James E M Watson
Biographic Data
| ID | 5583310 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James E M Watson |
| GIVEN NAMES | James E M |
| FAMILY NAME | Watson |
| SIGNATURE | WATSON J E M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wildlife Conservation Society |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4942-1984 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 61 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 206 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 61 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1962 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Shifting foundations: Emerging changes shaping area-based conservation for climate adaptation and mitigation
Protected and conserved areas are already helping society – and the planet – to both mitigate and adapt to anthropogenic climate change. These important roles were highlighted to governments at the 2015 Paris meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as they considered the ever increasing set of challenges posed by the rapidly changing climate. But much has changed over the past decade, in ways that both strengthen and undermine t…
A balanced measure of conservation outcomes: Tracking woody vegetation loss and protection in Queensland, Australia
Quantifying changes in loss of native vegetation cover relative to its coverage in protected areas (PAs) offers a valuable means of evaluating conservation performance, yet this approach is rarely applied in practice. Here, we assessed historic and recent remnant woody vegetation loss and protection across Queensland, Australia’s most biodiverse state. By comparing the proportion of remnant woody vegetation loss with the extent of formally PAs ac…
Negotiating risks to natural capital in net-zero transitions
Global marine conservation priorities for sustaining marine productivity, preserving biodiversity and addressing climate change
Marine primary productivity is a critical driver of functioning marine ecosystems, providing a foundation for biological diversity and associated economic productivity, and a key component of the oceanic carbon sink. However, it is largely under-represented within the global marine protected area estate and has been widely ignored in global priority assessments for marine conservation. Using global high-resolution data on marine primary productiv…
A report card to effectively communicate threatened species recovery
Earth’s anthropogenic-driven species extinction crisis is worsening. Communicating this crisis to diverse audiences is needed to catalyze action, yet it is proving difficult. To help overcome this communication problem, we designed a threatened species recovery report card with the aim of showcasing conservation progress on imperiled species to the wider public. Using commonly available datasets, we report on species recovery in Australia as a ca…
Priorities for embedding ecological integrity in climate adaptation policy and practice
Humanity must adapt rapidly to climate change as the impacts accelerate. Growing scientific evidence underscores the role of ecological integrity in improving adaptation outcomes for nature and people by providing climate refugia for biodiversity, buffering natural hazards, protecting freshwater resources, and benefiting human health. However, climate adaptation initiatives have largely neglected to prioritize ecological integrity, even though it…
Countries’ differentiated responsibilities to fulfill area-based conservation targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
Three-quarters of insect species are insufficiently represented by protected areas
Communing with the athletes: Grit & Gold: Tales from a Sporting Nation , National Library of Australia, Canberra, curated by Guy Hansen, 9 June to 5 November 2023
Biodiversity risks and safeguards of China’s hydropower financing in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries
Creating past habitat maps to quantify local extirpation of Australian threatened birds
Habitat loss is driving the extirpation of fauna across Earth. Many species are now absent from vast areas where they once occurred in inhabited continents, yet we do not have a good understanding of the extent to which different species have been locally extirpated, nor the degree to which range contractions and habitat loss has contributed to this local extirpation. Here, for the first time, we use a combination of scientific literature, histor…
Restoring habitat for fire-impacted species’ across degraded Australian landscapes
In the summer of 2019–2020, southern Australia experienced the largest fires on record, detrimentally impacting the habitat of native species, many of which were already threatened by past and current anthropogenic land use. A large-scale restoration effort to improve degraded species habitat would provide fire-affected species with the chance to recover and persist in burnt and unburnt habitat. To facilitate this, decision-makers require informa…
Designing for connection with local threatened species
No abstract available
Reconsidering priorities for forest conservation when considering the threats of mining and armed conflict
Many threats to biodiversity can be predicted and are well mapped but others are uncertain in their extent, impact on biodiversity, and ability for conservation efforts to address, making them more difficult to account for in spatial conservation planning efforts, and as a result, they are often ignored. Here, we use a spatial prioritisation analysis to evaluate the consequences of considering only relatively well-mapped threats to biodiversity a…
People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years
