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Conservation Telecouplings

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Telecoupling

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Natural Resource Management ((PSNRM))

Abstract

Local threats to biodiversity are increasingly caused by distal drivers. Likewise, conservation responses are increasingly shaped by distal actors and processes as information on biodiversity loss percolates, and this, in turn, triggers conservation actions. Here, we define these actions as conservation telecouplings, that is, the coupling of distal social-ecological systems through conservation responses. These conservation responses can take diverse forms, such as inflows of funding, capacity, policies, or concrete projects, but always originate in one system in response to biodiversity loss in another. We discuss major types of conservation telecouplings and highlight how this concept might help to distinguish between targeted and diffuse threats by detecting entry points for conservation, by increasing conservation effectiveness, and by opening up new ways for conservation planning.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Food and Agricultural Organization: www.fao.org/faostat.

  2. 2.

    The World Bank (2012): Maximising Mobile. Information and Communications for Development 2012. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.

  3. 3.

    Full list: www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/classification-schemes/threats-classification-scheme.

  4. 4.

    When carrying out this categorisation, we adhered to a Euclidean concept of distance, meaning that different social-ecological systems are separate geographic spaces (e.g. cities linked to rural systems in their hinterland or too far-away regions through trade). Other concepts of distance, such as social or institutional distance, might be equally relevant (see Chaps. 3, 9, and 18) but are omitted here.

  5. 5.

    UN World Urbanization Prospects 2018: https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/.

  6. 6.

    Full list: www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/classification-schemes/conservation-actions-classification-scheme-ver2.

  7. 7.

    www.gorongosa.org/our-story.

  8. 8.

    Charity Navigator. Historical Data: www.charitynavigator.org.

  9. 9.

    JNCC. 2014. Fifth. National Report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity: United Kingdom. Peterborough: JNCC. https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/gb/gb-nr-05-en.pdf.

  10. 10.

    http://aiddata.org/realizing-agenda-2030.

  11. 11.

    www.tompkinsconservation.org/home.htm.

  12. 12.

    www.regjeringen.no/en/topics/climate-and-environment/climate/climate-and-forest-initiative/kos-innsikt/samarbeidspartnere/id2345203/.

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Acknowledgements

This work has received support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement No. 765408 (COUPLED, http://coupled-itn.eu) and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No. 677140 (MIDLAND, https://erc-midland.earth). This work contributes to the Global Land Programme (www.glp.earth).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geography Department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Tobias Kuemmerle & Siyu Qin

  2. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Thomas Kastner

  3. Fund for Scientific Research F.R.S.–FNRS, Brussels, Belgium

    Patrick Meyfroidt

  4. Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Earth and Life Institute, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Patrick Meyfroidt

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  1. Tobias Kuemmerle
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Correspondence to Tobias Kuemmerle .

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    Cecilie Friis  & Jonas Ø. Nielsen  & 

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Kuemmerle, T., Kastner, T., Meyfroidt, P., Qin, S. (2019). Conservation Telecouplings. In: Friis, C., Nielsen, J.Ø. (eds) Telecoupling. Palgrave Studies in Natural Resource Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11105-2_15

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