Scale and biodiversity policy: a hierarchical approach

Abstract

A hierarchical approach to natural systems, which assumes that smaller subsystems change according to a faster dynamic than do larger systems of which they are a part, is advocated as a useful means to conceptualize problems of scale in determinng biodiversity policy. The goal of sustaining biological diversity over multiple human generations implies that biodiversity policy must be set at the landscape level of the ecosystem. Since ecosystems can be described at many levels of organization, conservation biologists must model ecosystems on a scale to the crucial dynamic that supports the sustainability goal. The value of these ecosystem processes is measured as the avoided costs of sustaining species in zoos or highly managed habitats. The protection of the health of these landscape-level processes should be the central goal of biodiversity policy. -from Authors