Conservation Biology from the Perspective of Natural Resource Management Disciplines

Abstract

Although natural resource management encompasses a wide range of disciplines, those with the closest ties to conservation biology are the renewable resources: forestry, fisheries management, range management, and especially wildlife management. How do practitioners in these disciplines view conservation biology? Some describe conservation biology as being entirely different from their disciplines because it seems more focused on protection of selected species or ecosystems than on management of populations and habitats-the hallmark of the natural resource disciplines. Others insist conservation biology is the same as wildlife management. In our view the truth lies somewhere between these two perspectives.We base our view on >75 years of combined experience in the ecological sciences and the professional disciplines of wildlife, rangeland, and forest management. We remember well when the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) was formed to advance the science, practice, and goals of conserving biological diversity. We were among the first members and have watched as the group matured into a full-fledged society with a membership and publications that are international in scope and reach.The field of conservation biology arose from the milieu of complex issues involving land, natural resources, and the future of the Earth's biological diversity, as did natural resource disciplines. These shared origins mean conservation biology has much in common with the natural resource disciplines. Yet conservation biology now fills a distinct niche that plays a complementary role in the larger realm of applied biological sciences and conservation practice. Natural Resource Disciplines' Contribution to Conservation BiologyIn a word, natural resource disciplines have contributed the origins of conservation biology. The evolving needs of natural resource professionals provided the impetus and building materials for conservation biology to emerge from the disciplines involved in the management, conservation, and preservation of populations and ecosystems. Natural resource disciplines (through various and everevolving interests and responsibilities) continue to have significant influence on the development and evolution of conservation biology.Conservation biology emerged at a time of rapid change in the natural resource disciplines. Before the 1980s many aspects of natural resources management reflected a sustained-yield paradigm in which management of forests, prairies, and other lands was driven mainly by their capability to yield desired products and uses. Management was largely about discovering the factors that limited production of a desired resource and removing those limitations through active intervention. Relationships among the different resources were regarded as trade-offs among the multiple uses, and measures to minimize the environmental effects of these multiple uses often were regarded as constraints on production.Managers of natural resources found that traditional, sustained-yield approaches to management could n...

When local isn't best

“…However, when an ecosystem state change has occurred or future environmental conditions are expected to move outside the historic range of variability (Szabό 2010), such an approach may be less tractable (Choi 2004(Choi , 2007Jackson and Hobbs 2009). Under such circumstances, Kessler and Thomas (2006) suggested managing for ecosystem resilience. Because changing climates may alter population dynamics, geographic ranges, and community and ecosystem structure and function, it is conceivable that recent immigrants may be pre-adapted by chance and even fare better than longer-term residents (Walther et al 2009).…”

Full Issue Article Volume 33, Issue 9

“…This distinction may be increasingly related to changes in core values and philosophy (Kessler and Thomas 2006). For example, calculating harvest of natural resources is a secondary consideration (if it is considered at all) for conservation biologists, yet exploitation, viewed as recreational and commercial catch rates, is a fundamental aspect of traditional fisheries conservation.…”

Spatially explicit decision support for selecting translocation areas for Mojave desert tortoises

“…The process, methods, and tools of the decision support system technologies used in this research integrated key concepts in conservation biology and natural resource management (Kessler and Thomas 2006) and ultimately led to its successful implementation. First, we drew from a wide array of scientiWc expertise and management perspectives.…”