Biodiversity Conservation

We work with the objective of contributing to the biodiversity conservation in environmental, social and economic aspects.

Climate change

We support decision makers in the climate agenda focused on ecosystem conservation and restoration projects and biodiversity.

Ecosystem restoration

The approaches developed by IIS aim to assist the planning and implementation of vegetation recovery projects, exploring synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and costs, under a variety of scenarios.

Sustainable development

We seek to promote the transition to sustainability, contributing to the balance between socioeconomic development, biodiversity conservation and rational use of natural resources.

Sustainable Land Use

We promote the transition from the traditional agricultural practices to a more sustainable land management, helping to mitigate climate change and guaranteeing the future of the next generations.

Economic Analysis

We seek to strengthen and defend the basic principles of balance between the economy and the environment, favoring research, planning and management in public and private fields, linked to the relationship between ecological, social and economic systems, in order to improve social well-being.

Policies

We assist in the formulation of policies aimed at sustainability, as well as the implementation of practical actions, working in partnership with public sector bodies and other organizations.

Spatial intelligence

Through landscape modeling and monitoring, we identify the patterns and trends of social and ecological systems, supporting decision makers through quantitative statistics and mapped scenarios.

Publications > Article

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Conservation Letters: Associations between socio-environmental factors and landscape-scale biodiversity recovery in naturally regenerating tropical and subtropical forests

Direct and indirect associations between socio-environmental factors and deviation in biodiversityrecovery. Colored panels indicate different pathways (blue–percentage of forest cover (Forest); purple–percentage of urban areas (Urban); pink–percentage of cropland (Cropland), with solid (direct paths) and dotted lines (indirect paths). Blue lines represent positive associations and red lines, negative asso- ciations. Def = gross deforestation rate, Rpop = rural population density, Pop = human population variation, Oppt = land opportunity cost, Road = road density, Time = time since natural regeneration started, WD = water deficit, Temp = mean annual temperature, SPA = strictly protected forest areas. Estimates and standard deviation (in parentheses) are given for each path. R2 values showed in dependent variables symbols represent the fraction of deviation in biodiversity recovery explained by four multiple generalized linear regressions included in the Structural Equation Model

Natural regeneration is key for large-scale forest restoration, yet it may lead to different biodiversity outcomes depending on socio-environmental context.
We combined the results of a global meta-analysis to quantify how biodiversity recovery in naturally regenerating forests deviates from biodiversity values in reference old-growth forests, with structural equation modelling, to identify direct and indirect associations between socioeconomic, biophysical and ecological factors and deviation in biodiversity recovery at a landscape scale. Low deviation within a landscape means higher chances of multiple sites in naturally regenerating forests successfully recovering biodiversity compared to reference forests. Deviation in biodiversity recovery was directly negatively associated with the percentage of cropland, forest cover, and positively associated with the percentage of urban areas in the surrounding landscape. These three factors mediated the indirect associations with rural population size, recent gross deforestation, time since natural regeneration started, mean annual temperature, mean annual water deficit, road density, land opportunity cost, percentage cover of strictly protected forest areas, and human population variation in the surrounding landscape.We suggest that natural forest restoration should be prioritized in landscapes with both low socioeconomic pressures on land use conversion to pasturelands and urban areas, and high percentage of forest cover.

Related Themes

Related collaborators (1)

Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg

Co-founder