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Samenvatting - Trends in Forest and Nature Conservation (WEC-31306)
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Trends in Forest and Nature Conservation – Articles⇨ Introductory Week
Introducing the theoretical framework of the course.
Mace 2014 – Whose conservation? Changes in the perception and goals of
nature conservation require a solid scientific basis
Four main phases in the modern framing of conservation in the developed world:
1. Nature for itself
- Before 1960
- Prioritizes wilderness and intact natural habitats, generally without people
- Success can be measured with matrix based methods
- Has some similarities with nature and people: people’s hopes, desires about their
environment
- Key ideas: species, wilderness, protected areas
- Science underpinning: species, habitats and wildlife ecology
2. Nature despite people
- Throughout 1960
- Species conservation and protected area management remains a dominant ideology for many
- Looking at risk (of species extinction??)
- Rapid increases in the impact of human activity and awareness of the consequences of
habitat destruction, etc.
- Key ideas: extinction, threats and threatened species, habitat loss, pollution, overexploitation
- Science underpinning: population biology, natural resource, management
3. Nature for people
- Late 1990
- Ample evidence that pressures on habitats were ubiquitous and persistent
- Realization that nature provides crucial goods and services (e.g. natural resources)
- Nature management to maximize the value for people
- Key ideas: ecosystems, ecosystem approach, ecosystem services, economic values
- Science underpinning: ecosystem functions, environmental economics
4. Nature and people
- Conservation thinking moves away from species and toward ecosystems as a focus for
integrated management, with the goal of providing sustainable benefits for people in the form
of ecosystem goods and services
- People are part of the ecosystem (participatory perspective/image)
- Two way dynamic relationship
- Importance of cultural structures and institutions (socio-ecological systems)
- Creating sustainable, resilient interactions between society and natural environment
- Multi-layered and multi-dimensional
- Better connection to policy, but danger of losing analytic foundation (interdisciplinary/ post-
truth society?)
- Key ideas: environmental change, resilience, adaptability, socio-ecological systems
- Science underpinning: interdisciplinary, social and ecological sciences
, Four trends often overlap, this can cause friction:
- Friction in different implications
- Frictions in different meanings of concepts in the natural environment and human society.
E.g. time frame; how long is long term?
- Economic costs and benefits (nature for people)
In short: Conservation is a mission driven discipline, framing and the purpose of conservation have
shifted in the past decades. Shifting views of the relationship between people and nature, with
consequences for the science underpinning conservation. The article describes the differences
between four different phases in conservation science.
Class discussion:
● Perspective / opinion paper and review paper
● Separating nature from society is a (western) privilege: nature as recreational and
romanization living with nature (neglecting the fact that nature can pose threats).
Diaz et al. 2019 – Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the
need for transformative change
Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth
- Human impact on earth has increased since 1970, mainly driven by population growth
- Nature’s supply of more materials (food and energy) comes at the cost of unprecedented
global declines
- Telecoupling: socio-economic and environmental interactions over distances, caused by
globalization and interconnectedness
- Such changes reduce vital benefits that people receive from nature and threaten the quality of
life for future generations
- Unparalleled appropriation of nature: increased global trade with geographic separation
between supply and demand. Benefits of expanding the economy and the costs of reducing
nature’s benefits are unequally distributed.
- Fabric of life is unraveling
The need for transformative change
- Opportunities exist to change future trajectories through transformative action: much address
the root economic, social, and technological causes of nature’s deterioration
Importance of nature is being recognized
- Life on earth is woven by natural processes.. Also nature’s non material value to human life:
learning, inspiration, psychological experiences, identity of sense and place.
First comprehensive global assessment of nature
- Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global
Assessment has provided analysis of the evidence: an inter-governmental process from start
to end (50 countries, interdisciplinary)
- Fig. 1 shows 18 categories of nature’s contributions to people that are declining (1970 –
present)
- Fig. 2 shows extinction risk and diversity in different taxonomic groups. Many species and
ecological communities are declining.
- Combination of declining endemic species and the spread of already widespread species as
humans purposefully or unwittingly transport species around the world drives “biotic
homogenization”: a convergence of biological communities across regions that blurs the
patterns on life’s rich tapestry.
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