The four ecologies of the Anthropocene

As we enter the Anthropocene - the period when human activities have become a new geological force affecting all the planet's ecosystems and climate - defending biodiversity and the conditions of life on earth has become a central issue.

Raphaël Mathevet, University of Montpellier

But depending on their geographical and political contexts, conservation ecologists and biologists have claimed different schools of thought and adopted different postures over the decades.

To avoid confusion between these orientations, it is necessary to understand the different ecologies at work in nature conservation. Some of them have enjoyed a hegemonic period, with widely varying degrees of success. Today, they all coexist and militate for the creation of protected areas, which now cover 15% of the planet's land surface. Despite the multiplicity of approaches within the same current of thought, we can better characterize them by adapting a political science reading grid.

A first dividing line can thus be drawn between approaches to conservation that are rooted in the opposition between nature and culture, and those that seek to go beyond this dualism. The second dividing line distinguishes between approaches that are part of the dominant economic model or its reform, and those that seek to radically transform it.

Finally, the management regimes for species and ecosystems that follow from this reading grid develop along an axis whose two poles are free evolution versus the control of nature.

The ecology of obstinacy

The ecology of obstinacy has long stubbornly sought to preserve highly natural ecosystems and landscapes, as well as emblematic wild species. It is often based on a management approach that seeks to protect a generally idealized nature, even if this means intervening heavily by reintroducing and regulating species or controlling processes such as fire or flooding.

This ecology seeks to defend wilderness, excluding human extractive activities as far as possible, and does not call into question the dominant economic model. Implemented by many NGOs and supported by international donors, it can be seen today in many African national parks, such as South Africa's Kruger Parc or India's Kaziranga National Park, both famous for their rhino and elephant populations. This ecology can also serve the political control of a sensitive area, as in the Giangtang megapark in China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

The ecology of reconciliation

A trend that became mainstream in the 1990s, (re)conciliation ecology advocates protected areas where humans are involved in participatory conservation approaches integrated with natural resource exploitation and development actions.

This ecology promotes both the protection of wilderness jewels and biodiversity in agricultural and forestry areas. It mobilizes all possible means: from non-intervention to permanent active management according to the socio-ecological dynamics of the species and environments concerned. It emphasizes the diversity of values associated with living things, and seeks to reconnect humans with the biosphere by modifying their individual behavior, as well as promoting collective action that shapes public policy.

If it resigns itself to accepting the dominant economic model, it adopts management methods adapted to the local context, as well as reformist and contractual policies that invite people to take care of, or at least make good use of, nature. These approaches can be seen in France's regional nature parks and in the worldwide network of biosphere reserves under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program.

The ecology of renunciation

A current of thought that emerged in the 2000s, ecology, which we call the ecology of renunciation - because it has renounced the dualism between nature and culture and the autonomy of living organisms - considers that humans have permanently disrupted the functioning of ecosystems. According to this view, the biosphere is now a mosaic of more or less impoverished gardens, rich in evolutionary promise. Humans can adapt these hybrid natures to make them desirable and/or more productive.

These much-debated approaches are promoted in particular by the scientific director of the powerful American NGO The Nature Conservancy, which has one million members and manages over 480,000 ^km2 of natural environments worldwide. The aim is for humans to control, if not manage, the ecosystems of which they are an integral part, and to enhance the value of natural capital and ecosystem services through private-public partnerships. According to the proponents of this approach, techno-scientific innovation, democracy and freedom remain important ideals, and the commodification of living things could halt, if not slow down, the erosion of biodiversity.

The ecology of the wild

Finally, the more recent ecology of the wild seeks to promote the idea that nature does not need humans. Human activities must protect or cooperate with the living world, allowing the autonomous, evolving forces that drive it to express themselves. It promotes the idea that processes should be allowed to evolve freely over the widest possible spaces, regardless of their initial naturalness.

This transformative ecology often rejects the basic structure of extractive productivism in favor of collaborative and sober systems. It seeks a redistribution of power within the political economy, and willingly subverts property rights so as not to exploit or control living things. These approaches can be found in a growing number of agroecology experiments in South America, India and France, in the wildlife reserves run by certain associations in the Allier gorges or the Vercors.

These different ecologies show a diversity of ways of dealing with the consequences of recognizing that humans are always part of the interweaving web of ecological interdependencies.

Beyond the categories and oppositions of the past - natural versus artificial, wild versus domestic, protected versus exploited - the aim now is to promote ecological solidarityto defend nature and life everywhere, making humans the true companions of the biosphere.

Raphaël Mathevet, Researcher at CNRS CEFE, University of Montpellier

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.