We Need a Biologically Sound North American Conservation Plan

Extract

Aycrigg and colleagues (2016) recently called for the creation of a US national habitat conservation system. The authors correctly warn that continued economic and human population growth do not bode well for biodiversity. They are also correct that the implementation of a national plan should be focused on maintaining the integrity of the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain biodiversity (Aycrigg et al. 2016). We applaud the authors’ bold general vision, but to move beyond an unspecific vision to a habitat conservation system requires a detailed process to develop well-defined goals, targets, and mechanisms for identifying priorities, as well as implementation strategies. We point out that a number of such articulated habitat conservation system plans have been proposed before (e.g., Soulé and Terborgh 1999). Unlike many proposals before and after the 1990s, the Soulé and Terborgh (1999) guidelines were and are part of an ongoing North American–wide effort to create a connected system of reserves aimed at safeguarding, enhancing, and recovering all native species and all ecosystem types. The slow progress of this and similar efforts can be attributed to lack of political resources on the part of conservationists, soft support from many supporters and advocates, strong opposition from some sectors of society, and weak government leadership dominated by growth interests. A national vision is a necessary step toward conserving US biodiversity, but it is not a sufficient one unless accompanied by specific guidelines with respect to site selection, physical scale, connectivity, and integrity of abiotic conditions and biotic interactions.