Conservation action to this day concerns itself with the short-term rescue of species and communities and the medium-term management to maintain them. But there is ample evidence that species and communities are not static but dynamic and evolving. This chapter is concerned with how we might start to think of conservation actions and requirements for the longer term, including management for change rather than stasis.

By reading this chapter students will gain an understanding of; how long- and short-term conservation strategies may differ; how reliant conservation strategies are on the species concept; and methods of formulating conservation strategies that are not habitator species-based.

Short-term crisis conservation

We have seen in earlier chapters that the dominant strategy within nature conservation has been to give priority protection to threatened habitats through the nature reserve system. The best and most representative habitat areas are identified and, if possible, protected by procuring ownership or through government legislation. This strategy was undoubtedly right at the time of rapid habitat destruction in the middle of this century, but it has had an undesirable side-effect. It has resulted in the creation of isolated habitat islands between which many species cannot travel due to the wholly unprotected and unsuitable habitat in between. Consequently today species conservation is not only a problem of protecting habitats, but also of how to retain species diversity within small habitat fragments. This is a resource-intensive process.