Renewal ecology: conservation for the Anthropocene |
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| Authors: | David M. J. S. Bowman Stephen T. Garnett Snow Barlow Sarah A. Bekessy Sean M. Bellairs Melanie J. Bishop Ross A. Bradstock Darryl N. Jones Sean L. Maxwell Jamie Pittock Maria V. Toral‐Granda James E. M. Watson Tom Wilson Kerstin K. Zander Lesley Hughes |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia;2. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Northern Territory, Australia;3. Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia;4. Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Research Group, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia;5. Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia;6. Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia;7. Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia;8. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia;9. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia;10. Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program, Bronx, NY, U.S.A.;11. Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Northern Territory, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The global scale and rapidity of environmental change is challenging ecologists to reimagine their theoretical principles and management practices. Increasingly, historical ecological conditions are inadequate targets for restoration ecology, geographically circumscribed nature reserves are incapable of protecting all biodiversity, and the precautionary principle applied to management interventions no longer ensures avoidance of ecological harm. In addition, human responses to global environmental changes, such as migration, building of protective infrastructures, and land use change, are having their own negative environmental impacts. We use examples from wildlands, urban, and degraded environments, as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems, to show that human adaptation responses to rapid ecological change can be explicitly designed to benefit biodiversity. This approach, which we call “renewal ecology,” is based on acceptance that environmental change will have transformative effects on coupled human and natural systems and recognizes the need to harmonize biodiversity with human infrastructure, for the benefit of both. |
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| Keywords: | biodiversity climate environmental change innovation opportunity social‐ecological systems |
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