Significance The current biodiversity crisis is often depicted as a struggle to preserve untouched habitats. Here, we combine global maps of human populations and land use over the past 12,000 y with current biodiversity data to show that nearly three quarters of terrestrial nature has long been shaped by diverse histories of human habitation and use by Indigenous and traditional peoples. With rare exceptions, current biodiversity losses are caus…
Four steps for the Earth: Mainstreaming the post-2020 global biodiversity framework
Integrated spatial planning for biodiversity conservation and food production
Talk is cheap: Nations must act now to achieve long-term ambitions for biodiversity
Telecoupled environmental impacts are an obstacle to meeting the sustainable development goals
International trade is responsible for connecting human and natural systems across distant countries, and has profound implications for sustainability. In particular, telecoupling, the socioeconomic and environmental interactions between distant countries as a result of, among others, global trade, typically leaves less affluent nations bearing the largest environmental impacts. Telecoupling effects are likely to be pervasive to those trying to a…
Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity
Renewable energy production is necessary to halt climate change and reverse associated biodiversity losses. However, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will drive an increase in the production of many metals, creating new mining threats for biodiversity. Here, we map mining areas and assess their spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites and priorities. Mining potentially influences 50 million km 2 of Earth’s l…
Importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes
Intact Forest Landscapes ( IFL s) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFL s and Indigenous Peoples’ lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFL s are within Indigenous Peoples’ lands, making these areas crucial …
Area-based conservation in the twenty-first century
Humanity will soon define a new era for nature-one that seeks to transform decades of underwhelming responses to the global biodiversity crisis. Area-based conservation efforts, which include both protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, are likely to extend and diversify. However, persistent shortfalls in ecological representation and management effectiveness diminish the potential role of area-based conservation in …
Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy
Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides1,2. Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity3; however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge4. Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether—and how—humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodive…
To Achieve Big Wins for Terrestrial Conservation, Prioritize Protection of Ecoregions Closest to Meeting Targets
Most of the terrestrial world is experiencing high rates of land conversion despite growth of the global protected area (PA) network. There is a need to assess whether the current global protection targets are achievable across all major ecosystem types and to identify those that need urgent protection. Using recent rates of habitat conversion and protection and the latest terrestrial ecoregion map, we show that if the same approach to PA establi…
Change in Terrestrial Human Footprint Drives Continued Loss of Intact Ecosystems
Human pressure mapping is important for understanding humanity's role in shaping Earth's patterns and processes. Our ability to map this influence has evolved, thanks to powerful computing, Earth-observing satellites, and new bottom-up census and crowd-sourced data. Here, we provide the latest temporally inter-comparable maps of the terrestrial human footprint and assessment of change in human pressure at global, biome, and ecoregional scales. In…
A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation
Understanding the scale, location and nature conservation values of the lands over which Indigenous Peoples exercise traditional rights is central to implementation of several global conservation and climate agreements. However, spatial information on Indigenous lands has never been aggregated globally. Here, using publicly available geospatial resources, we show that Indigenous Peoples manage or have tenure rights over at least ~38 million km2 i…
Why don’t you try it again?’ A comparison of parent led, home based interventions aimed at increasing children's consumption of a disliked vegetable
Previous research suggests that the use of modelling and non-food rewards may be effective at increasing tasting, and consequential liking and acceptance, of a previously disliked food. Although successful school-based interventions have been developed, there is a lack of research into home-based interventions using these methods. This study aimed to develop and investigate the efficacy of a parent led home-based intervention for increasing child…
The many meanings of no net loss in environmental policy
Climate change vulnerability assessment of species
Assessing species' vulnerability to climate change is a prerequisite for developing effective strategies to conserve them. The last three decades have seen exponential growth in the number of studies evaluating how, how much, why, when, and where species will be impacted by climate change. We provide an overview of the rapidly developing field of climate change vulnerability assessment (CCVA) and describe key concepts, terms, steps and considerat…
Environmental destruction not avoided with the Sustainable Development Goals
Last chance for Madagascar’s biodiversity
Biodiversity targets after 2010
Reconsidering priorities for forest conservation when considering the threats of mining and armed conflict
