Big List of Biodiversity Interventions
EcoResilience Initiative is a research project identifying the best ways to prevent species extinctions and promote thriving ecosystems. We don’t think biodiversity loss is a top cause area or existential risk, but we think it’s nevertheless a good idea to bring EA-style thinking to environmental conservation. What GivingGreen is for climate, we hope to be for biodiversity.
This is an unsorted list of possible interventions for protecting and increasing biodiversity (in the spirit of the Big List of Cause Candidates). We are not trying to pick out the best approaches, just listing all the ideas we can think of. Please suggest missing interventions for biodiversity. We are looking for quantity over quality here. Our further research will winnow this down to the most effective, neglected, scalable, tractable, etc interventions.
We plan to keep adding to this list as part of our research at EcoResilience Initiative.
Organized into Solution Types
Mostly this is to make this list easier to read. Don’t read too much into these categories—there’s overlap, they weren’t chosen carefully.
Reducing Land Use
Habitat loss is the greatest single threat to wildlife. Changing land use might then be the most important lever for keeping biodiversity.Connectivity
Connectivity is a highly leveraged form of conserved area. By conserving a small “connective” area between two larger areas you boost the ecological value and impact of both areas. E.g. access to other region’s resources via an ecological corridor may compliment the needs of the other region.Controlling Populations
Invasive species (both native and nonnative) are conspicuous forms of habitat destruction. Overpopulated species can result from land management practices (e.g. carnivore extirpation) and can have compounding effects (e.g. forest loss).Intervening in Nature
The broadest category. It involves trying to improve nature. This currently goes against the standard environmental ethos. This category of effort is avoided because they are magnets for blame. I believe this type of intervention is neglected for faulty reasons.Genetics
When species are close to extinction these kinds of interventions become more important and practical. Under ordinary circumstances they are too expensive. However, they are rapidly becoming cheaper and more viable. Conservation work is probably not keeping pace.Enforcement/Regulations
Pollution prevention and other externalities of human activities.Negotiations
Improving the way we collectively manage our natural resources.
Links below are to short investigations we’ve done into each intervention for their effectiveness at preventing extinctions.
Reducing Land Use
Protect land area
Marine exclusion zones
Nuclear (rather than solar/wind etc)
Alternative proteins
Promoting vegetarianism
Silvopasture by addition
Solar with agriculture
Wind with livestock
Connectivity
Conserving connecting land
Dam removal
Fish ladders
Road under/overpasses
Fencing off deadly areas
Controlling Populations
Herbivore exclosures
Manual invasive removal
Chemical invasive control
Culling
Intervening in Nature
Artificial biomes
Habitat conversion
Combating desertification
Increasing ice-albedo
Block canals to create wetlands
Nature-based solutions
Water purity (e.g. via oysters)
Toxin absorption
Limiting-nutrient provision
Stream cooling (e.g. from shading)
Replanting/re-introductions
Disaster refugia
Feeding (e.g. during famine)
Stable supply of clean water
Nest boxes
Dust baths, mud wallows
Vaccines
Wild animal hospitals
Biochar to reduce nutrient overload
Soil microbiome inoculation (e.g. from natural areas)
Genetics
Ex situ
Biobanking
Implanting eggs
Living Arks/Insect zoos
Enforcement/Regulations
Pesticide regulation
Water purity via enforcement
Bubble curtains to reduce ocean noise
Shipping throttling to reduce ocean noise
Downward facing lights
Wildlife trade reduction
Reducing demand for poaching
Negotiations
Collective agreements
Indigenous management
Wild-sourced products/livelihoods
Ecosystem services payments
Ecotourism
Promoting nature appreciation
Social and financial support
Human-wildlife conflict
Water table management
Controlled burns
Some criteria:
I am not trying to exhaustively add every intervention, every failure, etc. Nor am I trying to pass a bar of quality before adding them.
Ultimately this list is looking to include the most neglected, most effective, most scalable method. I am especially trying to add unusual, scalable, effective, interventions.
I have focused on direct interventions rather than second order processes, monitoring or research. Perhaps this is incorrect, but I don’t think so.
I am especially looking for interventions that will apply to speedily degrading regions of earth (probably rapidly developing countries in the tropics) rather than rich, highly environmentally conscious and highly denuded countries (Europe).
I am especially looking for interventions that will be positive instead of preventative. This is because environmental groups currently favor preventative efforts, so positive action is more likely to be neglected.
I particularly want to add interventions that align incentives, because fighting the tide is not likely to be sustainable.
I have tried to avoid listing “protecting land” in various forms because I believe it is already the core method of conservation and basically maximally pursued.
Similarly I haven’t bothered to add carbon and climate change interventions because those are already highly visible and GivingGreen has it covered.
I have not listed most kinds of coordination and regulation. This is because I broadly expect them to be difficult and slow. (An uphill battle against many other entrenched parties seeking to steer decision making). These interventions also seem harder to evaluate for success, harder to replicate, harder to scale, harder to categorize and describe. Others who are better equipped than me should add interventions of this kind.
My labels leave something to be desired. I’m open to better names and better splits between interventions (currently some are likely duplicates or bucketed poorly)
:)