ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6590-3986
Current Organisation
University of Queensland
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Environmental Science and Management | Conservation and Biodiversity | Environmental Management | Environment Policy | Economic Models and Forecasting | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Economic Incentives for Environmental Protection | Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas in Forest and Woodlands Environments | Remnant Vegetation and Protected Conservation Areas at Regional or Larger Scales | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales | Mining Land and Water Management | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Ecosystem Assessment and Management of Mining Environments | Trade and Environment
Related Links
Publications
Effects of human demand on conservation planning for biodiversity and ecosystem services
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-02-2019
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13276
Do conservation covenants consider the delivery of ecosystem services?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Offsetting the Impacts of Mining to Achieve No Net Loss of Native Vegetation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.12260
Abstract: Offsets are a novel conservation tool, yet using them to achieve no net loss of bio ersity is challenging. This is especially true when using conservation offsets (i.e., protected areas) because achieving no net loss requires avoiding equivalent loss. Our objective was to determine if offsetting the impacts of mining achieves no net loss of native vegetation in Brazil's largest iron mining region. We used a land-use change model to simulate deforestation by mining to 2020 developed a model to allocate conservation offsets to the landscape under 3 scenarios (baseline, no new offsets current practice, like-for-like [by vegetation type] conservation offsetting near the impact site and threat scenario, like-for-like conservation offsetting of highly threatened vegetation) and simulated nonmining deforestation to 2020 for each scenario to quantify avoided deforestation achieved with offsets. Mines cleared 3570 ha of native vegetation by 2020. Under a 1:4 offset ratio, mining companies would be required to conserve >14,200 ha of native vegetation, doubling the current extent of protected areas in the region. Allocating offsets under current practice avoided deforestation equivalent to 3% of that caused by mining, whereas allocating under the threat scenario avoided 9%. Current practice failed to achieve no net loss because offsets did not conserve threatened vegetation. Explicit allocation of offsets to threatened vegetation also failed because the most threatened vegetation was widely dispersed across the landscape, making conservation logistically difficult. To achieve no net loss with conservation offsets requires information on regional deforestation trajectories and the distribution of threatened vegetation. However, in some regions achieving no net loss through conservation may be impossible. In these cases, other offsetting activities, such as revegetation, will be required.
Exploring potential impacts of mining on forest loss and fragmentation within a biodiverse region of Brazil's northeastern Amazon
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Carbon emissions due to deforestation for the production of charcoal used in Brazil's steel industry
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-02-2015
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2515
Renewable energy development threatens many globally important biodiversity areas
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-03-2020
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15067
Conservation implications and opportunities of mining activities for terrestrial mammal habitat
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.12806
Abstract: Mining companies increasingly commit to a net positive impact on bio ersity. However, assessing the industry's progress toward achieving this goal is limited by knowledge of current mining threats to bio ersity and the relevant opportunities available for them to improve conservation outcomes. Here, we investigate the global exposure of terrestrial mammal habitat to mining activities, revealing the 136 species with % of their habitat within 10 km of a mining property or exploration site. One third ( n = 42) of these species are already threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), suggesting projected increased demand for minerals may push some species beyond critical thresholds. Moreover, 28% ( n = 33) of species are Data Deficient, illustrating tangible ways for industry to fill current knowledge gaps. However, large discrepancies between our results and the species currently listed as threatened by mining in the IUCN Red List, suggest other species may be at risk and that conservation tools and analyses based on these data may underestimate the benefits of averting such threats. We recommend ways to better capture mining threats to species within IUCN Red List assessments and discuss how these changes could improve conservation outcomes in mineral‐rich areas.
