Biodiversity and ecosystems are foundational to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They are explicitly recognized in SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land), which aim to conserve and sustainably use aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems also support SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) by providing the variety of life that underpins agricultural productivity. They contribute to SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) by providing essential water filtration services, and to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by regulating disease and offering potential sources for medical discoveries. Moreover, these biological resources play a significant role in climate change mitigation and adaptation, linking to SDG 13 (Climate Action). Hence, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems is essential to achieving multiple SDGs.
This book chapter advances SDGs 14 and 15 by discussing salt marsh restoration and rehabilitation projects that have been initiated at many locations around the world as a means of addressing past habitat loss as well as future threats.
Elsevier,
World Seas: An Environmental Evaluation Volume II: The Indian Ocean to the Pacific, Volume , 1 January 2018
This book chapter advances SDGs 14 and 15 by looking at Fiji, which is one of the most developed of the Pacific Island economies with a population highly dependent on the country’s rich biodiversity and natural resources for food, agriculture, tourism, culture, coastal protection, shelter, recreational sports, and other vital human needs. Sustainable use and practical management of coastal resources are urged while there is still a chance of ecosystem repair and restoration.
This book chapter advances SDGs 14 and 15 by covering all aspects of successful mangrove forest rehabilitation, including post monitoring to ensure continued success. Mangroves are critical coastal ecosystems that impact the environment and lives of all living creatures.
Ethnopharmacological relevance In the Peruvian Amazon, the use of medicinal plants is a common practice. However, there is few documented information about the practical aspects of their use and few scientific validation. The starting point for this work was a set of interviews of people living in rural communities from the Peruvian Amazon about their uses of plants. Protozoan diseases are a public health issue in the Amazonian communities, who partly cope with it by using traditional remedies.
Among the different pharmaceuticals present in soil and water ecosystems as micro-contaminants, considerable attention has been paid to antibiotics, since their increasing use and the consequent development of multi-resistant bacteria pose serious risks to human and veterinary health. Moreover, once they have entered the environment, antibiotics can affect natural microbial communities. The latter play a key role in fundamental ecological processes, most importantly the maintenance of soil and water quality.
Where are commodity crops certified, and what does it mean for conservation and poverty alleviation?
Voluntary sustainability standards have expanded dramatically over the last decade. In the agricultural sector, such standards aim to ensure environmentally and socially sustainable production of a variety of commodity crops. However, little is known about where agricultural certification operates and whether certified lands are best located for conserving the world's most important biodiversity and benefiting the most vulnerable producers.
Over the last two decades, there has been growing interest on the effects of agricultural practices on soil biology in Europe. As soil biota are known to fluctuate throughout the season and as agro-environmental conditions may influence the effect of agricultural practices on soil organisms, conclusions cannot be drawn from a single study. Therefore, integrating the results of many studies in order to identify general trends is required. The main objective of this study was to investigate how soil biota are affected by repeated applications of organic amendments (i.e.
The assessment of microbial functional diversity is an important indicator of soil quality. Different methodological approaches are currently used; among them are enzyme activities (EA) and CLPP (community level physiological profile) techniques (e.g. MicroResp™ MR).
Non-vascular plants such as mosses, lichens and especially microalgae are widespread in terrestrial ecosystems, but their contribution in the nutrient cycling and energy budget of soil food webs is generally neglected. Despite a relatively low total biomass, soil microalgae can be very productive and contribute to the diet of many soil decomposers such as Collembola. Using 15N/14N ratios we showed that phycophagy is of particular importance for Collembola in extreme habitats like rock surfaces, or seasonally during the wintertime.
This book chapter addresses goals 15 and 17 by providing an overview of educational programming used across cheetah conservation organizations, including considerations for designing, implementing, and evaluating such programs for success.
