Diverse values of nature for sustainability
- Authors: Pascual, Unai , Balvanera, Patricia , Anderson, Christopher B , Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca , Christie, Michael , González-Jiménez, David , Martin, Adrian , Raymond, Christopher M , Termansen, Mette , Vatn, Arild , Athayde, Simone , Baptiste, Brigitte , Barton, Davind N , Jacobs, Sander , Kelemen, Eszter , Kumar, Ritesh , Lazos, Elena , Mwampamba, Tuyeni H , Nakangu, Barbara , O’Farrell, Patrick , Subramanian, Suneetha M , van Noordwijk, Meine , Ahn, SoEun , Amaruzaman, Sacha , Amin, Ariane M , Arias-Arévalo, Paola , Arroyo-Robles, Gabriela , Cantú-Fernández, Mariana , Castro, Antonio J , Contreras, Victoria , de Vos, Alta , Dendoncker, Nicolas , Engel, Stefanie , Eser, Uta , Faith, Daniel P , Filyushkina, Anna , Ghazi, Houda , Gómez-Baggethun, Erik , Gould, Rachelle K , Guibrunet, Louise , Gundimeda, Haripriya , Hahn, Thomas , Harmáčková, Zuzana V , Hernández-Blanco, Marcello , Horcea-Milcu, Andra-loana , Huambachano, Mariaelena , Wicher, Natalia L H , Aydın, Cem I , Islar, Mine , Koessler, Ann-Kathrin , Kenter, Jasper O , Kosmus, Marina , Lee, Heera , Leimona, Beria , Lele, Sharachchandra , Lenzi, Dominic , Lliso, Bosco , Mannetii, Lelani M , Merçon, Juliana , Monroy-Sais, Ana S , Mukherjee, Nibedita , Muraca, Barbara , Muradian, Roldan , Murali, Ranjini , Nelson, Sara H , Nemogá-Soto, Gabriel R , Ngouhouo-Poufoun, Jonas , Niamir, Aidin , Nuesiri, Emmanuel , Nyumba, Tobias O , Özkaynak, Begüm , Palomo, Ignacio , Pandit, Ram , Pawłowska-Mainville, Agnieszka , Porter-Bolland, Luciano , Quaas, Martin , Rode, Julian , Rozzi, Ricardo , Sachdeva, Sonya , Aibek, Samakov , Schaafsma, Marije , Sitas, Nadia , Ungar, Paula , Yiu, Evonne , Yoshida, Yuki , Zent, Eglee
- Date: 2023
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/415612 , vital:71270 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06406-9"
- Description: Twenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being, addressing the global biodiversity crisis still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, pandemic emergence and socio-environmental injustices. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientifc publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.
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- Date Issued: 2023
Lessons from COVID-19 for wildlife ranching in a changing world
- Authors: Clements, Hayley S , Child, Matthew F , Lindeque, Lehman , Lunderstedt, Kyra , de Vos, Alta
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/415886 , vital:71297 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00961-1"
- Description: The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to assess the impacts of a global disturbance on conservation land uses and learn from responses to the crisis to enable more resilient conservation systems. To understand socio-economic responses of diverse wildlife working lands to COVID-19, we surveyed owners and managers of 78 private wildlife ranches (wildlife working lands), 23 agricultural farms (conventional working lands) and six public protected areas (conventional conservation lands) in South Africa. Most protected areas lost more than 75% of their revenues during 2020, while most agricultural farms lost less than 10%. The impact on wildlife ranches was more varied. Ranches with more diverse activities, particularly mixed wildlife–agriculture systems, lost less revenue, shifting their activities from those heavily impacted (international ecotourism, trophy hunting) to those less afected (for example, wildlife meat, livestock). This adaptive capacity suggests that wildlife-based enterprises could represent key ecosystem-based adaptations, providing lessons for integrated global policies that seek to incorporate private land models in the 2030 Biodiversity Framework.