Impact of 2019–2020 mega-fires on Australian fauna habitat
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-07-2020
Net Gain: Seeking Better Outcomes for Local People when Mitigating Biodiversity Loss from Development
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
Who benefits from ecosystem services? Analysing recreational moose hunting in Vermont, USA
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 09-07-2019
DOI: 10.1017/S003060531800145X
Abstract: Ecosystem services typically benefit multiple groups of people. However, natural resource management decisions aiming to secure ecosystem services for one beneficiary group rarely consider potential consequences for others. Here, we examine records of moose hunting in Vermont, USA, a recreational ecosystem service with at least two beneficiary groups: hunters, who benefit from recreational experiences and moose meat, and residents, who live in hunting areas and benefit from hunters’ expenditures. We ask how the allocation of hunting permits has affected (1) the total number of hunters and therefore the benefits enjoyed by this group, (2) the benefits residents received, and (3) the spatial distribution of benefits for each group. We found that changes in the allocation of permits had heterogeneous effects on the beneficiaries. For ex le, increasing the number of hunting permits increased the total number of hunters, but not necessarily the number of residents who potentially benefit. Also, a more balanced distribution of permits across Vermont increased the total number of potentially benefiting residents, but not those from lower socio-economic groups. Understanding these differences and interactions between beneficiary groups is necessary to distribute benefits equitably amongst them.
Biomass carbon emissions from nickel mining have significant implications for climate action
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 02-2023
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-2469411/V1
Abstract: Global nickel demand is projected to double by 2050 to support low-carbon technologies and renewable energy production. However, biomass carbon emissions from clearing vegetation for nickel mining are rarely included in corporate sustainability reports or considered in sourcing decisions. Here, we compiled new data for 481 nickel mines and undeveloped deposits to show that the footprint of nickel mining is approximately 5 to 500 times greater than previously reported (depending on the mine site), and thus the environmental impacts of nickel products, including batteries, have been greatly underestimated. We found large variation in biomass losses among mines, and, in many cases, these unaccounted carbon emissions were significant relative to other Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from nickel extraction and processing. Reporting emissions from biomass losses from mining is key for strategic decision making on where to source the nickel needed for effective climate action.
Strategic planning to mitigate mining impacts on protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-07-2022
Spatial and Temporal Dynamics and Value of Nature-Based Recreation, Estimated via Social Media
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-09-2016
Emerging evidence that armed conflict and coca cultivation influence deforestation patterns
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2019
Quantifying habitat losses and gains made by U.S. Species Conservation Banks to improve compensation policies and avoid perverse outcomes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2019
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12629
Disaggregating the evidence linking biodiversity and ecosystem services
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-10-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS13106
Abstract: Ecosystem services (ES) are an increasingly popular policy framework for connecting bio ersity with human well-being. These efforts typically assume that bio ersity and ES covary, but the relationship between them remains remarkably unclear. Here we analyse recent papers and show that reported relationships differ among ES, methods of measuring bio ersity and ES, and three different approaches to linking them (spatial correlations, management comparisons and functional experiments). For spatial correlations, bio ersity relates more strongly to measures of ES supply than to resulting human benefits. For management comparisons, bio ersity of ‘service providers’ predicts ES more often than bio ersity of functionally unrelated taxa, but the opposite is true for spatial correlations. Functional experiments occur at smaller spatial scales than management and spatial studies, which show contrasting responses to scale. Our results illuminate the varying dynamics relating bio ersity to ES, and show the importance of matching management efforts to the most relevant scientific evidence.
The climate sensitivity of carbon, timber, and species richness covaries with forest age in boreal–temperate North America
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-05-2019
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.14656
Abstract: Climate change threatens the provisioning of forest ecosystem services and bio ersity (ESB). The climate sensitivity of ESB may vary with forest development from young to old-growth conditions as structure and composition shift over time and space. This study addresses knowledge gaps hindering implementation of adaptive forest management strategies to sustain ESB. We focused on a number of ESB indicators to (a) analyze associations among carbon storage, timber growth rate, and species richness along a forest development gradient (b) test the sensitivity of these associations to climatic changes and (c) identify hotspots of climate sensitivity across the boreal-temperate forests of eastern North America. From pre-existing databases and literature, we compiled a unique dataset of 18,507 forest plots. We used a full Bayesian framework to quantify responses of nine ESB indicators. The Bayesian models were used to assess the sensitivity of these indicators and their associations to projected increases in temperature and precipitation. We found the strongest association among the investigated ESB indicators in old forests (>170 years). These forests simultaneously support high levels of carbon storage, timber growth, and species richness. Older forests also exhibit low climate sensitivity of associations among ESB indicators as compared to younger forests. While regions with a currently low combined ESB performance benefitted from climate change, regions with a high ESB performance were particularly vulnerable to climate change. In particular, climate sensitivity was highest east and southeast of the Great Lakes, signaling potential priority areas for adaptive management. Our findings suggest that strategies aimed at enhancing the representation of older forest conditions at landscape scales will help sustain ESB in a changing world.
