After applying the dilemma illustrated in Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" to open-access fisheries, which face overfishing, the idea of conservation cartels is discussed. While they have been successful, these cartels are held as uniformly per se illegal arrangements under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Private property is seen as a potential solution, with such regimes manifesting in the form of collective or "common property" rights. However, despite the benefits of such a regime, the most common approach to fishery conservation is government regulation. It is argued that such regulation does little to fend off the tragedy of the commons. Antitrust litigation against marine conservation cartels inhibits the development of nongovernmental cooperative management structures that can address fishery problems. Further, the anticompetitive nature of these cartels does not preclude their working in the interest of the common good.
Species threatened with extinction are the focus of mounting conservation concerns throughout the world. Thirty-seven years after passage of the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973, we conclude that the Act's underlying assumption—that once the recovery goals for a species are met it will no longer require continuing management—is false. Even when management actions succeed in achieving biological recovery goals, maintenance of viable populations of many species will require continuing, species-specific intervention. Such species are "conservation reliant." To assess the scope of this problem, we reviewed all recovery plans for species listed as endangered or threatened under the Act. Our analysis indicates that 84% of the species listed under the Act are conservation reliant. These species will require continuing, long-term management investments. If these listed species are representative of the larger number of species thought to be imperiled in the United States and elsewhere, the challenge facing conservation managers will be logistically, economically, and politically overwhelming. Conservation policies will need to be adapted to include ways of prioritizing actions, implementing innovative management approaches, and involving a broader spectrum of society.
Found throughout the tree of life and in every ecosystem, parasites are some of the most diverse, ecologically important animals on Earth-but in almost all cases, the least protected by wildlife or ecosystem conservation efforts. For decades, ecologists have been calling for research to understand parasites' important ecological role, and increasingly, to protect as many species from extinction as possible. However, most conservationists still work within priority systems for funding and effort that exclude or ignore parasites, or treat parasites as an obstacle to be overcome. Our working group identified 12 goals for the next decade that could advance parasite biodiversity conservation through an ambitious mix of research, advocacy, and management. ; Ecological Society of America; Georgetown Environment Initiative; Smithsonian National Museum of Natural HistorySmithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian National Museum of Natural History; Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [OCE-1829509]; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Sloan Research FellowshipAlfred P. Sloan Foundation; University of Washington Innovation Award; University of Washington Royalty Research Fund awardUniversity of Washington ; The authors kindly thank the Ecological Society of America for supporting our workshop, as well as additional participants Kevin Burgio, Tad Dallas, and Roger Jovani; Laura Whitehouse, for her graphic design work on Fig. 1; Jonathan Wojcik for allowing the inclusion of his copyright Diplozoon illustration in Fig. 3; and dozens of collaborators and friends who have been part of the foundational work on parasite conservation, including Anna Phillips, Veronica Bueno, Carrie Cizauskas, Christopher Clements, Graeme Cumming, Eric Dougherty, Kevin Johnson, Wayne Getz, Nyeema Harris, Elizabeth Nichols, Sergey Mironov, Robert Poulin, and Heather Proctor. CJC gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Georgetown Environment Initiative, and research support from Anna Phillips and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. KCB was supported by a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. CLW was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (OCE-1829509), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Sloan Research Fellowship, a University of Washington Innovation Award, and a University of Washington Royalty Research Fund award. Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. ; Public domain authored by a U.S. government employee
Abstract: Developing countries have become the primary proponents of integrative conservation—conservation that relies on the enhanced participation of local people to achieve the sustainable management of natural resources. The case studies of Zimbabwe and Costa Rica support the idea that integrative conservation allows governments to gain greater political influence while sucessfully administering conservation. Both cases suggest that local people demand greater access to natural resources to bolster their livelihoods and their autonomy. Governments, in turn, acquiesce to these demands because relinquishing control of resources to the local level confers the benefit of a wider and more positive political influence in marginal areas. Integrative conservation emerged in these two countries because it served both the interests of local people and those of the governing bodies.
