Over the past five decades, scientists have been documenting negative anthropogenic environmental change, expressing increasing alarm and urging dramatic socioecological transformation in response. A host of international meetings have been held but the erosion of biological diversity continues to accelerate. The lack of effective political action begs the question as to why. Herein we contend that part of the answer may lie in the anthropocentric ethical premises and moral rhetoric typically deployed in the cause of conservation. We further argue that it is essential to advance moral arguments for biodiversity conservation that are not just based on perceived human interests but on ecocentric values, namely, convictions that species and ecosystems have value and interests that should be respected regardless of whether they serve human needs and aspirations. A broader array of moral rationales for biodiversity conservation, we conclude, would be more likely to lead to effective plans, adopted and enforced by governments, that are designed to conserve biological diversity. A good place to start in this regard would be to explicitly incorporate ecocentric values into the recommendations that will be made at the conclusion of the fifteenth meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which has been scheduled to be held in Kunming, China, in October 2020. Article impact statement: Ecocentric ethical rationales are needed in international research and meetings to build support for biodiversity conservation policies and practices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Strengthening positive human–nature relationships is seen as a way to more pro‐environmental behaviour and leads to a greater environmental sustainability. Therefore, understanding human–nature relationships has attracted increasing attention among researchers. Nature connectedness is a concept developed to measure such relationships. Since nature connectedness is complex and context dependent phenomenon, more research comparing sociocultural and environmental factors within societies in different countries is needed to understand its determinants. In this study, we explored how sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics and value orientation of respondents and environmental variables affected nature connectedness across different contexts in the European Union. We used 11 sociodemographic, socioeconomic and personal value factors from the computer‐assisted web interview (CAWI) and six environmental variables characterizing the local environments of 1054 respondents as independent variables to explain the nature connectedness of the respondents in Greece, Poland and Sweden. The individual level of nature connectedness (response variable) was expressed by an additive index (NC‐index) based on a 5‐item scale originating from CAWI. The general additive model was applied to link NC‐index to sociodemographic, value orientation and selected environmental variables. We found that the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their value orientation were substantially more important in explaining the individual level of nature connectedness than environmental variables. The NC‐index was positively correlated with the frequency of visits to the natural environment and biospheric values of the respondents, and was higher for women and the most prosperous respondents. Moreover, we observed several country‐wise differences in associations between explanatory variables and NC‐index. For example, altruistic orientation was positively related to the level of nature connectedness only in Greece, but not in two other countries, and residence during childhood was important to nature connectedness only in Sweden. Our findings that some sociodemographic, socioeconomic and value orientation variables affect the level of individual nature connectedness across studied countries are encouraging. They indicate that some universally applied educational actions may elevate the level of nature connectedness. We argue that exploration of nature connectedness from a cross‐country perspective may provide significant insights into the environmental debate in national and international contexts. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

There is worldwide interest in managing forests to improve biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and assure long-term sustainability of forest resources. An increasingly important goal of forest management is to increase stand diversity and improve wildlife and aquatic habitat. Well-planned silvicultural systems containing a mixture of broadleaf-conifer species have potential to enhance stand diversity and provide other ecosystem services earlier than typical even-aged conifer plantations. Here, we use the example of mixed Sitka spruce/western hemlock and red alder in young, managed stands in southeast Alaska to achieve these goals. We briefly describe the silvics of Sitka spruce, western hemlock and red alder plantations as pure conifer stands or pure broadleaf stands. Then, we synthesize studies of mixed red alder-Sitka spruce/western hemlock stands in southeast Alaska and present their potential for improving stand structural complexity, biodiversity and other ecosystem services over pure conifer forests. Finally, we discuss some of the opportunities and potential tradeoffs for managing mixed broadleaf-conifer stands for providing a number of natural resources and the influence of these broadleaf-conifer forests on ecosystem linkages and processes.

Browsing ecology involving ungulates and their food resource is complex as consumption may reflect responses to various factors, such as quantity and quality of browse species. This study investigated winter browsing by moose Alces alces in a mountainous landscape of west–central Sweden, characterized by Norway spruce Picea abies production forests with high inclusion of deciduous species. Field data on tree species abundances as well as fresh and previous browsing were collected along moose tracks and control transects, to answer our questions regarding browse selection in relation to availability. The data were analyzed using mainly modelling (generalized linear mixed models) approaches. The results revealed greater amounts of available food trees (< 5 m) in young compared to older forests and along moose tracks compared to control transects. Downy birch Betula pubescens was the most abundant independent of forest age class and transect type (i.e. tracks versus controls). Quantitatively, the key winter browse in the study area was a mix of deciduous species, primarily downy birch and willows (Salix spp.) complemented by Eurasian aspen Populus tremula and grey alder Alnus incana. In young forest, aspen, rowan Sorbus aucuparia and willows were the most selected species, while common juniper Juniperus communis was the least selected. In older forest, alder was most selected, followed by willows and rowan, while aspen and downy birch were the least selected, except for spruce and lodgepole pine Pinus contorta. According to Jacobs selectivity index, downy birch, was underused while aspen, rowan and willows were overused in relation to their frequencies. The latter are often limited in today's cultivated forest landscape and thus an increased amount of those species may be utilized to a higher degree by moose than an increase of downy birch. No effect from snow depth was detected and browsing on dwarf shrubs was not observed.