Papers
The Nature Data Lab team has led, supported, or co-authored 44 peer-reviewed studies, white papers, and open-source data products to advance the nature-positive agenda. These cover a wide array of topics – from ecological prioritization and land use change, to local community governance and nature finance – exploring intersections between biodiversity, climate, and sustainable livelihoods.
BioHubs: A Pathway to Regional Resilience
A BioHub is defined as a project with physical infrastructures — such as farms, campuses, or community centers — that have been developed to catalyze social, ecological, and economic transformation in the regions around them, generating value across scales.
Gladek et al. ·Permafrost and wildfire carbon emissions indicate need for additional action to keep Paris Agreement temperature goals within reach
First-of-its kind analysis integrating three types of biological emissions from permafrost ecosystems – gradual thickening of seasonally-thawed soil, abrupt permafrost thaw, and intensifying fire regimes.
Schädel et al.·A visual analytics framework for conservation planning optimization
A novel visual analytics system that combines multicriteria analysis, optimization algorithms, and decision-making support to efficiently construct, compare, and modify conservation portfolios under multiple constraints.
Zhang et al. ·Bioregional Financing Facilities: Reimagining Finance to Regenerate Our Planet
A first-of-its kind study, which makes the case for the development of a new structure to support the decentralization of finance needed to enable every bioregion on Earth to fund its transition to a regenerative economy.
Power & Seefeld.·Closing Window of Opportunity: Mapping Threats... to Important Areas for Conservation in the Pantropics
Oil & gas and mining operations post serious threats to areas of particular importance for biodiversity in topical forests and to the local and Indigenous communities that govern them. This spatial analysis maps the conservation areas most at risk.
Earth Insight·Developing the Nature Tech Taxonomy Framework
The first-of-its-kind taxonomy proposed for the emergent 'Nature Tech' investment category, which scans hundreds of organizations and companies working to advance the nature-positive agenda though the application of novel technologies.
Nature Tech Collective·Mapping global land conversion pressure to support conservation planning
The paper develops a 1-km resolution global map of land conversion pressure from multiple drivers, referred to as the conversion pressure index (CPI). The CPI combines past rates of anthropogenic change to identify areas for proactive conservation in order to avoid future land conversion threats.
Oakleaf et al. ·The Extinction Solutions Index (ESI): A framework to measure solution efficiency to address biodiversity loss
A proposed framework designed to evaluate, compare and rank the most effective and efficient solutions to the biodiversity crisis inspired by Project Drawdown.
Martin et al. ·Conservation Imperatives: securing the last unprotected terrestrial sites harboring irreplaceable biodiversity
A new spatial analysis at 100m resolution identifies 16,000+ unprotected land areas harboring rare and threatened species. A first-of-its kind financial analysis is developed to estimate the cost of securing these sites under the 30x30 mandate of the GBF.
Dinerstein et al. ·Amazonia Against the Clock
New reports proving data on degradation and transformation of 9 rainforest countries and call for protecting 80% of the Amazon in order to avoid the point of no return.
RAISG·Rewiring the Carbon Cycle: A Theoretical Framework for Animal-Driven Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration
The presence of wildlife fundamentally changes the relationships between plants, microbes, and the environment, leading to large changes in the amount of carbon captured and stored in ecosystems relative to conditions that exclude animals.
Rizzuto et al. ·Priorities for protected area expansion so nations can meet their Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework commitments
Experts identify the six broad principles that can guide national planning for the UN Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), ensure protected and conserved areas are well sited to maximize biodiversity outcomes.
Watson et al. ·Indigenous Peoples’ lands are threatened by industrial development: conversion risk assessment...
Indigenous Peoples are critical to the success of global conservation. However, their stewardship is challenged by the expansion of industrial development. This paper presents a spatial analysis of IP territories and land conversion pressure.
Kennedy et al. ·Trophic rewilding can expand natural climate solutions
New scientific evidence showing that protecting and restoring wild animals and their functional roles can enhance natural carbon capture and storage, enhancing the ability to prevent climate warming beyond 1.5 °C.
