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PerspectiveConservation

Seeing the forest through the trees

Science27 Jan 2017Vol 355, Issue 6323pp. 347-349DOI: 10.1126/science.aal5120

Abstract

Recognizing the importance of biodiversity to human well-being, most nations have committed to the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the pressures on biodiversity are increasing, and its status is declining globally (1), raising concerns that national plans and targets are not ambitious enough (2) and showing that new solutions are needed (3). Recognition of synergies among different targets and goals (4) has brought forest to the forefront of national land-use decision-making, which must balance multiple objectives that all demand land (5). Efforts to support decision-making on forests have focused on individual (typically vertebrate) species and on carbon and other ecosystem services. Highly resolved views of functional trait variation in tropical forests reported by Asner et al. on page 385 of this issue (6) may provide a further basis for making such decisions.
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References

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IISD 2016. Summary of the UN Biodiversity Conference: 2–17 December 2016 Earth Negot. Bull. 9, 1 (2016); www.iisd.ca/download/pdf/enb09678e.pdf.
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L. Miles, V. Kapos, Science 320, 1454 (2008).
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G. P. Asner et al., Science 355, 385 (2017).
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Science
Volume 355Issue 632327 January 2017
Pages: 347 - 349

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Valerie Kapos
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219 Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK.

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Volume 355|Issue 6323
27 January 2017
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