Conservation Leadership Programme

Abstract Rivers are increasingly fragmented and degraded, yet the European Union Nature Restoration Regulation calls for restoring at least 25,000 kilometres of free-flowing rivers by 2030. Translating this ambition into effective implementation remains challenging because restoration priorities differ across ecological, social, economic, and governance contexts. Here, we synthesize expert knowledge from 45 countries through a structured, multi-step prioritization process to identify research priorities for restoring free-flowing rivers in Europe. We identified 27 priorities and analysed how expert background and spatial context influenced their ranking. Restoration priorities differed systematically depending on whether experts emphasized ecological integrity, community engagement, economic considerations, or governance capacity, revealing clear patterns in how disciplinary and professional perspectives shape implementation pathways. This demonstrates that restoration strategies cannot be universal but must be adapted to local and regional political, institutional, and ecological conditions. Building on these findings, we propose a structured prioritisation framework that links barrier removal, connectivity restoration, governance mechanisms, and policy instruments to context-specific needs. Together, our results provide an empirically grounded and implementation-oriented roadmap to support European Union Member States in delivering ambitious river restoration targets in a context-sensitive and socially robust manner.

Efforts to 'bend the curve' of biodiversity loss involve setting targets to halt declines. Here, we propose an empirical test of such targets. This test states the probability that the rate of change in a biodiversity indicator is greater than or equal to zero. We used a combination of real and simulated data to explore factors affecting test performance. We found that while smoothing had a minimal effect, the outcome depends heavily on the variability and number of species in a dataset. This suggests that thresholds for target acceptance should be set on a case-by-case basis. Adding data for subsequent years could retrospectively change the outcome in a target year. Assessments made with data only up until the target year should therefore be regarded as interim, with the assessment of the target only finalised once subsequent data are also included. We recommend that simulations are used a priori to choose smoothing levels and to set thresholds for accepting a target has been met.

Sheeppox virus (SPPV) is a major livestock pathogen causing economic hardship through reduced production and death of vulnerable sheep, with written descriptions of sheeppox-like disease recorded since antiquity. We report 21 novel ancient SPPV genomes spanning the Eurasian steppe Bronze Age (~1,700 BCE) to the Early Modern period in Western Europe, including multiple genomes obtained from medieval parchment. We estimate that major capripoxvirus lineages diverged ~11,500-3,700 years ago, overlapping known translocations and bio-cultural developments in sheep. Our dataset supports SPPV diverging first within the lineage leading to goatpox virus and lumpy skin disease virus, and that known gene inactivation events within SPPV and goatpox virus occur in our earliest SPPV genomes. These findings reveal that the food security of Eurasian communities have been threatened by sheeppox for over 3,700 years, and provide new insights to the genomic evolution and potential host adaptation of sheeppox virus.

Reducing the biodiversity impacts of production systems like agriculture, fisheries, and forestry is among humanity's most urgent challenges. Efforts typically focus on: (1) decreasing the area used for production; (2) reducing the direct impacts of production on biodiversity; or (3) lowering the demand for production. While such actions appear useful in isolation, neglecting to account for how elements of production systems interact with one another can see actions pursued that may risk biodiversity loss. Accordingly, we develop a generalised framework highlighting these interactions and their ubiquity across production contexts, and illustrate how it can be used to identify actions that can deliver overall benefits for biodiversity. • In production systems, diverse actions are used to lower biodiversity impacts. • These include reducing production's area, direct impacts, and demand for products. • They are often used without regard for indirect effects altering their outcomes. • We outline a framework of these indirect effects and the interactions driving them. • When such effects are ignored, conservation actions can increase biodiversity loss.

Abstract Mining is a rapidly expanding driver of tropical deforestation, yet the scale of its offsite impacts on deforestation and degradation at biome scale remain poorly quantified, especially across Sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on understanding these national-scale mining impacts in Côte d’Ivoire, which is a global biodiversity hotspot within the Upper Guinean Forests that has lost >80% of its forest cover since 1960. We combine high-resolution land-use maps with a staggered Difference-in-Differences approach, to assess deforestation and degradation dynamics after mine openings in the Côte d’Ivoire tropical moist forest zone between 2001–2020. We identify 446 mining clusters, which together directly caused the loss of 5,631 ha of forest. We estimate that the total effects extended far beyond mine sites, causing an additional 4.8 percentage-point (PP) increase in deforestation within 5 km over 10 years compared to unmined areas. Crucially, for every hectare of deforested land directly cleared for mining, 163 ha were deforested for other, indirect end uses — primarily agricultural and urban expansion linked to mining activity. There was little evidence of significant increases in forest degradation triggered by mining. Our results demonstrate that the true environmental impact of mining vastly exceeds the mine footprint itself and underscores the grave threat that mining poses to moist tropical forests. We recommend the urgent development of national policies and revisions to the mining code to acknowledge the wide area of effect that mining creates, and embedding mitigation to minimise spillover impacts into adjacent forests.

Abstract Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) encourages the private sector to measure its risks, dependencies, and impacts on biodiversity. Various disclosure and action frameworks are being developed to help companies do this, two of which (Task Force for Nature‐related Financial Disclosures & Science Based Targets for Nature) publish lists of tools that can help make these assessments. Here we provide an analysis of 129 tools listed on one or both sites classifying tool type and assessing the ways in which they measure biodiversity. Many of the tools included methods/approaches, single GIS layers or consultancy companies offering bespoke analyses. Only 58 tools (45% of all tools) were classified as a database or software tool that would allow standardized outputs to queries. Only 36 (28%) of the listed tools contained ecosystem (31) or species data (18) with global coverage, and only 13 (10%) tools used data on individual species to enable risk to be assessed at a species level. Most of the 13 tools that could provide information on species used data from either the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool or the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. The utility of tools in supporting disclosure and action frameworks, and achievement of KMGBF goals, would be improved with an independent classification of applicability, transparency about underlying datasets, improved integration of global ecosystems and species data, sustainable financing to generate and maintain high‐quality biodiversity data, and corporate follow‐through from disclosure to robust action.