Management and Adaptation to Biodiversity Change
Coordinator: Philippe Le Prestre
Research goals: To identify tools to adaptively manage biodiversity and ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes; to reveal socioeconomic drivers of biodiversity loss; to evaluate market and non-market values of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services; to better understand the role of local communities in biodiversity decision making and management; to generate scientifically sound, socially relevant and politically feasible strategies for biodiversity management and governance.
This research axis emphasizes the socioeconomic dimensions of biodiversity science. Our understanding of the socioeconomic causes and consequences of biodiversity change is still rudimentary in a number of ways. The evaluation of the market and non-market value of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services has only recently emerged as a major field of study. Researchers are discovering new relationships between the economy and biodiversity. The importance of local and indigenous communities in biodiversity management is becoming increasingly recognized on a global scale.
Research in this axis will also explore ways of linking science to policy and governance of Québec’s biodiversity. Collaborating institutions include the Montréal based Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ouranos consortium, and the Institute Hydro-Québec – Environment, Development and Society at the Université Laval.
Axis 3 Themes:
Theme 3.1: Biodiversity Planning and Adaptive Management
Researchers in theme 3.1 work broadly on the management of biodiversity and ecosystem services within human-transformed landscapes. Often ecosystems are managed to produce a single service, which selects for reduced biodiversity. If multiple services are preferable from a cultural and economic viewpoint, the maintenance of biodiversity will likely facilitate this. Researchers working in this theme will explore how land use, reserve networks/protected areas, and corridors can be designed to co-manage biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services within human- transformed landscapes. Researchers in this theme are also studying biodiversity planning and management by local and indigenous communities, including the role of perception and representation of biodiversity in conservation and decision-making.
A specific research focus within this theme is the ecological network as a component of an adaptive strategy for management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in periurban landscapes, particularly in a context of population growth and climate change. QCBS scientists will perform field-based research and modeling to quantify the impact of altered forest connectivity on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Theme 3.2: Biodiversity and Decision-Making
This theme focuses on how decisions about biodiversity management are made. Economic instruments for valuing and managing biodiversity are key in this regard. Research in this theme includes the analysis of literature-derived data on the socioeconomic causes of biodiversity loss. In particular, this work will build on the recent discovery that the distribution of socioeconomic power and wealth may affect biodiversity loss.
Other areas of research in this theme are the social, spiritual, and intrinsic values of biodiversity, and how these interact to affect the definition of problems related to biodiversity loss, the choice of appropriate solutions, and social conflicts over biodiversity. Relevant stakeholders include local communities, scientists, decision and policy makers, industry, and the private sector.
Projects in this theme will foster research on the market and non-market valuation of Québec’s biodiversity and ecosystem goods and services. A specific research project will seek to develop tools for businesses to account for their impacts and dependence on biodiversity.
Theme 3.3: Multi-Scale Biodiversity Governance
Theme leader: Louis Guay
Research in this theme focuses on the governance of biodiversity across social and ecological scales as well as the implementation and evaluation of environmental policy at local to international levels. Researchers are also exploring linkages between governance of biodiversity and the governance of other environmental topics, particularly climate change. This research is conducted in collaboration with the Institute Hydro-Québec – Environment, Development and Society at the Université Laval.
