of traditional livestock farming systems under global change.","authors":"Zebensui Morales-Reyes, Jomar M Barbosa, José A Sánchez-Zapata, Irene Pérez-Ibarra","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02150-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02150-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The continuity of traditional extensive livestock farming is being challenged by rapid socioeconomic and environmental changes, threatening livelihoods and ecosystem services critical to food security and sustainability. We conducted a large-scale assessment involving 255 livestock farmers across six extensive livestock farming systems in Spain to understand their perceptions of vulnerabilities. Using the Coupled Infrastructure Systems framework, we identified 24 different vulnerabilities, mainly caused by external socioeconomic and biophysical disturbances, such as resource costs, low profitability of livestock products, climate variability, and conflicts with wildlife. The main factors explaining these vulnerabilities were primary productivity, farm location, presence of large predators, and climatic conditions. The findings highlight the complex interplay of these factors and provide important insights for the maintenance of extensive livestock farming systems in Europe. This information is crucial for informing policy decisions aimed at supporting these farming systems and ensuring their contribution to food security, sustainability and biodiversity conservation.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143514151","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-25DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02155-3
Fernando A O Silveira
{"title":"Seven ways to prevent biomism.","authors":"Fernando A O Silveira","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02155-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02155-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biomism, the pervasive prejudice, discrimination or antagonism against a given biome, highlights critical and overlooked dimensions of human behavior biases that have consequences for real-world conservation. Here, I propose seven ways to end biomism in educational, scientific and conservation arenas, including (1) the recognition and value of all biomes, (2) use of inclusive language that acknowledges diverse perspectives, (3) preventing research prioritization based on colonial legacies, (4) tailoring biome-specific conservation, management and restoration, (5) adapting legislation to embrace all biomes, (6) developing inclusive regulatory measures and (7) equalizing funding opportunities. Recognizing and addressing biases against specific biomes is essential for fostering a more inclusive and equitable approach to conservation arenas and abandoning long-standing prejudices rooted in colonial legacies, aesthetic preferences and utilitarian views of nature.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143490310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-22DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02149-1
Johan Ekroos, Maria von Post, Anna S Persson, Martin Stjernman, Ola Olsson
{"title":"Green infrastructure has weak conceptual links with efficient biodiversity conservation.","authors":"Johan Ekroos, Maria von Post, Anna S Persson, Martin Stjernman, Ola Olsson","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02149-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02149-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To reverse biodiversity loss, creating resilient ecological networks has been promoted in policy and practice. However, we argue that emphasising networks within policy without clear conservation prioritisations may direct focus away from ecological processes important for population persistence. We studied the rationale for resilient ecological networks represented in a policy context, by reviewing research related to biodiversity within the concept of green infrastructure in European policy. We compared this outcome with underlying empirical evidence for effects of landscape properties on ecological processes relevant to population persistence. We show that interventions within green infrastructure research partly diverge from evidence of efficient conservation derived from empirical studies, likely linked to an insufficient acknowledgement of ecological processes determining long-term conservation of populations in GI policy and research. We discuss possible implications for biodiversity conservation and argue for upcoming policies to better integrate scientific evidence and underlying ecological processes to improve biodiversity outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143476070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-21DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02151-7
Raquel Ajates, Petra Benyei, Helen Avery, Egle Butkeviciene, Alexandra Czeglédi, Dominique Desclaux, Gerid Hager, Barbara Heinisch, Peter N Hoebe, Toos C G E van Noordwijk, Marco Barzman