Schmitz et al. ·The Land Gap Report
Governments’ over-reliance on carbon removals could push ecosystems, land rights, and food security to the brink, with new land area equivalent to 50 percent of the world’s croplands currently being required to meet targets. Climate pledges should focus on protecting and restoring existing ecosystems with carbon benefits.
C. Pedrick (Ed.)·Mature and old-growth forests contribute to large-scale conservation targets in the conterminous United States
The first spatially explicit assessment of Mature and old-growth (MOG) forests for the countermines United States based on three structural development measures—canopy height, canopy cover, and above-ground living biomass.
DellaSala et al.·Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions
This study calculates for the first time median carbon removal estimates from five nature-bases pathways across five global regions, producing an annual time series using a basic Monte Carlo method. Constrained restoration options result in a median of 103 GtC removal 2020-2100.
Dooley et al. ·CODES Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age
Coordinated by the United Nations, the CODES Action Plan explores the role of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other innovations to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with input from over 1000 stakeholders.
United Nations·Financing conservation by valuing carbon services produced by wild animals
A first-of-its-kind paper, modeling the carbon services produced by forest elephants, an approach that could expand financing of conservation programs and broaden the portfolio of nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation.
Berzaghi et al. ·Animating the Carbon Cycle: Supercharging ecosystem carbon sinks to meet the 1.5°C climate target
Animals play a critical role in the global carbon cycle – elephants to grasshoppers, sharks to sea otters – all contribute to the maintenance and engineering of ecosystems in different ways in both terrestrial and marine domains. This report includes ten case studies and calls for increased research in the field.
Allen et al.·An ecoregion-based approach to restoring the world's intact large mammal assemblages
Assemblages of large mammal species play a disproportionate role in the structure and composition of natural habitats. This study takes identifies landscapes that retain their historically present large mammal assemblages and ecoregions that could be restored.
Vynne et al. ·Dynamic modelling shows substantial contribution of ecosystem restoration to climate change mitigation
The first study to provide spatially and temporally explicit estimates of ecosystem restoration potential quantified with a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM), covering forest restoration, reforestation, reduced harvest, agroforestry and silvopasture.
Littleton et al. ·Mapping Nature for People and Planet
The launch publication for UNDP's project, enabling governments to put nature at the heart of land use and development planning by mapping Essential Life Support Areas (ELSAs). 8 country optimizations are highlighted.
UNDP·Assessing the extent and contribution of other effective conservation measures (OECMs) in South Africa
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a definition for other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). South Africa is one of the first countries to undertake a comprehensive national review of its potential OECMs, published here.
Marnewick et al. ·A 'Global Safety Net' to reverse biodiversity loss and stabilize Earth’s climate
A landmark study that maps the world's remaining lands supporting biodiversity and climate stabilization, totaling 35.3% of the global terrestrial area beyond 15.1% of protected areas.
Dinerstein et al. ·New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding
Digital elevation models (DEMs) are used to set median coastal elevations, but this new study finds significant data gaps for coastal elevations across the Global South. A deep learning model is developed to correct for these errors, potentially tripling areas at risk.
Kulp & Strauss·A Global Deal For Nature: Guiding principles, milestones, and targets
The groundbreaking study that provided the first global estimate of land or particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, introducing the interim conservation goal of protecting 30% of land area by 2030.
Dinerstein et al. ·Biodiversity and Climate Change Transforming the Biosphere
A compilation of scientific essays by leading researchers focusing on the intersection of biodiversity and climate change – from ocean dynamics to the hydrology of the Amazon.
Lovejoy & Hannah (Eds.)·Mycorrhizal Networks Facilitate Tree Communication, Learning, and Memory
A chapter in the book Memory and Learning in Plants, summarizes groundbreaking research in tree behavioral, learning, and memory responses facilitated by communication through symbiotic mycorrhizal networks.
S. Simmard·Nature for Water, Nature for Life
A UN publication that highlights the importance of safeguarding nature in order to secure water-related services in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
UNDP·