A tribute to Bob Scholes đș
A legend in systems ecology, biodiversity conservation and climate science
ReWild Africa overheard that the 8th conference of Society for Ecological Restoration was to be held in Cape Town in 2019 and we could not miss the opportunity to be there. The team quickly collected their gear from the ReWild HQ and headed out to Century City where scientists, researchers and government officials would be meeting to discuss and collaborate on science and learnings in restoration.
The conference was focusing on Restoring Land, Water & Community Resilience, and we were fortunate enough to sit down with a number of different scientists. One of these scientists was Systems Ecologist and legend, Bob Scholes.
See the tribute film to Bob below:
What is Systems Ecology?
Systems Ecology takes a whole-system approach to studying ecology. Instead of identifying singular species to be conserved, it takes a macro approach to conservation and looks instead to the whole ecosystem as something deeply intertwined and interconnected.
Bob Scholes says: âYou canât manage this world species-by-species; it canât be done. People have tried but... you end up with these irreconcilable trade-offs. Who says that an elephant is more important than the grass that it eats, for instance? If you stand back and say that, actually, they both interact within an ecosystem, then it is the ecosystem we have to protect and thatâs when we make progress.â
Systems Ecology focuses instead on the interactions and relationships between species within an ecosystem; it is interested in how they are all connected together and also acknowledges that every species within the system plays an important role in regulating it and making it resilient. Systems Ecology also considers how human beings interact with ecological systems; how their presence changes and intersects with them.Â
Bob Scholes comments on this saying; âOver the years of my life I have seen that the global ecosystem contains people and that people are the big drivers in it. So you have to treat this as a coupled social-ecological system, and that is really where the big interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary breakthroughs are taking place.âÂ
Restoring ecosystems from a systems ecology point of view, means looking at the causes, and not the symptoms. Zooming out on a macroscale to understand how relationships - between social and ecological actors - intersect with one another is the key to understanding how to restore these systems.Â
âYou canât restore if all that is going to happen is to slide back to the previous state. So systems ecology often focuses on what the drivers of the problem are, rather than the symptoms of the problem. We need to solve those underlying drivers if we want our intervention to be persistent over time.â - Bob ScholesÂ
What is transdisciplinary research?
Transdisciplinary research recognizes that the best solutions are born out of collaboration; that we work best when we work together. It incorporates multiple disciplines and voices to create new, innovative and diverse solutions to complex problems. Knowledge exists to be shared and the boundaries between disciplines have often served to bury knowledge within these academic boxes. Transdisciplinary approaches to research and knowledge-sharing are vital in todayâs socially and ecologically precarious world. We need new ideas and ways of knowing and being to create sustainable futures, and the power of transdisciplinary research lies in the intersection of different types of knowledge from diverse fields and experiences.
As Bob Scholes says: âIf I were to critique my own field of biodiversity conservation, I would say we have been talking to ourselves for far too longâŠâÂ
It is time that we started talking to each other.Â
How can we hold Bob's Legacy?
Bob was a giant in biodiversity conservation, climate science and systems ecology. His legacy lives on not only in the scientific research he conducted, but in his ability to inspire and connect people through multidisciplinary approaches and his naturally inspiring demeanour.Â
How can we ensure his legacy lives on in what we do? At ReWild, Bobâs legacy will continue to inform the way we approach storytelling - to include diverse voices from different fields and backgrounds to shape narrative solutions. His systems ecology approach will be a driving force in how we re-think âconservationâ, our role as human beings within ecological systems, and looking at ecosystems as a whole when we think about restoration and conservation. We are just one small part of a larger whole, and Bobâs legacy reminds us that no one part is more important than the other; but instead we are all interwoven and interconnected in this greater fabric of life on earth.
Thank you Bob.Â
News from ReWild AfricaÂ
ReWild has joined the Sustainable Landscape Finance Coalition as a strategic partner! The Coalition and its partners marks the beginning of a relationship between business/finance and conservation in South Africa, and we are super excited to be a part of this process.Â
ReWild Africa also recently joined the Global ReWilding Alliance; which currently consists of 106 practitioner and messenger organisations working in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and globally that pursue the same vision and approach being: âTo heal the planet by initiating processes that aim to recover the natural beauty, diversity and resilience of earth. We aim to secure our planet so that the coming generations can also enjoy the richness of this beautiful earth.â
Wild Regards,
The ReWild Africa team