Linking democracy and biodiversity conservation: Empirical evidence and research gaps

Rydén, Oskar; Zizka, Alexander; Jagers, Sverker C.; Lindberg, Staffan I.; Antonelli, Alexandre

doi:10.1007/s13280-019-01210-0

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 95 publications

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“…Many aspects can lead to sampling biases, including socio-economic factors (i.e. national research spending, history of scientific research; www.bio-dem.surge.sh, Meyer et al 2015, Daru et al 2018), political factors (armed conflict, democratic rights; Rydén et al 2019), and physical accessibility (i.e. distance to a road or river, terrain conditions, slope; Yang et al 2014, Botts et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

sampbias, a method for quantifying geographic sampling biases in species distribution data

Zizka

Antonelli

Silvestro

2020

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15Geo-referenced species occurrences from public databases have become essential to biodiversity 16 research and conservation. However, geographical biases are widely recognized as a factor 17 limiting the usefulness of such data for understanding species diversity and distribution. In 18 particular, differences in sampling intensity across a landscape due to differences in human 19 accessibility are ubiquitous but may differ in strength among taxonomic groups and datasets. 20Although several factors have been described to influence human access (such as presence of 21 roads, rivers, airports and cities), quantifying their specific and combined effects on recorded 22 occurrence data remains challenging. Here we present sampbias, an algorithm and software 23 for quantifying the effect of accessibility biases in species occurrence datasets. Sampbias uses 24 a Bayesian approach to estimate how sampling rates vary as a function of proximity to one 25 or multiple bias factors. The results are comparable among bias factors and datasets. We 26 demonstrate the use of sampbias on a dataset of mammal occurrences from the island of 27 Borneo, showing a high biasing effect of cities and a moderate effect of roads and airports. 28 Sampbias is implemented as a well-documented, open-access and user-friendly R package 29 that we hope will become a standard tool for anyone working with species occurrences in 30 ecology, evolution, conservation and related fields.31

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

sampbias, a method for quantifying geographic sampling biases in species distribution data

Zizka

Antonelli

Silvestro

2020

Preprint

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“…The relationships between political differences, socio-economic variables and biodiversity knowledge are multi-faceted. 1 These links are also likely to be multi-directional. Increasing societal concerns for environmental protection are likely to affect political processes and the gathering of biodiversity data.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Political decisions often lead to differences in biodiversity research effort 1 and the availability of biodiversity data. 2,3 The mode of this decision making can vary from democratic to autocratic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) provides such data for the first time allowing us to more thoroughly explore how political regimes influence conservation efforts and the availability of biodiversity data via several mechanisms. 1 For instance, compared to more autocratic regimes, liberal democracies generally have more open and reliable legal systems, which makes democracies more accessible for researchers and conservationists to collect and share biodiversity data. 9 Free, fair, and regular elections provide citizens with a means to express their demand for good environmental conditions and thus also incentivize political leaders to invest in biodiversity management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the impact of political regimes on biodiversity

Zizka

Rydén

Edler

et al. 2020

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18National governments are the main actors responsible for mapping and protecting their 19 biodiversity, but countries differ in their capacity, willingness, and effectiveness to do so. We 20 quantify the global biodiversity managed by different regime types and developed a tool to 21 explore the links between level of democracy and other key socio-economic variables with the 22 number of natural history specimens registered within country boundaries. Using this tool, 23 distinct and previously unknown patterns emerge around the world, that urge for increased 24 collaboration between the natural and social sciences to further explore these patterns and 25 their underlying processes. 26 28 85 the exploration of how regime change, as well as armed conflict, affect the availability of 86 primary biodiversity data. Taking Cambodia as an example, we find a decrease of new 87 biodiversity data records by two orders of magnitude in the 1970s, coinciding with the 88 beginning of a period of conflicts and autocratization (Fig. 2c). The end of this period 89 and the corresponding increase in the level of democracy led to a sudden increase in data 90 availability. Similarly, in India political turmoil and a related decrease in the level of 91 democracy in 1975 and 1976 led to an abrupt decrease in the availability of biodiversity data 92 from national institutions (Fig. 2d). Despite historical turmoil and a minor recent decline 93 in the level of democracy, Cambodia and India mirror most other countries in exhibiting a 94 general increase in biodiversity data, probably attributable to the widespread use of citizen 95 science applications for mobile phones such as iNaturalist. 96 The relationships between political differences, socio-economic variables and biodiversity 97 knowledge are multi-faceted. 1 These links are also likely to be multi-directional. Increasing 98 societal concerns for environmental protection are likely to affect political processes and the 99 gathering of biodiversity data. In general, a causal interpretation of the observed patterns 100 is difficult, due to indirect or unclear mechanisms, and the large number of potentially 101 confounding factors. 1 The Bio-Dem app and its underlying data sources provide a useful 102 platform for research at a global and regional scale and over time. We hope it will foster 103 increased collaborations between biologists, conservationists and political and other social 104 scientists. 15 105 Material and Methods 106 Commented scripts for all analyses are available in the electronic supplement of this article 107 and the source code of the Bio-Dem app is available at https://github.com/Antonelli 108 Lab/Bio-Dem under a MIT license.109We used two datasets of species geographic distributions to estimate the fraction of 110 species covered by regime type. For amphibians, non-marine birds and mammals, we used 111 112 of Nature (www.iucn.org) together with country borders as provided by Naturalearth 113 (www.naturalearth.org) to estimate the range-weighted species endemi...

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“…Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) provides such data for the first time allowing us to more thoroughly explore how political regimes influence conservation efforts and the availability of biodiversity data via several mechanisms. 1,17,18 For instance, compared to more autocratic regimes, liberal democracies generally have more open and reliable legal systems, which makes democracies more accessible for researchers and conservationists to collect and share biodiversity data. 9 Free, fair, and regular elections provide citizens with a means to express their demand for good environmental conditions and thus also incentivize political leaders to invest in biodiversity management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Impact of Political Regimes on Biodiversity

Zizka¹,

Rydén

Edler³

et al. 2020

SSRN Journal

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Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)is a new approach to conceptualization and measurement of democracy. The headquarters -the V-Dem Institute -is based at the University of Gothenburg with 19 staff. The project includes a worldwide team with six Principal Investigators, 14 Project Managers, 30 Regional Managers, 170 Country Coordinators, Research Assistants, and 3,000 Country Experts. The V-Dem project is one of the largest ever social science research-oriented data collection programs.Please address comments and/or queries for information to: V-Dem Institute AbstractNational governments are the main actors responsible for mapping and protecting their biodiversity, but countries differ in their capacity, willingness, and effectiveness to do so. We quantify the global biodiversity managed by different regime types and developed a tool to explore the links between level of democracy and other key socio-economic variables with the number of natural history specimens registered within country boundaries. Using this tool, distinct and previously unknown patterns emerge around the world, that urge for increased collaboration between the natural and social sciences to further explore these patterns and their underlying processes.

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Linking democracy and biodiversity conservation: Empirical evidence and research gaps

Cited by 31 publications

References 95 publications

sampbias, a method for quantifying geographic sampling biases in species distribution data

sampbias, a method for quantifying geographic sampling biases in species distribution data

Exploring the impact of political regimes on biodiversity

Exploring the Impact of Political Regimes on Biodiversity

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