Directions in Conservation Biology

TLDR

Conservation biology is divided into a small‑population paradigm that focuses on stochastic effects on persistence and a declining‑population paradigm that addresses causes of decline, the latter lacking a unifying theoretical framework. The small‑population paradigm has yet to make a meaningful impact on wild conservation because it mistakenly treats smallness as a causal factor.

Abstract

Conservation biology has two threads: the small-population paradigm which deals with the erect of smallness on the persistence of a population, and the declining-population paradigm which deals with the cause of smallness and its cure. The processes relevant to the small-population paradigm are amenable to theoretical examination because they generalize across species and are subsumed by an inclusive higher category: stochasticity. In contrast, the processes relevant to the declining-population paradigm are essentially humdrum, being not one but many. So far they have defied tight generalization and hence are of scant theoretical interest. The small-population paradigm has not yet contributed significantly to conserving endangered species in the wild because it treats an erect (smallness) as if it were a cause