Section Outline

1) What is conservation biology?

- Definitions
- CB as a synthetic, multidisciplinary science

2) Historical outline of the rise of conservation biology

3) Goals, principles and values of conservation biology
Before we can understand conservation biology, we
need to look at what we are trying to conserve:
generally biodiversity

What is biodiversity?

Discuss for 2 mins

What is Biodiversity?

The 1992 United Nations Earth Summit defined "biological

diversity" as "the variability among living organisms from all
sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic
ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are
part.

What do we depend on the environment

(and its biodiversity) for?

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Biodiversity contributes goods and services
to
global human welfare FOR FREE

Population Growth:
Where is the tipping
point?

http://www.worldometers.info/worldpopulation/

We are at a critical point in History

If we do not conserve the

natural resources on our planet
and the population continues to
grow?

BioScience
(1985)

What is Conservation Biology?

Ideally, conservation
biology should
reflect a fluid
interaction
between the basic
sciences and
applied fields of
resource
management
Challenges......
Ideology, values,
outcomes

Brazilian Governments National Marine Turtle

Conservation
Program (TAMAR)
A good example of how basic and applied sciences
work
together to solve a conservation-related problem
5 species
up until the 1980s heavily exploited for meat, eggs, shell,
fat
declining towards local extinction

From the 1980s started collecting

data.........
........sightings, nesting locations,
reproduction seasons
..... AND any issues relating to
the species' survival, habitats,
and needs.
By 2001 implemented a
fully integrated plan

Result: Brazils sea turtle

numbers have stabilized and
are even increasing.

TAMAR Monitoring Program

...ongoing

Scientific knowledge integrated

with conservation goals
promoted community education
and development

WHAT CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

IS NOT?
Conservation biology is NOT the same as natural
resource management
- e.g. fisheries, forestry, wildlife management
- focus on the utilitarian, economic value of a
small
number of species.
CB takes a more holistic and multidisciplinary
approach concerned with long-term (including
evolutionary time scales) viability and persistence
of whole ecosystems

Where does the field

of conservation
biology come from?

Degradation of natural resources is nothing

new.......

Easter Island was colonised in 1200AD.Sub-tropical island covered in

palm trees. In 1700AD, Dutch explorers found an island devoid of
trees
>10m tall. Today, Easter Island is almost a barren land.........
Devoid of native trees some exotics, rarely forming natural
groves

Colonial
deforestation
Mauritius

The ecological price of Capitalism

an economic system
capital assets are privately owned
brought to market for profit
the parties to a transaction determine
the prices at which assets, goods,
and services are exchanged
Thing that are common are usually
cheaper. Rarer, more desired things
are more expensive

An emerging philosophy & the

guiding principles of
Conservation Biology

An emerging
philosophy......
1. Intrinsic,
moral, ethical reasons to
conserve.

Romantic-Transcendental Conservation Ethic: Emerson,

Thoreau, and
later Muir: took a quasi-religious view of nature seeing
nature as home
natural areas and species have intrinsic, spiritual value
a view to preserve wildness
strongly opposed to harvesting these resources and
destroying nature.

2. Biodiversity has a "demand value"

Resource Conservation Ethic or Utilitarianism:
Benefits to human - Species and habitats
provide goods & services that are valuable to
humans.

3. A functioning system.

Evolutionary - Ecological Land Ethic

ecosystems are equilibrial systems of species
interacting
with the environment
effective functioning of systems (stable
systems) required that 'all cogs in the wheel'
be present
The organism cannot survive and function
without all its organs; would you survive
without a liver? F.E. Clements

GAIA Hypothesis James Lovelock

Earth as a single living super(1975)
organism

life regulates the Earth's systems to provide

the optimum conditions for itself
Where did the nitrogen in the atmosphere
come from? Why was the proportion of
atmospheric oxygen just within the safety
zone? Why wasn't the sea far more salty?
Why hasn't all that water boiled off into
space?
having found an ecological niche, all
creatures elephants, ants, orchids
and economists tend to maintain
their environments to their own
advantage

ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
Provisionin
g
Supportin
g
Nutrien
t
cycling
Soil
formati
on
Primary
produc
tion

Food
Water
fuel &
Wood

Regulatin
g
Climate
Flood
water
Disease

Cultural
Aesthetic
Spiritual
Educ ationa
l

LIFE ON EARTH BIODIVERSITY

HUMAN WELLBEING
Security
Personal safety
Resource
access
Avoid
disasters

Basic
material
s
Livelihoo
ds
Health
Sufficien
Strength
t food &
wellness
Shelter
Clean air &
water

Social
relations
Social cohesion
Mutual respect
Helping
others

Freedom
of choice
& action
Opportunity to
be able to
achieve what
an individual
values doing
& being

Mass Extinction of Honey Bees Will

Cause
One-Third of Food Supply To Disappear
1/3 of our food production relies on honeybees for pollination
130 crop species in the US alone pollinated by honeybees
in 2012, US and UK reported that 1/3 loss of honeybees. Italy
reported
50% loss
COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
viruses, bacterial infections, insecticides, stress.......
121 different pesticides in samples of bees, wax and pollen
pesticides are a key problem
We believe that some subtle interactions between nutrition,
pesticide
exposure and other stressors are converging to kill colonies
Jeffery Pettis, ARS Bee Research Laboratory

In Alabama, a single bee pollinates approximately $75 worth of

berries
by visiting nearly 50,000 blueberry flowers in a year.
Benefit of managed & native pollinators to consumers ~$1.6 billion
When native pollinators unavailable to service crops, estimated value
of managed honeybees rises to ~$8.3 billion
The benefit of all other pollinators to US agriculture is between $4.1
and
$6.7 billion annually
(Source: Ecological Society of America)

GOALS & PRINCIPLES

OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
1) to conserve the biological environment

2) to establish workable methods for

preserving species and their biological
communities
3) to provide principles & tools for
preserving biological diversity.

Task: To be finished as homework

Part A: Conservation Biology
Put together a detailed mind-map with the following
information: This can be drawn by hand or done on computer
using software like https://www.mindmup.com/#m:new
1. How are humans dependent on the natural environment?
2. What is Conservation Biology?
3. What academic disciplines are involved in conservation
biology?
4. What kind of professionals does the field of conservation
make use of?
5. What are the goals of conservation biology?
Part B: Short essay ( 1 page)
Reflect on one of the two questions below:
Is the field of Conservation Biology useful?
Slightly Easier: Is Biodiversity worth conserving?