Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean

Interdisciplinary Science in Support of Nature and People

Phillip S. Levin, Melissa R. Poe

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780128053751
• eBook ISBN: 9780128092989
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology & Healthcare Industry

Conservation for the Anthropocene Ocean: Interdisciplinary Science in Support of Nature and People emphasizes strategies to better connect the practice of marine conservation with the needs and priorities of a growing global human population. It conceptualizes nature and people as part of shared ecosystems, with interdisciplinary methodologies and science-based applications for coupled sustainability.A central challenge facing conservation is the development of practical means for addressing the interconnectedness of ecosystem health and human well-being, advancing the fundamental interdisciplinary science that underlies conservation practice, and implementing this science in decisions to manage, preserve, and restore ocean ecosystems.Though humans have intentionally and unintentionally reshaped their environments for thousands of years, the scale and scope of human influence upon the oceans in the Anthropocene is unprecedented. Ocean science has increased our knowledge of the threats and impacts to ecological integrity, yet the unique scale and scope of changes increases uncertainty about responses of dynamic socio-ecological systems. Thus, to understand and protect the biodiversity of the ocean and ameliorate the negative impacts of ocean change on people, it is critical to understand human beliefs, values, behaviors, and impacts. Conversely, on a human-dominated planet, it is impossible to understand and address human well-being and chart a course for sustainable use of the oceans without understanding the implications of environmental change for human societies that depend on marine ecosystems and resources.This work therefore presents a timely, needed, and interdisciplinary approach to the conservation of our oceans.- Helps marine conservation scientists apply principles from oceanography, ecology, anthropology, economics, political science, and other natural and social sciences to manage and preserve marine biodiversity- Facilitates understanding of how and why social and environmental processes are coupled in the quest to achieve healthy and sustainable oceans- Uses a combination of expository material, practical approaches, and forward-looking theoretical discussions to enhance value for readers as they consider conservation research, management and planning

Section II

Principles for Conservation in the Anthropocene

Outline

Chapter 6. Principles for Interdisciplinary Conservation

Chapter 7. Creating Space for Community in Marine Conservation and Management: Mapping “Communities-at-Sea”

Chapter 8. Conservation Actions at Global and Local Scales in Marine Social–Ecological Systems: Status, Gaps, and Ways Forward

Chapter 9. Ocean Cultures: Northwest Coast Ecosystems and Indigenous Management Systems

Chapter 10. Blurred Lines: What’s a Non-native Species in the Anthropocene Ocean?

Chapter 11. Can Ecosystem Services Make Conservation Normal and Commonplace?

Chapter 12. Beyond Privatization: Rethinking Fisheries Stewardship and Conservation in the North Pacific

Chapter 13. Addressing Socioecological Tipping Points and Safe Operating Spaces in the Anthropocene

Chapter 6

Principles for Interdisciplinary Conservation

Heather M. Leslie University of Maine, Walpole, ME, United States

Abstract

In this chapter, I reflect on the core principles that guide my engagement in interdisciplinary conservation science and practice. These include attention and openness when defining the coupled natural and human systems of interest; commitment to doing useful, solutions-oriented scholarship; mindful engagement with collaborators; and humility. In 20 years, I anticipate that we will be hard pressed to find many examples of robust conservation science that are not interdisciplinary. There will still be a variety of ways that conservation scientists contribute to policy and management, just as there will always be a need to push the bounds of fundamental knowledge as well as to link knowledge to action. I anticipate that the field of conservation science will continue to develop rapidly and productively, enabling meaningful scientific contributions that help sustain both nature and people.

Keywords

Anthropocene; Conservation science and practice; Interdisciplinary; Marine; Social–ecological systems; Sustainability science

I have been intrigued by people’s connections to nature for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, just 15 minutes from the town beach. This narrow barrier beach protects the harbor, and what remains of Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims are said to have landed in 1620. At its 3-mile tip, deep bare swales and grass-covered dunes shelter nesting gulls and terns in the summertime. Striped bass, bluefish, and other predatory fish swim over the banks just offshore, as do silversides and other small fish that terns feed their young.

People are drawn to this beach as well. More than a dozen houses dot its spine and in the summertime, beachgoers crowd its shores. People are allowed to drive on the beach itself, not just on the road that bisects the narrow peninsula. When I was a girl, my mom would drive my brother, sister, and me more than two miles out the beach’s spine. In between the long, hot, jostling rides in the back of my dad’s jeep, we would spend the day covered in sand and salt, peering in tide pools, and splashing in the cold water.

