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Life cycle assessments are used by corporations to determine the sustainability of raw source materials. Here, Chaplin-Krameret al. develop an improved life cycle assessment approach incorporating spatial variation in land-use change, and apply this framework to a bioplastic case study.

Forest fragmentation is thought to reduce carbon storage at forest edges. Here, using remote sensing datasets, the authors show that biomass is 25% lower within 500 m of the forest edge, and suggest that fragmentation results in a global reduction in tropical forest carbon stocks by nearly 10%.

The direct impact of companies’ physical assets on the environment can be estimated from global maps of ecosystem services and biodiversity to understand companies’ nature-related risks and opportunities, according to an assessment of more than 2000 global companies.

Forest conservation contributes to climate change mitigation and delivers a host of other benefits to society, but such benefits are usually assessed qualitatively at the project level. This study provides a quantitative assessment of multiple benefits from forest carbon projects across Southeast Asia.

Bringing together multiple models and databases on nature’s contributions to people, the authors map these contributions globally and determine the critical areas where their magnitude is the highest and where they provide the highest potential human benefit.

This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.

Wildlife are central to nature’s contributions to people (NCP) but are often overlooked in NCP policy and management. This Perspective presents evidence for the integral role of wildlife in supporting human well-being and proposes their recognition and incorporation into conservation decision-making as wildlife’s contributions to people (WCP).

Following a wide-ranging review of studies, reports and policies about nature’s multiple values, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation of nature, address barriers to uptake in decision-making, and make transformative changes towards more just and sustainable futures.

Understanding the role of biodiversity in maintaining the provision of Nature’s Contributions to People is critical to sustainability. This study finds a substantial contribution of high-biodiversity areas to the regulation of air quality, climate and freshwater quantity, with important implications for conservation efforts.

Global meta-analysis of plant species diversity effects on trophic levels of ecosystem functioning, finding beneficial impacts from increased diversity.

An analysis of 16 ecosystem services measured across sites in Europe shows that the supply of some services is predicted by plot-scale diversity, whereas others rely on intact habitats at the landscape scale, highlighting the importance of cross-scale management efforts to maintain ecosystem services.

Many plants rely on animals to disperse their seeds, but some groups of these seed-dispersing animals are facing severe declines. This Review summarizes evidence of seed disperser declines and discusses the potential consequences for ecosystem function and long-term resilience.

While organic agriculture has been found to outperform conventional methods on multiple sustainability measures, this Article examines the effects of farm size on agroecological practices and finds that as organic farms get larger, they exhibit more conventional traits.

Most wildlife lives outside protected areas, creating potential conflicts with humans. This study assesses potential trade-offs between wildlife and livestock management in an East African savanna, finding potential ecological and economic benefits from integrating the two.

In this Perspective, the authors discuss the current status of ecological forecasting research, its role in helping to address the climate and biodiversity crises facing society and potential future directions, with a central focus on how to scale up ecological forecasting capabilities.

To increase the policy relevance of ecosystem service benefits research, studies need to better predict the impact of specific decisions, according to an analysis of the literature.