Human-wildlife coexistence: novel financial mechanisms for conservation

迫切需要采取保护行动，在支持人类发展的同时减轻对生态系统和物种日益增加的人为压力。生物多样性是人类福祉的基础，有助于提供土壤肥力、食物、饮用水以及多种额外的内在价值和存在价值。然而，现在有100万种物种面临灭绝的威胁，非洲狮的历史活动范围已经减少了90%以上。这些牧场是数百万非洲人的重要资源，那里的生态系统平衡是由狮子等关键物种支撑的。然而，那些对生物多样性最重要的地区往往是那些高度贫困的地区，这突出了提供有效和公平的保护举措的必要性。迫切需要有影响力的基于自然的融资，以确保生物多样性并造福当地人民。尽管生物多样性具有多样化的全球价值，但保护项目往往无法获得应有的回报。据估计，应对生物多样性丧失和气候变化的全球资金缺口为每年3.5万亿美元。每年至少需要10亿美元的资金来保护保护区内的非洲狮。一系列新的金融机制试图支持自然恢复，但考虑到财务可行性、生态影响和社会影响，仍然存在重大的知识空白。迫切需要更好地了解公平的基于自然的融资方法的潜在机制，这种方法可以为生物多样性和人类生计带来“双赢”。我在牛津大学攻读博士学位的目标是开发一种创新的、可衡量的方法，以了解基于自然的投资机制对人类和生态的影响。我的第一个目标是通过系统的文献综述，更好地理解基于自然的物种保护融资，并确定围绕社会和生态效益的具体知识差距。我的第二个和第三个目标稍后将通过实证实地考察来解决，探索财政激励对肯尼亚中部莱基皮亚县社区福利和狮子保护的潜在影响。跨学科的概念框架，包括计划行为理论的使用，将被用来评估这些激励措施对社区福祉的潜在影响，并预测对野生动物态度的变化。随后，将部署远程生物多样性监测技术（相机陷阱、声学传感器和无人机）来评估当前的狮子数量，并与反事实评估相比较，预测狮子保护行动的效果。我们不知道另一个项目将社会和生态影响数据作为以非洲狮为重点的基于自然的金融产品的成功指标。该项目不仅在学术上新颖，而且对整个自然金融市场具有创新性，对生物多样性恢复具有重大的潜在影响。该项目属于EPSRC循环经济研究领域，该领域采用跨学科方法，旨在为保护项目开发更可持续的财务现实，为人类和地球带来重大利益。为了完成这次实地调查，我与当地的合作伙伴“狮子景观”和“自然状态”进行了合作。狮子景观在莱基皮亚及其他地区拥有数十年的狮子保护生态经验，而自然状态正在开发自己的狮子影响信用。这种双重合作不仅可以让我收集社会和生态数据，还可以在迭代开发的积极信用上测试这种方法。该项目不仅在我们的研究领域具有现实世界的影响，而且在全球基于自然的投资市场具有扭转生物多样性丧失的潜力。

Conservation action is urgently required to mitigate increasing anthropogenic pressures levied on ecosystems and species while supporting human development. Biodiversity underpins human well-being, contributing to the provision of soil fertility, food, drinking water, and multiple additional intrinsic and existence values. Yet, a million species are now threatened with extinction and African lions have disappeared from over 90% of their historic range. These rangelands are a critical resource for millions of Africans, where ecosystem balance is underpinned by keystone species such as lions. However, those areas most important for biodiversity are often those with high poverty, highlighting the need to deliver effective and equitable conservation initiatives.Impactful nature-based finance is urgently needed to secure biodiversity and benefit local people. Despite the diverse global value of biodiversity, conservation projects often fail to pay their way. The estimated global funding gap for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change is US$ 3.5tn per annum. Annual funding of at least US$ 1bn is required to secure African lions in protected areas alone. A range of novel financial mechanisms attempt to support nature recovery, but significant knowledge gaps remain considering financial feasibility, ecological impact, and consideration for social impact. There is a critical need to better understand the potential mechanisms for equitable nature-based finance approaches which could deliver 'win-wins' for biodiversity and human livelihoods.My PhD at the University of Oxford aims to develop an innovative, measurable approach to understand both human and ecological impacts of nature-based investment mechanisms. My first objective is to develop a better understanding of nature-based finance for species conservation and identify specific knowledge gaps around social and ecological benefits, through a systematic literature review. My second and third objectives will be addressed later through empirical fieldwork, exploring the potential effect of financial incentives on community wellbeing and lion conservation in Laikipia County in central Kenya. Interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks, including the use of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, will be utilised to assess the potential impact of these incentives on community wellbeing, and predict variation in attitudes toward wildlife. Subsequently, remote biodiversity monitoring technology (camera traps, acoustic sensors and drones) will be deployed to assess current lion populations and predict the effect of Lion conservation action in comparison with counterfactual assessments. We are unaware of another project considering both social and ecological impact data as indicators of success for a nature-based finance product focused on African lions. This project is not just academically novel, but innovative for nature finance markets as a whole with significant potential impact for biodiversity recovery.This project falls within the EPSRC circular economy research area, where an interdisciplinary approach aims to develop a more sustainable financial reality for conservation projects with significant benefits for people and the planet. To achieve this fieldwork, I have secured collaboration with local partners in Lion Landscapes and Natural State. Lion Landscapes has decades of ecological experience working in lion conservation across Laikipia and beyond, while Natural State are in the process of developing their own lion impact credit. This dual collaboration not only allows me to collect social and ecological data, but test this approach on an active credit for iterative development. This project has real world impact not only in our study area, but across global nature based investment market that has the potential to reverse biodiversity loss.