Mark Plummer's Legacy: Leave No Orthodoxy Unquestioned

Abstract

Inspired by Mark Plummer's legacy of questioning conservation and environmental orthodoxy, we challenge several common conservation memes and patterns of thinking. First, we argue that framing conservation messages as crises typically is not an effective strategy. Second, we question conservation regulations that are inflexible and insensitive to costs, uncertainty, and competing values. We instead advocate for experimentation, flexibility, and pragmatism. Third, we suggest that precautionary approaches to conservation regulation are out of step with a rapidly changing world facing uncertain shocks and disruptions. Finally, based on a systematic review of ecosystem change following disturbance, we find simplistic models of ecosystem resilience to be poorly supported by data. Ecosystem change is more the rule than the exception, and while academic ecologists have noted this to be the case, the ramifications of this pattern have yet to be embraced by resource managers. Our goal is to challenge conservationists to question popular conceptual models relentlessly and embrace new information, even when it challenges deeply held assumptions.