Pardee Center Research Scientist Willem Verhagen co-authors article published in Science

In May 2021, Pardee Center Research Scientist Willem Verhagen published an article he co-authored in Science titled, “Balancing conservation priorities for nature and for people in Europe." The article studies how different values for nature affect conservation priorities in Europe. Specifically, the authors identify priority areas for nature conversation from a pure nature perspective, by identifying priority areas based on the distribution of 800 vertebrate species, and compare those to priority areas from a more human-oriented ecosystem services perspective on cultural values and on regulating services (such as flood regulation and carbon storage for climate change). Authors show that in general these priority areas do not overlap, but that a focus on biodiversity is most effective in capturing the full range of nature’s values. The article may be accessed here.