Tag: Biodiversity (Page 1 of 5)

New paper: Cultural integration of invasive species

June 26, 2025 / k8sherren

Process diagram showing replacement, coexistence and addition modes of native species relative to invasive.

Modes of cultural integration of invasive species (IS), relative to native species

Really pleased to be part of a new (open access) conceptual paper in npj Biodiversity, Cultural integration of invasive species. Led by Ivan Jaric and Jonathan Jeschke with a fascinating international team, this paper describes and problematizes the implications of cultures accepting invasive species into their landscapes and livelihoods. The range of disciplines in the writing team prompted rich debates about the issues, which are only more relevant with species ‘on the move’ due to climate change. A few case studies flesh out the paper, showing for instance the impact of the cultural integration of Black locust trees in Hungary, and of prickly pear cactus in a range of different settings. Such cultural integration can limit conservation management options, especially for species not only widely recognized and accepted but that become essential to livelihoods or lifestyles (e.g., food or sport fishing) or culturally iconic (e.g. the Sable Island Horse). We hope that this review helps provide some structure for those dealing with similar issues. Thanks to all the co-authors.

New paper on flagship individuals in conservation

October 12, 2023 / k8sherren

Defining characteristics of flagship individuals, presented through the example of an African elephant (Loxodonta africana). A flagship individual (the central composite image with four shades of green) is distinguished by species characteristics, individual traits (here, larger body size and prominent tusks), its level of exposure to humans (tourism), and its individual fate (a victim of poaching).

Figure 1 in the paper, showing defining characteristics of flagship individuals, presented through the example of an African elephant (Loxodonta africana). A flagship individual (the central composite image with four shades of green) is distinguished by species characteristics, individual traits (here, larger body size and prominent tusks), its level of exposure to humans (tourism), and its individual fate (a victim of poaching).

Another new paper is out today in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment thanks to the leadership of Ivan Jarić at Université Paris-Saclay, systematizing the use of individual animals and plants as so-called ‘flagships’ of conservation campaigning. Titled Flagship individuals in biodiversity conservation (and happily open access), the paper describes the characteristics of a typical flagship individual, drawing on examples from around the world, and their potential utility for drawing attention to conservation needs. As with fundraising for humans, it is the individual story that will often move people to act. The paper also considers some of the challenges or drawbacks of such personalization, both for the individual in question and for the cause.

New paper: Extinction of experience

February 15, 2022 / k8sherren

Figure 2 in Jaric et al. (2002) conveying the causes and consequences of societal extinction of species

A new Opinion paper with my European colleagues Ivan Jaric, Ricardo Correia and others is out today in Trends in Ecology and Evolution on the Societal extinction of species. It is always fun and intellectually challenging to engage with this team of scholars on questions at the human-environment interface. Thanks to Ivan Jaric for his leadership and good humour in the face of mind-blowing track-changes!

**Update on February 26th to remark on the remarkable coverage this paper has received. One of the co-authors is tracking it and has found pieces in media, podcasts and blogs in English, French, Spanish, German, Vietnamese, Estonian, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Hebrew, Finnish, Chinese, Polish, Dutch, Romanian, and Lithuanian. Pages of links, far too many to post here. An example is this piece by GrrlScientist in Forbes Magazine. As of today, the paper is #12 of all papers ever in TREE journal based on Altmetrics.

Biodiversity Act underway

March 15, 2019 / k8sherren

A distinctly under-the-weather Iain Rankin, Minister for Lands and Forestry, rises to announce the Biodiversity Act in yesterday’s media briefing.

I enjoyed visiting Province House yesterday for the media briefing around the province’s new Biodiversity Act. As one of the three-member Biodiversity Council that has acted as advisors to the process since last year, it was very satisfying to join the Minister and Deputy Minister, as well as other staffers at Lands and Forestry. Nice also to get the support of Nature Conservancy Canada and the Ecology Action Centre. This Act fills critical gaps in our capacity to protect Nova Scotia’s ecosystems against known and as-yet-unknown challenges.

I faced my first media scrum after the briefing. I’m weighing up how to rank it on discomfort in comparison with the mammogram I had immediately before. Some of the press from that scrum appeared on CBC and the Chronicle Herald (though the latter misspelled my surname), and since then I have done a little more (News 95.7 live interview). We missed the tabling of the Act yesterday, thanks to slow service at The Old Triangle, but this morning it had its second reading in the House. Minister Rankin included some of my comments in his address (see Hansard):

Mr. Speaker, I heard strong support for our bill from several key players in biodiversity. Dr. Kate Sherren, of Dalhousie University and a Biodiversity Council member, spoke yesterday during the bill briefing. She said the priority is to address current issues where there are gaps and to have a tool kit ready when they are needed. As she said, biodiversity is an engine of the ecosystem. We don’t know what we’ll be up against and we will need legislation to manage it.

I look forward to continuing with the Council as we hit the ground with regulatory priorities if this goes through.

Craig Smith from NCC enters the scrum I just left, March 14, 2019.

Bird Watcher’s Digest coverage

December 6, 2018 / k8sherren

Quick Takes coverage of Space to Roost in the Nov/Dec 2018 issue of Bird Water’s Digest.

Congratulations to MES candidate Jaya Fahey, and collaborators from her MES sponsors and Mitacs host, Bird Studies Canada, for the coverage of Space to Roost in the recent issue of Bird Watcher’s Digest. Our innovative approach to negotiating and motivating high-tide beach sharing for migrating shorebirds has received interest from places like Newfoundland and Georgia and we hope to see more examples of this kind of collaborative conservation in future as a result.

New paper: Cultural integration of invasive species

New paper on flagship individuals in conservation

New paper: Extinction of experience

Biodiversity Act underway

Bird Watcher’s Digest coverage

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