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Biodiversity conservation and COVID-19: remember links between healthy ecosystems and human wellbeing

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"This editorial is the product of discussions among conservation scientists from around the world. Our objective is to highlight the short and long-term consequences of this pandemic for biodiversity and for conservation science"

“Society's priorities must be human health and the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we also need to be thinking ahead to the resumption of conservation practice and education. There is an opportunity here to remind people of the links between healthy, resilient ecosystems and human well-being.” That is one of the messages of an editorial co-written by Professor Robin Pakeman, of our Ecological Sciences group, published in the latest issue of Biological Conservation.

The editorial focuses on three key areas of action during the pandemic: the need to protect conservation biology and biologists by adapting education, maintaining research and adjusting communication; the importance of protecting biodiversity now and after the pandemic; and the urgency of stimulating opportunities for conservation research and practice.

Professor Pakeman commented: “This editorial is the product of discussions among conservation scientists from around the world. Our objective is to highlight the short and long-term consequences of this pandemic for biodiversity and for conservation science.

“Short-term many species might benefit from reduced disturbance and hunting, and many projects will keep going, but the careers of young scientists might be negatively impacted. Long-term much will depend on how serious the biodiversity crisis is seen by governments and funding agencies and how this sector can compete for limited resources.”

The editorial, co-written by Richard T. Corlett, Richard B. Primack, Vincent Devictor, Bea Maas de Varun, R. Goswami, Amanda E. Bates, Lian Pin Koh, Tracey J. Regan, Rafael Loyola, Robin J. Pakeman, Graeme S. Cumming, Anna Pidgeon, David Johns and Robin Roth, is accessible at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108571.

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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.