scholarly journals Alternative futures for global biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Roura-Pascual ◽  
Brian Leung ◽  
Wolfgang Rabitsch ◽  
Lucas Rutting ◽  
Joost Vervoort ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Global Futures ◽  
Economic Developments

AbstractScenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, current global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. We used a novel participatory process to develop a diverse set of global biological invasion scenarios spanning a wide breadth of plausible global futures through 2050. We adapted the widely used “two axes” scenario analysis approach to develop four families of four scenarios each, resulting in 16 scenarios that were later clustered into four contrasting sets of futures. Our analysis highlighted that socio-economic developments and changes in sustainability policies and lifestyle have the potential to shape biological invasions, in addition to well-known ecological drivers, such as climate and human land use change. Our scenarios align fairly well with the recently developed shared socio-economic pathways, but the factors that drive differences in biological invasions are underrepresented there. Including these factors in global scenarios and models is essential to adequately consider biological invasions in global environmental assessments, and obtain a more integrative picture of future socio-ecological developments.

scholarly journals Alternative futures for global biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Núria Roura-Pascual ◽  
Brian Leung ◽  
Wolfgang Rabitsch ◽  
Lucas Rutting ◽  
Joost Vervoort ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Global Futures

AbstractScenario analysis has emerged as a key tool to analyze complex and uncertain future socio-ecological developments. However, currently existing global scenarios (narratives of how the world may develop) have neglected biological invasions, a major threat to biodiversity and the economy. Here, we use a novel participatory process to develop a diverse set of global biological invasion scenarios spanning a wide range of plausible global futures through to 2050. We adapted the widely used “two axes” scenario analysis approach to develop four families of four scenarios each, resulting in 16 scenarios that were later clustered into four contrasting sets of futures. Our analysis highlights that socioeconomic developments and technological innovation have the potential to shape biological invasions, in addition to well-known drivers, such as climate and human land use change and global trade. Our scenarios partially align with the shared socioeconomic pathways created by the climate change research community. Several factors that drive differences in biological invasions were underrepresented in the shared socioeconomic pathways; in particular, the implementation of biosecurity policies. We argue that including factors related to public environmental awareness and technological and trade development in global scenarios and models is essential to adequately consider biological invasions in global environmental assessments and thereby obtain a more integrative picture of future social–ecological developments.

scholarly journals Protect the Natives to Combat the Aliens: Could Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797 Be a Natural Agent for the Control of the Lionfish Invasion in the Mediterranean Sea?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Crocetta ◽  
Maria Shokouros-Oskarsson ◽  
Nikolaos Doumpas ◽  
Ioannis Giovos ◽  
Stefanos Kalogirou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Octopus Vulgaris ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Natural Agent

Biological invasions constitute a major threat to native ecosystems and to global biodiversity [...]

Movements, Networks, Hierarchies: A Gender Perspective on Global Environmental Governance

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bretherton
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Women's Movements ◽  
Participatory Process ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Transnational Mobilization ◽  
Environmentally Sound

Environmental governance may be distinguished from environmental management by the implication that, in the former, some form of participatory process is involved. Here, the focus is upon the potential for women's movements and networks to influence the principles and practices of global environmental governance (GEG). It is contended that, in principle, women are uniquely placed to oppose the dominant norms informing GEG; and that women's participation would, in consequence, be crucial to the achievement of equitable and environmentally sound forms of governance. In practice, however, a number of factors combine to create divisions between women, and hence to impede transnational mobilization by women around environmental issues. This article examines these issues.

The First Global Environmental Problem

2018 ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Hannah Holleman
Keyword(s):  
Arid Region ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Dust Bowl ◽  
Colonial Expansion ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Humid Region ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
Ecological Relations ◽  
Economic Developments

This chapter challenges typical interpretations of the Dust Bowl and puts the disaster into a global frame, linking the past to the present. In so doing, the common roots of contemporary and past developments and struggles are revealed. The Dust Bowl was one spectacular instance of a global problem of soil erosion associated with capitalist colonial expansion. While the official interpretation suggests that agriculture suited for a humid region was imported to an arid region, precipitating the crisis, contemporaneous accounts illustrate how much larger the crisis was, tied up with specific social and economic developments that imposed new socio-ecological relations upon peoples of the world and upon the land irrespective of local climatic conditions. Ultimately, the common denominators across the world—from North to South America, Australia to Africa, and Southeast to East Asia—were not climate and geography, but capitalism and colonialism.

