Publications by authors named "Fabrice DeClerck"
Article Synopsis
- The analysis introduces a food system indicator framework and monitoring architecture to assess food system changes related to global development and sustainability goals, focusing on five key themes: diets and health, environmental impact, livelihoods and equity, governance, and resilience.
- A total of 50 indicators were developed through a consultative process, ensuring coverage for each theme, which serves as a baseline for evaluating global food systems.
- While every country shows positive outcomes in certain areas, no country excels across all domains, indicating room for improvement towards achieving healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems by 2030.
The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked, yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently. Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify safe and just Earth system boundaries (ESBs) for climate, the biosphere, water and nutrient cycles, and aerosols at global and subglobal scales. We propose ESBs for maintaining the resilience and stability of the Earth system (safe ESBs) and minimizing exposure to significant harm to humans from Earth system change (a necessary but not sufficient condition for justice).
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- * A study called the Blue Food Assessment looked at how blue foods affect nutrition, the environment, economy, and fairness, creating four goals to help countries use blue foods in their food systems.
- * The goals aim to improve nutrition, offer healthier options than land meats, reduce environmental harm from diets, and support communities facing climate change, paying attention to what's best for different countries and cultures.
Article Synopsis
- - AVONET is a comprehensive dataset providing functional traits for all bird species, featuring data on ecological variables, morphological traits, and species' range sizes from over 90,000 individuals across 181 countries.
- - The dataset includes both raw measurements and summarized species averages in multiple taxonomic formats, enabling integration with phylogenies, geographical maps, and conservation status information.
- - AVONET aims to enhance research in evolutionary biology and ecology by offering detailed insights into biodiversity, facilitating the testing of theories and models related to global change.
Article Synopsis
- It's really important for people to trust information and sources, which is called credibility.
- Legitimacy means that the information is recognized as accurate and reliable.
- Having a variety of knowledge and perspectives is essential to understand different viewpoints better.
Global trends in nature's contributions to people.
Kate A Brauman Lucas A Garibaldi Stephen Polasky Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas Pedro H S Brancalion Fabrice DeClerck
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
December 2020
Article Synopsis
- Declining biodiversity and ecosystem functions are threatening many essential benefits that nature provides to people, with a review of 50 years of global trends revealing this issue.
- Most nature contributions are showing a decrease in their potential to benefit humans, especially in regulating services, although some agricultural and material outputs have actually increased.
- Environmental declines harm quality of life, but social adaptations and alternatives can help, though they often come with costs and vary significantly among different countries, income levels, and social groups.
Article Synopsis
- We need to work hard to protect the plants and animals on Earth, as well as the benefits they give us, like clean air and food.
- To help with this, we can use special plans to manage land better and restore areas that have been harmed, which could help improve the situation for nature by around 2050.
- If we also find ways to grow and use food more sustainably (like wasting less food and eating more plants), we could save a lot of wildlife while still making sure everyone has enough to eat.
Article Synopsis
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focus on making the world better by connecting nature's health to people's well-being, but it's tough to measure without the right tools.
- A new toolkit called "MESH" helps combine different models that study nature to see how they affect human life and supports various SDGs.
- MESH was designed with feedback from many groups in West Africa and includes features like scenario planning and visualizing results, showing how different conservation methods can help balance nature and agriculture.
The food system is a major driver of climate change, changes in land use, depletion of freshwater resources, and pollution of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through excessive nitrogen and phosphorus inputs. Here we show that between 2010 and 2050, as a result of expected changes in population and income levels, the environmental effects of the food system could increase by 50-90% in the absence of technological changes and dedicated mitigation measures, reaching levels that are beyond the planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity. We analyse several options for reducing the environmental effects of the food system, including dietary changes towards healthier, more plant-based diets, improvements in technologies and management, and reductions in food loss and waste.
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- - The eco-type map of Barotseland, Zambia, identifies land units based on vegetation and flood/drought exposure, created from input by 77 local participants in three villages.
- - Researchers used Landsat satellite images from 2014 and various indices (Water Index, NDVI, NBR) to assess water levels and vegetation types, ensuring accuracy by excluding burned and built areas.
- - The resulting map, with 81% accuracy and a 30m pixel resolution, serves as a valuable tool for agricultural and conservation efforts in the Barotse Floodplain.
Article Synopsis
- - The concept that noncrop habitats can improve pest control while supporting biodiversity has gained traction, but the results are inconsistent across different studies.
- - An analysis of 132 studies showed that while landscape composition often influenced pest and natural enemy populations, the outcomes varied significantly, leading to no definitive improvement in overall pest management.
- - The findings suggest that noncrop habitats do not uniformly enhance pest control, indicating a need for better guidelines to help farmers understand when habitat conservation will actually benefit crop yields.
Article Synopsis
- There is a debate on how to define sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA) and this paper offers a framework for agricultural development that addresses environmental changes and aims to alleviate poverty and hunger.
- The authors propose a paradigm shift that integrates sustainable practices to meet increasing human demands while enhancing resilience and sustainability of the environment.
- The goal of this shift is to transform agriculture from being a major cause of global environmental change to a vital player in creating a sustainable future on Earth.