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Shifted baselines and the policy placebo effect in conservation
- Samantha Lovell, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Robin Ramdeen, Loren McClenachan
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Coastal ecosystems have been degraded by human activity over centuries, with loss of memory about past states resulting in shifted baselines. More recently conservation efforts have resulted in localized recoveries of species and ecosystems. Given the dynamism of ecosystem degradation and recovery, understanding how communities perceive long-term and recent changes is important for developing and implementing conservation measures. We interviewed stakeholders on three Caribbean islands and identified a shifted baseline with respect to the extent and degree of long-term declines in marine animal populations; stakeholders with more experience identified more species as depleted and key species as less abundant than those with less experience. Notably, the average respondent with < 15 years of experience listed no species as depleted despite clear evidence of declines. We also identified a phenomenon we call the policy placebo effect, in which interviewees perceived some animal populations as recently recovering following passage of new conservation legislation but in the absence of evidence for actual recovery. Although shifted baselines have a negative effect on conservation as they can lower recovery goals, the outcomes of a policy placebo effect are unclear. If the public prematurely perceives recovery, motivation for continued conservation could decline. Alternatively, perception of rapid success could lead communities to set more ambitious conservation goals.
20 - Extinction risk in reef fishes
- from PART IV - CONSERVATION
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- By Loren McClenachan, Colby College
- Edited by Camilo Mora, University of Hawaii, Manoa
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- Book:
- Ecology of Fishes on Coral Reefs
- Published online:
- 05 May 2015
- Print publication:
- 23 April 2015, pp 199-207
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Summary
The risk that marine fishes could be driven to extinction by human actions historically has been assumed to be low, as these species often have high fecundities, large dispersal potential, and inhabit areas far from human settlement. However, over the past two decades, research has demonstrated that marine fishes are subject to local, regional, and global extinction. Reef fishes face an elevated risk due to their susceptibility to fishing and the increasing global loss of coral reefs. This chapter synthesizes the current status of knowledge about extinction risk in reef fishes, including differences in conservation status across taxonomic groups, the primary drivers of extinction, and the implications for the future of reef fish communities. To date, more than 1000 reef fish species have been assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with 8% threatened with extinction. Species-rich families of large-bodied fishes (e.g. Labridae, Epinephelidae) have the highest numbers of threatened species and elasmobranch families have the highest percentage of threatened species, with some families (e.g. Rhynchobatidae, Pristidae) at risk of losing all species [1217]. To date, fishing has been the strongest driver of extinction risk in reef fishes, primarily affecting large-bodied species with slow life histories. However, climate change is an important emerging threat that will first affect habitat specialists, but ultimately alter entire reef fish communities. While extinction risk exists, resilience is conferred by factors such as self-recruitment, depth, and the potential for coral reefs to adapt or migrate over time.
Extinction is characterized by the death of the last individual of a species, and has been the focus of conservation research for decades, as the global extinction of a species can represent an irreversible loss of millions of years of evolved genetic diversity [e.g. 2701]. Local and regional extinction is also of concern, as spatial heterogeneity within populations confers long-term resilience and loss of species can have important ecological consequences [314,1640]. For reef fishes and other species targeted for human consumption, extinction also carries important social consequences.