How does ecology differ from traditional conservationism

In Alaska and Finland, and in some provinces of Canada, there is a variety of values associated with protecting relatively intact relationships between indigenous people and relatively pristine, vast ecosystems. Wilderness protection can help maintain opportunities to continue traditional relationships with nature.

As cultures continue to evolve in customs, attitudes, knowledge, and technological uses, values associated with both TEK and relationships with relatively pristine ecosystems will also evolve. Evolutionary perspectives in the interaction between people and nature. Integrating biocultural and ecological traits to understand biodiversity use by human populations. Domestication of plants, animals, and landscapes, with relevance to conservation and restoration. We will also open a forum inviting researchers to provide new and provocative ideas and hypotheses integrating ecological and ethnobiological processes.

In this forum, we expect a thought-provoking paper building new theoretical grounds to foster future studies or refuting previous theoretical approaches in one or more subtopics indicated above. Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements.

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The question arises whether they give a precise picture of the dynamics of ecological systems. Recently, a view has emerged stating that in order to see the importance of full-scale biodiversity, we should refer to individuals as basic "atoms" that make up ecological systems. In ecology, we call this an individual-based approach. However, it gives a very complex picture of how ecological systems work.

In ecology, however, there is an alternative way to describe the dynamics of ecological systems, i. It allows the use of traditional difference and differential equations in the formulation of mathematical models, which has proven itself in practical applications many times. This study provides a summary description of the abundant activities of the St.

Francis of Assisi Ecological Movement, which emerged over 30 years ago in the environment of Polish Franciscans and which ever since has been propagating the idea of engaging Christians in environmental protection issues. Simultaneously, conventional concepts of nature and culture, as dichotomous entities, become obsolete. We all inhabit and embody The aim is to unfold a low-trophic theory for the naturecultural research on violence and care within environmental humanities, and to engage a coexistential ethics of environmental adaptability informed by feminist posthumanities.

Ecofeminism in Philosophy of Gender, Race, and Sexuality. Environmental Humanism in Philosophy of Biology. Food Politics in Philosophy of Biology. Vegetarianism in Applied Ethics. As a discipline distinct from ecology, conservation biology emerged in the s as a rigorous science focused on protecting biodiversity. Two algorithmic breakthroughs in information processing made this possible: place-prioritization algorithms and geographical information systems.

They provided defensible, data-driven methods for designing reserves to conserve biodiversity that obviated the need for largely intuitive and highly problematic appeals to ecological theory at the time.

But the scientific basis of these achievements and whether they constitute genuine scientific progress has been criticized. More broadly, the case study reveals significant limitations of the predominant epistemic-semantic conceptions of scientific progress and the considerable merits of pragmatic, practically-oriented accounts.

Scientific Progress in General Philosophy of Science. COVID infects cities, here grasped as quasi-living functioning systems, and the changes inflicted can poetically open us to certain things. Drawing on ecological psychology, we maintain that this brings people into contact with different realities depending on their overall wellbeing, arguing that the aesthetic experience of cities accordingly varies.

We then consider iterations of these ideas in dystopian cinema, which portrays global threats altering human relations with technology, art, and the world. The city is also the site of thriving municipal programs seeking to change food production and consumption outcomes through urban and peri-urban agriculture projects This paper identifies the socio-natures critical for the formation and endurance of these agroecology assemblages.

In particular, we discuss the actors and strategies, discursive renderings of socio-natures, and the marketing of agroecological materialities that form and are formed by these assemblages. We also discuss the power dynamics embedded in sustaining urban and peri-urban agroecological projects through institutional means. This research contributes to literature on agroecology, urban agriculture, and the urban metabolism through providing empirical examples of socio-natural entanglements in urban agroecological assemblages.

Eden In Iraq is an environmental design and water remediation project in the marshes of southern Iraq using design and wastewater as bio-art, to create a restorative garden for education, cultural memory, and contemplation. Earmarked for a 20, m2 site at Al Manar in the marshes between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, near a probable site of the historic Garden of Eden, Eden in Iraq is a project that brings, art, design, and technology together with culture and history. Drawing on Islamic and Mesopotamian traditions originating in this historically and symbolically charged region, the Eden in Iraq Waste Water Garden is designed to be a syncretic container for ecological and cultural restoration and heritage after the time of war.

This paper looks at this project from three inter-related activities, namely, treatment of wastewater suitable for growing a large scale garden, design of the garden starting from the Islamic garden design principles and thirdly, reviving the cultural heritage of the pre-Islamic, Mesopotamian art in contemporary forms.

Graphic abstract. Developmental Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Gene Selection in Philosophy of Biology. Genetics and Molecular Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Philosophy of Biology, Miscellaneous in Philosophy of Biology. Systematic Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Remove from this list Translate. Environmental Philosophy in Philosophy of Biology.

Evolutionary Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Interlevel Relations in Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Causation in Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Explanation in Biology in Philosophy of Biology. History of Biology in Philosophy of Biology. Prediction is an important aspect of scientific practice, because it helps us to confirm theories and effectively intervene on the systems we are investigating.

In ecology, prediction is a controversial topic: even though the number of papers focusing on prediction is constantly increasing, many ecologists believe that the quality of ecological predictions is unacceptably low, in the sense that they are not sufficiently accurate sufficiently often. Moreover, ecologists disagree on how predictions can be improved. For them, more general theories will yield more accurate predictions.

