Conservation biology is the study of the conservation of nature and of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction and the erosion of biotic interactions. It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management.
The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology.
Origins
The term conservation biology and its conception as a new field originated with the convening of "The First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology" held at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California, in 1978 led by American biologists Bruce A. Wilcox and Michael E. Soulé with a group of leading university and zoo researchers and conservationists including Kurt Benirschke, Sir Otto Frankel, Thomas Lovejoy, and Jared Diamond. The meeting was prompted due to concern over tropical deforestation, disappearing species, and eroding genetic diversity within species.J. Douglas. 1978. Biologists urge US endowment for conservation. Nature Vol. 275, 14 September 1978. Kat Williams . 1978. Natural Sciences. Science News. September 30, 1978. The conference and proceedings that resulted sought to initiate the bridging of a gap between theory in ecology and evolutionary genetics on the one hand and conservation policy and practice on the other.Organization of the meeting itself also entailed bridging a gap between genetics and ecology. Soulé, was an evolutionary geneticist working with wheat geneticist Sir Otto Frankel to advance conservation genetics as a new field at the time. Jared Diamond, who suggested the idea for a conference to Wilcox was concerned with the application of community ecology and island biogeography theory to conservation. Wilcox and Thomas Lovejoy, who together initiated planning for the conference in June 1977 when Lovejoy secured a commitment of seed funding at World Wildlife Fund, felt both genetics and ecology should be represented. Wilcox suggested use of a new term conservation biology, complementing Frankel's conception and coining of "conservation genetics", to encompass the application of biological sciences in general to conservation. Subsequently, Soulé and Wilcox wrote conceived the agenda for the meeting they jointly convened on September 6–9, 1978, titled First International Conference on Resesarch in Conservation Biology, in which the program described "The purpose of this conference is to accelerate and facilitate the development of a rigorous new discipline called conservation biology — a multidisciplinary field drawing its insights and methodology mostly from population ecology, community ecology, sociobiology, population genetics, and reproductive biology." This inclusion of topics at the meeting related to animal breeding reflected participation and support of the zoo and captive breeding communities.
Conservation biology and the concept of biological diversity (biodiversity) emerged together, helping crystallize the modern era of conservation science and policy. The inherent multidisciplinary basis for conservation biology has led to new subdisciplines including conservation social science, conservation behavior and conservation physiology. It stimulated further development of conservation genetics which Otto Frankel had originated first but is now often considered a subdiscipline as well.
Description
The rapid decline of established biological systems around the world means that conservation biology is often referred to as a "Discipline with a deadline". Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the population ecology (dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size, inbreeding depression, and minimum population viability) of rare or endangered species. Conservation biology is concerned with phenomena that affect the maintenance, loss, and restoration of biodiversity and the science of sustaining evolutionary processes that engender genetic, population, species, and ecosystem diversity. The concern stems from estimates suggesting that up to 50% of all species on the planet will disappear within the next 50 years, which will increase poverty and starvation, and will reset the course of evolution on this planet.Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources Institute, Washington, DC. Researchers acknowledge that projections are difficult, given the unknown potential impacts of many variables, including species introduction to new biogeographical settings and a non-analog climate.
Conservation biologists research and educate on the trends and process of biodiversity loss, species extinctions, and the negative effect these are having on our capabilities to sustain the well-being of human society. Conservation biologists work in the field and office, in government, universities, non-profit organizations and industry. The topics of their research are diverse, because this is an interdisciplinary network with professional alliances in the biological as well as social sciences. Those dedicated to the cause and profession advocate for a global response to the current biodiversity crisis based on morals, ethics, and scientific reason. Organizations and citizens are responding to the biodiversity crisis through conservation action plans that direct research, monitoring, and education programs that engage concerns at local through global scales. There is increasing recognition that conservation is not just about what is achieved but how it is done.