{"title":"Navigating the participatory turn in agricultural and food research: Best practice from citizen science.","authors":"Raquel Ajates, Petra Benyei, Helen Avery, Egle Butkeviciene, Alexandra Czeglédi, Dominique Desclaux, Gerid Hager, Barbara Heinisch, Peter N Hoebe, Toos C G E van Noordwijk, Marco Barzman","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02151-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02151-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Food systems have enormous impacts on people and the planet, with agriculture and food research becoming strategic for many countries. However, the way this research is conducted and the rise of new agri-food technologies have ethical and socio-economic implications. To address these, many scholars are gaining interest in participatory methods, such as citizen science, but are unfamiliar with the latest debates on ethical and methodological issues surrounding non-academic stakeholder engagement. In this perspective paper, we revisit the European Citizen Science Association's (ECSA) Ten Principles of Citizen Science under the specific lens of agri-food research. The discussion presented is based on a review of the state of the art from academic literature, secondary data from agri-food citizen science projects, and the reflections of 11 scientist and practitioners, members of ECSA's Agri-Food Working Group. The findings reflect theoretical, methodological, and practical implications for navigating the participatory turn in agriculture and food research.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143466511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-21DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02146-4
Toryn Whitehead
{"title":"Illegal reintroductions of lynx are irresponsible and the wrong path forward for rewilding in Scotland.","authors":"Toryn Whitehead","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02146-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02146-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In January 2025 four Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were illegally released into the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. All four animals were subsequently captured but unfortunately one lynx died overnight. While the conservation community has widely condemned the unknown perpetrators, possibly guerrilla rewilders, little attention has been given to why illegal releases are damaging. Here I outline the three main social-cultural reasons as to why an illegal reintroduction is irresponsible - 1) a breakdown in dialogue and trust; 2) the negative implications for conflict and coexistence; and 3) the spread of misinformation and politicisation - and the disproportionate benefits of a legal reintroduction. Scotland's history is already littered with illicit releases which have damaged trust and sparked human-wildlife conflicts which otherwise may have been avoided or mitigated. Without patience, empathy, and dialogue to co-produce a reintroduction plan and coexistence strategies, any legal reintroduction of lynx is doomed to fail - let alone an illegal release.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143466506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-19DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02134-8
Tammy L Elwell, Laura Nahuelhual, Marta Silva Fernández, Julie A Bianchini, Steven D Gaines
{"title":"Enhancing the potential of children's agency to achieve global sustainability.","authors":"Tammy L Elwell, Laura Nahuelhual, Marta Silva Fernández, Julie A Bianchini, Steven D Gaines","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02134-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02134-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite progress toward sustainability, it remains uncertain how we as a global society will make transformations needed at scale. We argue that intentionally involving children in sustainability efforts may catalyze promising changes in how we approach human-environmental crises. This involvement, however, entails much more than the traditional focus on exposing children to environmental education or sustainability learning. Here, we present a pathway where children move through incremental yet fluid stages, from rich experiences in nature in early childhood, to reflective activities, leadership development, and formal opportunities in sustainability governance in later childhood and adolescence. Each stage requires overcoming distinct barriers that vary across and within countries: we identify and discuss these main barriers, and suggest potential ways the sustainability sciences community can help to reduce them. We offer this proposed pathway as a first step toward ensuring young people's involvement, agency, and stewardship in achieving global sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143456319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AmbioPub Date : 2025-02-19DOI: 10.1007/s13280-025-02144-6
Jens Ergon, Roger Hildingsson, Mikael Karlsson
{"title":"Exploring a green Swedish model: Coinciding and contradictory interests on a just climate transformation in Sweden.","authors":"Jens Ergon, Roger Hildingsson, Mikael Karlsson","doi":"10.1007/s13280-025-02144-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02144-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Climate policies are challenged around the world, a development coinciding with the backlash of globalisation. The emergence of the modern welfare state, however, indicates that similar tensions may give rise to transformative change, if coinciding interests for change develop. This article explores the case of Sweden, critical due to its longstanding role as an environmental frontrunner, now experiencing climate policy rollback. Based on 31 in-depth interviews, we analyse perceptions on a just transformation among business, trade union and civil society actors. The analysis reveals new and coinciding interests, driven by desire to restore climate leadership, and includes financial reform, more active state interventions and new policy tools to ensure public legitimacy. Views diverge on the depth of a just transformation, and power relations are different compared to the emergence of the welfare state. Nevertheless, a green Swedish model can be discerned, forging enhanced climate mitigation and renewed welfare state arrangements.</p>","PeriodicalId":461,"journal":{"name":"Ambio","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143456328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}