Biodiversity offsetting in dynamic landscapes: Influence of regulatory context and counterfactual assumptions on achievement of no net loss
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
Using the multiple capitals framework to connect indicators of regional cumulative impacts of mining and pastoralism in the Murray Darling Basin, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2013
Optimal allocation of nature‐based solutions to achieve climate mitigation and adaptation goals
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-05-2023
DOI: 10.1002/PAN3.10481
Abstract: Nature‐based solutions (NbS) can prevent further climate change and increase local communities' capacity to adapt to the current impacts of climate change. However, the benefits obtained from implementing NbS are not distributed equally across people. Thus, it is key to further understand how people are impacted when implementing NbS. We developed a multi‐objective prioritization approach to identify changes in (i) the biophysical provision of ecosystem services, (ii) optimal allocation of NbS and (iii) monetary benefits when targeting climate mitigation versus climate adaptation goals. We used the increase in metric tons of carbon storage as representative of climate mitigation and the decrease in on‐site and downstream tons of sediment per year as representative of climate adaptation. Planning strategies that target climate mitigation or climate adaptation goals separately represent a loss of between 30% and 60% of the maximum possible carbon sequestration or sediment retention benefits. Conversely, targeting climate mitigation and climate adaptation goals at the same time captured more than 90% of the maximum possible benefits for all objectives. Priority NbS in the mitigation planning strategy included soil and water conservation and forest rehabilitation, while priority NbS in the adaptation planning strategy included grassland rehabilitation and hill terrace improvement. Targeting mitigation and adaptation goals at the same time captures 35M USD (89% of the maximum attainable) in value of carbon restored and retained, and 2M USD (100% of the maximum attainable) of avoided maintenance costs to the KGA hydropower plant. Conversely, failing to incorporate adaptation goals when developing climate plans only captures 1M of avoided maintenance costs to the KGA hydropower plant. Our approach can be replicated in other locations to promote cost‐effective investments in NbS able to secure both global and local benefits to people. This can improve the outcomes of international climate change financial schemes like the Green Climate Fund and the UN‐REDD+ program. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Advancing Systematic Conservation Planning for Ecosystem Services
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Priorities for protected area expansion so nations can meet their Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework commitments
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-10-2023
DOI: 10.1002/INC3.24
Retaining natural vegetation to safeguard biodiversity and humanity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-03-2022
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.14040
Abstract: Global efforts to deliver internationally agreed goals to reduce carbon emissions, halt bio ersity loss, and retain essential ecosystem services have been poorly integrated. These goals rely in part on preserving natural (e.g., native, largely unmodified) and seminatural (e.g., low intensity or sustainable human use) forests, woodlands, and grasslands. To show how to unify these goals, we empirically derived spatially explicit, quantitative, area‐based targets for the retention of natural and seminatural (e.g., native) terrestrial vegetation worldwide. We used a 250‐m‐resolution map of natural and seminatural vegetation cover and, from this, selected areas identified under different international agreements as being important for achieving global bio ersity, carbon, soil, and water targets. At least 67 million km 2 of Earth's terrestrial vegetation (∼79% of the area of vegetation remaining) required retention to contribute to bio ersity, climate, soil, and freshwater conservation objectives under 4 United Nations’ resolutions. This equates to retaining natural and seminatural vegetation across at least 50% of the total terrestrial (excluding Antarctica) surface of Earth. Retention efforts could contribute to multiple goals simultaneously, especially where natural and seminatural vegetation can be managed to achieve cobenefits for bio ersity, carbon storage, and ecosystem service provision. Such management can and should co‐occur and be driven by people who live in and rely on places where natural and sustainably managed vegetation remains in situ and must be complemented by restoration and appropriate management of more human‐modified environments if global goals are to be realized.
