What is conservation? - Synchronicity Earth

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In this article, we seek to explore what conservation really is, trying to keep a balance between, on the one hand, clarity to a non-specialist audience, and on the other hand, not shying away from some of the most difficult and challenging issues.

To help the reader find her/himself around the article, we have the following sections:

Introduction – definitions
What’s in and what’s out? Exploring the debate on what does and does not count as conservation
The ethics of conservation. Why do we want to conserve nature in the first place?
But what exactly do conservationists need to do? What is conservation in practice, on the ground and in the water?
But does conservation actually work? Exploring the evidence for conservation effectiveness.
Synchronicity Earth’s take on some of the issues raised in the article.

Defining conservation

What is conservation? It’s obvious isn’t it? It’s all about saving nature; trying to keep all the beautiful places, species and habitats – in short, the wonders of the natural world – on this Earth.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines conservation as “protection of plants and animals, natural areas”.

One of the earliest attempts within the conservation community to grapple with the meaning of conservation can be found in The World Conservation Strategy published by IUCN in 1980. Here the objectives of conservation are given as follows:

To maintain essential ecological processes and life support systems
To preserve genetic diversity, and
To ensure the sustainable utilization of species and ecosystems

We could go into a long, academic discussion of the different definitions of conservation, but that is not our purpose here. The general, popular understanding of conservation is indeed well understood. And yet there are some problems, particularly in defining what conservation does and does not include.

Image © Hutan

What’s in and what’s out?

Although the term conservation might seem to be well defined, conservationists have struggled over what it does and does not include. Six issues stand out:

1. Sustainable Use. It is possible to use species sustainably over the long term – that is without causing them to disappear or go into a lasting decline. An example of sustainable use would be, for example, a well-managed fishery where the harvest levels are carefully monitored and kept well within sustainable limits so that the fish population remains stable. An example of highly unsustainable use is the current illegal trade in African and Asian pangolin species, all of which are in serious decline. Some species are much easier to use sustainably than others. As a general rule, it is easier to use fast-breeding species than slow-breeding species. Conservationists differ on whether or not conservation includes sustainable use. The World Conservation Strategy included sustainable use as part of conservation, but the Convention on Biological Diversity (the over-arching treaty between governments on nature and conservation) treats conservation and sustainable use as two separate things. Conservationists are probably never going to agree on this point. Some find it easier to include, for example, sustainable harvesting of medicinal plants within conservation than, say, sustainable hunting. When actions are taken to reduce the level of use (for example reducing fishing quotas to sustainable levels), it can be easier to consider that as conservation than, for instance, starting a sustainable use programme for a species that is not currently being used (for example introducing large mammals to private land in South Africa for hunting by tourists). On the other hand, if a programme to use a previously unused species sustainably causes that species to spread and recover (as has happened with large mammals across much of southern Africa), is that conservation? There are huge differences of opinion among conservationists on these sorts of issues.

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2. Sustainable Development. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission, in its report Our Common Future, famously defined sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It is easy to agree that, were economic development to proceed along such lines (and sadly for the most part it does not), that would be much less damaging for species and natural ecosystems than what usually happens. But is sustainable development a form of conservation? Again, opinion is strongly divided. Some would claim that benefitting the wellbeing of people, while obviously a “good thing”, is not conservation. They can point to numerous sustainable development projects around the world that led to no effective conservation of species and ecosystems. However, others would argue that conservation cannot take place outside a social and economic context, and that community engagement and human wellbeing are inextricably linked to effective conservation. These people can also produce evidence to support their case, drawing on many “community-based natural resource management” projects as examples. There is indeed a growing body of evidence that indicates that if a local community benefits from conservation, it is more likely to participate in long-term conservation action. This is probably another issue that will never be entirely resolved. Some forms of economic development are clearly outside the scope of conservation. On the other hand, conservation does sometimes bring livelihood benefits to local communities, for example providing employment, business opportunities, and the like.

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3. Ecological Restoration. Conservation has often been seen as a desperate attempt to hold the line against rapacious development and economic forces. The notion of reversing declining trends of species and habitats, bringing species back to where they once were (reintroduction), or restoring ecosystems, or even whole landscapes (rewilding) has been around for a long time, but has only become a major focus in the last decade or so. At its most ambitious, certain forms of rewilding can be controversial, especially if they involve moving species outside their natural ranges or displacing people from their homes. But as a general rule, conservationists have become more ambitious in recent years, seeing their work as fighting back against the tide, and not merely holding the line. And certainly, given the enormous amount of damage that humans have done to the planet, concepts such a rewilding are sure to grow and be seen as more mainstream.

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4. Animal Welfare. At first sight, it would seem obvious that caring for individual animals is part of conservation. However, most, though not all, conservationists would see animal welfare and conservation as rather different things. Counter-intuitively, practical conservation often involves the death of animals. Even leaving aside the controversial issue of sustainable hunting, the following conservation activities can lead to the killing of animals: removal of invasive species that are wiping out threatened native species; species reintroductions (which almost always involve high mortality rates of animals); control of wildlife diseases; dealing with human-wildlife conflict; predator control to allow other species to recover; and addressing the over-abundance of certain species (for example controlling gull populations so that terns can breed). Most conservationists would see these activities as integral to any definition of conservation, because without them certain species will go extinct; but some in the animal welfare community would disagree. This is another issue on which there will never be 100% agreement.

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5. Captive Breeding. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to save all species in the wild. We have no immediate solutions for some of the threats they face (for example, we don’t currently have the means to cure some new wildlife diseases). As a result, increasing numbers of species are being bred in captivity, typically in zoos, aquaria and botanic gardens, in order to buy time until solutions can be found for the threats in the wild. This is often referred to as ex situ conservation. But some have been opposed to considering captive breeding as part of conservation; some are even opposed to captive breeding itself. This is a minority, but vocal, view in conservation. When all the remaining California Condors were brought into captivity in the 1980s, some activists opposed this and called for the species to be allowed to “go extinct with dignity”. However