A decade of the European Union's membership in CITES marks a milestone in its commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by regulating the international trade of the world's most vulnerable wild species of animals and plants. Over the past 10 years, the EU has played a...

A decade of the European Union's membership in CITES marks a milestone in its commitment to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity by regulating the international trade of the world's most vulnerable wild species of animals and plants. Over the past 10 years, the EU has played a...

The Global Wetland Outlook 2025 is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the state of wetlands worldwide, their value, and their future. Produced by the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) of the Convention on Wetlands, the report presents the latest data on the extent of...

Concentration on elite breeding lines has endangered a number of traditional dairy breeds. Although several of those breeds are known for superior functional traits such as robustness, they are increasingly replaced by Holstein cows. A discrete choice experiment with 159 breeders revealed the...

We develop a unified cost-benefit framework that allows for a better understanding of nature conservation and climate policies under risk and uncertainty. We derive modified Hotelling rules from a social planner’s welfare optimization. They reveal four forces that jointly determine market...

The Vjosa River Basin, located in the heart of the Balkans, is one of Europe's last free-flowing wild rivers comprising a large number of pristine habitat types with a wealth of biodiversity. Widespread degradation of the forest ecosystem and unsustainable land use due to logging and livestock...

This project analyzes how a principal can motivate an agent to conserve rather than exploit a depletable resource. This dynamic problem is relevant for tropical deforestation as well as for other environmental problems. It is shown that the smaller is the agent's discount factor (e.g., because...

This project analyzes how a principal can motivate an agent to conserve rather than exploit a depletable resource. This dynamic problem is relevant for tropical deforestation as well as for other environmental problems. It is shown that the smaller is the agent's discount factor (e.g., because...

The ecological and economic significance of protected areas cannot be controverted. Also indisputable is the fact that to establish and successfully manage protected areas, international cooperation is indispensable for most jurisdictions. This is because such a task entails colossal financial...

Global dependence upon fossil fuels persists in the 21st century. With known deposits of oil diminishing, technological advancements and alternative financing have facilitated explorations into a number of sensitive habitats around the world. Such pursuits challenge global priorities relating to...

This Atlas embodies years of work by the European Commission Joint Research Centre in collaboration with its partners in Africa and further afield to share the knowledge acquired over the many years of work around protected areas in Africa. It aims at providing technical and scientific input of...

Global biodiversity decreased by 69% from 1970 to 2022, representing a key risk to economic activity. However, the link between nature, biodiversity and finance has received little attention within the field of sustainable finance. This paper attempts to fill this gap. Nature finance aims to...

Habitat fragmentation threatens biodiversity by disrupting ecological connectivity. To support conservation planning, we evaluate which spatial connectivity metrics best predict species occurrence. We do so by comparing six common connectivity metrics as predictors of occurrence patterns of...

Illegal wildlife trade is increasingly reported as intersecting with other serious crimes, a phenomenon labelled "crime convergence". However, there is limited empirical research on the extent and nature of these linkages. The present study seeks to understand what criminal activities converge...

This report is about the intersection of two major crises of the 21st century-the sustainability crisis and the social exclusion and inequality crisis. The world is facing massive environmental degradation. Some of these challenges-including climate change, ecosystem collapse, and ocean...

This paper explores inclusive conservation through the lens of critical localism, examining the complex power dynamics between conservation efforts and Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs). It addresses how conservation has evolved from exclusionary 'fortress conservation' approaches...

This briefing provides an overview of wild pollinators, the main drivers of their decline and solutions to protect and restore them. It highlights the importance of establishing an EU-wide standardised monitoring framework of pollinators. The briefing is published in the context of the Nature...

Protected areas are crucial for landscape-scale conservation, but striking a balance between centralised guidance (heteronomy) and local autonomy (self-determination) is essential. This balance is particularly important for parks that cross administrative boundaries or impose land-use...

This report introduces the Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME) and the Protected Area Governance and Equity (PAGE) concepts and most frequently used tools and then provides guidelines on the usage of the relative web modules of the BIOPAMA Reference Information System (RIS) developed...

High aggregate levels of wildlife consumption in Central African cities may be depleting wildlife populations. This study explores the impacts of demand and supply-side interventions on wild meat consumption through two randomized control trials in restaurants in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of...

While climate change is widely considered as a major challenge for societies, another pressing global environmental problem, i.e. the loss of biodiversity, is often given less attention despite its strong negative consequences for ecosystems and thus for human life. In light of the strong...

Biodiversity is essential for ecological stability, human well-being, and economic progress, providing critical ecosystem services such as clean water, food, and climate regulation. However, it faces unprecedented threats, with extinction rates accelerating to 1,000 times the natural baseline...