Human-wildlife coexistence: novel financial mechanisms for conservation

迫切需要采取保护行动，以减轻对生态系统和物种施加的越来越大的人为压力，同时支持人类发展。生物多样性是人类福祉的基础，有助于提供土壤肥力、食物、饮用水和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，非洲狮已经从它们历史上90%的活动范围中消失了。这些牧场是数百万非洲人的关键资源，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，这突出了实施有效和公平的保护倡议的必要性。迫切需要有影响力的基于自然的资金来确保生物多样性并造福当地人民。尽管生物多样性的全球价值多种多样，但保护项目往往达不到预期效果。据估计，每年用于应对生物多样性丧失和气候变化的全球资金缺口为3.5万亿美元。仅在保护区内保护非洲狮子，每年就需要至少10亿美元的资金。一系列新的金融机制试图支持自然恢复，但在金融可行性、生态影响和对社会影响的考虑方面，知识差距仍然很大。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，这些机制可以为生物多样性和人类生活带来“双赢”。我在牛津大学的博士学位旨在开发一种创新的、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回顾，更好地了解基于自然的物种保护资金，并确定围绕社会效益和生态效益的具体知识差距。我的第二个和第三个目标将在稍后通过实地调查来解决，探索经济激励对肯尼亚中部莱基皮亚县社区福祉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，将被用于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、声波传感器和无人机)，以评估当前狮子种群，并对照反事实评估预测狮子保护行动的效果。我们不知道还有另一个项目考虑将社会和生态影响数据作为以非洲狮子为重点的基于自然的金融产品成功的指标。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意义，对生物多样性的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，在该领域，跨学科方法旨在为保护项目开发更可持续的财务现实，为人类和地球带来显著好处。为了实现这一实地工作，我与当地合作伙伴在狮子景观和自然状态方面进行了合作。狮子景观公司在莱基皮亚及其他地区的狮子保护方面拥有数十年的生态经验，而自然州立大学正在开发自己的狮子影响信用。这种双重协作不仅允许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。这个项目不仅对我们的研究领域有现实的影响，而且对全球基于自然的投资市场都有影响，有可能扭转生物多样性的丧失。

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.