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The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic extend to global biodiversity and its conservation. Although short-term beneficial or adverse impacts on biodiversity have been widely discussed, there is less attention to the likely political and economic responses to the crisis and their implications for conservation. Here we describe four possible alternative future policy responses: (1) restoration of the previous economy, (2) removal of obstacles to economic growth, (3) green recovery and (4) transformative economic reconstruction. Each alternative offers opportunities and risks for conservation. They differ in the agents they emphasize to mobilize change (e.g. markets or states) and in the extent to which they prioritize or downplay the protection of nature. We analyse the advantages and disadvantages of these four options from a conservation perspective. We argue that the choice of post-COVID-19 recovery strategy has huge significance for the future of biodiversity, and that conservationists of all persuasions must not shrink from engagement in the debates to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miriam Brett, Director of Research and Advocacy at London‐based think tank Common Wealth, believes the Covid‐19 pandemic has exposed numerous inequalities in our societies. Common Wealth engages in projects that seek to replace these inequalities with sustainable, equitable and remodelled economic frameworks on which our cities and landscapes can be rebuilt. Here she describes a recent scheme where Green New Deal policies are implemented in Glasgow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2020, the South Korean government announced a 5-year, post-pandemic plan. This purportedly proactive policy aimed to advance digital and green industries to lay the groundwork for the post-pandemic era. This article examines the South Korean government's early proposal of a post-pandemic policy, titled the Korean New Deal, in order to explore how the pandemic crisis may affect the policymakers' envisioning of the post-crisis society. Moreover, the study examines how this early predictive plan may reveal the ways in which the pandemic is utilized for discursive politics. Drawing on the critical discourse analysis of policy documents and news coverage, this article questions how the "old" language of the developmental state is incorporated into the "new" policy. The study also shows how COVID-19′s impacts and uncertainties are translated into political discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]