The past and future of basic ecology in conservation practice

Background/Question/Methods: The founding president of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), Victor Shelford, was an avid conservationist. In 1946, Shelford’s committee set off on its own as the Ecologists Union, which eventually morphed into The Nature Conservancy (TNC).  From its start as a small US land trust, TNC has grown into the world’s largest conservation organization and proclaims itself to be science-based. This concluding talk will offer concrete examples illustrating how basic ecology has shaped conservation at The Nature Conservancy over its 64 year history and, in turn, how The Nature Conservancy continues to partner with and support ecological science.

Results/Conclusions: Conservation at TNC initially relied upon distributional data for rare species and ecological communities to systematically target lands for conservation. This innovation later evolved into a more rigorous approach that contained elements of systematic conservation planning, strategic planning and monitoring and evaluation. The next scientific transition was a move to landscape-scale projects, motivated by ideas from landscape ecology. Concepts and methods from ecosystem ecology informed the next major transition at TNC to consider not just the biotic communities but also the ecosystem services and the material risk to people posed by ecosystem deterioration.

 Currently conservation practice is hindered by an absence of basic ecology that yields practical guidance on thresholds which could inform decisions about the amount of landscape one could allow to support windfarms, or solar panels, or mining without crossing some tipping point.  A second gap in theory concerns guidance on basic metrics for what defines sustainability in a way that could inform business practices and socially responsible investing.