Since the 1800s, America has been known for its massive conservation projects–setting aside huge swaths of land in public parks and passing legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Now, new technologies are making a different type of conservation project possible, and conservationists are capturing massive amounts of data to inform conservation efforts through community involvement. These crowdsourced projects harness knowledge and skills of large groups of people who can contribute to conservation goals. For example, the internet platform Sciestarter connects 100,000 registered citizen scientists plus millions of onsite visitors with over 3,000 individual conservation projects. The global networks facilitated by this technology can connect small scale projects with huge pools of volunteers. The eBird app is another example of crowdsourced science. Birdwatchers upload bird type, location, and time of sighting into the app, contributing to a massive database of bird observations from around the world. The crowdsourced data allows scientists to map the distributions and movements of birds, and has been used in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. Sciestarter and eBird are two of many conservation projects relying on crowdsourced science. In this research we examine whether technology-enhanced crowdsourcing has positive impacts on conservation outcomes. To do so, we examined existing literature on citizen science and crowdsourced conservation in addition to exploring key case studies of projects underway. Our initial research suggests crowdsourced science has the potential to foster bottom-up conservation that relies on community engagement for quality data collection. We also find leveraging technology could make citizen science even more potent and more research is needed in this area to realize these outcomes. ; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2020/1027/thumbnail.jpg
"How to restore and maintain the productivity of the soil is the most important phase of the conservation problem. We are no longer a new nation. We have deluded ourselves with the idea that we have unbounded resources in land, in forests, in mineral wealth. We have been prodigal in the utilization of these resources. We must pay the penalty of this prodigality. In many of our older communities soil fertility has been reduced below the point of profitable production. Nation-wide effort at the present time, through federal and state agency, is directed toward the restoration of fertility in these localities. On the prairies of the West fertility is beginning to wane. In order that our heritage in the prairie country may not follow the descent of the East and the South, it is necessary that intelligent and vigorous effort be made to farm correctly. We must cease abusing the soil. The renting of land on short leases for the purpose of growing grain for market is one of the surest means of reducing the productive power of the soil. The domestic animal, with well-managed pastures and rational systems of crop rotation, is preeminently adapted to the development of permanent systems of profitable farming. Landowners must realize this and must take steps to improve renting methods by stocking farms with a full complement of domestic animals, where the renter is not able to do this for himself, and by giving longer leases, whereby the renter may reap the reward of intelligent management."--Introduction (p.5). ; Cover title. ; Disposal of land by the government -- Importance of cheap and abundant food -- Steps in agricultural development -- Difficulties in changing types of farming -- Exploitive farming too long continued -- Decrease in population and abandonment of land in the older states -- The present situation -- Conditions in older countries -- The solution of the problem -- Effect of live stock on soil fertility -- Effect of legumes -- Dependence on our own resources -- Examples of successful farming. ; "How to restore and maintain the productivity of the soil is the most important phase of the conservation problem. We are no longer a new nation. We have deluded ourselves with the idea that we have unbounded resources in land, in forests, in mineral wealth. We have been prodigal in the utilization of these resources. We must pay the penalty of this prodigality. In many of our older communities soil fertility has been reduced below the point of profitable production. Nation-wide effort at the present time, through federal and state agency, is directed toward the restoration of fertility in these localities. On the prairies of the West fertility is beginning to wane. In order that our heritage in the prairie country may not follow the descent of the East and the South, it is necessary that intelligent and vigorous effort be made to farm correctly. We must cease abusing the soil. The renting of land on short leases for the purpose of growing grain for market is one of the surest means of reducing the productive power of the soil. The domestic animal, with well-managed pastures and rational systems of crop rotation, is preeminently adapted to the development of permanent systems of profitable farming. Landowners must realize this and must take steps to improve renting methods by stocking farms with a full complement of domestic animals, where the renter is not able to do this for himself, and by giving longer leases, whereby the renter may reap the reward of intelligent management."--Introduction (p.5). ; Mode of access: Internet.
In this paper I argue that there has been a critical shift towards war by conservation in which conservation, security and counter insurgency (COIN) are becoming more closely integrated. In this new phase concerns about global security constitute important underlying drivers, while biodiversity conservation is of secondary importance. This is a significant break from earlier phases of fortress conservation and war for biodiversity. In order to develop a better understanding of these shifts, this paper analyzes the existing conceptual approaches, notably environmental security analyses which seek to understand how resources cause or shape conflict, and political ecology approaches that focus on the struggles over access to and control over resources. However, this paper indicates the limitations of these existing debates for understanding recent shifts, which require a fresh approach. I chart the rise of the narrative I call poachers-as-terrorists, which relies on the invocation of the idea that ivory is the white gold of Jihad, a phrase which is closely associated with an Elephant Action League (EAL) report in 2012 which claimed Al Shabaab used ivory to fund its operations. This narrative is being extended and deepened by a powerful alliance of states, conservation NGOs, Private Military Companies and international organizations, such that it is shaping policies, especially in areas of US geo-strategic interest in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a result conservation is becoming a core element of a global security project, with significant implications for conceptual debates and for conservation practice on the ground.