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- Date Issued: 2022
South African Lagerstätte reveals middle Permian Gondwanan lakeshore ecosystem in exquisite detail
- Authors: Prevec, Rosemary , Nel, André , O.Day, Michael , Muir, Robert , Matiwane, Aviwe , Kirkaldy, Abigail P , Moyo, Sydney , Staniczek, Arnold , Cariglino, Bárbara , Maseko, Zolile , Kom, Nokuthula , Rubidge, Bruce S , Garrouste, Romain , Holland, Alexandra J , Barber-James, Helen M
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/426673 , vital:72378 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04132-y"
- Description: Continental ecosystems of the middle Permian Period (273–259 million years ago) are poorly understood. In South Africa, the vertebrate fossil record is well documented for this time interval, but the plants and insects are virtually unknown, and are rare globally. This scarcity of data has hampered studies of the evolution and diversification of life, and has precluded detailed reconstructions and analyses of ecosystems of this critical period in Earth’s history. Here we introduce a new locality in the southern Karoo Basin that is producing exceptionally well-preserved and abundant fossils of novel freshwater and terrestrial insects, arachnids, and plants. Within a robust regional geochronological, geological and biostratigraphic context, this Konservat- and Konzentrat-Lagerstätte offers a unique opportunity for the study and reconstruction of a southern Gondwanan deltaic ecosystem that thrived 266–268 million years ago, and will serve as a high-resolution ecological baseline towards a better understanding of Permian extinction events.
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- Date Issued: 2022
Detection of a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in South Africa
- Authors: Oluwakemi Laguda-Akingba
- Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Type: Journal Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/4505 , vital:44127
- Description: Continued uncontrolled transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in many parts of the world is creating conditions for substantial evolutionary changes to the virus1,2. Here we describe a newly arisen lineage of SARS-CoV-2 (designated 501Y.V2; also known as B.1.351 or 20H) that is defined by eight mutations in the spike protein, including three substitutions (K417N, E484K and N501Y) at residues in its receptor-binding domain that may have functional importance3–5. This lineage was identified in South Africa after the first wave of the epidemic in a severely affected metropolitan area (Nelson Mandela Bay) that is located on the coast of the Eastern Cape province. This lineage spread rapidly, and became dominant in Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu– Natal provinces within weeks. Although the full import of the mutations is yet to be determined, the genomic data—which show rapid expansion and displacement of other lineages in several regions—suggest that this lineage is associated with a selection advantage that most plausibly results from increased transmissibility or immune escape6–8.
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Deriving an optimal threshold of waist circumference for detecting cardiometabolic risk in sub-Saharan Africa
- Authors: Longo–Mbenza, Benjamin , K Ekoru, GAV Murphy, EH Young, H Delisle, CS Jerome , F Assah, JPD Nzambi, JBK On'Kin , F Buntix, MC Muyer, DL Christensen, CS Wesseh, A Sabir, C Okafor, ID Gezawa, F Puepet, O Enang, T Raimi, E Ohwovoriole, OO Oladapo, P Bovet, W Mollentze, N Unwin, WK Gray, R Walker K Agoudavi, S Siziya, J Chifamba, M Njelekela, CM Fourie, S Kruger, AE Schutte, C Walsh, D Gareta, A Kamali, J Seeley, SA Norris NJ Crowther, D Pillay, P Kaleebu, AA Motala and MS Sandhu on behalf of the African Partnership for Chronic Disease Research (APCDR)
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5389 , vital:44560 , https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2017240
- Description: BACKGROUND: Waist circumference (WC) thresholds derived from western populations continue to be used in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) despite increasing evidence of ethnic variation in the association between adiposity and cardiometabolic disease and availability of data from African populations. We aimed to derive a SSA-specific optimal WC cut-point for identifying individuals at increased cardiometabolic risk. METHODS: We used individual level cross-sectional data on 24 181 participants aged ⩾15 years from 17 studies conducted between 1990 and 2014 in eight countries in SSA. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to derive optimal WC cutpoints for detecting the presence of at least two components of metabolic syndrome (MS), excluding WC. RESULTS: The optimal WC cut-point was 81.2 cm (95% CI 78.5–83.8 cm) and 81.0 cm (95% CI 79.2–82.8 cm) for men and women, respectively, with comparable accuracy in men and women. Sensitivity was higher in women (64%, 95% CI 63–65) than in men (53%, 95% CI 51–55), and increased with the prevalence of obesity. Having WC above the derived cut-point was associated with a twofold probability of having at least two components of MS (age-adjusted odds ratio 2.6, 95% CI 2.4–2.9, for men and 2.2, 95% CI 2.0–2.3, for women). CONCLUSION: The optimal WC cut-point for identifying men at increased cardiometabolic risk is lower (⩾81.2 cm) than current guidelines (⩾94.0 cm) recommend, and similar to that in women in SSA. Prospective studies are needed to confirm these cut-points based on cardiometabolic outcomes.
