Since 2009, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative has coordinated an annual horizon scan, a well-established method for predicting which threats, changes, and technologies will have the biggest impact on biological conservation in the following year. This year, the 15 th horizon scan included 31 scientists, practitioners, and policymakers who developed a list of 96 issues, which they eventually narrowed down to the fifteen most novel and impactful. Their findings, publishing in the journal Trends in Evolution & Ecology on December 18, include topics related to sustainable energy, declining invertebrate populations, and changing marine ecosystems.
The fifteen topics identified by the scan include:
“The issues identified in this scan continue to reflect the juxtaposition between anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity and increasing technological capacity to mitigate those impacts,” write the researchers, led by conservationist William Sutherland ( @Bill_Sutherland ) of Cambridge University. “In some cases, new issues arise directly from efforts to mitigate other issues.”
The authors identify several common threads in the list of issues, including threats to marine ecosystems. They underscore the importance of recent marine policy initiatives to help address these threats while noting that these efforts will not help resolve the climate-related issues identified. They also discuss the continued importance of innovation in carbon capture and sustainable energy technologies.
“We anticipate continuing to highlight novel emerging impacts of climate change and technologies aiming to mitigate climate change and transition to more sustainable pathways in future horizon scans,” write the researchers.
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This research was supported by funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution , Chang et al. “A horizon scan of global biological conservation
4 issues for 2024” https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(23)00295-1
Trends in Ecology & Evolution ( @Trends_Ecol_Evo ), published by Cell Press, is a monthly review journal that contains polished, concise, and readable reviews and opinion pieces in all areas of ecology and evolutionary science. It aims to keep scientists informed of new developments and ideas across the full range of ecology and evolutionary biology—from the pure to the applied, and from molecular to global. Visit http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution . To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
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A horizon scan of global biological conservation issues for 2024
18-Dec-2023