in this video we'll focus on
policymaking that can help protect
biodiversity how does interest in
biodiversity and conservation solutions
feed into the idea of actually making
policy the important thing to recognize
about all of this is that organisms
don't really care about borders and
boundaries ecosystems don't have to
respect the political divisions that
humans make what we mean here is that
although we can start with individual
action and encourage it to become broad
scale change it still has to translate
somehow into local regional national and
eventually international policy we need
ways of engaging in dialogues across
political boundaries that allow some
kind of regulation some sort of formal
process for developing policy that can
lead to protection of biodiversity
worldwide we have to consider that
economic factors generally Trump almost
all other considerations decisions are
usually made with short-term gain in
mind at the expense of long-term effects
and that's something we have to be
prepared to deal with it every point
when talking about policy and regulation
but we've also seen how long-term
effects are now starting to impact even
this short term view things that we once
thought might not have an effect until a
long way in the future are affecting us
now we're no longer at a point where
environmental change and damage to
biodiversity and ecosystems are things
that we can ignore I remember as a kid
people saying well someday this is going
to be a problem but this is some day
conventions and policies have evolved
over time to recognize that some species
really are in a whole heap of trouble
right now there are policies invoking
trade limits on natural resources of
various kinds such as regulations on
logging of trees for their wood or strip
mining for metals in both developed and
developing countries or the act of
stripping entire mountains down to their
core to extract coal these are things
having deep and abiding effects on
biodiversity
still they're governed by treaties that
are economically based the very nature
of international trade has effects on
biodiversity in sometimes subtle ways
that we don't always see right away
for example political statements in
Dighton government actions that are
threats to biodiversity can put economic
pressure on governments such as recent
pressures put on Japan for what is
called research whaling these pressures
grew out of international discussions
between organizations that may or may
not have been involved in the
International Whaling Commission
speaking against policies of another
country that was doing things that many
different groups deemed harmful to
biodiversity such actions are not
necessarily parts of formal treaties
they grow out of concern by individuals
that can work its way all the way up to
international policy let's look at local
policies for a moment they can include
things like formal recycling programs or
the establishment of local clubs that
set up biodiversity gardens or the
monitoring of open spaces and local park
lands neighborhood watch programs are
likely going to become much more than a
neighborhood watch for crime someday
they're going to be neighborhood watches
for people letting their pets run free
and eat birds or just generally doing
things that are degrading local
environments organized active cleanup
efforts are becoming more and more
formal policy for some communities and
beach cleanups are becoming a big part
of this too you see signs for highway
trash cleanup programs everywhere
this part of the highway is being looked
after by so-and-so now it might sound
trivial that we want to clean up the
sides of highways but in fact highways
are enormous sources of trash things
like plastic bags that still fly around
with frightening regularity which
actually brings us around to the
management of plastics as a really big
concern plastic is a relatively recent
human invention and we're starting to
see now some of the effects that the
wide use of plastics is having on
biodiversity around the world although
the scope of the problem is huge like
the great garbage patches in the oceans
we're talking about fairly simple
solutions like local and international
policy that can help regulate the use of
plastic bags
the banning and recycling of plastic
bags has been introduced by communities
as small as fishing villages in the
Philippines - giant metropolis 'as such
as San Francisco but it's also clear the
policy can only be enacted effectively
when based on verifiable testable and
comprehensive scientific data we need
the research that leads to proper
decision making and from where I'm
sitting there are really two main
categories of data that need to be taken
into account first there are data coming
from what scientists call primary
studies in part primary studies rely on
the work of scientists sometimes with
the help of citizen scientists who go
out in the field and collect data
directly from nature things like
expeditions and local field works still
have important roles to play in
documenting biodiversity in its native
habitat as well as seeing firsthand the
threats to natural ecosystems primary
studies can also consist of experimental
analyses and laboratories that help to
figure out how things like ocean
acidification or other changes can
affect certain organisms results from
this work can then be applied to the
natural world metabolic studies on how
organisms process chemicals and
therefore energy in their environment
can establish how some organisms have
competitive advantages in certain
settings this can be important for
understanding introduced species and how
they become invasive policy can grow out
of this knowledge in attempts to control
such species in addition to field and
laboratory analyses there are other
types of data coming out of primary
studies in the form of things like
remote sensing projects using satellite
imagery these types of primary data can
have an immediate impact on policy
because they allow people to step back
and see their local situation in a
bigger picture I'm thinking for example
of Meg lemon who in northern Ethiopia
had the opportunity to show local
leaders satellite photos of the small
remaining forested areas protected by
the local churches and priests these
areas have been protected in the face of
major agricultural needs for the land
when the religious leaders themselves
saw that their churches represented the
only
greenery left the only relatively
unaffected reservoirs of biodiversity in
the landscape that had a deep effect on
the value they placed on what they were
doing inspiring them to do more remote
imagery is also showing the receding
edges of natural areas slash-and-burn
invasion of roads clear cutting of
native forests pollution in the oceans
and the expansion of deserts around the
world real-time videos record change you
can actually see in the remote sensing
imagery how these ecosystems change over
time this ability to step back and just
look at what's happening is very
powerful what about the second kind of
data the second kind of science that can
lead to policy this is known as meta
analysis meta analyses take all of these
published studies from scientists
working in the field and in labs and
combine them in a variety of different
contexts compiling them into big picture
overviews that summarize a lot of
complex information from which major
conclusions can be drawn it's important
not to oversimplify of course when you
make these summaries but it's also true
that major trends and patterns can
emerge from looking at broad swaths of
the published literature sometimes they
can result in models of how complex
systems work so that predictions can be
made meta analyses provide a survey of
what's known and perhaps most
importantly what's not known about
biodiversity in certain critical areas
providing pathways along which good
policy can be taken a good example of
this was the effort to classify
biodiversity hotspots masses of primary
data were assembled and synthesized
representing studies by people who were
out there with their boots on the ground
identifying and counting plants
sometimes finding new species and
recording those findings and scientific
journals those findings were then
combined to define hotspots and how to
regulate what goes on in them to
decrease the threats to biodiversity
threats that are integral to the very
definition of the hotspot other examples
come from synthesizing the data coming
from biodiversity studies that can lead
to the establishment of marine
detected areas you need to have data
indicating where marine protected areas
in a given region are the most needed
and could do the most good that's all
well and good but the elephant in the
room of course is enforcement
enforcement at its heart requires the
resources and of course the will to
implement policy decisions in the name
of biodiversity protection this is
particularly problematic in developing
countries but it can be difficult and
develop ones as well because you have to
have political as well as economic
support but in developing countries it's
particularly acute because those are
also most often the places where
biodiversity is not only the least known
but still existing at higher levels
because by definition it hasn't been
threatened by development on the basis
of what I might know about a given
country's biodiversity I'd never dream
to tell a policymaker to make a policy
that would protect biodiversity but
threatens the livelihood health or
economic well-being of the people that
live there
this is hubris of the worst kind but
it's not hubris to use the combined
power of science and education to
illustrate and reinforce how good policy
protect biodiversity while still
providing for sustainable use of the
natural world it's not hubris to
reinforce the importance of long term
sustainability not just short term
economic gains if we don't do that then
future policies will be too late to
reverse the effects that the loss of
biodiversity will have on both ecosystem
function and services and then we'll
have to face what that will mean for
coming generations