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By Peter Kareiva
First, an admission: There is a lot of hubris in the claim that The Nature Conservancy is “leading with science.”
Everyone knows that even the world’s best science cannot move conservation forward without money, public support and enabling governments.
But science does have a special place at the Conservancy. Its centrality to our mission and work means that none of our assumptions go unchallenged. That we look unflinchingly at the world as it really is and will be. And that we solve conservation problems by analysis as opposed to assertion and storytelling.
At the Conservancy, Conservation Science Translates Into Action
And there is something else that brands Conservancy science and our hundreds of staff scientists. Our science is intensely pragmatic, and our scientists push as fast as possible towards real-world actions.
When I was an academic scientist, I routinely published articles that ended by claiming that “this result could be useful…” In fact, my findings and ideas rarely were used.
And when I worked as a scientist for the federal government, I published ideas and analyses that did eventually get used, but typically only after years and years of bureaucracy and agency angst.
But at the Conservancy, science is quickly translated into action that is simultaneously daring and thoughtful — as in the three feature stories in the winter issue of Nature Conservancy magazine.
Protecting Caribbean Turtles Through Their Whole Life Cycle
Take turtles. Protecting the Caribbean beaches where baby turtles hatch fits beautifully within the Conservancy's modus operandi. But even if conservationists succeeded in protecting beaches such that every single nestling turtle lived, turtle populations would still decline because of problems elsewhere in their life cycle.
Turtles demand conservation over their whole life cycle, and especially while migrating and feeding throughout the Caribbean. Commensurate with the scale of the challenge, the Conservancy stepped up and helped to push forward a Caribbean-wide effort to protect 20 percent of the marine habitat where turtles roam and migrate — and not just the sprinkling of beaches where conservation is easy to sell to the public.
And Conservancy scientists realized that we have to be smart about exactly which 20 percent of the habitat gets protected, which is why it is important to tag the turtles to study where they migrate and feed. Read "Night Life: Tracking a Turtle Comeback on Caribbean Beaches" to learn more.
Prairies, Bison and Real Bison
Bison in Oklahoma reveal another dimension of Conservancy science at its best.
Restoring the once-abundant tallgrass prairies of Oklahoma is an audacious enough effort. But Conservancy scientists are not content with only acres and lists of species — they want a properly interacting system.
So they are asking the difficult question: What is a prairie without bison? Because it turns out that grazing bison are one of the best ways to properly manage tallgrass prairies…as they always have been.
But best of all (and our best science is often skeptical — to the point of frustrating many of our state and country program managers), Conservancy scientists are taking the extra step to make sure that what looks like a bison really is a bison.
This concern is not paranoid. The ill-fated attempt to create beefalo by mating bison with cattle has left a legacy of tainted bison that feed differently than cattle, have altered physiology, and may have shorter lives.
So Conservancy scientists are also examining the genetics of the bison grazing on our tallgrass prairies. (Imagine trying to tell a non-scientist boss: “I know they look like bison, but we need to check this out.”) Read “The Last Bison: The Species May Not Be Home Free Yet” to learn more.
Pragmatic Conservation on the Impacts of Energy Exploration
Lastly, the kind of story that makes some people uncomfortable: The Conservancy is using the science of conservation planning to partner with the oil and gas industry to pursue an "energy by design" strategy.
This pragmatism is what I like about the Conservancy's way of practicing science. Science at the Conservancy isn't in the business of making people comfortable. It's in the business of solving problems.
The environmentally facile stance would be a heroic stand against oil and gas exploration, in the spirit of the lone environmentalist who has chained him or herself to a tree.
But oil and gas exploration are coming to many parts of the world, and no amount of activism is going to change that fact. Moreover, energy development is something that people need.
So, given the necessity and reality of additional oil and gas exploration, Conservancy scientists are working with industry partners to steer energy development away from the most vulnerable and biologically precious sites.
And when exploration does cause damage, Conservancy scientists are influencing industry best practices so that the damage is minimized and offset via the protection of offsite areas of comparable conservation value.
Of course this strategy risks charges of green washing and “selling out.” Maintaining credibility in such circumstances requires the use of rigorous science — incorporating unassailable modeling and data — to identify what and where the damage is and how it's occurring.
And the science must also be transparent — which is why Conservancy scientists who developed the computer models for “energy by design” are publishing their efforts in peer-reviewed journals. Indeed, transparency and peer-review are two important marks of the best of the Conservancy's science. Read “Proving Ground: Can the Western Energy Boom Be Anything But a Bust for Wildlife?” to learn more.
Science Helps Us Find The Unconventional Solutions
No doubt you have heard the story of the lawyer, the fundraiser, the MBA-trained manager and the scientist.
They were driving across the Mongolian grassland on a road — only to be halted by a large metal gate that was locked and festooned with ominous looking signs in a language that none of the four travelers understood.
The sun was setting and the group would soon be late for an important meeting with a government leader. So the lawyer got out her Blackberry and tried to find out what the sign meant and what were the legal risks for breaking down a gate.
The fundraiser started taking pictures and wondering what story he could make out of this experience to snare that next major donation.
The manager opened up his laptop and started to make a PowerPoint slide sketching a business plan for what to do next, complete with performance plans for everyone in the travel party.
But the scientist started walking back away from the gate, down both sides of the road, looking for tire tracks and options.
She found tracks veering off to the right, and followed them to find they made a detour around the gate but rejoined the main road about 200 meters beyond the barrier. The scientist led the group around the barrier, and they made it to their meeting on time.
And that's how The Nature Conservancy leads with science — because scientists look for data and solutions that are not always obvious, and do not confine themselves to conventional paths.
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Nature picture credits (left to right): Photos © Mark Godfrey/TNC (Yellow warbler caught in a mist net for purpose of banding); TNC (Peter Kareiva)
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