Attitudinal problems are exemplified by the Thai government spokesman who, defending the damming of the Mun River, a tributary of the Mekong, said: “it is better for the Thais to use the water as it is only wasted if it flows to Laos”. Growing political regionalism still amounts to the exploitation of poorer nations by their more powerful neighbors. International institutions, civil society and private greed have all frustrated attempts to encourage

GSK126 supplier environmental stewardship. Like it or not, conservation scientists have a responsibility to help change this approach to nature and (1) ensure that full valuations of biodiversity, ecosystems and ecological services are available and considered in the review of development projects (Daily 1997; Baimai and Brockelman 1998; Daily and Matson 2008; Daily et al. 2009; Dasgupta 2010; Mooney 2010; Sodhi et al. 2007, 2010) and, more importantly, (2) help educate regional leaders and people who influence the policy making process (Clark 2001). Bierbaum and Zoellick (2009) note that we need more centers of excellence to build capacity across public and private sectors to enable innovative education programs, technologies, market solutions, and management practices.

Tomorrow’s scholars will have to be trained to be more interdisciplinary if they are to solve complex and interrelated environmental and economic problems in concert with climate change. Putz and Zuidema (2008) are correct in noting that academic ecologists have got to focus more on human habitats and less on protected selleck chemicals areas if they are to be effective. The biogeography of Ispinesib nmr humans is therefore critically important to sustaining regional biodiversity and ecological services. Three approaches to conservation need to be on every academic Niclosamide curriculum and

in every government and private agency’s toolkit. First, the community-based conservation approach has benefitted both people and wildlife in certain situations (Western et al. 1994; Borgerhoff Mulder and Coppolillo 2005). Second, bioneering, the interventionist ecological management of species, communities, and ecosystems in a post-natural world, offers radically different solutions to traditional engineering, which seeks to control nature (Woodruff 2001a; Ausubel and Harpignies 2004). Third, ecosystem-based adaptation deserves wide attention as it incorporates the other two approaches (Bierbaum and Zoellick 2009). Ecosystem-based adaptation aims to reduce the vulnerability of people to climate change through the conservation, restoration, and management of ecosystems (World Bank 2009). Human adaptation goals can often be achieved through better management of ecosystems rather than through physical and engineering interventions.