Collen, B; (2015) Current uses and future perspectives for conservation biology. In: Watson, MF and Lyal, C and Pendry, C, (eds.) Descriptive Taxonomy: The Foundation of Biodiversity Research. (pp. 24-43). Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.

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Abstract

Conservation science is a discipline which has been born in response to the simple fact that biodiversity is declining at never before seen rates (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Background extinction rates are being dramatically exceeded, and models of future scenarios predict that this rate will only increase (Fig 2.1), perhaps by an order of magnitude, unless preventative action is taken (Regan et al., 2001). The reasons for this decline are at least well known, if not well understood. Land clearance reduces available habitat; exploitation removes healthy animals from the population; introduced predators and diseases impact ‘naïve’ species, and, ultimately, extinction breaks down ecological networks – Diamond’s evil quartet (Diamond, 1989). Increasingly, climate change is enhancing the negative impacts of this list of threats (IPCC, 2002; Thomas et al., 2004). The problem and its effects are so pressing that it has been framed under international legislation, and more than 190 countries signed up to a target set to achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010 (UNEP, 2002), a target that was not met (Butchart et al., 2010). Effective action to achieve such a target requires detailed information, and Floras and Faunas often provide much of the data that underpin priority-setting decisions derived from biodiversity data. While the key taxonomic issue to be faced by biodiversity conservation remains the under-description of species (May, 1988; Wilson, 2003), a growing issue that threatens to complicate, and perhaps undermine, conservation planning is taxonomic inflation (Isaac et al., 2004; Mace, 2004).

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