From conservation theory to practice: crossing the divide

Abstract

Conservation biology is continually developing new tools and concepts that contribute to our understanding of populations, species and ecosystems (Chapter 1). The science underpinning the field has undoubtedlymade rapid strides generating more effective methods to document biodiversity, monitor species and habitats. Scientists have developed comprehensive priority setting exercises to help determine where and what to conserve in on-going attempts to identify which factors would best serve as the basis for triage for species and ecosystems (Wilson et al. 2007; Chapter 11). They arewell positioned to track the loss of species and ecosystems in broad patterns even if precise details are not always available (Chapter 10). However applying the science effectively requires the efforts of conservation biologists combined with a diversity of other actors, most of whom are non-biologists and include local and indigenous communities, civil servants at all levels of government, environmental consultants, park managers, environmental lobbyists, private industry, and even themilitary (Box 15.1; Chapter 14). This amorphous group of practitioners will pursue a diverse set of activities which include putting up or taking down fences (literal and metaphorical), lobbying politicians, buying land, negotiating with members of local and indigenous communities, tackling invasive species problems, guarding against poachers andmanaging off-take of plants and animals. There are many pressing challenges facing practical conservation. Forces affecting biodiversity in different ecosystems have altered over the past two decades. For instance, the nature of tropical forest destruction has changed from being dominated by rural farmers to currently being driven substantially by major industries and economic globalization, with timber operations, oil and gas development, large-scale farming and exotic-tree plantations being the most frequent causes of forest loss (see Chapter 4). A direct result of these changes is the need for engaging not just conservation minded individuals and organizations, but those in the largest, and most influential, of the world’s corporations and multilateral institutions (Box 15.2). In addition, the changes in those factors driving loss– and in the scale of loss – requires that we diversify our approaches, and focus not just on biodiversity, but on the whole issue of those goods and services that natural systems provide for us (Daily 1997, Woodwell 2002; Box 15.3). Global threats, and opportunities, such as climate change (Chapter 8), are forcing conservation practitioners to work at a variety of scales to better integrate these challenges (Bonan 2008). Conservation science must meet the continually changing nature of threats to biodiversity (Butler and Laurance 2008); conservation biologists and practitioners need to design and leverage solutions in response to these global changes in threat. Not only is the practice of conservation getting more complicated, but it has a stronger global presence, and increasingly large expenditures (Cobb et al. 2007). As a result, implementing agencies and specifically conservation organizations are being held to a higher standard in monitoring and evaluating their conservation success, and failure (Wells et al. 1999; Ferraro and Pattanayak 2006; see also Box 15.4). Another issue that