University of Tasmania
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Rethinking legal objectives for climate-adaptive conservation

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This paper examines conservation objectives in Australian law in the context of climate change. The rate of climate change and the scale and extent of its impacts on natural systems drive the need to re-evaluate current conservation objectives, from basic concept definitions, to overarching goals and values, to the way they are operationalized at all levels. We outline the case for reform of objectives in the legal framework for conservation and discuss three key strategies that would facilitate this transition: (1) acknowledgment in conservation law of system dynamism; (2) focus on ecosystem function, stability, and resilience; and (3) an explicit recognition that systems operate across multiple scales. Law reform is a slow process, but the potential of climate change to drive transformational changes means that urgent action is needed to overcome the limitations of current objectives and in the legal framework itself.

Funding

Department of Environment and Energy (Cwth)

History

Publication title

Ecology and Society

Volume

21

Article number

25

Number

25

Pagination

1-10

ISSN

1708-3087

Department/School

Faculty of Law

Publisher

Resilience Alliance Publications

Place of publication

Canada

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 by the author(s). Published here under license by the Resilience Alliance

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Rehabilitation or conservation of terrestrial environments

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