In coastal ecosystems, scientists and managers often encourage the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) in order to provide both ecological and social benefits. This group is assessing the social, ecological, and political conditions in which the use of MPAs and OECMs are associated with positive outcomes for both people and nature, as well as the synergies and trade-offs that exist between multiple outcomes.

OUR APPROACH: Using data from seven coastal countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, we will identify how MPAs and OECMs contribute to successful outcomes under different political, social, and economic conditions, and will translate the results into a tool to help managers make related decisions in the future.

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an extremely contagious viral disease that is spreading into new regions across the globe, causing devastating socio-economic losses and serious damage to the livelihoods, food security, and nutrition for millions of small-scale farmers and pastoralists. In Mongolia, the effects of the epidemic have been particularly dire. In August 2016, PPR killed thousands of head of livestock, despite widespread vaccination. The disease also impacted wildlife, killing more than 50 percent of the critically endangered Mongolian saiga antelope in less than two months. This catastrophic loss of wildlife also caused immediate consequences for other endangered animals, including snow leopards that depend on wild ungulates for food.

OUR APPROACH: Along with livestock health authorities, herders, biologists, wildlife health specialists, international aid organizations and conservation NGOs, the working group will seek new ideas to free the country’s wildlife, economy, and livelihoods from this disease, and explore options for integrated management of wildlife and livestock health.

Thriving mining, forestry, agriculture and chemical industries once supported local economies in the Central Appalachian Coalfields region. This region that covers Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia remains among the most impoverished areas in the United States, and local concern about the economic impact of phasing-out coal as an energy source is far from groundless. However, the region is well-positioned to embrace a vibrant, diverse economy including manufacturing, service industries, renewable energy development, tourism, and a revived forest products industry.

OUR APPROACH: Experts in economic modeling, rural sociology, ecology, forestry, tourism, and policy, are collaborating with local practitioners of community economic development who understand the unique culture, opportunities, and constraints of the Central Appalachian Coalfields.

This team is made possible in part by the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (www.ddcf.org). The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people’s lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and child well-being, and through the preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke’s properties.

Maintaining reliable freshwater flows is essential for human health and well-being, sustainable economic development, and ecological integrity. This means a minimum amount of water in our rivers and streams during dry seasons, and high flows that are within natural ranges of variation during wet seasons. Floods and droughts are expected to increase with continued shifts in climate. To effectively implement the right actions in the right places in specific watersheds, we need to understand how and where different source water protection actions can contribute to achieving reliable freshwater flows.

OUR APPROACH: To address this issue, this team brings together hydrology and adaptation experts to examine the science, and then work with stakeholder group representatives to interpret the meaning of that science through the lens of those groups: downstream utilities and municipal managers, humanitarian groups working with upstream communities, and aquatic ecologists.

This project is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Grant GBMF7100 to The Nature Conservancy to support the work of the Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP).

There are 2.4 billion people living without sufficient sanitation to separate them from their biological waste. For another 2.1 billion, wastewater drains directly into surface waters. Despite improvements over past decades, unsafe management of fecal waste and wastewater still presents a major risk to public health and the environment. Natural solutions including constructed and natural wetlands, wastewater treatment ponds, and green roofs can be part of wastewater treatment systems to support the removal of wastewater contaminants such as bacteria, heavy metals and high levels of nutrients.

OUR APPROACH: This working group is developing an evidence-based guidance document which assesses both the technical feasibility and practicality of placing effective nature-based sanitation solutions in diverse local and cultural contexts. Their aim is to provide information which can inform investment and resource use in operation and maintenance of sanitation services which serves both human and ecosystem health.

This team is made possible in part by the generous support and engagement of the Bridge Collaborative, uniting experts in health, development and the environment to create the evidence and opportunity to solve big problems for people and the world we share.