Yesterday and today (Tuesday, Nov. 18) I have had the pleasure of being in Washington DC with several members of our newly formed International Boreal Conservation Science Panel. The 14-member panel includes scientists from wide-ranging disciplines including conservation biology, ethnobotany, aquatic ecology, climate science, caribou biology, geology, ornithology, and others. The all-volunteer group which includes familiar names like Stuart Pimm, David Schindler, Terry Root, Peter Raven, Nancy Turner, and Andrew Weaver is embarking on a mission to bringing the best science forward to change the way the world thinks about conservation.
What are the basics of their vision?
Recognize the Global Significance of the Last of the Large
The earth's ecosystems are the root of sustainable economies and healthy families. Conservation science must broaden our thinking to plan for maintaining not only areas of high species diversity but also crucial values like clean air and water, abundant wildlife populations, and the ability to counter and buffer against global warming.
The World Must Set Much Higher Conservation Goals
With recognition of the need to consider a broader range of conservation values, new science has demonstrated that past benchmarks for how much habitat needs to be protected must be greatly increased. Unless we go well above the old standard of protecting 10% of an area we will lose much more than most people have every realized. In the Boreal there has been great consensus among scientists that at least 50% of the area needs to be protected.
Jeremy Kerr and Stuart Pimm from our panel, Steve Kallick from the Pew Environment Group and I with assistance from Lisa McCrummen and Dina Roberts have just completed a worldwind of meetings with reporters at Reuters, Washington Post, Science, Nature, National Public Radio, Climate Wire, and Environmental Science and Technology. Tonight after a train ride from Washington we find ourselves in uptown Manhattan ready for a good night's rest before doing it again tomorrow here in New York City.
