Analysis: ‘Top 100’ ecological questions identified

The British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology has published a list of the 100 ecological questions it believes are most in need of a policy response.

654 environmental stakeholders –researchers, academics, policy-makers or lobbyists – recently gathered for a two-day workshop in order to provide evidence-based answers to ecological questions that are of interest to policy-makers.

Professor Bill Sutherland of the University of East Anglia (UK), leader of the initiative, is known for speaking against the “information gap” between scientists and the political sphere. The two-day conference therefore aimed at producing “a greater synergy between policy, practice and research” and to accurately “inform researchers and research funders as to where their efforts might best be focused.”

Despite diverging preferences as regards the degree of generality of the issues raised (the scientists favouring specific questions, whereas other stakeholders would go for more general ones), the participants finally came up with a list of 100 questions, most of which deal with understanding the drivers of biodiversity change and the effectiveness of the conservation response. The audience agreed to categorise the issues under 14 headings:

• Ecosystem services 
• Farming
• Forestry
• Fisheries, aquaculture and marine conservation
• Recreation and field sports
• Urban development
• Aliens and invasive species
• Pollution
• Climate change
• Energy generation and carbon management
• Conservation strategies
• Habitat management and restoration
• Connectivity and landscape use
• Making space for water 

Though marked by the UK context, the discussion could resonate with the interests of other countries – especially EU and north-west European ones. Among other ‘universal’ findings, the debate demonstrated the “mismatch” between problem formulation by the scientists and the policy-makers, hence the need for an “analytical-deliberative process” in scientific decision-making.