A risk framework for addressing nature's harmful contributions to people.

A new climate-risk–inspired framework defines risks from harmful nature’s contributions to people as the overlap of ecosystem hazards with societal exposure and vulnerability.

• Why it matters: Disagreement over how to assess and manage harmful NCPs limits biodiversity research and policy decisions, risking both unmanaged harms and poorly designed interventions.
• What they did: The authors propose a conceptual risk framework that parallels the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change approach, combining ecosystem hazard with exposure and vulnerability to guide assessment and management.
• The result: The framework helps decision-makers systematically identify solutions to avoid societal harms while reducing the chance of maladaptive actions that undermine sustainability and degrade ecosystems.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.