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January 10, 2018
On January 5-8, 2018, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber, along with Affiliated Faculty John Sabo and Tod Swanson, facilitated an intensive workshop titled Environmental Communication and Leadership in Iyarina Lodge, a rainforest lodge located in Tena, Ecuador.
This event was co-sponsored by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito and tailored to USFQ faculty.
January 3, 2018
ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber and Faculty Associate Maria del Mar Mancha-Cisneros recently co-authored a publication led by Jorge Alvarez Romero and other conservation scientists around the world titled “Designing connected marine reserves in the face of global warming.”
Larval connectivity between marine reserves is instrumental in providing a healthy network of habitats for some of the world’s most protected species — including fish, which is the most traded food commodity in the world and primary source of income for fishing communities.
December 14, 2017
The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes led a Governance and Biodiversity Workshop on December 12, 2017 with the intention of building local empirical governance work to scale.
This workshop, which was spearheaded by Associate Director of Social Sciences Abigail York, was attended by representatives from various colleges and ranging interests. Attendees discussed various types of governance approaches including property rights focused systems, informal or decentralized systems, mixed systems and top-down governmental policy. When weighing different governance mechanisms, cultural barriers to success were considered for social barriers, climate and boundaries for political barriers, ecosystem services for environmental barriers and feasibility for economic barriers.
December 10, 2017
In a recent press conference in Tokyo, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, Red List of Threatened Species revealed that species of wild rice, wheat and yam are threatened due to an intense increase in agricultural production and urban expansion.
The IUCN Red List also confirms that poor fishing practices have caused dramatic declines in the Irrawaddy Dolphin and Finless Porpoise.
December 7, 2017
ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber co-authored two publications in the December 2017 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment aimed at cultivating a scientific community engaged in translational ecology. That is, as the authors define it, “a research approach that yields useful scientific outcomes through ongoing collaboration between scientists and stakeholders.”
December 7, 2017
ASU-Conservation International Professor of Practice Jack Kittinger recently co-authored a journal publication titled “Bright spots among the world’s coral reefs” in Nature.
The paper presents compiled data and analysis from research conducted in more than 2,500 coral reefs around the world. This novel approach seeks to find solutions to reef degradation due to human activity by studying what the authors refer to as ‘outliers.’ These are identified coral reef areas that are either doing extremely well (bright spots) or very poorly (dark spots).
View Source | December 7, 2017
The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, in partnership with the Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, is currently hiring an interdisciplinary graduate student worker to support exploration and analysis of the use of messaging to power public understanding, connection, and support for Sonoran Desert conservation.
Application deadline is Friday, December 15, 2017.
December 5, 2017
Management practices that promote soil health in croplands can deliver multiple benefits for nature and people, including cleaner air and water and greater crop yield stability.
In the United States alone, one or more of these practices – which include cover cropping, reduced tillage, nutrient management, and more – could potentially be implemented on nearly 400 million cropland acres. Yet, rangelands in the US occupy nearly twice the area that croplands do, and some rangelands have also experienced soil degradation issues, such as erosion.
November 25, 2017
The Natural Capital Coalition recently published a report on responsible business practices to reduce environmental impact of natural resources.
In November 23, 2017, the report was included in the print edition of The Times, which has a circulation of over 1.05 million readers in the United Kingdom.
November 17, 2017
On November 15, 2017, The ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society hosted a film screening of “Wild Freedom: The Border and its Environmental Impact,” followed by a panelist discussion featuring videographer Samantha Lloyd, wildlife biologist Sergio Avila-Villegas, and ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Faculty Affiliate Jan Schipper.
View Source | November 16, 2017
ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Faculty Affiliate Jan Schipper led an online PitchFunder campaign to save the Atelopus varius last year. Through this successful initiative and philanthropic support, these harlequin frogs continue to breed.
“The ethics of saving a species is a new one for humanity,” Schipper said. “We have a moral imperative to not let any species go extinct due to our reckless nature and heavy footprint on Earth, but we are also finding the value of the species is far more than just intrinsic.”
