Recovering Ecosystems As Well As Their Constituent Parts

Abstract

Conservation regulation largely focuses on protecting threatened species and habitats, yet biodiversity loss continues at alarming rates. Existing regulatory frameworks for nature are insufficient to address the root causes of nature decline, without coupled mechanisms that restore the dynamic ecological and evolutionary processes through which nature itself can thrive and respond to global change. Using the UK as a case study, we examine options to embed “process-based approaches” in nature conservation policy. These approaches support nature in a different way by maintaining evolution, movement, interactions, and biogeochemical cycling to support ecosystem functions and properties. We identify eight recent pioneering examples from terrestrial and marine realms, including the District Level Licensing and Nutrient Neutrality Schemes, Protected Sites Strategies, and Ecosystem-Based Management. Our examples demonstrate the plurality of mechanisms through which process-based conservation can operate at larger landscape or seascape scales. Adopting process-based approaches requires careful navigation of trade‑offs in local contexts to avoid undermining protection of threatened species and habitats. We derive four principles that can enable process-based conservation to work effectively alongside species and habitat protection for long-term ecological recovery anywhere in the world.