SavingSpecies’ contributions to ecological science and achievements in conservation are getting noticed in a big way. In a 17 April 2013 News Feature, the acclaimed international scientific journal Nature cites SavingSpecies as an exemplar of science-based conservation.
Thomas Lovejoy, president of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment, and SavingSpecies Board member.
The article focuses on what scientists have learned about the impacts of forest fragmentation, especially from the work by SavingSpecies’ Science Advisory Board member and conservation luminary, Dr. Tom Lovejoy.
Since the mid-1970s, Dr. Lovejoy’s Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragmentation project has provided insights into the populations and species composition of patches of forest following isolation. The experiment effectively models on a grand scale what is happening to natural forests the world over.
Now, after years of analysis, the results are beginning to show practical conservation value, in particular through efforts such as the innovative approaches employed by SavingSpecies.
The article singles out SavingSpecies as an exemplary organization using knowledge about the biological dynamics within forest fragments to optimize conservation efforts. The article mentions SavingSpecies in the context of Dr. Lovejoy’s considerable scientific legacy — one that has elucidated ecological principles and helped to inform more effective conservation decision-making and action.
The article also acknowledges another SavingSpecies Science Advisory Board member, Harvard’s E.O. Wilson. Dr. Wilson’s contributions to biology and the philosophy of science are unparalleled, but the article focuses on Wilson’s theory of island biogeography (developed with Robert MacArthur). This theory, “which laid the foundations for the modern understanding of species diversity and rates of extinction in isolated habitat,” is one of the foundational principles of conservation biology. Indeed it provides the foundation for the science of “fragmentology” and hence the work SavingSpecies does every day.
An aerial photo of one of the patches of isolated forest included in Thomas Lovejoy’s Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragmentation project. (Image credit: Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures/ National Geographic Stock)
Dr. Pimm, SavingSpecies’ founder, president, and, naturally, also a member of the Science Advisory Board — the Board that determines which projects we fund — is also quoted in the article, noting that SavingSpecies, “…is where the science comes together with the strategic and tactical conservation efforts.”
Yes, we are thrilled that SavingSpecies’ scientific approach and its successes are being noted by the broader scientific community. We are so proud of the accomplishments our supporters have helped us achieve over the last several years — and so proud of our own Stuart Pimm, Tom Lovejoy and Ed Wilson for all they do to help SavingSpecies heal our planet!
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