The importance of urban natural areas and urban ecosystem services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses, cancelation of public events and schooling, social distancing, limitations on the size of social gatherings, and travel restrictions.

Landslides in the Andes: Forests can provide cost-effective landslide regulation services.

Landslides cause billions of dollars (USD) in damage and hundreds of life losses every year in mountainous areas globally, and these effects are exacerbated by climate change and increased human occupation of vulnerable areas. In many mountainous regions forests deliver slope stability, helping to prevent landslides. However, forests are progressively converted into other land uses in many mountainous regions.

A farewell to glaciers: Ecosystem services loss in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Glaciers are long-term freshwater reservoirs that contribute to the regulation of water availability throughout the year. In the Pyrenees mountain range, glaciers are predicted to disappear by the mid 21st century if current melting trends continue. The areas downstream from these glaciers have seen a gradual increase in water consumption since the 1980s, mainly due to the conversion of traditional crops to more water-demanding products, expansion of the irrigated agricultural area, and modernization of agricultural techniques that create incentives to spread water use.