Reconciling conflicting perspectives for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org H environmental impacts are now so extensive and pervasive that many consider that the planet has entered a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. Increasingly, efforts to conserve biodiversity are confronted with new challenges resulting from profound changes to many biotic and abiotic processes (Steffen et al. 2004; MA 2005), which require reassessing current management strategies (Rosenzweig 2003; Koh and Gardner 2010; Kareiva et al. 2011; Rudd 2011). Driven by the need to find solutions to these emerging challenges, biodiversity conservation is entering a phase of prolific innovation. Here, we focus on the biological challenges and examine some of the novel approaches under consideration – such as implementing inter situ conservation (Burney and Burney 2007), rewilding (Hansen et al. 2010), reassessing the negative image of alien species (Ewel and Putz 2004), and promoting biodiversity in novel ecosystems (Hobbs et al. 2013) and cultural landscapes (Daily et al. 2001; Rosenzweig 2003; Koh and Gardner 2010). With this upheaval of new ideas, ranging from vague proposals to fully fledged pilot projects, there is a genuine risk of the conservation community fragmenting into different schools of thought (for controversial debates, see Caro et al. 2012; Vitule et al. 2012; Hobbs et al. 2013). In an attempt to minimize that risk, we introduce a conceptual framework that moves beyond established dichotomies and offers ways to reconcile conflicting perspectives. We focus on oceanic islands, which possess several characteristics that make them a good model system for conservation in the Anthropocene. First, many islands have a high human population density, a heavily altered and fragmented environment, and small remnant populations of native species. These same attributes will increasingly be relevant across continental land masses as wildlands shrink and human land use expands (Rosenzweig 2003; MA 2005; Koh and Gardner 2010). Second, species that are highly sensitive to anthropogenic influences and species with the ability to adapt to such influences are both represented in island biotas; conservation should embrace species that depend on undisturbed habitat (Gibson et al. 2011) as well as those that tolerate anthropogenic conditions or even benefit from humans (Rosenzweig 2003; Kareiva et al. 2011). Finally, islands are an ideal testing ground for new conservation approaches for several practical reasons. Low species richness, small spatial extent of associated ecosystems, and the presence of thousands of islands with similar ecologies and conservation challenges facilitate replicated comparative studies of integrative strategies (Kueffer 2012). Islands have long supported pioneering development in biodiversity conservation (Whittaker and FernándezCONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS