BIOL 3130 Lecture 1: Introduction to Conservation Biology
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Expanding human demands
•
Every natural ecosystem has been changed
•
Extinctions, altered functioning of ecosystems, reduced availability of
resources, soil erosion
•
Why conservation biology?
Humans 'may' have been responsible for mega-fauna extinctions in the
Americas shortly after human colonization from Asia ~11,000 years
ago
•
Aristotle (382-334 BC) commented on the widespread destruction of
forests in the Baltic region
•
Barren landscapes of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are unnatural
deserts that resulted from mass exploitation of fragile woodlands
•
Deforestation of Europe by the early 18th Century, forest areas
maintained as private game management and royal preserves
•
In Great Britain, many forests were gone by 12th century
•
Southeastern Ontario was largely deforested between 1800-1900
(trend has been reversing since WWII)
•
Historical Context
A gradual landscape change results in profound transformations.
Half of Hawaii's native birds went extinct soon after Polynesians
arrived
•
Half of the remaining species of birds went extinct after Captain
James Cook arrived
•
Long-Term Changes: Hawaiian Islands
We consume a large fraction of the planets resources
•
35% of NPP from oceanic shelves
○
Consume 60% of freshwater runoff
○
We now consume 20-40% of the planet's annual net primary
productivity (energy from the sun converted to plant biomass)
•
Northern part of the world is 10% the population but 50% oil
consumption
○
Consumption is highly unequal
•
Present Day:
Agriculture
○
Urbanity, suburban sprawl, roads
○
Pollution
○
83% of the Earth's land surface shows evidence of our impacts
•
Fertile grasslands = 98% transformed
•
Ecological Footprint
Economy vs. natural resource industries
•
Human Challenges: inertia and fear
Response by the scientific community to the environmental crisis:
pollution, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services…
•
Latest phase of long-standing interest in preserving our natural
resources
•
Conservation Biology: the scientific study of the nature and status of
Earth's biological diversity with the aim of protecting species, habitats
and ecosystems from excessive extinction rates that are linked to the
modern human enterprise
•
Endangered species management
○
Reserve design
○
Ecological economics
○
Restoration ecology
○
Ecosystem conservation
○
Environmental ethics
○
Environmental law
○
Environmental business
○
Conservation journalism
○
Conservation marketing
○
Eco-arts
○
Multidisciplinary: overlaps with Natural and Social Sciences
•
Crisis Management: unites theoretical perspectives with the need for
rapid responses to environmental change
•
Our concerns surpass our solutions
○
Inexact: when in doubt, use precaution
•
Varying definitions of wilderness
○
Value-laden: charismatic mega fauna
•
Conservation Biology
Early settlers had no interest in conservation
•
Driven by fear, religion, and desperation
•
Coincided with the destruction of Native Americans and their
cultures
•
Sister was biographer of Queen Victoria
□
Coburg, Ontario (Rice Lake Plains)
□
Her writing have become critical for restoration
□
Catherin Parr Trail (early 1800s)
!
Few dissenting voices:
•
Proximity leads to disdain1.
As cities grew, so did the interest in the wilderness
•
Reaction against the 'de-humanizing' effects of the industrial
revolution and urban living
•
Shifts in thinking
•
Ecotourism
•
The birth of the natural sciences -nature as a living laboratory !
•
Ex. Rafinesque, David Douglas, Thomas Nutall
•
Natural history: a demonstration of Darwinian evolution
•
It began in the cities2.
The beauty and perfection of nature reflected some higher
spiritual truth
•
Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman
•
Turned early puritanical views (development is bad; nature is
good)
•
Massive resurgence of interest in 1960s and 1970s
•
The presence of wilderness nearby became important, and the
destruction of wilderness some how meant destroying our
connection with the divine
•
Transcendentalism3.
Audubon
•
Was the first to conceive the idea of a government-created
park
!
George Catlin (1830s)
•
First calls for preservation4.
Yellowstone -1872
•
Banff National Park 1883
•
Adirondack Hills 1885
•
Prevent rampant development (Niagara Falls)
!
Protect drinking water
!
The weird and unusual (geysers)
!
A place for health and refreshment
!
Motives:
•
Industry and Commerce still critical (Algonquin Park)
•
The First Parks5.
No national vision for preservation, no valuing wilderness for
its own sake
•
Coincides with the final push -nothing left to "conquer" (late
1800s)
•
A period of incredible transformation -North Americans had
come to define themselves as different from the Old World:
tougher, hewn by the challenges of the pioneer life
•
Yet that life was gone -Teddy Roosevelt
•
Conflict: preservation as things became scarce vs. development
as things became scarce
•
John Muir and the Sierra Club6.
First head of the US forest service
•
"Resource conservation ethic" -the term conservation differed
wildly from 'preservation'
•
1st Principle: meet current needs without compromising needs of
future generations -sustainable development
•
2nd Principle: use resources efficiently (no waste)
•
US forest service 1905 (193 million acre lots)
!
Created a vast network of national forests and grasslands
•
Protected yet opened to all forms of use = multiuse philosophy
•
Gifford Pinchot7.
"Evolutionary-ecological land ethic"
•
Coincided with the emergence of evolution and ecology as
major fields of scientific research
•
"A Sand County Almanac" (1949)
•
Pushed for scientific principles to land management
•
The land is more than a collection of goods to be exploited
•
Human as part of the ecological community
•
Aldo Leopold8.
Power of the federal government in conservation increases =
national polices
•
Restrictive regulations on hunting, fishing and resource
extraction (bag limits)
•
1916 Migratory Bird Treaty with the US
•
1930 Canada Parks Act
•
1964 Wilderness bill in the US (9/190 million acres converted
to "wilderness")
•
Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
!
The Population Bomb (Paul Ehrlich)
!
Future Shock (Alvin Toeffler)
!
1960/70s: growing concerns about our future
•
The first Earth day (1970)
•
US Endangered Species Act (1973)
•
Outward Bound
•
The wilderness 'industry' (nalgene and kevlar)
•
Transformation towards today9.
Scientists aware of the biodiversity problem but no forum
existed for changing ideas
•
1978: Soule organizes the first CB conference
•
SCB now has over 10,000 members
!
SCB 1985: Soule, Ehrlich and Jared Diamond
•
Earth Summit (Rio 1992) -Biological Diversity
•
1997: Kyoto Protocol -Greenhouse Gases
•
Society for Conservation Biology10.
Population: 7-8 billion
•
Increasing resource scarcity, leading to extraction methods
previously deemed too costly (fracking, oil sands)
•
Climate change and food supply
•
Conservation as an 'affluent luxury'?
•
Widening economic disparity locally/globally
•
'Conservation' increasingly less about 'parks and protected areas'
(a good thing??)
•
Park visitation is dropping
•
Now and the Future11.
A Brief History of Conservation in North America:
Introduction to Conservation Biology
Monday,*January* 9,*2017
10:15*AM
Expanding human demands
•
Every natural ecosystem has been changed
•
Extinctions, altered functioning of ecosystems, reduced availability of
resources, soil erosion
•
Why conservation biology?
Humans 'may' have been responsible for mega-fauna extinctions in the
Americas shortly after human colonization from Asia ~11,000 years
ago
•
Aristotle (382-334 BC) commented on the widespread destruction of
forests in the Baltic region
•
Barren landscapes of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran are unnatural
deserts that resulted from mass exploitation of fragile woodlands
•
Deforestation of Europe by the early 18th Century, forest areas
maintained as private game management and royal preserves
•
In Great Britain, many forests were gone by 12th century
•
Southeastern Ontario was largely deforested between 1800-1900
(trend has been reversing since WWII)
•
Historical Context
A gradual landscape change results in profound transformations.
Half of Hawaii's native birds went extinct soon after Polynesians
arrived
•
Half of the remaining species of birds went extinct after Captain
James Cook arrived
•
Long-Term Changes: Hawaiian Islands
We consume a large fraction of the planets resources
•
35% of NPP from oceanic shelves
○
Consume 60% of freshwater runoff
○
We now consume 20-40% of the planet's annual net primary
productivity (energy from the sun converted to plant biomass)
•
Northern part of the world is 10% the population but 50% oil
consumption
○
Consumption is highly unequal
•
Present Day:
Agriculture
○
Urbanity, suburban sprawl, roads
○
Pollution
○
83% of the Earth's land surface shows evidence of our impacts
•
Fertile grasslands = 98% transformed
•
Ecological Footprint
Economy vs. natural resource industries
•
Human Challenges: inertia and fear
Response by the scientific community to the environmental crisis:
pollution, loss of biodiversity, loss of ecosystem services…
•
Latest phase of long-standing interest in preserving our natural
resources
•
Conservation Biology: the scientific study of the nature and status of
Earth's biological diversity with the aim of protecting species, habitats
and ecosystems from excessive extinction rates that are linked to the
modern human enterprise
•
Endangered species management
○
Reserve design
○
Ecological economics
○
Restoration ecology
○
Ecosystem conservation
○
Environmental ethics
○
Environmental law
○
Environmental business
○
Conservation journalism
○
Conservation marketing
○
Eco-arts
○
Multidisciplinary: overlaps with Natural and Social Sciences
•
Crisis Management: unites theoretical perspectives with the need for
rapid responses to environmental change
•
Our concerns surpass our solutions
○
Inexact: when in doubt, use precaution
•
Varying definitions of wilderness
○
Value-laden: charismatic mega fauna
•
Conservation Biology
Early settlers had no interest in conservation
•
Driven by fear, religion, and desperation
•
Coincided with the destruction of Native Americans and their
cultures
•
Sister was biographer of Queen Victoria
□
Coburg, Ontario (Rice Lake Plains)
□
Her writing have become critical for restoration
□
Catherin Parr Trail (early 1800s)
!
