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Recent international agreements have strengthened and expanded commitments to protect and restore native habitats for biodiversity protection ("area‐based biodiversity conservation"). Nevertheless, biodiversity conservation is hindered because how such commitments should be implemented has been strongly debated, which can lead to suboptimal habitat protection decisions. We argue that, despite the debates, there are three essential principles for area‐based biodiversity conservation. These principles are related to habitat geographic coverage, amount, and connectivity. They emerge from evidence that, while large areas of nature are important and must be protected, conservation or restoration of multiple small habitat patches is also critical for global conservation, particularly in regions with high land use. We contend that the many area‐based conservation initiatives expected in the coming decades should follow the principles we identify, regardless of ongoing debates. Considering the importance of biodiversity for maintenance of ecosystem services, we suggest that this would bring widespread societal benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most protected area impact research that uses counterfactuals draws heavily on quantitative methods, data, and knowledge types, making it valuable in producing generalizations but limited in temporal scope, historical detail, and habitat diversity and coverage of ecosystem services. We devised a methodological pluralistic approach, which supports social science qualitative methods, narratives, mixed methods, and interdisciplinarity, to fully unlock the potential of counterfactuals in ensuring a place‐based and detailed understanding of the socioecological context and impacts of protected areas. We applied this approach to derive possible counterfactual conditions for the impact of a montane protected area on 40 years of vegetation change in the Cape Floristic Region—a global biodiversity hotspot and UNESCO World Heritage Site in South Africa. We incorporated diverse methods, knowledge, and information sources, drawing on before–after protected area comparisons for inside and outside the protected area. A significant increase in shrubland vegetation (17–30%) was observed and attributed primarily to a decline in frequent burning for grazing. This also occurred outside the protected area and was driven by socioeconomic drivers and not by concerns over biodiversity conservation or land degradation. Had the protected area not been established the area would have seen intensification of cultivation and increased road networks, buildings, and water storage in dams. Our approach increased historical temporal coverage of socioecological change and contextualized assumptions around causality. Protected area impact evaluation should reengage in place‐based research that fully incorporates pluralism in methodologies for constructing counterfactuals in a way that builds regional and global understanding from the local level upward. We devised 10 key principles for deriving counterfactuals grounded in methodological pluralism, covering aspects of collaboration, cocreation, inter‐ and transdisciplinarity, diverse values and lived experiences, multiple knowledge types, multiple possible causal mechanisms, social science qualitative methods, perceptions, perspectives, and narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insectivores (Eulypotiphla) are a substantial component of Russian forest ecosystems. The parasites of these animals also form an important part of natural biocenoses and act as one of the factors in the formation of biodiversity. The Mordovia Nature Reserve and National Park "Smolny" are large, forested areas located in the center of European Russia. We studied the helminth fauna of insectivores in these protected areas in 2018–2022. In total, using the method of complete helminthological necropsy, we examined 478 individuals of shrews, moles, and hedgehogs and recorded 34 species of parasitic worms, i.e., 8 trematode, 7 cestode, 1 acanthocephalan, and 18 nematode species. The most diverse helminth fauna was found in Sorex araneus (22 species). The composition of helminths in S. isodon (12), Neomys fodiens (9), Sorex minutus, and Erinaceus roumanicus (8 species each) turned out to be less diverse. The lowest species diversity of helminths was observed in Neomys milleri (3) and Talpae europaea (2 species). Taking into account the newly obtained data, we conducted a review of the helminth diversity in shrews, hedgehogs, and moles in the Middle Volga region. According to our literature data, the helminth fauna of insectivores in this region consists of 52 species, including 14 cestodes, 13 trematodes, 22 nematodes, and 3 acanthocephalans. Most of them belong to the Palearctic faunal complex (36 species). The helminth fauna of insectivores in the studied protected areas was compared with the helminth fauna of micromammals in other areas of the Middle Volga region. Our comparative analysis showed a high and average degree of similarity in the helminth fauna within individual species and genera of Eulipotyphla. