Dave Tickner

Worth following this from @jjopperman.bsky.social. #WaterYear was thought-provoking and evocative, with a rather beautiful denouement.

Addressing the policy and business drivers of global freshwater biodiversity loss While they are important, local or catchment-level conservation efforts are by themselves unlikely to bend the curve of dramatic global-scale biodiversity loss in rivers, lakes, and freshwater wetland...

(1/n)

🆕: Addressing the policy & business drivers of global freshwater biodiversity loss.
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10....

Or (to provoke a debate), is restoration of #rivers, #lakes & #wetlands a sufficient response to the global collapse in freshwater biodiversity?

A 🧵...

Aha! I see what you did there!

Can the Mekong, the World's Most Productive River, Endure Relentless Strain? Explore the plight of Mekong River endangered fish, including the giant catfish and their struggle against extinction.

Can the Mekong, the World’s Most Productive River, Endure Relentless Strain?

Not indefinitely. The river's story is a cascade of thresholds already crossed.

www.circleofblue.org/2025/water-c...

💧 Our #rivers are polluted, overheated, & stripped of their natural features

We’re calling on the government to make #SpaceForWater and support a network of nature-rich river corridors across England

✍️ Sign the petition to help restore our rivers: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

A useful and enjoyable series of blogs by @jdtonkin.bsky.social. Kudos. 👏

Only a third of world’s river basins experienced normal conditions in 2024 Increasingly erratic water cycle is creating food scarcity, rising prices, conflict and migration, says UN agency

"... measures to reduce the impact of extreme swings in the water cycle include improving water storage & encouraging changes to farming techniques."

The most important measure of all would be to get popular acceptance for better water allocation & management.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Well done @freshwaterbio.bsky.social and others on this. A nice piece of activist science! 👏

PS: Many thanks to co-authors Laurenne Schiller, @sjcfishy.bsky.social, Eugenio Barrios Ordonez, Ute Collier, James Dalton, Ian Harrison, Li Lifeng, Sui Chang Phang & Bill Young.

(14/n) Local action to restore of #rivers, #lakes & #wetlands is critically important for lots of reasons.

But unless we start to redirect the underlying policy & business drivers of ecosystem degradation, we won't bend the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss.

ENDS.

(13/n) Govts & businesses urgently need coherent, evidence-based, pithy insights on how to respond to increasingly complex challenges.

The way in which conservation researchers & practitioners respond will largely determine the future for freshwater ecosystems.

(12/n) That community is often insular & narrowly focused on biophysical sciences (ecology, hydrology, geomorphology).

Freshwater scientists should engage far more with social sciences to generate understanding of policy-business-ecosystem links & to map future pathways.

(11/n) Happily, some work is happening in this space, notably through the water #stewardship community, and through work of NGOs and others who engage in policy processes.

But it's patchy. Far more is needed.

And the #freshwater sciences community needs to catch-up quickly...

(10/n) If conservationists are to influence these drivers, they need to make the case for bending the curve in terms that chime with the priorities of policymakers & business leaders in these sectors.

Our paper describes those priorities, and potential implications for freshwater biodiversity.

(9/n) We drew on our collective experience in research, policy & conservation practice to suggest key policy/business sectors for freshwater biodiversity.

We particularly focused on #water resource management, #agriculture & #food, #energy, & inland #fisheries.

(8/n) If we want more transformative change that minimises pressures globally and makes space for healthy freshwater ecosystems, we must understand & influence policy/business decisions that drive widespread collapse of biodiversity.

So, what could this look like?

(7/n) Almost all the articles focused mostly on immediate pressures affecting freshwater ecosystems & biodiversity.

Similarly, most restoration projects tackle immediate local/catchment scale pressures rather than underlying drivers (more on this here: unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/p...)

(6/n) We reviewed 16 science articles that analysed causes of freshwater biodiversity loss globally.

None of them systematically assessed these underlying socio-economic drivers.

Few explicitly linked biodiversity trends & changes in national/international policies or business behaviour.