Aligning ecological compensation policies with the Post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to achieve real net gain in biodiversity
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-01-2022
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.12634
Abstract: Increasingly, government and corporate policies on ecological compensation (e.g., offsetting) are requiring “net gain” outcomes for bio ersity. This presents an opportunity to align development with the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Post‐2020 Global Bio ersity Framework's (GBF) proposed ambition for overall bio ersity recovery. In this perspective, we describe three conditions that should be accounted for in net gain policy to align outcomes with bio ersity recovery goals: namely, a requirement for residual losses from development to be compensated for by (1) absolute gains, which are (2) scaled to the achievement of explicit bio ersity targets, where (3) gains are demonstrably feasible. We show that few current policies meet these conditions, which risks undermining efforts to achieve the proposed Post‐2020 GBF milestones and goals, as well as other jurisdictional policy imperatives to halt and reverse bio ersity decline. To guide future decision‐making, we provide a supporting decision tree outlining net gain compensation feasibility.
Multi-site interactions: Understanding the offsite impacts of land use change on the use and supply of ecosystem services
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
Mining and biodiversity: key issues and research needs in conservation science
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-12-2018
Abstract: Mining poses serious and highly specific threats to bio ersity. However, mining can also be a means for financing alternative livelihood paths that, over the long-term, may prevent bio ersity loss. Complex and controversial issues associated with mining and bio ersity conservation are often simplified within a narrow frame oriented towards the negative impacts of mining at the site of extraction, rather than posed as a series of challenges for the conservation science community to embrace. Here, we synthesize core issues that, if better understood, may ensure coexistence between mining and conservation agendas. We illustrate how mining impacts bio ersity through erse pathways and across spatial scales. We argue that traditional, site-based conservation approaches will have limited effect in preventing bio ersity loss against an increasing mining footprint, but opportunities to improve outcomes (e.g. through long-term strategic assessment and planning) do exist. While future mineral supply is uncertain, projections suggest demand will grow for many metals and shift mining operations towards more dispersed and bio erse areas. Initiating dialogue between mining companies, policy-makers and conservation organizations is urgent, given the suite of international agendas simultaneously requiring more minerals but less bio ersity loss.
Offsetting impacts of development on biodiversity and ecosystem services
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-09-2020
Will Passive Protection Save Congo Forests?
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 24-06-2015
Proposed Legislation to Mine Brazil's Indigenous Lands Will Threaten Amazon Forests and Their Valuable Ecosystem Services
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2020
Local conditions and policy design determine whether ecological compensation can achieve No Net Loss goals
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-04-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-15861-1
Abstract: Many nations use ecological compensation policies to address negative impacts of development projects and achieve No Net Loss (NNL) of bio ersity and ecosystem services. Yet, failures are widely reported. We use spatial simulation models to quantify potential net impacts of alternative compensation policies on bio ersity (indicated by native vegetation) and two ecosystem services (carbon storage, sediment retention) across four case studies (in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mozambique). No policy achieves NNL of bio ersity in any case study. Two factors limit their potential success: the land available for compensation (existing vegetation to protect or cleared land to restore), and expected counterfactual bio ersity losses (unregulated vegetation clearing). Compensation also fails to slow regional bio ersity declines because policies regulate only a subset of sectors, and expanding policy scope requires more land than is available for compensation activities. Avoidance of impacts remains essential in achieving NNL goals, particularly once opportunities for compensation are exhausted.