November 15, 2017
The Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) working group on Ecosystem Services and Key Biodiversity Areas, co-led by Penny Langhammer and Leah Gerber of the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, hosted an international science workshop with the Canadian Council on Ecological Areas on November 7-10, 2017 in Quebec City, Canada.
The workshop brought together international and Canadian scientists, Canadian federal, provincial and territorial protected area and conservation agencies, experts in Aboriginal and community land-use planning, national and international non-governmental conservation experts and land stewardship experts.
October 27, 2017
The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes recently launched a new graduate certificate titled “Environmental Communication and Leadership” to help conservation students develop important leadership and communication skills needed to increase their influence and reach above and beyond academia.
The certificate is designed to train students in environmental disciplines how to go beyond scientific journal publications to communicate relevant discoveries to society, including the press, the public, policy makers and other key stakeholders.
October 27, 2017
In partnership with Conservation International, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is excited to launch a new class in spring 2018 targeted to undergraduate and graduate students titled “Biodiversity Conservation in Practice.”
The course will be taught by the ASU-Conservation International Professors or Practice and is designed for students interested in exploring practical applications of biodiversity conservation. By learning directly from global conservation field practitioners, students will gain a better understanding on the link between academia and practice.
This course is cross-listed as BIO 412/BIO 598/SOS 598 and GPH 598. It will be taught Tuesday and Thursdays, from 1:30-2:45 p.m. in the School of Life Sciences, wing E, room B52.
October 25, 2017
Leah Gerber, Founding Director of the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, recently co-authored a publication with Hugh Possingham, Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy, in News and Views titled “The effect of conservation spending.”
Gerber and Possingham discuss a statistical analysis published earlier this year by Waldron et al, explaining how this model “demonstrates a statistically significant, positive correlation between how much a country invests in the protection of threatened species and its success in limiting biodiversity declines.”
October 23, 2017
Last week, Founding Director Leah Gerber represented the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) 2017 Council Meeting in Mexico City as part of our knowledge partnership.
With representatives from Yale, Monterrey Tech, Environmental Resources Management and Solvay, Gerber participated in a panel cultivating talent and leadership between academic and industry sectors. There was tremendous enthusiasm among the approximately 50 participants, who have aspirations for collaborative online learning platforms.
A post-event website was created by WBCSD including videos and program updates.
October 20, 2017
On October 15, 2017, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber represented the university as a panelist in a World Business Council on Sustainable Development hosted discussion titled “Talent and Leadership for a Sustainable World” in Mexico City.
Discussions aimed at fine-tuning and communicating a roadmap for companies seeking to implement sustainability at scale and emphasized the importance of talent and leadership development. More specifically, the session focused on three core areas: careers/recruitment, curriculum development and business school sustainability ranking.
October 19, 2017
The week of October 13-18, 2017, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes facilitated IUCN Red List of Threatened Species training certification for 10 people from across the United States as part of its commitment to our advancing knowledge partnership.
The Red List is the world’s standard for quantifying species extinction risk and is used around the world to inform policy, planning and conservation action. Beth Polidoro, the center’s Deputy Director, has been spearheading the university’s partnership with IUCN Red List.
October 19, 2017
ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes’ Founding Director Leah Gerber and Dean Diego Quiroga of the San Francisco de Quito University in Ecuador published a paper this week in Science magazine titled “Incentives for Galápagos protection.”
Ecuador is one of the world’s most diverse ecological systems, supporting an abundance of biological diversity. At present, approximately 36% of the mainland of the country is designated as Key Biodiversity Areas.
October 18, 2017
On October 17, ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Project Manager Amy Scoville-Weaver volunteered in a unique educational event, “The Spirit of Science” at in Jacobsen Elementary in Chandler.
Over 150 children participated, having “face to face” encounters with the most influential scientific minds throughout history, from Ada Lovelace to Hypatia of Alexandria. Scientists from across the Valley acted the part, leading discussions with the children about the history of science and the value diversity and inclusion play in advancing scientific thought and discovery.
