Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Policy
Towards Nature Positive supply chains: From biodiversity impacts to organisational action
Published: 2026-05-22
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Policy, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Large organisations are critical to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, yet most of their impacts are hidden in complex supply chains. Robust strategies to fully identify, quantify, trace, and begin to mitigate these impacts remain rare. Here we present a generalisable workflow for assessing and addressing supply chain impacts on biodiversity and then apply it to the University of Oxford’s [...]
A Critical Year for Nature: Now is the time to accelerate action on the Global Biodiversity Framework
Published: 2026-05-21
Subjects: Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology, Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies
In October 2026, Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene to review progress against the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) adopted in 2022. A global report will provide a summary of collective progress, primarily drawing from government self-reporting at the halfway mark to 2030, the target year for halting and reversing nature loss. [...]
Catalyzing transformative change for climate and biodiversity finance within COP policy discourses
Published: 2026-05-11
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Other Political Science
Recent outcomes of the Conferences of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC and the UN CBD have emphasized the need for transformative change to meet global climate and biodiversity targets. Yet discourses on climate and biodiversity finance remain dominated by efforts to close “funding gaps,” with comparatively little attention paid to the systemic drivers of climate change, biodiversity loss, and [...]
Understanding Conservation Decision-makers’ Preferences for Evidence
Published: 2026-03-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Economics, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
1. Effective conservation depends on decisions informed by evidence that is both trustworthy and relevant to specific local contexts. However, little is known about which characteristics of evidence conservation decision-makers prioritise when deciding what information to trust. 2. We explored decision-makers’ preferences for different attributes of evidence using a discrete choice experiment in [...]
Reconciling top-down conservation priorities with bottom-up local needs
Published: 2025-11-21
Subjects: Community-based Research, Environmental Policy, Life Sciences, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation
The success of global conservation goals risks being undermined by conflicts that arise when high-level, data-driven priorities clash with local needs and contexts. While top-down systematic planning efficiently identifies priority areas using large-scale, multi-dimensional data, it neglects the input of local communities and stakeholders. Here, we propose a novel priority-setting process that [...]
Navigating forest dieback and climate succession: Practical guidance for forest managers
Published: 2025-10-16
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Policy, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Natural Resources Management and Policy, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences, Plant Breeding and Genetics Life Sciences, Plant Pathology, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration
Australia’s forests and woodlands are entering a period of rapid ecological change, driven primarily by the impacts of climate change. The landscape is shifting from one of relative stability to one marked by uncertainty, novel threats, and complex interactions between climate, disturbance, and forest health. This means that forest managers must reconsider established approaches and assumptions [...]
Mapping the landscape of live baitfish regulations for aquatic invasive species prevention in the United States
Published: 2025-09-10
Subjects: Aquaculture and Fisheries Life Sciences, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Marine Biology, Public Policy
Aquatic invasive species (AIS) pose a significant risk to global ecosystems, economies, and societies. In the United States, the live baitfish trade is a major pathway for their spread. While the presence of invasive species and pathogens in this trade has been documented, a comprehensive, nationwide analysis of the regulations governing live baitfish has been lacking. This study fills that gap [...]
Potential for academic institutions to support international biodiversity commitments
Published: 2025-09-04
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies
The implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) emphasises a “whole-of-government and whole-of-society” approach to achieving ambitious biodiversity conservation Goals and Targets. The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD invites academic and research institutions to support the implementation of the KMGBF and [...]
Opportunities for Cities to Cultivate Biodiversity
Published: 2025-08-11
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Plant Sciences, Public Policy, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration, Systems Biology, Urban Studies and Planning
Cities pose a major threat to global biodiversity in every sense of the word. Municipal leaders have opportunities to promote biodiversity efforts in their cities. Several studies have shown that managing resources with biodiversity in mind within cities is effective and benefits both human and non-human residents and visitors. Two major opportunities for biodiversity investment in urban areas [...]
iNaturalist as a platform for documenting Chilean funga
Published: 2024-12-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Policy, Life Sciences, Other Life Sciences
This study analyzes the impact of iNaturalist on the recording and documentation of fungi in Chile from 2008 to 2024, highlighting its role in integrating citizen science into biodiversity monitoring. This community effort—which currently totals more than 63,000 observations representing 1,245 species—is concentrated in the central and southern regions of the country, mainly in urban areas, where [...]
Uneven genetic data limits biodiversity assessments in protected areas globally
Published: 2023-10-26
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Genetics, Life Sciences
Increasing the extent of protected areas (PA) through 30x30 and other area-based conservation initiatives can help to achieve global biodiversity conservation goals across all biodiversity levels. However, intraspecific genetic variation, the foundational level of biodiversity, is rarely explicitly considered in PA design or quality performance assessments. Repurposing existing genetic data could [...]
Candy Darter: Background, Threats, and Conservation for an Endangered Fish
Published: 2023-09-20
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Candy darters, once abundant in the West Virginia and Virginia water basins, now require substantial conservation efforts due to habitat destruction and hybridization with the variegate darter species. Direct human effects have also escalated the destruction of candy darter habitats, making the protection of this important species and what remains of their habitat of utmost importance. With the [...]
Measuring historical pollution: natural history collections as tools for public health and environmental justice research
Published: 2023-07-04
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Health Life Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Policy, Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Health Policy, Inequality and Stratification, Nature and Society Relations, Public Policy, Urban Studies and Planning
Background: Through the industrial era, environmental pollution has been unevenly distributed in the environment, disproportionately impacting disenfranchised communities. The distribution of pollution is thus a question of environmental justice and public health that requires policy solutions. However, we lack robust quantitative data on pollutants for many locations and time periods because [...]
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges and resolutions for indicators of genetic diversity
Published: 2023-06-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Policy, Genetics, Life Sciences
Measuring genetic diversity of wild species using DNA-based data remains resource intensive and time-consuming for nearly all species. Yet, genetic assessments are needed for global conservation commitments including the Convention on Biological Diversity and for governments and managers to evaluate conservation progress and to prioritize species and populations to preserve and recover genetic [...]
Navigating the science policy interface: A co-created mind-map for early career researchers
Published: 2023-04-24
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Education, Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Sustainability
The science-policy interface (SPI) is a complex space, in theory and practice, that sees the interaction of various actors and perspectives coming together to enable scientific knowledge to support decision-making. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are increasingly interested in engaging with SPI, with the number of opportunities to do so increasing at national and international levels. However, [...]