FSC-certified forest management benefits large mammals compared to non-FSC.

More than a quarter of the world's tropical forests are exploited for timber1. Logging impacts biodiversity in these ecosystems, primarily through the creation of forest roads that facilitate hunting for wildlife over extensive areas. Forest management certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are expected to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, but so far very little is known about the effectiveness of FSC certification because of research design challenges, predominantly limited sample sizes2,3. Here we provide this evidence by using 1.3 million camera-trap photos of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa. We observed higher mammal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-FSC logging concessions. The effect was most pronounced for species weighing more than 10 kg and for species of high conservation priority such as the critically endangered forest elephant and western lowland gorilla. Across the whole mammal community, non-FSC concessions contained proportionally more rodents and other small species than did FSC-certified concessions. The first priority for species protection should be to maintain unlogged forests with effective law enforcement, but for logged forests our findings provide convincing data that FSC-certified forest management is less damaging to the mammal community than is non-FSC forest management. This study provides strong evidence that FSC-certified forest management or equivalently stringent requirements and controlling mechanisms should become the norm for timber extraction to avoid half-empty forests dominated by rodents and other small species.

Natural capital approaches for the optimal design of policies for nature recovery.

By embedding a spatially explicit ecosystem services modelling tool within a policy simulator we examine the insights that natural capital analysis can bring to the design of policies for nature recovery. Our study is illustrated through a case example of policies incentivising the establishment of new natural habitat in England. We find that a policy mirroring the current practice of offering payments per hectare of habitat creation fails to break even, delivering less value in improved flows of ecosystem services than public money spent and only 26% of that which is theoretically achievable. Using optimization methods, we discover that progressively more efficient outcomes are delivered by policies that optimally price activities (34%), quantities of environmental change (55%) and ecosystem service value flows (81%). Further, we show that additionally attaining targets for unmonetized ecosystem services (in our case, biodiversity) demands trade-offs in delivery of monetized services. For some policy instruments it is not even possible to achieve the targets. Finally, we establish that extending policy instruments to offer payments for unmonetized services delivers target-achieving and value-maximizing policy designs. Our findings reveal that policy design is of first-order importance in determining the efficiency and efficacy of programmes pursuing nature recovery. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

Landscape-scale benefits of protected areas for tropical biodiversity.

The United Nations recently agreed to major expansions of global protected areas (PAs) to slow biodiversity declines1. However, although reserves often reduce habitat loss, their efficacy at preserving animal diversity and their influence on biodiversity in surrounding unprotected areas remain unclear2-5. Unregulated hunting can empty PAs of large animals6, illegal tree felling can degrade habitat quality7, and parks can simply displace disturbances such as logging and hunting to unprotected areas of the landscape8 (a phenomenon called leakage). Alternatively, well-functioning PAs could enhance animal diversity within reserves as well as in nearby unprotected sites9 (an effect called spillover). Here we test whether PAs across mega-diverse Southeast Asia contribute to vertebrate conservation inside and outside their boundaries. Reserves increased all facets of bird diversity. Large reserves were also associated with substantially enhanced mammal diversity in the adjacent unprotected landscape. Rather than PAs generating leakage that deteriorated ecological conditions elsewhere, our results are consistent with PAs inducing spillover that benefits biodiversity in surrounding areas. These findings support the United Nations goal of achieving 30% PA coverage by 2030 by demonstrating that PAs are associated with higher vertebrate diversity both inside their boundaries and in the broader landscape.

The impact of green taxes on green innovation of enterprises: a quasi-natural experiment based on the levy of environmental protection taxes.

Green innovation is a strategic choice for Chinese enterprises to achieve in balancing economic performance and environmental benefits. Environmental protection tax (EPT) is the first green tax in China. How to fully leverage the institutional dividends of environmental tax reform to achieve green innovation in enterprises is of great significance for the high-quality development of China's current economy. This study takes the levy of environmental protection taxes as the quasi-natural experiment and uses DID, DDD, PSM-DID and so on to verify the impact of EPT on green innovation. The results show that EPT can improve green innovation through the path of legitimacy pressure and legitimacy management. Notably, the effects are more obvious in enterprises with non-state-owned, low-financing constraints and located in the eastern region. Furthermore, green innovations under the push of environmental protection tax can improve long-term performance, while it has a negative effect on short-term performance. The levy of EPT has the dual dividend effect of economy and environment. Moreover, this study explores the source of the legitimacy pressure and the strategic response of enterprises and provides guidance for government's precise implementation of policies to optimize the role of EPT in green innovation.

Understanding the nexus between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and financial performance: evidence from Chinese-listed companies.

Before discussing how to balance and decide on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and traditional revenue enhancement projects, it is crucial to clarify the relationship between corporate financial performance (CFP) and ESG. However, little attention has been paid to the nexus of ESG and CFP. This paper attempts firstly to investigate the bidirectional causality of ESG and CFP, followed by the micro-foundations, and finally, the moderating effect of intrinsic factors. A GMM-PVAR method was used to examine the research hypotheses, which can effectively deal with endogenous problems that have been ignored by traditional literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that CFP promoted ESG growth, but ESG did not boost CFP. This asymmetric causality was because CFP had a supportive effect on the environment and society pillars, while the social pillar cannot promote CFP, and the environment pillar negatively affects CFP. The relationship between ESG and CFP was moderated by total quality management, environmental sensitivity, and the pay gap. Furtherly, a panel threshold model was constructed to access the threshold effects of ESG on CFP, showing an inverted U-shape. Based on these findings, the theoretical implications, managerial prescriptions, and limitations are also discussed.

Science and the legal rights of nature.

We review the use of science by lawmakers and courts in implementing or rejecting legal rights for nature in Ecuador, India, the United States, and other jurisdictions where some type of rights of nature have been recognized in the legal system. We then use the "right to evolve" to exemplify how interdisciplinary work can (i) help courts effectively define what this right might entail; (ii) inform how it might be applied in different circumstances; and (iii) provide a template for how scientists and legal scholars can generate the interdisciplinary scholarship necessary to understand and implement the growing body of rights-of-nature laws, and environmental law more generally. We conclude by pointing to what further research is needed to understand and effectively implement the growing body of rights-of-nature laws.