Reflections on solid Earth research
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-01-2021
Modeling the impact of revegetation on regional water quality: A collective approach to manage the cumulative impacts of mining in the Bowen Basin, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2013
Increasing decision relevance of ecosystem service science
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-10-2020
Modeling of Land‐Use and Ecological Dynamics, edited by DanMalkinson, DannyCzamanski, and ItzhakBenenson. 2013. Series: Cities and Nature. Heidelberg, Germany and New York: Springer. 193 + viii. ISBN:
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2015
DOI: 10.1111/JORS.12214
Effects of spatial autocorrelation and sampling design on estimates of protected area effectiveness
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-08-2020
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.13522
Global no net loss of natural ecosystems.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 16-12-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-019-1067-Z
Abstract: A global goal of no net loss of natural ecosystems or better has recently been proposed, but such a goal would require equitable translation to country-level contributions. Given the wide variation in ecosystem depletion, these could vary from net gain (for countries where restoration is needed), to managed net loss (in rare circumstances where natural ecosystems remain extensive and human development imperative is greatest). National contributions and international support for implementation also must consider non-area targets (for ex le, for threatened species) and socioeconomic factors such as the capacity to conserve and the imperative for human development.
Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-17928-5
Abstract: Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated bio ersity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive an increase in the production of many metals, creating new mining threats for bio ersity. Here, we map mining areas and assess their spatial coincidence with bio ersity conservation sites and priorities. Mining potentially influences 50 million km 2 of Earth’s land surface, with 8% coinciding with Protected Areas, 7% with Key Bio ersity Areas, and 16% with Remaining Wilderness. Most mining areas (82%) target materials needed for renewable energy production, and areas that overlap with Protected Areas and Remaining Wilderness contain a greater density of mines (our indicator of threat severity) compared to the overlapping mining areas that target other materials. Mining threats to bio ersity will increase as more mines target materials for renewable energy production and, without strategic planning, these new threats to bio ersity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation.
Trade-offs between efficiency, equality and equity in restoration for flood protection
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Date: 21-12-2021
Abstract: Conservation decision-makers and practitioners increasingly strive for efficient and equitable outcomes for people and nature. However, environmental management programs commonly benefit some groups of people more than others, and very little is known about how efforts to promote equality (i.e. even distributions) and equity (i.e. proportional distributions) trade-off against efficiency (i.e. total net outcome per dollar spent). Based on a case study in the Brigalow Belt Bioregion, Australia, we quantified trade-offs between equality, equity, and efficiency in planning for flood protection. We considered optimal restoration strategies that allocate a fixed budget (a) evenly among beneficiary sectors (i.e. seeking equality among urban residents, rural communities, and the food sector), (b) evenly among local government areas (LGAs) within the Brigalow Belt (i.e. seeking spatial equality), and (c) preferentially to areas of highest socioeconomic disadvantage (i.e. seeking equity). We assessed equality using the Gini coefficient, and equity using an index of socioeconomic disadvantage. At an AUD10M budget, evenly distributing the budget among beneficiary sectors was 80% less efficient than ignoring beneficiary groups, and did not improve equality in the distribution of flood protection among beneficiary sectors. Evenly distributing the budget among LGAs ensured restoration in four areas that were otherwise ignored, with a modest reduction in efficiency (12%–25%). Directing flood protection to areas of highest socioeconomic disadvantage did not result in additional reductions in efficiency, and captured areas of high disadvantage for the rural and urban sectors that were missed otherwise. We show here that different ways of targeting equity and equality lead to quite different trade-offs with efficiency. Our approach can be used to guide transparent negotiations between beneficiaries and other stakeholders involved in a planning process.
Mining drives extensive deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-10-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-017-00557-W
Abstract: Mining poses significant and potentially underestimated risks to tropical forests worldwide. In Brazil’s Amazon, mining drives deforestation far beyond operational lease boundaries, yet the full extent of these impacts is unknown and thus neglected in environmental licensing. Here we quantify mining-induced deforestation and investigate the aspects of mining operations, which most likely contribute. We find mining significantly increased Amazon forest loss up to 70 km beyond mining lease boundaries, causing 11,670 km 2 of deforestation between 2005 and 2015. This extent represents 9% of all Amazon forest loss during this time and 12 times more deforestation than occurred within mining leases alone. Pathways leading to such impacts include mining infrastructure establishment, urban expansion to support a growing workforce, and development of mineral commodity supply chains. Mining-induced deforestation is not unique to Brazil to mitigate adverse impacts of mining and conserve tropical forests globally, environmental assessments and licensing must considered both on- and off-lease sources of deforestation.
