The future of blue-green infrastructure and land use transitions

Dr. Jessica Thorn from st. Andrews University is our guest this week, talking about future scenarios of blue-green infrastructure and land use transitions.
By 2050, estimates suggest there will be 25 million km of new paved roads globally, with nine tenths of these roads in the Global South. Africa has experienced accelerated foreign investment in transport infrastructure in recent decades. Such investments in the form of development corridors bring unparalleled challenges that need to be understood, whether social cohesion, habitat fragmentation, or loss in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Against this background, in December of 2022, a series of measures for ‘effective conservation and management’ of 30% of the world’s lands, waters, and oceans were agreed at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity. Yet, there remains limited proactive, strategic prioritisation on how impacts can be avoided or mitigated to aid conservation.