Few dissenting voices:
•
Proximity leads to disdain1.
As cities grew, so did the interest in the wilderness
•
Reaction against the 'de-humanizing' effects of the industrial
revolution and urban living
•
Shifts in thinking
•
Ecotourism
•
The birth of the natural sciences -nature as a living laboratory !
•
Ex. Rafinesque, David Douglas, Thomas Nutall
•
Natural history: a demonstration of Darwinian evolution
•
It began in the cities2.
The beauty and perfection of nature reflected some higher
spiritual truth
•
Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman
•
Turned early puritanical views (development is bad; nature is
good)
•
Massive resurgence of interest in 1960s and 1970s
•
The presence of wilderness nearby became important, and the
destruction of wilderness some how meant destroying our
connection with the divine
•
Transcendentalism3.
Audubon
•
Was the first to conceive the idea of a government-created
park
!
George Catlin (1830s)
•
First calls for preservation4.
Yellowstone -1872
•
Banff National Park 1883
•
Adirondack Hills 1885
•
Prevent rampant development (Niagara Falls)
!
Protect drinking water
!
The weird and unusual (geysers)
!
A place for health and refreshment
!
Motives:
•
Industry and Commerce still critical (Algonquin Park)
•
The First Parks5.
No national vision for preservation, no valuing wilderness for
its own sake
•
Coincides with the final push -nothing left to "conquer" (late
1800s)
•
A period of incredible transformation -North Americans had
come to define themselves as different from the Old World:
tougher, hewn by the challenges of the pioneer life
•
Yet that life was gone -Teddy Roosevelt
•
Conflict: preservation as things became scarce vs. development
as things became scarce
•
John Muir and the Sierra Club6.
First head of the US forest service
•
"Resource conservation ethic" -the term conservation differed
wildly from 'preservation'
•
1st Principle: meet current needs without compromising needs of
future generations -sustainable development
•
2nd Principle: use resources efficiently (no waste)
•
US forest service 1905 (193 million acre lots)
!
Created a vast network of national forests and grasslands
•
Protected yet opened to all forms of use = multiuse philosophy
•
Gifford Pinchot7.
"Evolutionary-ecological land ethic"
•
Coincided with the emergence of evolution and ecology as
major fields of scientific research
•
"A Sand County Almanac" (1949)
•
Pushed for scientific principles to land management
•
The land is more than a collection of goods to be exploited
•
Human as part of the ecological community
•
Aldo Leopold8.
Power of the federal government in conservation increases =
national polices
•
Restrictive regulations on hunting, fishing and resource
extraction (bag limits)
•
1916 Migratory Bird Treaty with the US
•
1930 Canada Parks Act
•
1964 Wilderness bill in the US (9/190 million acres converted
to "wilderness")
•
Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
!
The Population Bomb (Paul Ehrlich)
!
Future Shock (Alvin Toeffler)
!
1960/70s: growing concerns about our future
•
The first Earth day (1970)
•
US Endangered Species Act (1973)
•
Outward Bound
•
The wilderness 'industry' (nalgene and kevlar)
•
Transformation towards today9.
Scientists aware of the biodiversity problem but no forum
existed for changing ideas
•
1978: Soule organizes the first CB conference
•
SCB now has over 10,000 members
!
SCB 1985: Soule, Ehrlich and Jared Diamond
•
Earth Summit (Rio 1992) -Biological Diversity
•
1997: Kyoto Protocol -Greenhouse Gases
•
Society for Conservation Biology10.
Population: 7-8 billion
•
Increasing resource scarcity, leading to extraction methods
previously deemed too costly (fracking, oil sands)
•
Climate change and food supply
•
Conservation as an 'affluent luxury'?
•
Widening economic disparity locally/globally
•
'Conservation' increasingly less about 'parks and protected areas'
(a good thing??)
•
Park visitation is dropping
•
Now and the Future11.
A Brief History of Conservation in North America:
Introduction to Conservation Biology
Monday,*January* 9,*2017 10:15*AM
Document Summary
Extinctions, altered functioning of ecosystems, reduced availability of resources, soil erosion. Humans "may" have been responsible for mega-fauna extinctions in the. Americas shortly after human colonization from asia ~11,000 years ago. Aristotle (382-334 bc) commented on the widespread destruction of forests in the baltic region. Barren landscapes of turkey, syria, iraq and iran are unnatural deserts that resulted from mass exploitation of fragile woodlands. Deforestation of europe by the early 18th century, forest areas maintained as private game management and royal preserves. In great britain, many forests were gone by 12th century. Southeastern ontario was largely deforested between 1800-1900 (trend has been reversing since wwii) A gradual landscape change results in profound transformations. Half of hawaii"s native birds went extinct soon after polynesians arrived. Half of the remaining species of birds went extinct after captain. We consume a large fraction of the planets resources.
