The biodiversity nexus demonstrates the diverse, intertwined relationships between people and nature. It shows how our resource use affects nature and biodiversity and vice versa.

However, there are policies and management actions that can bring multiple benefits (so called “co-benefits” or “synergies”) between biodiversity and other nexus elements, which include:

1. Biodiversity-friendly management: agro-biodiversity or agroecological practices, sustainable management of bioenergy cropping systems, integrated management of water landscapes, and management of habitats on road verges and railway embankments

2. Restoration of ecosystems: forests and peatlands for climate mitigation and biomass energy production, riparian forests for flood control, and remediation of water courses for improving water quality.

3. Protection of species and ecosystems: that are key in maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services such as water filtration and water retention.

4. Urban green and blue infrastructure: green roofs for improving energy performance in buildings, greening of transport infrastructure for pollution control through promotion of active transport (walking, cycling), urban green space for health benefits.

5. Dietary change: moving to healthier and more sustainable diets, including reducing the consumption of meat to reduce livestock for climate mitigation.

Key findings summarized on what was studied, evidenced and found from this review (Kim et al. 2024).

The review (Kim et al. 2024) gave valuable insight into the impact of human activities on biodiversity through the climate, water, food, energy, transport and health elements. Alternatively, there was limited evidence on how biodiversity could negatively impact other nexus elements, which included competition for land, disease transmission from a small set of species triggered by habitat gain or loss and climate change, and the introduction and expansion of invasive alien species.

Biodiversity’s impact on the nexus elements and vice versa based on the counts of positive or negative interlinkages in the 192 studies reviewed in database

Our message to policymakers

Appropriate holistic interventions and actions require evidence from both academic nexus studies as well as from practical experiences for the proper design, planning and implementation of policies. Here are the key recommendations on how the evidence base can be improved:

1. Information on the biodiversity nexus needs to be used in decision-making processes. This review reveals that rich information on the biodiversity nexus indeed exists in the literature and practice. It is essential that this information is made accessible and synthesized to inform decision processes

2. Further research is needed on quantifying positive impact relationships in the biodiversity nexus. There is currently far more studies on negative impact than positive impact in the literature. To inform the implementation of synergistic actions that bring co-benefits across sectors through biodiversity, it is critical to fill this research gap.

3. Reviews such as this one can be replicated in other world regions. The replications will help us to better understand regional, environmental, economic and socio-political similarities and differences in the biodiversity nexus and identify approaches that minimize trade-offs and maximize co-benefits across the regions.