Conservation Biology: balance and perspectives.

Full article

Published:

Volume 46(2), December 1999. Pages 239-248.

Language:

Spanish

Original title:

Biología de la Conservación: balance y perspectivas.

Keywords:

biodiversity, Conservation Biology, evolutionary processes, Ornithology, population management, scientific method.

Abstract:

Conservation Biology was born twenty years ago to prevent the world-wide depletion of biodiversity (Table 1). The multidisciplinary approach that inspired this science assumes that biodiversity is composed by genes, species and ecosystems and that its main role is to diagnose and prevent the factors that are depleting diversity at these biological levels. There are two new issues in this discipline that have improved the traditional conservation concern of Biology in general and Ornithology in particular. The first one is the incorporation of evolutionary issues into conservation, i.e., the claim that the protection of evolutionary processes is a basic tool for developing management strategies. In this way, the avoidance of intra and interspecific hybridisation, inbreeding or loss of genetic diversity in small populations have become popular issues in conservation, a fact that in turn has improved a focus on populations as the proper management units. This has also produced the incorporation of scientists and of methods which have been usually outside the field of conservation (population genetics, molecular methods, etc. The second issue refers to the increasing role of scientists in the conservation arena because of the usefulness of scientific method as a way of knowing the causes of population declines (Table 2). A balance of the last two decades of Conservation Biology shows, however, pros and cons. The pros refer to the conceptual and methodological consolidation of this new discipline, as well as the increasing interest of the scientific community in conservation issues. The cons refer to the still limited usefulness of evolutionary approaches in conservation issues, given that their main effects will occur in extremely depleted populations. This is the reason why special concern must be put in the early preservation of populations and habitats. There are also other problems related to the limited scope of many studies in this field (Table 3), which restrain the development of this discipline, and the problems related to the incorporation of scientific approaches in gubernamental or non-gubernamental conservation agencies.