Dr John Reynolds from the Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida has recently come
to the University
of Birmingham to talk
about marine mammal conservation. As I am a researcher whose area has nothing to do
with conservation, I was interested in attending and learn some more. Here I
have written some of the highlights from the talk. I hope you find them as
interesting as I did and help spread the word.
The talk was focused on sirenians like the manatee.
It started with striking data from different organisations such as the Pew Oceans Commission, the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Some examples:
It started with striking data from different organisations such as the Pew Oceans Commission, the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Some examples:
- 2.5% of species of marine mammals have become extinct in the last 60 years.
- While some species have shown recoveries (North Pacific grey whale) others are in critical condition, for example vaquita, Mediterranean monk seals and the AT1 pod of killer whales in Alaska which haven’t reproduced successfully since 1987.
- The baiji disappeared in 2007.
- Five taxa have less than 400 individuals remaining.
- The West African manatee is the most prone to extinction.
And the most striking of all:
- ONE THIRD of the species worldwide (not only marine mammals) are threatened with extinction!
So why is conservation so
difficult? Why haven’t we been able to control the survival of critical
species? Some of us might wonder whether it is lack of information. "No, what is lacking is the political will to take the
information we have and convert it into strategies”, Dr Reynolds remarked. Undoubtedly conservation
requires good science. So it is down to us scientists to communicate our
research so that it appeals to decision-makers, and speaks to human values. We also
have to think how our science can be used to find solutions. This means that
rather than aimlessly generate data, our research must have a purpose.
There are basically two
approaches to conservation. It can be accomplished from the bottom-up. For
example, if we work with the communities to change their values and
perceptions. And it can also take place form the top-down through policy and
regulation. However, the second approach cannot always be successful without
the implementation of the first one.
Enabling tools, like research and
community partnerships, seem to be the key to success. To illustrate this
point, Dr Reynolds told us the following story:
Communities in the Colombian
Amazon used to hunt for manatee as it was part of their diet. As with other
groups around the world, hunters went for females with a calf. They knew that
the biologists and conservationists would immediately come down to rescue the orphan baby and pay them money for it. However, in this one occasion
the conservationists never showed up. The villagers were stuck with a baby
manatee. Eventually everyone became attached to it, even the hunters. When it
grew up to an adult size, conservationists came down to take it back to the
river. They put a radio tag on it and amazingly enough, the hunters were the
ones demanding to go out and monitor its whereabouts! People in the community
realised how special manatees are, they stopped eating them and even talked the
neighbouring villages into not hunting them anymore.
This is a wonderful example of
how we can promote a change in human values within the communities for the
benefit of conservation.
In summary, if you want to be A GOOD CONSERVATIONIST you need to:
- Be proactive to address the future challenges.
- Be creative and imaginative.
- Address human values and behaviours.
- Have the guts to stand up for what’s important.
- Seek solutions rather than more information.
- Create interdisciplinary teams including population ecologists, community ecologists, assistance ecologists, chemists, social scientists, economists and ethicists.
To finish this post, here is the TAKE-HOME MESSAGE from Dr Reynolds: “If marine mammals are to be conserved, we need to recognise
the current obstacles to conservation and have the social will to change”
I think this can definitely be
applied to conservation of all species, not just marine mammals. What do you
think?