Biodiversity
conservation depends on scale: lessons from the science–policy dialogue
PRESS RELEASE - 30.08.2012
Summary
A paper published in the open access journal Nature Conservation examines
the mismatches between the scales at
which ecological processes take place and the levels at which policy decisions
and management interventions are made. Various
societal actors involved in the process, such as
policy makers, land use planners, members of NGOs, and researchers may themselves be operating at various scales, which create additional
complications in knowledge transfer between conservation scientists and
practitioners.
Text
The year 2010 marked the deadline for the
political targets to significantly reduce and halt biodiversity loss. The failure to achieve the
2010 goal stimulated the setting up
of new targets for 2020. In addition, preventing the degradation of
ecosystems and their services has been incorporated in several global and the EU agendas
for
2020. To successful meet these
challenging targets requires a
critical review of the existing and emerging
biodiversity policies to improve their design and implementation, say a team scientists in a paper published in the open access journal Nature
Conservation.
These and other questions of
increasing the “scale-awareness” of policy makers have been actively discussed at a special SCALES symposium at the 3rd
European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB) in Glasgow on 28th-31st
of August 2012. The lead author Dr Riikka Paloniemi from the Environmental Policy
Centre, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), in Helsinki ,
Finland
“The question of scale
has never been so acute before. Neglecting the spatial and temporal scale at which ecosystems functions
when designing conservation measures may lead to long-standing negative consequences,
and the failure of the 2010 target is one of the best examples of that” added Dr
Klaus Henle from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
- UFZ in Leipzig, Germany and coordinator of SCALES.
The main conclusion of
the scientists is that scale-related problems, and their potential
solutions, are all about improving
our understanding of complexity of the processes.
Dealing with a number of different scales and scale-mismatches in biodiversity conservation is
challenging; it requires an analytical and political framework that is able to assess the adverse impacts of global change, and
to implement the relevant policies at the relevant scale.
Multimedia
1.
Logo
of SCALES project
2.
Cover
of the Nature Conservation
Original source
Paloniemi R, Apostolopoulou E, Primmer E,
Grodzinska-Jurcak M, Henle K, Ring I, Kettunen M, Tzanopoulos J, Potts S, van
den Hove S, Marty P, McConville A, Simila J (2012) Biodiversity conservation
across scales: lessons from a science–policy dialogue. Nature Conservation 2:
7-19. doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.2.3144
Contact
Dr
Riikka Paloniemi
Environmental
Policy Centre, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki , Finland
Dr. Klaus
Henle
Tel. +49-151-122 00472
Additional information
SCALES (2009–2014) stands for
“Securing the Conservation of
biodiversity across Administrative Levels
and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales” and is a European research
project. Financed by the 7th EU framework programme for research and
development (FP7), SCALES seeks ways to better integrate the issue of scale
into policy and decision-making and biodiversity management in the EU. For more
information please see: www.scales-project.net
1 comment:
thanks.
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