Journal Article

Assisted Species Migration and Climate Change

Warner, Rosalind

2024

Overview

Prevailing global norms surrounding species migration governance are focused on threats to ecosystem services and human needs. This article recommends a move toward an ecocentrist ethic in assisted species migration for a more transformative approach to species migration governance than currently prevails. The changed circumstances posed by human-induced climate change beg the question of which species will be prioritized for protection, management, and migration. What are the implications of this selectivity for nature governance, and what are the prospects for a new classification of species based on nature-centric and intrinsic values? A more holistic view arising from earth system governance would take note of the complexity of species’ responses to climate change and consider how prevailing anthropocentric norms might be transformed to reflect the needs and interests of species themselves. This approach would likely, perhaps ironically, permit the expansion of human-assisted migration as an important tool in nature and biodiversity governance.

• Publisher: ANU Press
• Subject: Assisted migration (Plant colonization) / Biodiversity / Climatic changes / Economic aspects / Environmental aspects / Evaluation / Government policy / Introduced organisms / Research and Theory in Human Ecology