Conservation Biology from the Perspective of Natural Resource Management Disciplines

Abstract

Although natural resource management encompasses a wide range of disciplines, those with the closest ties to conservation biology are the renewable resources: forestry, fisheries management, range management, and especially wildlife management. How do practitioners in these disciplines view conservation biology? Some describe conservation biology as being entirely different from their disciplines because it seems more focused on protection of selected species or ecosystems than on management of populations and habitats—the hallmark of the natural resource disciplines. Others insist conservation biology is the same as wildlife management. In our view the truth lies somewhere between these two perspectives. We base our view on >75 years of combined experience in the ecological sciences and the professional disciplines of wildlife, rangeland, and forest management. We remember well when the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) was formed to advance the science, practice, and goals of conserving biological diversity. We were among the first members and have watched as the group matured into a full-fledged society with a membership and publications that are international in scope and reach. The field of conservation biology arose from the milieu of complex issues involving land, natural resources, and the future of the Earth’s biological diversity, as did natural resource disciplines. These shared origins mean conservation biology has much in common with the natural resource disciplines. Yet conservation biology now fills a distinct niche that plays a complementary role in the larger realm of applied biological sciences and conservation practice.