Conservation biology – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conservation is the scientific study of the 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.[1][2][3] It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on natural and social sciences, and the practice of natural resource management.[4][5][6][7]

The conservation ethic is based on the findings of conservation biology.

This term conservation biology was introduced as the title of a conference held at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California in 1978 organized by biologists Bruce Wilcox and Michael E. Soul. The meeting was prompted by the concern among scientists over tropical deforestation, disappearing species, eroding genetic diversity within species.[8] The conference and proceedings that resulted[2] sought to bridge a gap existing at the time between theory in ecology and population biology on the one hand and conservation policy and practice on the other.[9] 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 the development of several new subdisciplines including conservation genetics, conservation social science, conservation behavior and conservation physiology.[10]

The rapid decline of established biological systems around the world means that conservation biology is often referred to as a "Discipline with a deadline".[11] Conservation biology is tied closely to ecology in researching the dispersal, migration, demographics, effective population size, inbreeding depression, and minimum population viability of rare or endangered species.[12] To better understand the restoration ecology of native plant and animal communities, the conservation biologist closely studies both their polytypic and monotypic habitats[13] that are affected by a wide range of benign and hostile factors. 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.[5][6][7][12] The concern stems from estimates suggesting that up to 50% of all species on the planet will disappear within the next 50 years,[14] which has contributed to poverty, starvation, and will reset the course of evolution on this planet.[15][16]

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. They are funded to research, monitor, and catalog every angle of the earth and its relation to society. The topics 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.[4][5][6][7]

The conservation of natural indian resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem, it will avail us little to solve all others.

Conscious efforts to conserve and protect global biodiversity are a recent phenomenon.[7] 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.[7] This social dilemma with respect to natural resource management is often called the "Tragedy of the Commons".[18][19]

From this principle, conservation biologists can trace communal resource based ethics throughout cultures as a solution to communal resource conflict.[7] 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.[7][20] There are numerous examples in history where cultures have followed rules, rituals, and organized practice with respect to communal natural resource management.[21]

Conservation ethics are also found in early religious and philosophical writings. There are examples in the Tao, Shinto, Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist traditions.[7][22] 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."[23] In the bible, through Moses, God commanded to let the land rest from cultivation every seventh year.[7][24] 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.[25] However, as early as AD 680 a wildlife sanctuary was founded on the Farne Islands by St Cuthbert in response to his religious beliefs.[7]

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.[26] Preservationist or conservationist sentiments are a development of the late 18th to early 20th centuries.

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Conservation biology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia