May 6, 2014 — Conservation has been at a crossroads for awhile now, with new approaches being tried that sometime clash with established ones. Writer Hillary Rosner covered this issue last year in Ensia in “Is Conservation Extinct?” “As the world shrinks, effective conservation policy will need to set the course instead of simply steering the ship around obstacles,” Rosner wrote. “Fortunately, choosing that course may be less contentious than it seems, particularly since there’s broad consensus that we need new maps. It’s as good a starting point as any for the long voyage ahead.”
Now The New Yorker has gotten into the discussion with a lengthy profile of The Nature Conservancy and its president and CEO, Mark Tercek, and chief scientist, Peter Kareiva, in which writer D.T. Max addresses some of the conflicts the organization has had with “traditional” environmentalists. And Tercek and Kareiva have replied with their own defense of the work they’re doing.
“[T]hose of us who do and who support conservation don’t have the time to get caught up in debates over ‘traditional’ vs. ‘new,’” they write. “We have to focus on what works — discovering it, testing it, replicating it and amplifying it.” Instead of getting caught up in such debates, Tercek and Kareiva write, “It’s time to get back to work.”
Check out the New Yorker article and TNC’s response about this interesting and important debate shaping the future of conservation. Photo by Ian Shive from TNC blog post.
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