“Consilience is the unification of knowledge… It’s recognizing that we need to understand many different disciplines and understand the need to incorporate different disciplines beyond what we know and what we are comfortable with, in order to truly understand the world, understand our place in it, and understand how we might be able to live in greater harmony with it.”

Dr. Philip Miller

Senior Program Officer, IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group

At a recent lecture series put on by the Marine Mammal Care Center, Dr. Phil Miller, Senior Program Officer with the IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group (CPSG), gave a fascinating presentation titled “Consilience in Action: Participatory Conservation Planning to Save Endangered Species.” Phil has a diverse academic background in chemistry, geology, biology, and conservation genetics, and has designed and facilitated species conservation planning workshops for over 25 years. He used his vast experience in species conservation planning with species from around the world in this presentation to teach us about achieving consilience in conservation. Phil spoke of the Pearl River Estuary off the coast of Hong Kong and the ongoing industrial activities in the area (e.g., building an airport, building a bridge for a highway, high-speed ferry traffic, etc.). These industrial activities are threatening the local species of Chinese white dolphins Sousa chinensis (also known as Indo humpback dolphins). The most urgent negative impacts of these activities on the dolphins include ship strikes, increased sedimentation, and noise pollution. Phil was invited by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation and the Hong Kong International Airport Authority to facilitate a Population Viability Analysis (PVA) Workshop on the Chinese white dolphin with the objective of evaluating the status of the species and developing a conservation plan.

Phil used this example to illustrate the complexity of addressing threats on focal species, due to the high volume of anthropogenic (human caused) activities. There is a high diversity of people, knowledge, and data that needs to be considered when addressing a problem of this magnitude. The threats and issues cannot be addressed by the biologists alone; a collaborative approach with all stakeholders is necessary which goes beyond species biology, and includes other disciplines and sources of information such as social science, economics, psychology, and Indigenous knowledge systems. This style of approach is referred to as “trans-disciplinary.” In the case of the Chinese white dolphin, everyone from scientists, to managers, to villagers, to industry representatives, to politicians and beyond needed to be included in the planning process; basically, anyone with input on the issue is invited to the table.

The complexity of conserving species is not limited to the Chinese white dolphins. No species exists in isolation and threats to the species need to be addressed by a diverse group of specialists, working together as one with one goal in mind. This need is central to the One Plan Approach which considers species both inside (in situ) and outside (ex situ) their natural range.

The take-home message is: if experts work outside of their comfort zones and collaborate with other stakeholders, using the right tools, right information, and right people, we will have a better approach to species conservation planning.

The Canadian Species Initiative serves as CPSG’s Regional Resource Center in Canada, bringing the One Plan Approach and globally recognized planning processes to the conservation of our native species. Through consilience of knowledge from multiple disciplines, we can better understand the full context of the threats facing our rare species, and the full range of potential actions to address them. We are currently working directly with Phil on a Species Conservation Planning process for Loggerhead Shrike, with other projects in the works.

The full presentation by Dr. Phil Miller can be found at Beneath The Surface: Consilience in Action: Participatory Conservation Planning – YouTube.

Jaclyn Franceschini

Species Conservation Planning Assistant – Canadian Species Initiative

Jaclyn’s interest in conservation biology began with a love of the outdoors. She has spent the last few years studying freshwater and marine environments and is passionate about fish ecology. She has worked on projects studying freshwater fish (including yellow perch, northern pike, walleye, and round gobies), as well as marine species (swordfish, bluefin tuna, and common dolphins). She recently joined WPC’s Canadian Species Initiative as the Species Conservation Planning Assistant.