Influence of funding fads and donor interests on international aid for conservation in Madagascar Tens of billions of dollars in official development assistance have been spent over the past three decades to address the increasingly rapid loss of biodiversity globally. Despite this expenditure, d....

We show how funding fads and donor interests have influenced conservation funding in Madagascar and the implications this has had for local conservation actors and the negative circle this has created in weakening state capacity. #OpenAccess @ConBiology conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Selecting among counterfactual methods to evaluate conservation interventions Counterfactual methods can support effective conservation by generating robust causal evidence of what works and what does not. The purpose of this paper is to guide practitioners, researchers, and f...

Our new paper out on selecting among counterfactual methods to evaluate conservation interventions, superbly led by Tanya O'Garra. We did some hard thinking and I hope the decision framework can be a useful resource in the #teamcounterfactual community conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I am sadly not at #ICCB2025 and feeling massive FOMO, so please ##teamcounterfactual keep the skeets coming!!

See you in Leiden next year!

Published in Conservation Biology!

Effectiveness of protected areas in the #Caucasus Mountains in preventing #rangeland #degradation

Using greenness indicators in 52 PAs from 1988-2019 we showed that they’re ineffective in preventing degradation

OA:
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Psychological reactance to system-level policies before and after their implementation | PNAS Governments need to develop and implement effective policies to address pressing societal problems of our time, such as climate change and global p...

Psychological reactance to system-level policies (e.g., climate policy) is greater during the planning phase than after their implementation. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... Our new preprint on the biodiversity impacts of carbon farming practices is out now! @rececochange.bsky.social sky.social @bsag.fi

An infographic depicting the various ways people relate to and value nature, including living from nature, living in nature, living with nature and living as nature.

Different worldviews and knowledge systems
influence the ways people interact with and value nature. 🌿- IPBES #ValuesAssessment

All these values must be considered to effectively address the #biodiversity crisis. 🌍🧪

Read the Values Assessment Report: www.ipbes.net/the-values-a...

Proud supervisor when Vilma Kaukavuori gave her final MSc-thesis presentation on the nature values emerging in the media narratives of the anti-tourism demonstrations in the Canaries.

A Research Agenda for Economic Geography This forward-thinking Research Agenda for Economic Geography: Reframing 21st Century Capitalism focuses on contemporary issues in globalization, platformization, climate change and geopolitics. Chapte...

The new book 'A Research Agenda for Economic Geography - Reframing 21st Century Capitalism', edited by Yuko Aoyama, Daniel Haberly, Rory Horner and Seth Schindler (@sethschindler.bsky.social), is now available to read 📖

Find the book here: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-r...

Have a look at our new blog about our work in Madagascar!

Huge congratulations to @ollejarv.bsky.social!! so well deserved recognition for the very important work he has been doing related to cross border mobilities 🎉🎉🎉🎉

Onnea @ollejarv.bsky.social Akatemiapalkinnosta, joka tänään jaettiin ’Tiedefoorumi - Puhe on tieteestä’ tapahtumassa Vanhalla Ylioppilastalolla 🏅🥂

Lue lisää Ollen palkinnosta:
www.helsinki.fi/fi/matemaatt...

@digigeolab.bsky.social
@helsinki.fi

#akatemiapalkinto #digigeolab

The global human impact on biodiversity - Nature Key measures of biodiversity were quantified and found to be affected by human pressures that shifted community composition and decreased local diversity across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecos...

The global human impact on biodiversity www.nature.com/articles/s41...

African Parks acknowledges abuse by park staff in Congo, but withholds full report In early 2024, African Parks, the South Africa-based NGO managing Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo, commissioned U.K.-based law firm Omnia Strategy LLP to investigate allegations…

In early 2024, African Parks commissioned a U.K.-based law firm to investigate allegations of human rights abuses committed by the park’s rangers against local Indigenous people.

The investigation is now complete, and AP has acknowledged that human rights abuses occurred.

Figure - Some emergent mechanisms in economies that may affect trust. Weakly governed market economies unleash mechanisms that can undermine trust. Well-functioning democratic regimes may dampen such effects. Note that various feedback loops (+ or −) exist that may amplify change toward either a low-trust or a high-trust regime. There is an intrinsic tendency for societies to move toward the right toward state capture and processes that undermine trust. Historically, aging states have been shown to lose resilience due to such intrinsic undermining tendencies, leading to the termination of states (76). The alternation between periods in which the virtuous versus vicious feedbacks dominate may drive oscillations between regimes (77). Yet, some states historically survived much longer than others, suggesting that processes such as institutional revitalization may prevent or delay the loss of resilience (76) and the meltdown of trust we discuss.

Meltdown of trust in weakly governed economies
Polasky+
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

via "the intrinsic tendency for inequality to grow,
media to boost perceived unfairness, &
self-interest to gain rewards at the expense of others"
however,
investment in public good can create a high-trust state

Also making this the inauguration of using BlueSky (I know I know, late to the party, but now here so any old friends from #teamcounterfactual on conservation twitter, please do find me)