Many threats to biodiversity can be predicted and are well mapped but others are uncertain in their extent, impact on biodiversity, and ability for conservation efforts to address, making them more difficult to account for in spatial conservation planning efforts, and as a result, they are often ignored. Here, we use a spatial prioritisation analysis to evaluate the consequences of considering only relatively well-mapped threats to biodiversity a…
Telecoupled environmental impacts are an obstacle to meeting the sustainable development goals
International trade is responsible for connecting human and natural systems across distant countries, and has profound implications for sustainability. In particular, telecoupling, the socioeconomic and environmental interactions between distant countries as a result of, among others, global trade, typically leaves less affluent nations bearing the largest environmental impacts. Telecoupling effects are likely to be pervasive to those trying to a…
Larger gains from improved management over sparing–sharing for tropical forests
How to send a finch extinct
Opportunities for biodiversity conservation as cities adapt to climate change
Cities are investing billions of dollars in climate change adaptation to combat the effects of sea‐level rise, temperature extremes, increasingly intense storm events, flooding and water scarcity. Natural ecosystems have enormous potential to contribute to city resilience, and so, actions that rely on this approach could sustain considerable co‐benefits for biodiversity. In this paper we identify the prevalence of key themes of human adaptation r…
Large-scale environmental degradation results in inequitable impacts to already impoverished communities: A case study from the floating villages of Cambodia
Brokering Trust in Citizen Science
Citizen science (CS) information requires systematic review that incorporates a range of interests and concerns. Yet, there has been little research on what might constitute reviewing best practice to ensure CS is trusted by contributors and users of the data. Insights from a survey of all 1134 reviewers who curate the global eBird Project highlight the knowledge-brokering work involved to ensure CS data are trusted by both citizens and science. …
The Most Appeasing Line’: New Zealand and Nazi Germany, 1935–40
New Zealand's first Labour government has generally been depicted as opposing compromise with aggressive states during the late 1930s, thereby demonstrating an ‘independent’ and ‘moral’ foreign policy. Yet it consistently advocated negotiations with Nazi Germany, signed a trade agreement with it, welcomed the Munich settlement, discouraged public criticism of the German government and pursued a half-hearted rearmament programme. Most strikingly, …
Foreign investment in Russia: The case of the oil industry
THE RUSSIAN OIL INDUSTRY is in desperate need of investment. Output has fallen by over 45% since the peak year of 1987, and could fall still further if major financial commitments are not forthcoming. Domestic firms, starved of cash, and often lacking the appropriate technology and expertise, are unlikely, however, to be able to turn the industry around by themselves. Instead they will need to enter into partnerships with Western oil companies, w…
Musical Stamps
Foreign investment in Russia: The case of the oil industry
THE RUSSIAN OIL INDUSTRY is in desperate need of investment. Output has fallen by over 45% since the peak year of 1987, and could fall still further if major financial commitments are not forthcoming. Domestic firms, starved of cash, and often lacking the appropriate technology and expertise, are unlikely, however, to be able to turn the industry around by themselves. Instead they will need to enter into partnerships with Western oil companies, w…
Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia
Contributions by Sangmee Bak, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, James L. Watson, David Y. H. Wu, Yunxiang Yan, Sidney W. Mintz
The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars
James Watson, The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars, Agricultural History, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Summer, 2004), pp. 346-360
The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley’s Exploding Trousers: Reflections on an Aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand Dairy Farming between the World Wars
During the early 1930s many New Zealand farmers enthusiastically adopted the highly inflammable chemical sodium chlorate as a weedicide against ragwort. This development reflected many aspects of New Zealand farming at the time. Dairying was expanding rapidly, reducing the control of ragwort by grazing with sheep; large areas of land cleared in the post-war boom were reverting to weeds; farmers tended to look to the state to assist with their pro…
When Figuring Out London Bombers, Remember Danny Pearl's Killer ‐ Fall 2005
Oil: A Global Overview
Biodiversity targets after 2010
The Most Appeasing Line’: New Zealand and Nazi Germany, 1935–40
New Zealand's first Labour government has generally been depicted as opposing compromise with aggressive states during the late 1930s, thereby demonstrating an ‘independent’ and ‘moral’ foreign policy. Yet it consistently advocated negotiations with Nazi Germany, signed a trade agreement with it, welcomed the Munich settlement, discouraged public criticism of the German government and pursued a half-hearted rearmament programme. Most strikingly, …
Biodiversity Conservation in a Changing Climate: A Review of Threats and Implications for Conservation Planning in Myanmar
The performance and potential of protected areas
Why don’t you try it again?’ A comparison of parent led, home based interventions aimed at increasing children's consumption of a disliked vegetable
