Does Nature Conservation Matter to Corporations?

Nulkar, Gurudas; Bedarkar, Madhura

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-42703-0_5

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…We call for an immediate increase in funding for threat assessments which are informed by the spatial patterns of bias and unequal distribution of global affluence presented here. This funding may come internally from increases in government spending on nature conservation or via private investment from the growing contingent of global actors wishing to participate in the conservation of biodiversity via increased corporate social responsibility (Nulkar & Bedarkar, 2020). We advocate for a focus on funding assessments in low‐income nations rich in endemic species with low numbers of completed assessments and lower values of inequality‐adjusted HDI.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global shortfalls in threat assessments for endemic flora by country

Gallagher

Allen

Govaerts

et al. 2023

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact StatementPlants are fundamental to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and are key to human livelihoods. To protect plant diversity, systematic approaches to conservation assessment are needed. Many nations have legislation or other policy instruments that seek to protect biodiversity (including plants), and species‐level assessments are essential for identifying the most threatened species that require special and immediate protection measures. Some plants occur in only one place (for instance, a single country) and here we have estimated how many of these ‘endemic’ species have had their threats assessed in each country or close country‐equivalent worldwide. We show that the level of assessment completion is only weakly related to the income of countries or the likely level of threat that species face.Summary The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation ambitiously called for an assessment of the conservation status of all recognised plant taxa by 2020. This target was not met in the short term. Nevertheless, the need for conservation assessments remains urgent as plants go extinct and face increasing threats from human impacts on the biosphere. Here, the completeness of threat assessments for endemic flora in 179 countries or their close equivalents was assessed. To do so, distribution information from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants was combined with assessments collated in the ThreatSearch database. The completeness of assessments was expected to be associated with the objective affluence of countries (measured using inequality‐adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)) and/or the exposure of their plant species to threats associated with human impacts (measured using Global Human Modification index (GHM)). The number of endemic species per country was also hypothesised to influence the completion of assessments. Overall, 58% of all country‐based endemic species examined have no conservation assessment (127,643 species). Countries' progress toward the completion of threat assessments for endemic plants could not be confidently predicted by IHDI, GHM or the richness of endemic plant flora. The shortfall in threat assessments identified here restricts national regulation of actions which imperil plant species, with particular consequences for endemic plant species subject to local laws. Some nations with high IHDI scores (i.e. wealthier nations) are not systematically assessing extinction risk in their endemic species. Scarce funding should be directed to global hotspots of endemism with few available resources for assessment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global shortfalls in threat assessments for endemic flora by country

Gallagher

Allen

Govaerts

et al. 2023

Plants People Planet

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“…Beyond human health, scientific evidence around the world shows that biodiversity is critical to sustaining the businesses around the world. The natural environment has a crucial role in the health of anation's economy and biodiversity provides critical inputs to industry 60 .…”

Section: Growing Economy Increasing Consumption: Drivers or Biodiversity Change And Emerging Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hitchhiking microbes

Nulkar

Bedarkar

Ghate³

et al. 2021

Indian Journal of Medical Research

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The connection between nature conservation and human wellbeing is well known, however, the role of declining biodiversity and emerging diseases is relatively less studied. The presence of a thriving biological diversity is known to have therapeutic effects on human health. On the other hand, human economic activities have contributed to a sharp decline in species, resulting in poor ecosystem health. Several studies have shown how microorganisms have switched from animals to humans, leading to novel diseases. This review describes studies on zoonotic diseases and biodiversity, with examples from India. It is argued that conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems and changes in economic activities must be made to ward off new diseases, and why cooperation between ministries is critical to restrict the decline of biological diversity in a megadiverse country like India.

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