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The network of nature reserves that has been a centrepiece of Ukraine's environmental policy has been devastated by Russian aggression. Violation of their integrity threatens endemic species and irreplaceable ecosystems; indeed, entire ecosystems have been lost; extensive fires, illegal logging, mechanical damage and chemical contamination of the soil cover are responsible for a critical reduction in forest cover, and degradation of the soil and water conservation and recreational functions of the nature reserve fund. Measures are proposed to make the best of a bad situation at the local level, as well as ways to prevent a bigger ecological catastrophe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protected areas are crucial for safeguarding biodiversity and mitigating significant threats. However, the effectiveness of protected areas has been debated, particularly regarding their anthropogenic protection's impact on species migration within the current protected area network. To address this issue, we calculated the connectivity between landscape elements (e.g., Core, Patch, and Connector) in China based on the resistance theory, taking the Core with high habitat quality as a source. We found that the landscape connectivity of protected areas in China is 44% of that of the natural habitats (i.e., Core), indicating that the effectiveness of the connected network of protected areas in China requires improvement. Nevertheless, the planning of protected areas in the Yellow River Basin makes landscape connectivity higher than that of natural habitats. In addition, the species abundance in protected areas is lower than that of natural habitats, overall, species abundance increases with habitat quality and landscape connectivity. Our results indicate that the previously protected area planning mainly focused on mammals while overlooking reptiles but reducing landscape connectivity gaps can enhance species abundance. The findings underscore the importance of incorporating landscape connectivity into the effectiveness evaluation system of protected area networks. • The landscape connectivity of protected areas is half that of natural habitat. • Reducing the landscape connectivity gaps can enhance biodiversity. • The previously protected areas planning in China mainly focused on mammals while overlooking reptiles. • An exponential relationship between habitat quality and landscape connectivity in protected areas was found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Significant stress reduction correlates with higher biodiversity. • Peri-urban and nature conservation area show faster, greater stress reduction than urban park. • Nature conservation area reduce negative affect but lower positive affect. • Psychological threshold for biodiversity benefits noted, absent in physiological responses. • Genetic preference for biodiversity may remain unaltered by learned experiences. Biodiversity is the essential foundation of ecosystem stability and significantly influences human health. However, the specific impacts of broadly varied biodiversity levels across diverse greenspaces on mental well-being remain unclear. In this randomized controlled trial, immersive virtual reality (VR) auditory-visual simulations, emulating real biodiversity scenarios, were employed to investigate the effect of diverse biodiversity levels on stress and affect. After an induced stress phase, participants (N = 90) were randomly assigned to a ten-minute immersion in one of three settings: urban park, peri -urban park, or nature conservation area. Physiological responses were measured via skin conductance level (SCL) and significant skin conductance responses (nSCR), while psychological responses were evaluated using Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Additionally, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) was employed to evaluate restoration potential. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that immersion in the peri -urban park and nature conservation area was associated with a significantly faster and more substantial decrease in SCL compared to the urban park. nSCR in the nature conservation area remained significantly lower than in the urban park. While immersion in all three natural environments significantly diminished negative affect, the nature conservation scenario was associated with a substantial decline in positive affect and received the lowest rating on the subjective restorativeness. A psychological benefit threshold related to biodiversity was observed, in contrast to the absence of a corresponding physiological threshold. This disparity suggests that an innate genetic affinity for high biodiversity may persists, unaffected by acquired experiences. Our study underscores the stress recovery benefits of high-value ecological environments, thereby fostering an avenue for further investigations into human-ecological health interconnections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We spatially mapped comprehensive human pressure (HP) of China for 2000–2020. • We evaluated HP changes within 1687 nature reserves across four administrative levels. • Low HPs were observed in nature reserves with strict protection levels. • Better management of protected areas is needed in eastern and northeastern China. Protected areas (PAs) are crucial for supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services, but human pressure increasing within PAs, which remain poorly understood, will undermine this. Here, we used the human modification model to map the comprehensive human pressure for China and analyze its changes in nature reserves (NRs, the primary category of PAs in China) during 2000–2020. We found that human pressure within NRs showed decreasing trends with fluctuations, far lower than the whole country. But in eastern and northeastern China, human pressure within NRs has been increasing since 2000. NRs in China can be classified into the national, provincial, prefectural, and county levels, and an individual NR can be further classified into strictly protected core zones, buffer zones allowing limited human use, and experimental zones that examine different land uses. The stricter the management level of the NRs, the lower the human pressure. Our results show substantial progress in China's NRs management, but existing conservation actions are not enough for conservation targets. Strictly conservation areas must be expanded to promote conservation planning and complimented by multi-coordinated regional policy for biodiversity conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]