For them, deeper knowledge of the system in question is more important than background theory. The aim of this paper is to provide a philosophical examination of both sides of the debate: as there are strengths and weaknesses in both approaches to prediction, a pluralistic approach is best for the future of predictive ecology.

Prediction in Science in General Philosophy of Science. The traditional philosophy of science approach to prediction leaves little room for appreciating the value and potential of imprecise predictions.

At best, they are considered a stepping stone to more precise predictions, while at worst they are viewed as detracting from the scientific quality of a discipline. The aim of this paper is to show that imprecise predictions are undervalued in philosophy of science.

I review the conceptions of imprecise predictions and the main criticisms levelled against them: i that they I will argue against both criticisms, showing that imprecise predictions have a circumscribed but important and legitimate place in the study of complex, heterogeneous systems. Ecology is indispensable to understanding the biological world and addressing the environmental problems humanity faces.

Its philosophy has never been more important. In this book, James Justus introduces readers to the philosophically rich issues ecology poses. Besides its crucial role in biological science generally, climate change, biodiversity loss, and other looming environmental challenges make ecology's role in understanding such threats and identifying solutions to them all the more critical.

When ecology is applied and its insights marshalled to address these problems Justus sets them out in detail, and explores the often ethically charged dimensions of applied ecological science, using accessible language and a wealth of scientifically-informed examples. Rhinoceros beetle Xylotrupes taprobanes ganesha Silvestre, recently recorded from Nilgiri hills,Western Ghats. Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary science that is primarily concerned with developing interventions to achieve sustainable ecological and economic systems.

While ecological economists have, over the last few decades, made various empirical, theoretical, and conceptual advancements, there is one concept in particular that remains subject to confusion: critical natural capital.

With the help of equations and graphs, this article develops new definite account of critical natural capital that makes explicit what it means for objective environmental conditions to be essential for continued existence. The second main part of this article turns to the question of formally modeling the priority of conserving critical natural capital.

PVAs have become a cornerstone of conservation biology, and it is likely that their importance will increase in the future. The precise role of PVA in conservation biology is still emerging. The observation that once a population was reduced below a certain threshold, it began to dwindle toward extinction led to the concept of minimum viable population size MVP , the smallest number of individuals necessary to prevent a population from going extinct.

The concept encompasses theories that had been developed and tested to varying degrees in the fields of population genetics and demography. The critical feature of MVP is that it allows a quantitative "rule of thumb" estimate of minimum population size to be made.

MVP remains a tenuous concept among conservation biologists. In light of the complex and dynamic nature of single species population dynamics, conservation biologists have frowned upon the "magic number" concept.

Yet the term has not been abandoned and actually remains a central theme in conservation biology. As human population growth continues to encroach upon the habitat of endangered and threatened species, the MVP concept is likely to become a critical tool for conservation biologists to assure the continued existence of species.

Statistical approaches make explicit the logic by which a decision is reached under conditions of uncertainty. Conservation biology has become a burgeoning discipline since it originated in the early s.

Theories from the fields of island biogeography, genetics, demography, and population ecology have been broadly applied to the design and management of reserves, captive breeding programs, and the classification of endangered species.

Since we have witnessed the rapid expansion of a professional society and the emergence of active graduate programs. Nonetheless, the course of development of the discipline has not altogether been smooth sailing; lack of adequate funding remains a critical problem. Furthermore, while some advances have been made in the realm of interdisciplinary cooperation and communication between scientists and managers, significant progress is necessary before the original goals of conservation biology can be met.

The caveats with various analytical methods necessitate further research in order to reach their full potential as predictors of extinction. It has become clear that PVA is not currently a viable method for predicting the precise time to extinction for a species. Further, requiring quantitative data for conservation decisions may unduly place the burden of proof on scientists in a manner detrimental to the species of concern. PVA is useful, however, for comparing the relative extinction risks among species and populations, and for prioritizing research and management actions.

Similarly, the MVP concept has thus far been limited in its potential for application to conservation decisions. Because lack of genetic variability does not generally pose extinction risks for large populations, the concept is only relevant to small populations.

However, even for small populations, a temporary reduction below any MVP does not necessarily imply a high probability of extinction. Consensus among conservation biologists about the selection of appropriate assumptions for estimating effective population size and about the timeframe under which we are concerned about extinction, offers potential for the use of MVP as a tool in conservation biology.

Because conservation decisions are often confounded by uncertainty, decision analysis appears to be a particularly useful method for conservation biologists. The IUCN classification scheme offers a risk-averse approach to species classification in its use of multiple criteria, wherein data would typically be available to evaluate at least one of the criteria. However, additional analyses are necessary to develop and refine analytical tools suggested by the IUCN as status determination criteria.

Given the imperfect nature of the analytical tools integral to the field of conservation biology, the apparent gap between theory and practice, and the continued loss of biodiversity, what is the future for conservation biology? The models of today may undoubtedly become the "broken stick models. Nonetheless, population models will continue to evolve as critical tools to conservation biologists.

The gap between theory and practice is narrowing as a function of the prominence of conservation biology as a field of study.

Because the field is interdisciplinary, it necessarily unites basic and applied scientists with natural resource managers. Scientists will continue to work with policy makers in developing appropriate and workable approaches to species conservation. A central theme in conservation biology is developing compromises between conservation priorities and human needs.

However, the precise role of conservation biologists as advocates has yet to be formalized. They're trained to think and teach, to encourage students and support and advance their disciplines.