Including loss minimisation in conservation representation: expansion of the protected area network in Colombia to maximise habitat retention
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 28-09-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-2090760/V1
Abstract: Most protected area (PA) planning aims to improve biota representation within the PA system, but this does not necessarily achieve the best outcomes for biota retention across regions when we also consider areas outside the PA system. Here we assess the implications that different PA expansion strategies can have on the retention of species habitat across an entire region. Using retention of forest habitat for Colombia’s 550 forest-dependent bird species as our outcome variable, we found that when a minimum of 30% of each species’ habitat was included in the PA system, a pattern of PA expansion targeting areas at highest deforestation risk (risk-prevention) led to the retention, on average, of 7.2% more forest habitat per species by 2050 than did a pattern that targeted areas at lowest risk (risk-avoidance). The risk-prevention approach cost more per km² of land conserved, but it was more cost-effective in retaining habitat (50 – 69% lower cost per km2 of avoided deforestation). To have the same effectiveness preventing habitat loss in Colombia, the risk-avoidance approach required 234% more area and 306% higher cost. PA expansion should focus on the contributions of PAs to outcomes not only within PA systems themselves, but across regions and jurisdictions.
Moving from biodiversity offsets to a target-based approach for ecological compensation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-12-2020
DOI: 10.1111/CONL.12695
Global assessment of the biodiversity safeguards of development banks that finance infrastructure
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-04-2023
DOI: 10.1111/COBI.14095
Abstract: Infrastructure development is a major driver of bio ersity loss globally. With upward of US$2.5 trillion in annual investments in infrastructure, the financial sector indirectly drives this bio ersity loss. At the same time, bio ersity safeguards (project‐level bio ersity impact mitigation requirements) of infrastructure financiers can help limit this damage. The coverage and harmonization of bio ersity safeguards are important factors in their effectiveness and therefore warrant scrutiny. It is equally important to examine the extent to which these safeguards align with best‐practice principles for bio ersity impact mitigation outlined in international policies, such as that of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. We assessed the bio ersity safeguards of public development banks and development finance institutions for coverage, harmonization, and alignment with best practice. We used Institute of New Structural Economics and Agence Française de Développement's global database to identify development banks that invest in high‐bio ersity‐footprint infrastructure and have over US$500 million in assets. Of the 155 banks, 42% ( n = 65) had bio ersity safeguards. Of the existing safeguards, 86% (56 of 65) were harmonized with International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standard 6 (PS6). The IFC PS6 (and by extension the 56 safeguard policies harmonized with it) had high alignment with international best practice in bio ersity impact mitigation, whereas the remaining 8 exhibited partial alignment, incorporating few principles that clarify the conditions for effective bio ersity offsetting. Given their dual role in setting benchmarks and leveraging private finance, infrastructure financiers in development finance need to adopt best‐practice bio ersity safeguards if the tide of global bio ersity loss is to be stemmed. The IFC PS6, if strengthened, can act as a useful template for other financier safeguards. The high degree of harmonization among safeguards is promising, pointing to a potential for diffusion of practices.
Processes of land use change in mining regions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Conserving ecosystem services and biodiversity: Measuring the tradeoffs involved in splitting conservation budgets
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2020
Global demand for steel drives extensive land-use change in Brazil's Iron Quadrangle
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
Related Organisations
Related Funding Activities
Offsetting Effects Of Development On Biodiversity And Ecosystem Services
Start Date: 2017
End Date: 2019
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP210103460
Start Date: 11-2021
End Date: 10-2025
Amount: $770,971.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100684
Start Date: 06-2017
End Date: 12-2021
Amount: $372,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP220100189
Start Date: 10-2022
End Date: 09-2026
Amount: $484,029.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity