Papers by peter Bridgewater
Biodiversity and Conservation
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services held its 8t... more The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services held its 8th plenary session online in June 2021, during which a new budget was approved up to 2023, continuing work plans were agreed, and scoping documents for two new assessments, the nexus and transformative change assessments, were accepted.
Nigella sativa L. Ranunculaceae
Ethnobotany of the Himalayas
Comment on Davies et al., 'Towards a Universal declaration of the Rights of Wetlands
Marine and Freshwater Research
Promulgation of a Declaration of Rights for Wetlands to improve their conservation and management... more Promulgation of a Declaration of Rights for Wetlands to improve their conservation and management has superficial attraction. However, difficulties with defining what a wetland is and confusing human rights with ecosystem rights suggest there are more problems than opportunities inherent in such a Declaration. Involving Indigenous and local knowledge in the discussion without a clear vision for access to and use of that knowledge also has problems. A better solution to stemming the tide of wetland loss is to rethink the problem in terms of landscape stewardship and to use the existing governance and legislative systems, especially the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Ecosystem Approach in tandem with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Iran, 1971), more effectively.
Combining modern tracking data and historical records improves understanding of the summer habitats of the Eastern Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus
Working landscapes need at least 20% native habitat
Conservation Letters
International agreements aim to conserve 17% of Earth's land area by 2020 but include no ... more International agreements aim to conserve 17% of Earth's land area by 2020 but include no area‐based conservation targets within the working landscapes that support human needs through farming, ranching, and forestry. Through a review of country‐level legislation, we found that just 38% of countries have minimum area requirements for conserving native habitats within working landscapes. We argue for increasing native habitats to at least 20% of working landscape area where it is below this minimum. Such target has benefits for food security, nature's contributions to people, and the connectivity and effectiveness of protected area networks in biomes in which protected areas are underrepresented. We also argue for maintaining native habitat at higher levels where it currently exceeds the 20% minimum, and performed a literature review that shows that even more than 50% native habitat restoration is needed in particular landscapes. The post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is an opportune moment to include a minimum habitat restoration target for working landscapes that contributes to, but does not compete with, initiatives for expanding protected areas, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Ecological Novelty Is Inevitable, Can Be Positive, but Needs Policy Context: A Comment on Heger and Colleagues (2019)
BioScience
Ecosystems and People
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is a... more The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent scientific body focused on assessing the state of the world's ecosystem services and biodiversity. IPBES members agreed in 2017 that a review of the Platform's first work programme should be undertaken by an independent panel examining all aspects of IPBES' workincluding implementation of the four functions of IPBES; policies, operating principles and procedures; governance structure and arrangements; communication, stakeholder engagement and partnerships; and funding mechanisms. The review found that for IPBES to have its anticipated transformative impact: • All four functions of IPBES (i.e. assessment, knowledge generation, policy support, capacity building), with better communication, must be significantly strengthened, integrated and delivered together; • The policy aspects of IPBES work need to be strengthened and greater emphasis needs to be placed on the co-design and co-production of assessments; • A more strategic and collaborative approach to stakeholders is needed; and • IPBES must develop a more sustainable financial base. Given those changes, IPBES, as an embryonic boundary organization, can become the key influencing organization in the global landscape of biodiversity and ecosystem services organizations, helping thus to catalyze transformative change in the relationship between people and the rest of nature.
The killing of the Magic Pudding Chef and the consequences for conservation
Australian Zoologist
Biodiversity and Conservation
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) hel... more The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) held its 7th plenary session in Paris (France) during May 2019. The plenary marks the end of the first work programme and the release of the global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The important key messages from the global assessment are now more dire than those of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment from 2005, and its precursor, the Global Biodiversity Assessment of 1995. The plenary also considered the results of the review of IPBES, the future rolling work programme until 2030, and a budgetary framework. Using the review to reframe IPBES' way of working, especially better policy delivery, will set it up for continued success.
Whose nature? What solutions? Linking Ecohydrology to Nature-based solutions
Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Jan 30, 2017
The Anthropocene biosphere: do threatened species, Red Lists, and protected areas have a future role in nature conservation?
Biodiversity and Conservation, 2016
Socio-Environmental Systems (SES) Research: what have we learned and how can we use this information in future research programs
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2016
Ecological Integrity: A Relevant Concept for International Environmental Law in the Anthropocene?
Yearbook of International Environmental Law, 2014
Ecohydrology - a perspective from the Man and the Biosphere Programme
Ecohydrology Hydrobiology, 2002
The Man and Biosphere programme of UNESCO: rambunctious child of the sixties, but was the promise fulfilled?