(5/n) Activities driving biodiversity loss often manifest through decisions made at national or international scales by policymakers & business leaders.

Energy ministers incentivise hydropower generation.

Multinational food congomerates source farm produce from water-stressed regions.

Etc.

(4/n) Multiple pressures - hydrological alteration, pollution, impaired connectivity, invasive species, over-harvesting, climate change, etc - affect freshwater ecosystems.

All these pressures (aka threats, stressors) are driven by various human activities.

So far, so uncontroversial.

a man with a beard is asking if that is not enough . ALT: a man with a beard is asking if that is not enough .

(3/n) ... indicators of global freshwater biodiversity continue to show a dramatic collapse.

So, is habitat restoration enough?

Our paper, published in @envreviews.bsky.social, suggests that the answer is "no".

Let me explain...

a crocodile is swimming in the water and looking at the camera ALT: a crocodile is swimming in the water and looking at the camera

(2/n) Like many folks, I'm inspired by the thousands of brilliant #river, #lake & #wetland restoration projects underway globally.

From the Amazon to the Zambezi, dams are being removed, flows secured, pollution reduced & fisheries better managed.

But...

Addressing the policy and business drivers of global freshwater biodiversity loss While they are important, local or catchment-level conservation efforts are by themselves unlikely to bend the curve of dramatic global-scale biodiversity loss in rivers, lakes, and freshwater wetland...

(1/n)

🆕: Addressing the policy & business drivers of global freshwater biodiversity loss.
cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10....

Or (to provoke a debate), is restoration of #rivers, #lakes & #wetlands a sufficient response to the global collapse in freshwater biodiversity?

A 🧵...

Thousands of tonnes of toxic landfill liquid added to sewage and spread on English farms Exclusive: Leachate is tankered to treatment works where it mixes with sewage and industrial effluent

EXCLUSIVE: England’s farms are being fertilised with a cocktail of toxic landfill juice + sewage sludge.

750,000 tonnes of landfill leachate tankered to sewage works every year → mixed into sewage → spread on farmers' fields. 1/

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A photograph of a Longspined Bullhead, a green and brown spiky fish.

🐟 Søren Skarby’s "Scaled Up" project: The stunning, ultra-detailed world of fish: buff.ly/6mVQrTr

Find out more about freshwater 👇
buff.ly/MkPOoIN

A dragonfly that has landed on a branch.

🐌 Africa’s freshwater ecosystems depend on little creatures like insects and snails: study maps overlooked species: buff.ly/btqzPAg

🏞️ Some rivers have rights, but author Robert Macfarlane argues they’re also alive: buff.ly/ri198Um

A red, yellow and blue species of cichlid fish underwater.

ICYMI: a round-up of recent freshwater news from around the world

🌍 Africa’s freshwater fish face a crisis — but solutions are within reach: buff.ly/e2sIOWZ

🌊 Wetlands at risk, but new report offers road map for recovery: buff.ly/1URK9gF

Activists blend science and folklore as they try to revive Somerset’s eel population Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Feargal Sharkey back campaign to save the animal, which once inspired placenames, songs and stories

"But more than that – it gets people to visit these weirs. They notice the water. They count the eels. They start to care.”

#Eels, #Freshwater, #Rivers

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Protecting the Amazon's critical wildlife corridors Protecting the migrations of jaguars, dolphins, and other species

Want to safeguard populations of flagship #Amazon species such as #jaguars and #RiverDolphins? Turns out that key corridors comprising 17% of the total Amazon basin are the critical places to focus.
www.worldwildlife.org/stories/prot...

Breaking down silos: Conservation areas for Amazonian flagship terrestrial and freshwater species This study shows that 17% of the Amazon River Basin is covered by areas of high jaguar density and freshwater migratory species richness, 83% of which are found in Brazil and Peru. A third of these a...

Kudos to Natalie Shahbol and Melissa Arias for leading the work and to all co-authors for their insights.

Full open access paper: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...