Abstract
The ongoing global biodiversity crisis not only involves biological extinctions, but also the loss of experience and the gradual fading of cultural knowledge and collective memory of species. We refer to this phenomenon as ‘societal extinction of species’ and apply it to both extinct and extant taxa. We describe the underlying concepts as well as the mechanisms and factors that affect this process, discuss its main implications, and identify mitigation measures. Societal extinction is cognitively intractable, but it is tied to biological extinction and thus has important consequences for conservation policy and management. It affects societal perceptions of the severity of anthropogenic impacts and of true extinction rates, erodes societal support for conservation efforts, and causes the loss of cultural heritage.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 411-419 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Trends in Ecology and Evolution |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the J. E. Purkyně Fellowship of the Czech Academy of Sciences (I.J.); Australian Research Council Laureate ( FL160100101 ) and Centre of Excellence ( CE170100015 ) grants (B.W.B.); Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki , and KONE Foundation (R.A.C.); the AXA Research Fund and the 2017–2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme (F.C.); research fellowship from BBSRC ( BB/S009752/1 ), and funding from NERC ( NE/S010335/1 ) (J.A.F.); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the Collaborative Project ‘Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS)’ ( 01LC1501 ) (T.H., J.M.J.); German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development ( I-2519-119.4/2019 ) (U.R.); Oxford Martin School Oxford Martin Programme for the Illegal Wildlife Trade (D.V.); European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme ( 85424 ) (R.J.L.); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ( 20H04375 ) and Toyota Foundation ( D19-R-0102 ) (M.S.); CIRPA , the Interuniversity Centre for Research in Environmental Psychology (M.B.). The authors also thank Andrea Stephens and three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the J. E. Purkyně Fellowship of the Czech Academy of Sciences (I.J.); Australian Research Council Laureate (FL160100101) and Centre of Excellence (CE170100015) grants (B.W.B.); Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), University of Helsinki, and KONE Foundation (R.A.C.); the AXA Research Fund and the 2017–2018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme (F.C.); research fellowship from BBSRC (BB/S009752/1), and funding from NERC (NE/S010335/1) (J.A.F.); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the Collaborative Project ‘Bridging in Biodiversity Science (BIBS)’ (01LC1501) (T.H. J.M.J.); German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (I-2519-119.4/2019) (U.R.); Oxford Martin School Oxford Martin Programme for the Illegal Wildlife Trade (D.V.); European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (85424) (R.J.L.); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (20H04375) and Toyota Foundation (D19-R-0102) (M.S.); CIRPA, the Interuniversity Centre for Research in Environmental Psychology (M.B.). The authors also thank Andrea Stephens and three anonymous reviewers for providing helpful comments and suggestions that improved the manuscript. No interests are declared.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Journal Article
- Review
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't