Are Protected Areas undervalued? An asset-based analysis of Brazilian Protected Area Management Plans.

When effectively managed, Protected Areas (PAs) are capable of generating multiple forms of value, both tangible and intangible, for individuals and institutions. However, the value-generating potential of many PAs may be going unrecognized and underutilized due to a limited view of management objectives as codified within the parks' Management Plan. Here, we test the hypothesis that PAs are undervalued by evaluating the degree to which Management Plans from four different Brazilian designations (National Parks, Ecological Stations, Environmental Protected Areas and National Forests) recognize different categories of nature-related assets (entities, attributes and relationships that can be protected, managed and/or invested in to generate forms of value).

Developing publicly acceptable tree health policy: public perceptions of tree-breeding solutions to ash dieback among interested publics in the UK.

The UK needs to develop effective policy responses to the spread of tree pathogens and pests. This has been given the political urgency following the media and other commentary associated with the arrival of a disease that causes 'dieback' of European Ash () - a tree species with deep cultural associations. In 2014 the UK government published a plant biosecurity strategy and linked to this invested in research to inform policy.

Familiarity breeds content: assessing bird species popularity with culturomics.

Understanding public perceptions of biodiversity is essential to ensure continued support for conservation efforts. Despite this, insights remain scarce at broader spatial scales, mostly due to a lack of adequate methods for their assessment. The emergence of new technologies with global reach and high levels of participation provide exciting new opportunities to study the public visibility of biodiversity and the factors that drive it.