Clear Language for Ecosystem Management in the Anthropocene: A Reply to Bridgewater and Hemming

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In a comment on our recent article (Heger et al. 2019), Bridgewater and Hemming (2020) call for putting the umbrella concept “ecological novelty” into a policy context. They suggest linking ecological novelty to the “nature-based solution” paradigm and comment that “Global policy discussions around the ‘New Deal for nature’ seem to only embrace traditional conservation paradigms, leaving ecological novelty in a policy vacuum” (Bridgewater and Hemming 2020). We agree with Bridgewater and Hemming (2020) that political frameworks need new ways of expressing at which forms of “nature” conservation actions should aim, and we also share their opinion that the umbrella concept of “ecological novelty” can be helpful here. For instance, in the recently published Zero Draft for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (CBD 2020), “recovery of natural ecosystems” is formulated as one of the main aims for the Convention on Biological Diversity member states for the following 20 years; however, what the term “natural ecosystems” means in the Anthropocene remains an open question.