The realities of attempting conservation

In Chapter 20 we looked at the principles of conservation. In this, our final, chapter, we look at conservation in practice. We shall examine why conservation sometimes succeeds and why it all too frequently fails, and ask what needs to be done in the future. This chapter is not, therefore, only about biology. It includes elements of economics, psychology and politics. The reason for this is that successful conservation demands much more than a good understanding of biology. It requires determination, political clout and an understanding of people and economic systems. Without such an understanding, conservationists risk being naive do-gooders unlikely ever to achieve much of lasting significance.

To help structure this chapter we will follow the same pattern as in Chapter 20, looking first at the conservation of species, then at ecosystems and lastly at the biosphere. It needs to be recognised, though, that the boundaries between these three levels of conservation are somewhat fluid. Effective species conservation nearly always involves habitat conservation and the distinction between habitat and ecosystem conservation is mainly one of scale.