History
Natural resource conservation
Conscious efforts to conserve and protect global biodiversity are a recent phenomenon. Natural resource conservation, however, has a history that extends prior to the age of conservation. Resource ethics grew out of necessity through direct relations with nature. Regulation or communal restraint became necessary to prevent selfish motives from taking more than could be locally sustained, therefore compromising the long-term supply for the rest of the community. This social dilemma with respect to natural resource management is often called the "tragedy of the commons".Also considered to be a consequence of evolution, where individual selection is favored over group selection. For recent discussions, see: and
From this principle, conservation biologists can trace communal resource based ethics throughout cultures as a solution to communal resource conflict. For example, the Alaskan Tlingit peoples and the Haida of the Pacific Northwest had resource boundaries, rules, and restrictions among clans with respect to the fishing of sockeye salmon. These rules were guided by clan elders who knew lifelong details of each river and stream they managed.Mason, Rachel and Judith Ramos. (2004). Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Tlingit People concerning the Sockeye Salmon Fishery of the Dry Bay Area, A Cooperative Agreement Between Department of the Interior National Park Service and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, Final Report (FIS) Project 01-091, Yakutat, Alaska. There are numerous examples in history where cultures have followed rules, rituals, and organized practice with respect to communal natural resource management.
The Mauryan emperor Ashoka around 250 BC issued edicts restricting the slaughter of animals and certain kinds of birds, as well as opened veterinary clinics.
Conservation ethics are also found in early religious and philosophical writings. There are examples in the Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist traditions. In Greek philosophy, Plato lamented about pasture land degradation: "What is left now is, so to say, the skeleton of a body wasted by disease; the rich, soft soil has been carried off and only the bare framework of the district left."Hamilton, E., and H. Cairns (eds). 1961. Plato: the collected dialogues. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ In the bible, through Moses, God commanded to let the land rest from cultivation every seventh year.The Bible, Leviticus, 25:4-5 Before the 18th century, however, much of European culture considered it a pagan view to admire nature. Wilderness was denigrated while agricultural development was praised. However, as early as AD 680 a wildlife sanctuary was founded on the Farne Islands by St Cuthbert in response to his religious beliefs.
Early naturalists
Natural history was a major preoccupation in the 18th century, with grand expeditions and the opening of popular public displays in Europe and North America. By 1900 there were 150 natural history museums in Germany, 250 in Great Britain, 250 in the United States, and 300 in France. Preservationist or conservationist sentiments are a development of the late 18th to early 20th centuries.
Before Charles Darwin set sail on HMS Beagle, most people in the world, including Darwin, believed in special creation and that all species were unchanged. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was one of the first naturalists that questioned this belief. He proposed in his 44 volume natural history book that species evolve due to environmental influences. Erasmus Darwin was also a naturalist who also suggested that species evolved. Erasmus Darwin noted that some species have vestigial structures which are anatomical structures that have no apparent function in the species currently but would have been useful for the species' ancestors. The thinking of these early 18th century naturalists helped to change the mindset and thinking of the early 19th century naturalists.
By the early 19th century biogeography was ignited through the efforts of Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. The 19th-century fascination with natural history engendered a fervor to be the first to collect rare specimens with the goal of doing so before they became extinct by other such collectors. Although the work of many 18th and 19th century naturalists were to inspire nature enthusiasts and conservation organizations, their writings, by modern standards, showed insensitivity towards conservation as they would kill hundreds of specimens for their collections.
Conservation movement
The modern roots of conservation biology can be found in the late 18th-century Enlightenment period particularly in England and Scotland. Thinkers including Lord Monboddo described the importance of "preserving nature"; much of this early emphasis had its origins in Christian theology.
Scientific conservation principles were first practically applied to the forests of British India. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the environment, that there was a civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir James Ranald Martin was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in British India through the establishment of Forest Departments.Stebbing, E.P (1922)The forests of India vol. 1, pp. 72–81
The Madras Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by Alexander Gibson, a professional botanist who systematically adopted a forest conservation program based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state conservation management of forests in the world. Governor-General Lord Dalhousie introduced the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to other colonies, as well the United States, where Yellowstone National Park was opened in 1872 as the world's first national park.