Track 2a
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Threat
Track Chair
Dr. Joachim H. Spangenberg
The contributions of biodiversity and ecosystems to human sustenance and well-being are slow-ly being recognised beyond scientific circles, not least by terms like "biodiversity" and "ecosys-tem services", coined by scientists, making inroads into the language of politics. However, so far both the discourse and the numerous monetary assessments have failed to change the order of political priorities, and thus the loss of both, biodiversity and ecosystem services, continues. Pol-itics are falling short of sufficiently addressing the key drivers of biodiversity loss, i.e. land use change, invasive species and climate change. Reasons include an economic growth-focussed world view, the lack of knowledge about ecosystems and their essential role to humans, unfa-miliarity with nature in general, and the gradual character of biodiversity loss which makes it difficult to develop and argue an easy-to-remember objective like the 2° threshold in climate policies.
In the context of the conference focus on tipping points, papers would be particularly (but not exclusively) welcome dealing questions such as :
When and how do ecosystems flip irreversibly into a different state? Will such a different state of the ecological system have severe repercussions for social systems, e.g. causing less hospita-ble living conditions? Are there early warning signals for unintended and undesired flips? Can mapping ecosystem service and/or biodiversity distribution help in early detection of such cri-ses?
To which degree are such tipping points dependent on locally available biodiversity? What is the role of service demand, and does the spatial mismatch contribute to overexploitation of ecosys-tems? Can the relevant species and ecosystem functions be identified ex ante (the SPU - service providing units), and be selectively protected? Or are the species substitutable by others from the same functional group, and only the group as such needs a certain minimum of protection? Will the species identified as relevant in one analysis remain the same over the years, or does protec-tion have to include a wider range to preserve the cycles and dynamics of ecological systems? From a functional (not an ethical) point of view, is there such a thing as "superfluous biodiversi-ty"?
What are the benefits and the risks associated with economic valuation? Why has valuation mostly failed to impress politics? What should be measured, and how, in order to change that? In which cases could economic arguments improve decision making? In which cases would they be irrelevant, and in which ones counterproductive (economically superfluous biodiversity, wel-fare optima by species extinction,...)? How should scientists deal with economic arguments if they can be supportive but also counterproductive for the case at stake?
What is the role of human agency in providing ecosystem services, and how can it be shaped to serve the purposes biodiversity conservation and service preservation? How can such processes be integrated into ecosystem service analysis and the management of socio-ecological systems? How does development affect such processes? Can poverty reduction, while diminishing the direct dependency on ecosystem services, be made to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem ser-vice protection (without any hope on presumed automatic mechanisms such as the Environmen-tal Kuznets Curve)?
What are the interactions and mutual dependencies in socio-ecological systems in the process of transformation towards sustainable societies, and in avoiding a flip into an undesired state? What is the role of the biophysical environment in bringing about social transformations? As far as history has shown that environmental change has shaped cultural developments, what was the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services? Are there examples of tipping points, i.e. levels or patterns of biodiversity loss which would trigger global ecosystem change, with severe impacts for human societies?
Contact: joachim.spangenberg@gmail.com
You may submit your abstract by visiting the Ex Ordo abstract submission system (you will be required to setup an account first): http://isdrs2015.exordo.com/
