What kind of conservation do we need for the 21st century?

Are current conservation strategies suited to the future? Do they need to change and if so how?

Are our strategies for the conservation of nature right to cope with future human demands and pressures? That is the question addressed in the 36th T.B. Macaulay Lecture, which will be given by Professor Bill Adams, Moran Professor of Conservation and Development at the University of Cambridge. The lecture takes place at the James Hutton Institute on 14 June 2013.

Professor Adams said: “In the twenty first century, the scale and intensity of human impacts on the biosphere and biodiversity are widely recognised: we live in the Anthropocene, the era of humankind. The conservation movement has developed many strategies to defend nature from human pressure.

"There have been successes, biodiversity continues to be lost and novel ecosystems are being created that have no natural analogue. These challenge our idea of naturalness and of conservation. Are current conservation strategies suited to the future? Do they need to change and if so how?”.

The T.B. Macaulay Lecture is organised by the Trustees of the Macaulay Development Trust and the James Hutton Institute, to support sustainable land management through research and education. It is delivered to an audience from the scientific, academic policy and agricultural communities.

Professor Iain Gordon, Chief Executive of the James Hutton Institute said: “We are deeply honoured that Professor Adams will be delivering this year’s T.B. Macaulay lecture. The James Hutton Institute is also very proud that we are continuing the long established tradition of hosting this prestigious lecture, which is so much a part of our legacy from the former Macaulay Land Use Research Institute.

"Professor Adams’ theme of the impact of humanity on our precious natural environment chimes with 2013 being the Year of Natural Scotland and is at the very heart of what we are trying to achieve through our research at the Institute.”

Eric Baird, Chair of the Macaulay Development Trust said: “The Macaulay Development Trust supports research into the sustainable use of our natural resources. The recently published 'State of Nature' Report shows that many of Scotland's habitats and species are under threat. It is clearly time to look critically at how we manage our natural heritage.

"The Trust is pleased to invite Professor Adams to stimulate the new thinking that is needed. We also welcome the hosting by the James Hutton Institute of this year's lecture. It promises to be an occasion where science, policy, and practice can meet.”

The Lecture will take place at the James Hutton Institute in Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, on Friday 14 June, from 2pm to 4pm.

Notes for editors

Representatives from the media are welcome to attend the Lecture.

Professor Bill Adams holds the Moran Professor of Conservation and Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. He has been teaching about conservation and sustainable development since 1984. His research explores the tensions between conservation and development, and draws on a range of disciplines but particularly political ecology. Most of his work has focused on Africa and the UK. Professor Adams is currently studying landscape-scale conservation and ecological restoration projects in the UK and East Africa and the implications of ideas of naturalness, novel ecosystems and synthetic biology for conservation practice. He blogs at thinkinglikeahuman.wordpress.com.

The annual T.B. Macaulay Lecture is held to honour the vision of Dr Thomas Bassett Macaulay, President and Chairman of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, whose benefaction founded the original Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in 1930. He was a descendant of the Macaulays from the Island of Lewis and his aim was to improve the productivity of Scottish agriculture. This vision continues today in its successor the James Hutton Institute, a world leader in land, crop, waters, environmental and socio-economic science.