m@rble ELectronic conference on MARine Biodiversity in Europe

summary theme 3, days 2 to 4

Summaries of theme 3, as they are posted here, are compiled by the session's chairman, Ricardo Santos.

the future of marine biodiversity research

Topic 1

The Blue Planet series (…) has to use charismatic elements to keep viewers in front of the screen and prevent them from zapping away. (Hanns-J. Neubert)

Information has to come from the scientists - only they can tell what is important, what is the main topic and what is the right background for a topic. Besides: They are paid for informing the public (see for example "Guide for Proposers" of EU programmes). (Hanns-J. Neubert) … scientists can team up with external experts for science management or science writing or speech writing (Hanns-J. Neubert)

In schools it is important that we give awareness about the natural diversity being an unique feature of our planet and something to preserve for many reasons. … our messages need to be simple, but correct, in order te be understood. (…) we urgently need help to share the information we have about the importance of conserving biodiversity. Instead of socio-economics education something like socio-ecological education ? (Magda Vincx)

Topic 2

Biodiversity… I recall the definition as provided by UNESCO and would like to encourage the inclusion of population- and ecosystem-specific biodiversity in evaluating the dynamics of the planet ocean (Filip Volckaert)

What is necessary is that people shall gain respect of nature mainly through understanding ecological interactions and processes. … biological education should remain an obligatory topic in (high) schools and shall not be replaced by e.g. history what in some cases is happening. (Magda Vincx)

There is a perception that the only source of funding is through central Government (National, EU, ESF etc). The trouble is that these are political and tend to take a short-term attitude to funding. The other area of funding that has to be tapped is industry. Industry is after all one of the causes of loss of biodiversity and habitat degradation. (…)Getting funds out of industry is hard work and often not very rewarding, but if successful it can start to change attitudes where it will have most impact. (Martin Angel) This is indeed a good idea and it can work! , for four years now we are doing research paid by the chemical company and related to biodiversity because it has to do with survival of a species. (Magda Vincx)

Any utilisation of Natural resources should have associated economic instruments to fund the monitoring and research towards conservation and sustainability (R Santos)

Topic 3

It would be a fatal mistake to invest now on making something totally new like big European biodiversity institute (as proposed earlier in another discussion of this e-conference). Most of the money will be wasted to build up new infrastructure and there is obvious danger that the new positions will be filled not with scientist producing new data on basic biodiversity (=taxonomy) but with bio-politicians and bureaucrats filling new containers with old wine. (Jaakko Hyvönen)

Ecotourism : a way of protecting marine life ? (…)Shall we as biologists promote eco-tourism or shall we protect these areas completely so that no one can enter or no activities should be allowed... I'm in favour of a compromise solution. Biomonitoring and development of alert systems should be the tool... Ecotourism can help paying this... (Magda Vincx)

Topic 4

The value of nature should be above the economic status of our planet.. Conservation of pristine environments (in Europe as well as in other parts of the world) has to be a major concern where people should be prepared to spend some time and energy for. It has a lot to do with respect for nature, environment, heredity, and other moral values. People have to be aware that destroying nature (i.e. not preserving the biodiversity of our planet) is destroying themselves. (Magda Vincx)

On the taxing of the economic value of the environment, including the marine environment, important scientific progress has been made (…) For fundamental scientists, it might not look "kosher" to deal with nature in this way, but it represents definitely a language understood by administrators, managers, politicians, economists, lawyers and the like. (Filip Volckaert)

But how to communicate the wealth of biodiversity? (…) Is it probably impossible to explain that biodiversity has a value in it self. (Carsten Lueter)

I would suggest that pristineness should not be the only criterion in selecting sites of particular interest. Monitoring and experimental approaches on those systems which have shown important recent changes may indeed provide valuable information regarding consequences of changes in biodiversity. (Antoine Gremare) It is a fact that there are less and less true pristine or almost pristine marine habitats in Europe, and elsewhere. But if they exist they should be considered for special consideration and for protection. An effort should be done (…) in view to promote future programs for monitoring and conservation management. (R Santos)

Monitoring may well be also research and development in technology. A strong emphasis should be put in permanent ocean observatories, not only for the case of water masses circulation and geology/geophysics, but also for studies on biology and living resources. (R Santos)

It is already for 10 years that 'almost all' ecologists are dealing with problems of biodiversity of our planet and we are still far from any complete understanding. This is giving a bad signal to the funding agencies who fail to see the real progress? (Magda Vincx)

My concern with the concept of hot-spots is that it tends to focus attention on localities that subjectively by someone - considered to be an expert - says is special. It encourages a NIMBY approach (Not In My Back Yard), rather than a holistic approach to conserving the best in Nature. (…) Environmental economics I find difficult to deal with because to my mind it poses irrelevant questions about the values of ecological services. (Martin Angel)