scholarly journals Capacity of countries to reduce biological invasions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Latombe ◽  
Hanno Seebens ◽  
Bernd Lenzner ◽  
Franck Courchamp ◽  
Stefan Dullinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
Economic Space ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
Ecological Predictors ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Education Innovation ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
High Level

AbstractThe extent and impacts of biological invasions on biodiversity are largely shaped by an array of socio-ecological predictors, which exhibit high variation among countries. Yet a global synthetic perspective of how these factors vary across countries is currently lacking. Here, we investigate how a set of five socio-ecological predictors (Governance, Trade, Environmental Performance, Lifestyle and Education, Innovation) explain i) country-level established alien species (EAS) richness of eight taxonomic groups, and ii) country capacity to prevent and manage biological invasions and their impacts. Trade and Governance together best predicted the average EAS richness, increasing variance explained by up to 54% compared to models based on climatic and spatial variables only. Country-level EAS richness increased strongly with Trade, whereas high level of Governance resulted in lower EAS richness. Historical (1996) levels of Governance and Trade better explained response variables than current (2015) levels. Thus, our results reveal a historical legacy of these two predictors with profound implications for the future of biological invasions. We therefore used Governance and Trade to define a two-dimensional socio-economic space in which the position of a country captures its capacity to address issues of biological invasions. Our results provide novel insights into the complex relationship between socio-ecological predictors and biological invasions. Further, we highlight the need for designing better policies and management measures for alien species, and for integrating biological invasions in global environmental scenarios.

scholarly journals Improving management of invasive species: New Zealand’s approach to pre- and post-border pests

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Brenton-Rule ◽  
Susy Frankel ◽  
Phil Lester
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Biological Invasions ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Global Concern

Biological invasions are a ubiquitous global concern. Invasive species are non-native species that arrive in a new area, establish and increase in density and distribution to the detriment of the recipient environment. Such species that become invasive are a major threat to biodiversity (Vitousek and D’Antonio, 1997). Unlike inanimate risks, living things establish, reproduce and often spread, leading to enormous environmental and economic effects (Vilà et al., 2010). 

scholarly journals Irreführende Geisterdebatte oder funktionale Notwendigkeit?

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (118) ◽  
pp. 107-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cord Jakobeit
Keyword(s):  
World Economy ◽  
Ecological Perspective ◽  
Regime Effectiveness ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Organisational Structures ◽  
Transnational Discourse ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Environmental Organisation

The paper starts with a presentation and critique of regime theoretical approaches to the understanding of world economic developments after 1945. Within the debate on re-regulation, the normative-idealistic calls for a global environmental organisation seem to ignore what we have learned so far about the change and the effectiveness of international regimes. A fundamental regime change requires the consensus of the hegemon and/or the hegemonial group. And regime effectiveness does not primarily depend upon hierarchical organisational structures. Rather than advocating a global environmental organisation, from an ecological perspective the reform-minded transnational discourse networks would be better adviced to work for the acceptance of ecologically oriented indicators for economic development within all existing organisations of the world economy.

scholarly journals Exploring the Next Wave of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology: The Overlooked Potential of Scenario Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Horst Treiblmaier
Keyword(s):  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Developments ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Distributed Ledger ◽  
Distributed Ledger Technology ◽  
Ideal Tool ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
The Ideal

Blockchain is predicted to disrupt industries, economies, and societies. The properties of distributed ledgers allow the creation of immutable data structures that facilitate shared access in real time and enable a plethora of innovative applications. However, blockchain is not a uniform technology but rather a bundle of evolving components whose implications are notoriously hard to predict. At present, it is not clear how current trends will evolve, with technical evolution, legislation, and public policy being three contingency factors that make ongoing disruptive transformations particularly hard to predict. In light of blockchain’s potential disruptive impact, it is surprising that scenario analysis has hitherto been largely ignored in academic research. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the technique, clarify several misconceptions, and provide examples illustrating how this method can help to overcome the limitations of existing technology impact research. We conclude that if applied correctly, scenario analysis represents the ideal tool to rigorously explore uncertain future developments and to create a comprehensive foundation for future research.

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