Conservation geography: approaches, limits and potentials

Abstract

Biodiversity loss has been a major issue on the Global Agenda since at least the 1990s. Several scientific fields are in charge of addressing this issue, especially Conservation Biology, Landscape Ecology, and even Geography. Although the scientific and epistemological advances of the first two fields are notorious, the current causes of biodiversity loss have multiple facets, which include territorial, social, and political dimensions. To aid in the thought process of the issue, the present study used documentary research as a method, reviewing specialized literature in journals, theses, and dissertations to cover the main concepts involved in conservation studies and the contribution of related sciences. The literature review also included the perspective of Geography in conservation studies and the emergence of new perspectives, such as Conservation Geography. The main results include the initial intention of Conservation Biology to produce studies with a multidisciplinary focus, observing, however, a predominance of studies of Population Biology and Minimum Areas of Diversity. As a proposal to overcome conservation of the exclusionary type, derived from biological studies, Conservation Geography intends to coordinate the concepts of territory, landscape, and biophysical dynamics to the concept of ecosystems, producing a reading that is closer to the actors that produce the space, as well as the disputes that modify and create the territories, which are the main causes to explain the loss of biodiversity and that, in turn, would allow the production of consistent conservation designs.