Conservation biology: foundations, concepts, applications

Conservatio n Biolog y

Foundations , Concepts , Application s

Secon d Editio n

Fre d Va n Dyk e

Wheaton College

Illustrators and Permissions Assistants

Michae l J. Bigelo w

Laure n Anderso n

Editorial Assistant

Jo Ebihar a

Springer Science and Business Media

D AI HOC TK. . iGUYEN

TRUNG TAM HOC LIE U

Fred Van Dyke

Wheaton College, Illinois

USA

ISBN 978-1-4020-6890-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-6891-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007942036

© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.

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Cove r Photograp h Descriptio n

Wiwik is a citizen of Indonesia, currently completing her

BA degree in psychology. Her professors think she is an

excellent student, but Wiwik is featured on the cover of

this textbook for another reason. She works as a caregiver

to orphaned orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan

Rehabilitation Center in Indonesia's Kalimantan province.

The orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is listed by the World

Conservation Union (IUCN) as an endangered species. The

greatest threat to current populations, now confined to the

island of Borneo, is tropical deforestation. But orangutan

populations are also threatened in another way. The demand

for infant orangutans in the pet trade, and the large sums of

money that an infant orangutan can bring on the black mar￾ket, motivate many people to shoot nursing mother orangu￾tans and sell the infant. Although illegal, many consider the

potential gain worth the risk. If caught, the hunter may be

fined or sent to jail, but that solves only part of the problem.

The infant and now orphaned orangutan has no skills or

experience needed to live alone in the forest. Released back

to the wild in this state, it would perish.

Because orangutans rely so extensively on learning

rather than instinct, they spend 7-8 years with their moth￾ers before becoming independent. To rehabilitate orphaned

orangutans, workers like Wiwik educate them in an inten￾sive "curriculum" of foraging techniques, nest building,

arboreal locomotion, predator avoidance, and other skills

needed to survive in the wild. In our cover photo, Wiwik

is showing two 5- to 6-year-old female orangutans, Sirius

(next to Wiwik on her left) and Betty (back to the camera)

how to open a termite mound and extract the termites from

it for food.

Wiwik's efforts are informed by careful scientific

studies of orangutan food habits, behavior, social rela￾tions, and habitat requirements, but the problem she is

attempting to solve, the problem of the conservation

of the orangutan, is not, strictly speaking, a scientific

question. It is a complex problem that requires an

understanding not only conservation science, but of

economics, law, ethics, and national and international

politics. That is why I chose to make my initial invita￾tion to readers with this picture. It is a picture of the

complexity of conservation biology: an international,

multi-disciplinary effort in which experiment and

management must be combined, and are often blurred,

in projects fraught with uncertainty, but not bereft of

hope. As this text goes to press, organizations like

the Orangutan Conservancy, which administers Nyaru

Menteng, are working with the Indonesian government

and national and international conservation organiza￾tions to make the first successful transitions of these

orphaned orangutans into independent, free-living

individuals who can again become part of wild popula￾tions. It is an effort in which a dedicated worker like

Wiwik may have as much to contribute as the world's

most famous conservation scientist. And, if there is to

be hope for success, it is an effort that will need both.

It is also an effort that will need a new generation of

conservation scientists, managers, policy makers, and

activists if it is to continue. I offer this book as an

invitation to the reader, whatever your background and

wherever in the world you may be, to learn about this

effort, and to join it.

Forewor d

I am really delighted that a second expanded edition

of this textbook is being printed. The first edition has

been useful enough and personally it has been invalu￾able for my teaching in Latin America. This edition

has more international examples and so will appeal to

an even wider audience. This is a significant update

and revision of a teaching resource of major importance

to the teaching of conservation biology.

Conservation is becoming a more urgent discipline

day by day as the gravity of the environmental crisis

deepens. The reality of climate change is upon us and

we know that it is seriously affecting biodiversity in

many parts of the world. It is therefore essential to train

students based on the large amount of good conservation

science that is now available. The author of this text has

made a thorough study of this literature and analysed it

succinctly and accurately. This text covers both the his￾toric and the most recent developments in conservation.

It treats biodiversity as a whole ranging from the species

and habitat diversity to DNA and genetic diversity.

The environmental crisis is so great that science alone

will not resolve it. It has become a moral and ethical and

even a religious crisis. One of the aspects I most like about

this text is that as well as treating the practical side of conser￾vation it discusses the philosophical and ethical aspects. It

also presents a balanced view of policy and the economics

of the subject. If the political and the ethical issues are not

addressed we will not win the battle to make the neces￾sary changes that will conserve a major proportion of the

world's biodiversity. However, there is also much in this

text for the practical field based conservationist.

Fred Van Dyke has done an excellent job of presenting

an ever expanding field in an accessible way. The abundant

illustrations and the tables are a great help to make the data

readily understandable. I urge all students who take up this

text to consider all these aspects carefully to prepare you for

an exciting career that is vital for the future of our planet.

Ghillean Prance

Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1988-1999

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