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 2016
Hydrology Research, 2015
Large dams may be substantial contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is ... more Large dams may be substantial contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is the third most important greenhouse gas but studies on N 2 O emission from reservoirs are limited. We measured N 2 O emissions and environmental factors including atmospheric pressure, wind speed, air and soil/sediment temperature, biomass, soil water content and organic matter, total nitrogen, NH 4 þ-N and NO 3 À-N of soil, from the littoral zones of the Miyun Reservoir, near Beijing, China, in January, May, June, August, and October during 2009 and 2010. Using the static chamber method we investigated the seasonal and spatial variation, relating it to environmental factors. Spatial and temporal variations in N 2 O flux appeared to be influenced by several environmental factors, working singly or in conjunction, including soil water depth, soil nutrition, biomass, and wind speed. In winter and spring, high N 2 O emissions (up to 1.9 ± 0.6 mg N 2 O m À2 h À1) were recorded at both eulittoral and infralittoral zones, while the flux from the supralittoral zone was low during all the seasons (from À0.04 to 0.01 mg N 2 O m À2 h À1). This study suggests that the littoral zone is a substantial source of N 2 O. However, its spatiotemporal variation and environmental drivers are still not clear.
¿Arponear ballenas o increpar a quienes la cazan?
A primera vista, los argumentos formulados en el plano internacional sobre la caza de ballenas so... more A primera vista, los argumentos formulados en el plano internacional sobre la caza de ballenas son sencillos. La idea de que habría que prohibirla suscita un amplio apoyo, mientras que algunos países se oponen enérgicamente a ella. Ahora bien, los argumentos son en realidad mucho más complejos y ponen de manifiesto, entre otras cosas, la distancia cada vez mayor que media entre el marco jurídico existente y las cuestiones a las que debería aplicarse en la actualidad, distancia que, a su vez, refleja la creciente complejidad del debate ambiental, en particular las tensiones entre la ecología tradicional y los planteamientos hostiles al antropocentrismo. En el artículo se destacan las dificultades con que tropieza este marco para tratar los aspectos humanos de la diversidad cultural así como el hecho de que la dinámica ecológica abarca múltiples escalas. La conclusión es que, una vez iniciado el debate, puede haberse perdido el interés por cuestiones urgentes de conservación.
Open Journal of Ecology, 2014
Zonation of land or water areas is a tool frequently used to clarify management objectives, assis... more Zonation of land or water areas is a tool frequently used to clarify management objectives, assist with monitoring of the effectiveness of those objectives and reconcile user conflicts. The Ramsar Convention has promoted zonation for wetlands as a management tool, but in a rather unstructured way, in contrast to the highly structured three-zone system of UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserves. At the same time, over the last 40 years IUCN has been developing a categorisation system for protected areas, currently based on management and monitoring objectives. Research undertaken primarily on wetlands in China, but with desk-top study in other regions has shown that by using these management and monitoring objectives as guiding principles, and building on the Biosphere Reserve zonation system, a new approach is possible for wetland protected or conserved areas. Developing from the three-zone system of Biosphere Reserves this new approach proposes four zones, offering more utility and flexibility for managing, monitoring and comparing wetland conservation sites, both spatially and temporally.
From Stockholm to Rio II: The Natural and Institutional Landscapes Through Which Rivers Flow
Boon/River Conservation and Management, 2012
ABSTRACT Ecclesiastes 1:7 (King James Version): All the rivers runinto the sea; yet the sea is no... more ABSTRACT Ecclesiastes 1:7 (King James Version): All the rivers runinto the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. Through the centuries writers, poets and visual artists - not to mention indigenous peoples, have set their stories and visual imagery against the majesty and power of rivers. And the rivers have flowed on, powerfully and quietly through landscapes increasingly transformed by human action, and flowed through institutional landscapes, creating and modelling our approach to environmental management.Looking at river flows through institutional landscapes we go from the first world environmental gathering in Stockholm in 1972 to the UN General Assembly in 2000 which adopted the eight Millennium Development Goals, Goal 7 being on environmental sustainability. Much of the last 20 years has been focused on integrated management of various kinds and under various names, much guided by discussion among the group of agencies now known as UN-Water. At the same time Europe was regionally addressing these issues through directives of the European Union, and some Conventions established under the Council of Europe.There are now new concepts to grasp and understand – for example, ecological flows, catchment models, integrated water resources management. Two centuries ago the idea that a proportion of a river's flow should be allocated to other environmental functions – the so-called ecological or environmental flow – would have seemed incomprehensible. It has now become commonplace to talk of ecosystem services and use this as shorthand to value ecosystems.So a new paradigm is needed for thinking about rivers; recognizing them as 4-dimensional, anastomosing features that connect, rather than divide, landscapes, linking alpine lakes to coral reefs. As the beaver is an ecosystem engineer in river systems, rivers are great landscape engineers, something our puny attempts at environmental engineering often suffer by.All the rivers run….
Uploads
Papers by peter Bridgewater