My colleague at the Museum of Natural History, Anthony Schultz, was the lead author of this commentary piece, which summarizes discussions we have all been having at the museum.
Biodiversity conservation needs a more ecological context and transformational concept
- Halting biodiversity loss is one of the great challenges of the 21st century, and if we want international conservation policies that work, we need to urgently re-evaluate how we think ecosystems work, argue the authors of this op-ed.
- We can do so by measuring some core processes of the many unique ecosystems, by employing factors like proxy measuments and analyzing the local ecological and environmental processes taking place in an ecosystem.
- Nations must move away from simplistic policy based on a desire for general rules and instead embrace the complexity of their ecosystems, with the help of researchers and scientists. “Only by protecting this complexity can we protect our diversity into a changing future.”
Biodiversity conservation needs a more ecological context and transformational concept (commentary)