The Nature Conservancy Science’s Post

Centering accessibility, increasing capacity, and fostering innovation in the development of international eDNA standards

Opportunity! Future Generations alumni or partners looking for mountain research funding are invited to explore Mountain Research Initiative's diverse funding opportunities tailored for collaborative & transdisciplinary research, biodiversity, sustainable development, and more in #OurChangingMountains 🌎🌿⛰️ These funding opportunities may help those in the Future Generations Global Network scale-up successes from local to regional, national, and global community change. Explore ➡️ https://loom.ly/hCgrU7I

Harnessing Collective Intelligence for Complex Environmental Challenges 🧑🏫 We are thrilled to share the latest presentation by Hybrid Intelligence World Expert, Professor Steven Gray. Dr. Steven Gray is a Professor in the Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. His research focuses on #socioenvironmental #modeling and understanding how #individuals and #groups decide about complex #socialecological #systems. In this talk at the Gund Institute for Environment, Professor Steven Gray, explores how #collectiveintelligence can be applied to pressing environmental issues, specifically focusing on #fisheries #management. Through three #casestudies, he shows how #technology tools can facilitate #decisionmaking and develop #sustainable #solutions: 🔷 Rapid Model Development: Efficiently build and refine complex models with the collective input of diverse experts. 🔷Enhanced Model Validity: Improving model accuracy and reliability through collaborative knowledge sharing and validation. 🔷Informed Decision-Making: Empowering stakeholders to participate in decision-making processes and develop sustainable solutions. Professor Gray presents compelling cases for the application of collective intelligence in advancing our knowledge of complex #environmental #systems and fostering #sustainable #practices. https://lnkd.in/eTJ8AC2s

A Systems Approach Towards a (More) Sustainable Future: An Invitation to Academia Please invest two hours of your time listening to this inspiring presentation from Nate Hagens. He is one of the few I am aware of who is able to put together all the pieces of the complex puzzle of economy, ecology, energy, psychology - and to describe our human predicament as well as pointing towards responses. I am grateful 🙏 that I had the opportunity to learn from him in recent years, although I never met him personally so far. https://lnkd.in/eEG7CvHc

Conservation works and needs more scale. "Conservation interventions are working but there are simply not enough conservation actions implemented or in the right places. [...] require substantially scaled-up funding and commitment for implementation of demonstrably effective conservation interventions—a real transformational change—which in turn depends on increased political will and investment." Science: The positive impact of conservation action https://lnkd.in/eXzF3uuT

If you want to know yet more about the often complicated and divergent understandings of what nature means for different people, check also the following publication in collaboration with Jean Hugé and Jeffrey McNeill : https://lnkd.in/e37FkH4m

🌍Harmony in Conservation 👉https://lnkd.in/gGaQa3TG Keywords: #harmony; hubris; ecocentrism; anthropocentrism; #conservation; impact of theory; cooperation; #indigenous harmony; ecotopia of harmony 🧐Abstract: Many authors have noted the role that anthropocentrism has played in creating humanity’s dysfunctional relationship with the natural world. As human hubris (excessive pride or self-confidence) is an ailment that contributes to the anthropogenic sixth mass extinction of Earth’s biodiversity, we argue instead for ‘harmony with nature’. In recent decades, even the conservation discourse has become increasingly anthropocentric. Indeed, justification for nature conservation has in part shifted from nature’s intrinsic value to ‘ecosystem services’ for the benefit of people. Here we call for a transformation to a more harmonious human-nature relationship that is grounded in mutual respect and principled responsibility, instead of utilitarianism and enlightened self-interest. Far from what Tennyson called ‘red in tooth and claw’, we argue nature is a mixture of cooperation as well as competition. We argue that the UN’s ‘Harmony with Nature’ program is an innovative and refreshing path for change. If we are to achieve harmony with nature, modern industrial society will need to abandon its anthropocentric ‘human supremacy’ mindset and adopt an ecocentric worldview and ecological ethics. We conclude it is thus both appropriate (and essential) for conservationists to champion harmony with nature.

Personally, I would agree with almost every key element in this inspiring and thought-provoking paper from Haydn Washington et al. on a Concrete Ecotopia of Harmony. It is a timely reminder of how nature is not just a tool, or a means towards a human-centered end, and how the narrow view of nature as service-provider may well be a root cause of our dysfunctional relationship with the natural world. An anthropocentric worldview enables the economic perspective of nature as just another asset, as commodifiable and therefore marketable, and may well subvert conservation decision-making to serving only humanity while putting the intrinsic value of nonhuman life and biodiversity on the backburner or even render it obsolete. It is time for a qualitative shift in human-nature relations, embracing nature’s intrinsic value, not just its benefits to us. Key to this transformation is moving from an anthropocentric view, which places humans above nature, to an ecocentric perspective that recognizes humans as part of nature. This shift indeed calls for an ethic of care, respect, and attentiveness in all our interactions with our non-human kin with whom we share this world.

I'm attending the Ecosystem Services Partnership Conference, with the theme "One Planet, One Health" and picking up some valuable insights! Today I had the opportunity to give a presentation on relational values of nature and how this notion may contribute to conservation decision-making and practice. Key takeaways: - Relational values of nature are a third axiological category, distinguishable from instrumental and intrinsic values. - Relational values can also be seen as part of an epistemological reframing of nature valuation that seeks to widen the scope for a better understanding of the different ways nature is significant to people. In the end, this meaning is about being more socially inclusive in conservation decision-making processes. - Relational values represent a two-way reciprocal relationship with nature. Such conceptualisation underscores how relational values are also about a sense of responsibility, care and respect for the sake of the wellbeing of the other party in the relationship, in this case nature and nonhuman life. This is about the inclusion of nonhuman nature and about how to move beyond the different ways in which nature contributes to 'our' wellbeing. - I explained how Rights of Nature legislation in New Zealand underscored the need for awareness about how relational values and ‘rights for nature’ are conceptualised and applied. The key takeaway here is that the conceptualisation of relational values in terms of furthering social justice is better not summarily equated with ecological justice, which is concerned with other species independent of their instrumental value for humans. - The bottom line is that conservationists should dare venture into ethics when dealing with conservation planning and policy. In emphasising the intrinsic side of a meaningful relationship with nature, relational values may provide a potential language that helps in this. It could extend our interests in not only what nature contributes to people but also in what our obligations towards nature are. If you want to know more about this, check out the following publication in the Journal for Nature Conservation: https://lnkd.in/eUd_X6Dp

Existing power imbalances and injustices could be exacerbated by large flows of international funding for nature recovery. Find out why now is the time for conservationists to stand up for social justice in this new paper by E. J. Milner-Gulland: https://lnkd.in/gCk-mCyM UN Biodiversity Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science #TransformativePathways #BiodiversityPlan #GBF #LocalBiodiversityOutlooks