Updates

Are we pushing the Earth too far to meet the demands of our increasing human development? One way to answer this question is through the concept of “planetary boundaries”, which defines the limits within which we can safely operate to sustain both nature and human well-being. This project is deepening our understanding of the relationship between human activity and one planetary boundary in particular: “biosphere integrity”. The environment has always created challenges for humanity. But,

We all enjoy having access to clean water and fresh air, but how often do we think about the natural systems that provide these goods and services to us on an ongoing basis? From insect pollinators ensuring our crops grow to the African savannas that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, functioning ecosystems provide goods and services that ensure human wellbeing. Biodiversity supports the production of these goods and services and is critical for the

For better or worse, human activity impacts the natural world. But how far can our use of the environment go before the toll on nature is too great? The Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) is a practical tool that could provide an answer. In this project, the BII is being used to build an Africa-based platform for sharing biodiversity knowledge to help decision-makers meet sustainable development goals. Life. Quite simply, we cannot live without it. Whether

Biodiversity data can inform global and national policies and sustainable development plans, which help to conserve the natural resources on which we depend. But barriers, such as data availability and accessibility, are preventing this information from being used effectively in just and sustainable decision-making processes in Africa. To overcome these limitations, an Africa-based online platform has been created, where data from biodiversity experts is channelled to decision-makers to assist them in the achievement of sustainable

How much biodiversity can we lose before it starts impacting our quality of life? We all depend on well-functioning ecosystems, whether we are aware of this or not. Yet measuring how much biodiversity we are losing across the African continent, and what that means for our well-being, is a difficult task. To address this challenge, we are mobilising hundreds of African biodiversity experts to produce a continental map of ‘biodiversity intactness’ that is credible and

Hayley presented on the project at the 11th OR Conference in Johannesburg, October 2022. You can watch the recording of her talk “Building a Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa” here:

The bii4africa dataset, produced by the project’s 200 contributing experts, was recently featured in the journal Nature Africa.

In this webinar, Ara Monadjem and Hayley Clements describe the expert elicitation they ran with 24 bat experts from across Africa, as part of the Bii4Africa project. They share the insights that emerged on how changing African landscapes are influencing different bat species. This webinar took place in March 2021 as part of a series hosted by Bats Without Borders. You can learn about the participating experts on our “Meet the Experts” page.

Insights from the bii4africa project are presented in this Tipping Points webinar on biodiversity and food security. Hayley Clements shows how the majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s remaining biodiversity intactness occurs across it’s vast ‘working lands’ where people co-exist with and depend on biodiversity.

In this webinar, Hayley Clements reflects on the under-representation of women amongst the African biodiversity experts that have contributed to this project. http://www.iubs.org/events/supported-conferences-by-iubs/iubs-centenary-webinar-series-gender-equality/first-webinar-of-a-series-on-the-gender-gaps-and-the-biological-sciences.html