Conservation Biology

Conservation biology is a scientific field that studies the processes and patterns that maintain or alter biological diversity, and engages with applied research and policy in order to further biodiversity conservation. In order to achieve its [Page 350]positive and normative goals, conservation biology draws upon several subfields of ecology as well as the social sciences and philosophy to understand the human and ethical dimensions of ecological change and inform appropriate policy responses. Ecological subfields that contribute to basic and applied research in conservation biology include genetics, population and community ecology, as well as ecosystem and landscape ecology. Several social science disciplines—including economics, geography, anthropology, political science and sociology—have contributed theoretical and methodological tools.

The long history of human-induced transformations of the earth dates back at least to the dawn of plant domestication approximately 10,000 years ago; the conversion of natural ecosystems having accelerated in the past three centuries. Recent humaninduced transformations of the environment, however, are widely perceived to be unprecedented in scope, rate and magnitude, and a significant driving force of global environmental change. Human population growth, along with political-institutional, socioeconomic, technological, and cultural factors are the primary anthropogenic drivers of ecological change, and have led to biodiversity loss and species extinctions in several locales. Global-scale declines in biological diversity during recent history gained widespread scientific recognition by the 1970s; this led to the emergence of a multi-disciplinary conservation biology in the 1980s. Conservation biology as a field is a targeted response to this biodiversity loss, and blends traditional disciplinary research with applied scientific fields such as forestry and natural resource management. Michael Soulé, the co-founder of the Society for Conservation Biology, referred to the immediacy of conservation needs when he referred to conservation biology as a crisis discipline, one that forces conservation scientists to balance scientific knowledge with policy advice, often despite prevailing uncertainty.

The field's philosophical roots reach back several centuries. Biological diversity and nature in general has been valued based on its intrinsic worth as well as for utilitarian purposes, such as sustained flow of goods and services for the benefits of human societies. In the United States, one philosophical approach to conservation focused on a spiritual–aesthetic appreciation for nature and its intrinsic value, and may be traced to the ecocentric Romantic–Transcendental ethic as reflected in the writing and legacy of such figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir in the mid-1800s. The utilitarian perspective, espoused on the other hand by John Stuart Mill, Gifford Pinchot, and others, was rooted in an anthropocentric view of nature's worth, and espoused the conservation of natural resources to ensure “the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time.” Aldo Leopold's Evolutionary–Ecological Land Ethic combined the tradition of the utilitarian resource conservationists with developments in the scientific disciplines of ecology and evolution, conceptualizing nature as a system of interacting parts, and laying the foundation for present-day conservation biology.

Meffe and Caroll (1994) propose three “guiding principles” for conservation biology: a focus on evolutionary change to better understand the dynamics of biodiversity through a historical perspective; a focus on the changing, stochastic, uncertain and non-equilibrium nature of ecosystems, which has increasingly replaced previous closed-system, equilibrium conceptualizations of most ecosystems; and a focus on human agency, in both its positive and negative aspects, for a better understanding and pragmatic approach to biodiversity conservation. These principles remain relevant for various scientific and applied/policy concerns within the discipline, including the design of nature reserves, restoration ecology and the management of endangered species.

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