8/12/2009: Paper published 'A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2010'

Conservation professionals need to pay more attention to emerging threats to biodiversity, rather than focusing solely on issues such as climate change, habitat loss and invasive species, according to the paper 'A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2010' published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Pofessor Andrew Watkinson, Director of Living with Environmental Change, is a co-author on the paper.

Fifteen potential biodiversity threats and opportunities – including synthetic meat, nanosilver and pollution by tiny particles of plastic – were identified by a horizon scanning exercise held in Cambridge in September 2009.

Twenty-one policy makers, academics and environmental organisations from Europe, North America and Australasia took part in the exercise. The aim was to spot up-and-coming issues that might have major environmental impacts but which scientists currently know little about.

Download the paper here