As a college student, I left my car behind and walked this same beach, counting terns, plovers, and other migratory beach birds for a statewide conservation organization. My favorite days on the job were those when I was out at the tip of the peninsula before the sun rose. I enjoyed the quiet and deliberate search for the young plover chicks, who were much more likely to be active at dawn than during the bustle and heat of midday. But many days, I walked the beach later, when the sun was overhead and the high tide line was covered by a row of cars and trucks like my dad’s jeep.

While far from meditative, these hotter workdays were a challenge I enjoyed. My job was still to count birds, but I now had an opportunity to show them to others. Most people had come for the view, the water, and the chance to let their kids run free. Many had never seen young plovers. Some did not care to or were downright hostile (I saw more than one bumper sticker proclaiming “Piping Plover Tastes Like Chicken”), but most were curious about the diminutive birds and pleased to catch a look at them through my spotting scope.

The people I played next to on Plymouth Beach as a little girl, and later spoke with as a young biologist, were from many different walks of life. They had different ways of knowing the place that I loved, and different reasons why it was important to them. I sought to make sense of their passions and to more deeply understand their origins and what they meant for the future of the beach and the birds. I did not know it then, but in my first foray as a conservation scientist, I was seeking an interdisciplinary approach to the connections I observed among people and nature on Plymouth Beach.

What Makes Conservation Interdisciplinary?

When conservation science emerged in the 1980s, the field focused on biology and allied disciplines, in order to understand how and why species and ecosystems were changing (Kareiva and Marvier, 2012). Today, the scope of the field has broadened. Conservation scientists are interested in a wide array of connections between people and nature, i.e., socio-ecological systems (see Fig. 6.1, from Mace, 2014).

Figure 6.1 The framing of conservation—and the science that supports it—has evolved in the last 50 years. Note that none of the framings have been discarded, and thus contemporary conservation includes multiple framings. Reprinted with permission from Mace, G., 2014. Whose conservation? Science 345, 1558–1560.

Table 6.1

Principles of Engagement for Conservation Science and Practice

1. Attention and openness when defining the coupled natural and human systems of interest. That is, a willingness to do interdisciplinary scholarship;

2. Commitment to useful, solutions-oriented scholarship;

3. Mindful engagement with collaborators, including community members; and

4. Humility.

As the chapters in this section aptly illustrate, the science and practice of conservation leverages knowledge and approaches from both the biophysical sciences and social sciences. Some of these chapters were motivated primarily by approaches from ecology and evolution, whereas others were written by individuals with depth in anthropology, human geography, and other social science disciplines. Together they create a rich understanding of social–ecological systems (which are also referred to as coupled human–natural systems or socio-environmental systems or human–environment systems). This understanding is deeper than one discipline could possibly provide.

A program officer at a foundation that has been deeply engaged in conservation science once made a comment to me that really stuck. We were discussing how best to craft an investigation of ecosystem-based management in practice, a topic I will explore further later in this chapter. He cautioned me (and I am paraphrasing): We are only interested in interdisciplinary work, if that is what is needed to address the challenge before us. Interdisciplinarity for its own sake is not the goal.

This is an important point. We can learn so much about the world through both disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship. The question before us is—at least those of us who seek to translate our science into action—what approaches are needed to help craft durable solutions to the marine conservation challenges we face? That brings me to Principle #1: I pay explicit attention when defining the coupled natural and human systems of interest, with the intention that the research will be both intellectually exciting and societally relevant (see Table 6.1). Thus the scales of both ecological and social dynamics—and particularly how people make decisions about the use and stewardship of ocean resources—guide much of my work. I find that more often than not that this approach to defining my study system compels me to do interdisciplinary scholarship.

Linking Knowledge to Action

Like many conservation scientists trained in the 1980s and 1990s, my training is in biology. After post baccalaureate field biology and conservation experiences in Maine, Massachusetts, and Mexico, I pursued a PhD in ecology and conservation biology at Oregon State University. I went on to do a postdoc at Princeton University. Over the last 20 years, I have applied my ecological training to contribute to conservat...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• The Name of Science
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I. Setting the Stage
• Section II. Principles for Conservation in the Anthropocene
• Section III. Conservation in the Anthropocene in Practice
• Section IV. Looking Forward
• Index