Editorial: Reconciling Nature Conserva on and Sustainability of Tropical Ecosystems

Maria Cristina Duarte ^1* Jhonny Capichoni Massante ² Salomão Bandeira ³ Maria M. Romeiras ⁴

• ¹ Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
• ² Institute of Ecology and Earh Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
• ³ Department of Biological Sciences, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
• ⁴ Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

The tropics are home to some of the world's most biodiverse areas and a wide variety of ecosystems, including some of the most emblema c ones, such as the Brazilian Atlan c and Amazonian forests, the Serenge , the Borneo, and the Congo rainforests. They also host around two-thirds of earth's biodiversity (Sodhi et al., 2013) and many of the most endangered plant and animal species. Many local human popula ons also rely on the resources and services provided by these ecosystems: Fedele et al. (2021) es mate that about 1.2 billion people in the tropics (30% of the region's popula on) depend directly on the natural resources available locally to meet their basic needs.The importance of tropical biodiversity is demonstrated by the plant and animal resources it can provide, such as those used for human and animal food, for fuel and mber, as raw materials for countless uses, and species used in tradi onal medicine. Tropical ecosystems are also vital to local people, by suppor ng socioeconomic ac vi es such as livestock farming, fuelwood harves ng, tourism, or even by providing support to cultural and spiritual needs. However, some more destruc ve prac ces, such as deforesta on, land conversion to agriculture, or overexploita on, are unlikely to safeguard resource sustainability. Disputes can therefore be expected when conserva on conflicts with human needs, such as poverty reduc on or livelihood improvement (Minteer and Miller, 2011).Seeking compa bility between conserva on and development is a major and unavoidable challenge. Since the Conven on on Biological Diversity, many interna onal legisla ve ini a ves have reinforced the need to ensure that coexistence is achieved in a balanced way. The Kunming-Montreal Global Framework for Biodiversity, drawn up in 2022, refers (Target 4) to the need to adopt "sustainable management prac ces, and effec vely manage human-wildlife interac ons to minimize human-wildlife conflict for coexistence." These are essen al "to halt human induced ex nc on of known threatened species and (…) to maintain and restore the gene c diversity within and between popula ons (…)".In conserva on terms, the human-wildlife conflicts or, in general, the development-conserva on conflicts are one of the most difficult problems to solve (Dickman, 2010). Not only do they pose a significant threat to species, but they also affect human livelihoods, food security, resource sustainability, sustainable economic development, and social equity (IUCN, 2023; Redpath et al., 2013).The complexity of biodiversity-related conflicts, which o en involve a wide variety of stakeholders and a variety of factors, calls for the development of management strategies that are based on evidence of various kinds (Young et al., 2010). Human impacts on wild plants animals should be interpreted in the light of the 43 socio-economic and cultural contexts and Schraml, 2018), which requires close coordina on between 44 the social and natural sciences. 45The number of published scien fic ar cles associated with the keywords "conflicts" or "impacts" between 46 humans and wildlife increased significantly the last two decades (Figure 1), which may indicate the 47 growing concern about the topic and/or reflect a growing number of conflicts. Although the term "wildlife" 48 can be used for both flora and fauna, it is much more commonly used for fauna, so that many conflict 49 situa ons rela ng to plants might not have been iden fied (Figure 1a). When looking for the terms "over-50 exploita on" or "over-harves ng" or "deforesta on", the increase in total number of publica ons 51 similar but, as expected, those concerning flora dominate (Figure 1b). 52The Increasing conflicts between conserva on and human ac vi es seem inevitable (Redpath et al., 2013), and 83 conserva on and management prac ces should take into account the interdependence between people and 84 nature (the biocultural and people-centered conserva on, referred to by Hoffmann, 2022). Greater 85 coopera on with indigenous peoples, community groups and private ini a ves is essen al to the success of 86 biodiversity management and conserva on in the 21st century (Maxwell et al., 2020). 87 ("conflict" or "impact") and ("flora" or "plant" or "fauna" or "animal") -totaling 1239; and b) ("over-exploita on" or 143 "over-harves ng" or "deforesta on") and ("conflict" or "impact") and ("flora" or "plant" or "fauna" or "animal") -