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- Date Issued: 2018
Inhibition of NOS- like activity in maize alters the expression of genes involved in H2O2 scavenging and glycine betaine biosynthesis
- Authors: Phillips, Kyle , Majola, Anelisa , Gokul, Arun , Keyster, Marshall , Ludidi, Ndiko , Egbichi, Ifeanyi
- Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/11260/5256 , vital:44425 , https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31131-z#citeas
- Description: Nitric oxide synthase-like activity contributes to the production of nitric oxide in plants, which controls plant responses to stress. This study investigates if changes in ascorbate peroxidase enzymatic activity and glycine betaine content in response to inhibition of nitric oxide synthase-like activity are associated with transcriptional regulation by analyzing transcript levels of genes (betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase) involved in glycine betaine biosynthesis and those encoding antioxidant enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase and catalase) in leaves of maize seedlings treated with an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase-like activity. In seedlings treated with a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, transcript levels of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase were decreased. In plants treated with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, the transcript levels of ascorbate peroxidase-encoding genes were down-regulated. We thus conclude that inhibition of nitric oxide synthase-like activity suppresses the expression of ascorbate peroxidase and betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase genes in maize leaves. Furthermore, catalase activity was suppressed in leaves of plants treated with nitric oxide synthase inhibitor; and this corresponded with the suppression of the expression of catalase genes. We further conclude that inhibition of nitric oxide synthase-like activity, which suppresses ascorbate peroxidase and catalase enzymatic activities, results in increased H2O2 content.Background:Context-specific factors influence adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) among pregnant womenliving with HIV. Gaps exist in the understanding of the reasons for the variable outcomes of the prevention ofmother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme at the health facility level in South Africa. This study examinedadherence levels and reasons for non-adherence during pregnancy in a cohort of parturient women enrolled in thePMTCT programme in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.Methods:This was a mixed-methods study involving 1709 parturient women in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Weconducted a multi-centre retrospective analysis of the mother-infant pair in the PMTCT electronic database in 2016.Semi-structured interviews of purposively selected parturient women with self-reported poor adherence (n= 177)were conducted to gain understanding of the main barriers to adherence. Binary logistic regression was used todetermine the independent predictors of ART non-adherence.Results:A high proportion (69.0%) of women reported perfect adherence. In the logistic regression analysis, afteradjusting for confounding factors, marital status, cigarette smoking, alcohol use and non-disclosure to a family memberwere the independent predictors of non-adherence. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that drug-related side-effects, being away from home, forgetfulness, non-disclosure, stigma and work-related demand were among the mainreasons for non-adherence to ART.Conclusions:Non-adherence to the antiretroviral therapy among pregnant women in this setting is associated withlifestyle behaviours, HIV-related stigma and ART side-effects. In order to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV,clinicians need to screen for these factors at every antenatal clinic visit.Keywords:Adherence, Non-adherence, HIV, Antiretroviral therapy, Elimination of mother-to-child transmission,Prevention of mother-to-child transmission, Stigma, South Africa
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- Date Issued: 2018