Previous research suggests that the use of modelling and non-food rewards may be effective at increasing tasting, and consequential liking and acceptance, of a previously disliked food. Although successful school-based interventions have been developed, there is a lack of research into home-based interventions using these methods. This study aimed to develop and investigate the efficacy of a parent led home-based intervention for increasing child…
Taming a Wicked Problem: Resolving Controversies in Biodiversity Offsetting
The rising popularity of biodiversity offsetting as a tool for balancing biodiversity losses from development with equivalent gains elsewhere has sparked debate on many fronts. The fundamental questions are the following: Is offsetting good, bad, or at least better than the status quo for biodiversity conservation outcomes, and what do we need to know to decide? We present a concise synthesis of the most contentious issues related to biodiversity…
Global mismatch between greenhouse gas emissions and the burden of climate change
Countries export much of the harm created by their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because the Earth’s atmosphere intermixes globally. Yet, the extent to which this leads to inequity between GHG emitters and those impacted by the resulting climate change depends on the distribution of climate vulnerability. Here, we determine empirically the relationship between countries’ GHG emissions and their vulnerability to negative effects of climate change…
Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications for biodiversity conservation
Human pressures on the environment are changing spatially and temporally, with profound implications for the planet’s biodiversity and human economies. Here we use recently available data on infrastructure, land cover and human access into natural areas to construct a globally standardized measure of the cumulative human footprint on the terrestrial environment at 1 km 2 resolution from 1993 to 2009. We note that while the human population has in…
Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers
The impact of urbanization and climate change on urban temperatures: A systematic review
Patterns of Forest Loss in One of Africa’s Last Remaining Wilderness Areas: Niassa National Reserve (Northern Mozambique)
Niassa National Reserve (NNR) supports Mozambique's largest populations of endangered fauna and sustains the livelihoods of > 40,000 people who utilise its natural resources. Accurately monitoring finescale spatial and temporal trends in land-use and tree-cover is increasingly used for monitoring the ecological state of conservation areas. Here we provide essential information on land-use changes in NNR to support ongoing conservation efforts in …
One-third of global protected land is under intense human pressure
Protected yet pressured Protected areas are increasingly recognized as an essential way to safeguard biodiversity. Although the percentage of land included in the global protected area network has increased from 9 to 15%, Jones et al. found that a third of this area is influenced by intensive human activity. Thus, even landscapes that are protected are experiencing some human pressure, with only the most remote northern regions remaining almost u…
The exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems
Predicting the impact of logging activities on soil erosion and water quality in steep, forested tropical islands
Increasing development in tropical regions provides new economic opportunities that can improve livelihoods, but it threatens the functional integrity and ecosystem services provided by terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems when conducted unsustainably. Given the small size of many islands, communities may have limited opportunities to replace loss and damage to the natural resources upon which they depend for ecosystem service provisioning, thus he…
The many meanings of no net loss in environmental policy
A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation
Understanding the scale, location and nature conservation values of the lands over which Indigenous Peoples exercise traditional rights is central to implementation of several global conservation and climate agreements. However, spatial information on Indigenous lands has never been aggregated globally. Here, using publicly available geospatial resources, we show that Indigenous Peoples manage or have tenure rights over at least ~38 million km2 i…
Opportunities for biodiversity conservation as cities adapt to climate change
Cities are investing billions of dollars in climate change adaptation to combat the effects of sea‐level rise, temperature extremes, increasingly intense storm events, flooding and water scarcity. Natural ecosystems have enormous potential to contribute to city resilience, and so, actions that rely on this approach could sustain considerable co‐benefits for biodiversity. In this paper we identify the prevalence of key themes of human adaptation r…
Climate change vulnerability assessment of species
Assessing species' vulnerability to climate change is a prerequisite for developing effective strategies to conserve them. The last three decades have seen exponential growth in the number of studies evaluating how, how much, why, when, and where species will be impacted by climate change. We provide an overview of the rapidly developing field of climate change vulnerability assessment (CCVA) and describe key concepts, terms, steps and considerat…
Geography (45 works) · Environmental Science (34 works) · Environmental resource management (33 works) · Biology (32 works) · Ecology (32 works) · Biodiversity (27 works) · Business (23 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (22 works) · Economics (22 works) · Environmental planning (21 works)