Persecuting, protecting or ignoring biodiversity under climate change

• Published in: Nature climate change Vol. 9; no. 8; pp. 581 - 586
• Main Authors: Scheffers, Brett R., Pecl, Gretta
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-08-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/2039; 706/648/453; 706/689/2788; Agreements; Biodiversity; Climate Change; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Conservation; Contracts; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecological monitoring; Environment; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Environmental valuation; Geographical distribution; Governance; Perspective; Protected species; Species; Wildlife conservation
• ISSN: 1758-678X; 1758-6798
• DOI: 10.1038/s41558-019-0526-5

A climate-driven global redistribution of species is currently underway. As species alter their geographical distributions under climate change, many will not only cross into new habitats but also new geopolitical areas. In this Perspective, we discuss the historical archetypes of managing species redistribution—persecution, protection or ignorance—which points to diverse decisions and outcomes based on a balance of societal and ecological valuation. We build the case for increasing transboundary monitoring and management of species, and for shared governance agreements that are global in scope, consisting of legally binding and biologically defensible contracts among partner countries, in what would be a critical step for the future conservation of all species.
This Perspective describes persecution, protection and ignorance archetypes for managing and monitoring species redistribution under climate change, and argues for global shared governance agreements to cope with species shifts into new geopolitical areas.