From Assessing to Conserving Biodiversity: Conceptual and Practical Challenges

This open access book features essays written by philosophers, biologists, ecologists and conservation scientists facing the current biodiversity crisis. Despite increasing communication, accelerating policy and management responses, and notwithstanding improving ecosystem assessment and endangered species knowledge, conserving biodiversity continues to be more a concern than an accomplished task. Why is it so?The overexploitation of natural resources by our species is a frequently recognised factor, while the short-term economic interests of governments and stakeholders typically clash with the burdens that implementing conservation actions imply. But this is not the whole story. This book develops a different perspective on the problem by exploring the conceptual challenges and practical defiance posed by conserving biodiversity, namely: on the one hand, the difficulties in defining what biodiversity is and characterizing that "thing" to which the word 'biodiversity' refers to; on the other hand, the reasons why assessing biodiversity and putting in place effective conservation actions is arduous.

這本開放存取的書籍收錄了哲學家、生物學家、生態學家和保育科學家撰寫的文章，探討當前生物多樣性危機。儘管溝通日益增加、政策和管理回應加速、生態系統評估和瀕危物種知識不斷改善，但保護生物多樣性仍然更像是一個關注的問題，而不是一項已完成的任務。為什麼會這樣呢？我們物種對自然資源的過度開發是一個常被認可的因素，而政府和利益相關者的短期經濟利益通常與實施保育行動所帶來的負擔相衝突。但這並不是全部。本書通過探索保護生物多樣性所面臨的概念挑戰和實際困難，提出了一個不同的觀點，即：一方面，定義生物多樣性並對所謂的「生物多樣性」進行特徵化的困難；另一方面，評估生物多樣性並實施有效的保育行動的困難原因。

Elena Casetta is assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy and Educational Science at the University of Turin (Italy), where she teaches Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Biology. Trained in theoretical philosophy, she then specialized in philosophy of biology at the IHPST (Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques), CNRS/Paris 1/ENS Paris and at the Centre for Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon where she was the Principal Investigator of the Scientific Research and Technological Development Project "BIODECON - Which Biodiversity Definition for Biodiversity Conservation?" funded by the FCT, the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology. On the philosophy of biodiversity, she edited, with Julien Delord, La biodiversité en question. Enjeux philosophiques et scientifiques, Paris, Les Éditions Materiologiques, 2014 and she wrote, with Andrea Borghini, Filosofia da biodiversidade, Lisboa, Colibri, 2018.

Jorge Marques da Silva is assistant professor at the Faculty of Science and principal investigator at the Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute (University of Lisbon). As a plant physiologist, Jorge is interested on the mechanisms of response to stress, chiefly on the effects of drought stress on photosynthetic metabolism. His main scientific interest is on understanding how interactions of abiotic stresses with photosynthetic metabolism impairs primary productivity. Currently, Jorge is working in highthroughput plant phenotyping, aiming to unravel environment-genetic interactions in phenotype development, with the ultimate goal of improving crop responses to climate change. Jorge also developed a parallel interest in teaching and research in Global Bioethics, mainly Environmental Ethics.

Davide Vecchi is currently FCT Research Fellow at the Department of History and Philosophy of Sciences of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). Formed philosophically at Bologna University(Italy) and the LSE (UK) and biologically at the KLI (Austria) and the University of Santiago (Chile), Davide is broadly interested in theoretical issues in evolutionary biology, particularly concerning the nature of genomic change and the robustness of neutralist explanations of biological complexity. He is also interested in theoretical issues in developmental biology and, more generally, in the way contemporary biology informs philosophical debates concerning, for instance, causation, biological individuality and human nature. At the moment, his research focuses on making sense of the causal role of DNA, genes and genomes in development and evolution.

Elena Casetta是都靈大學(義大利)哲學與教育科學系的助理教授，教授自然哲學和生物哲學。她在理論哲學方面接受過培訓，並在IHPST（科學和技術歷史哲學研究所）、CNRS/巴黎第一大學/巴黎高等師範學校以及里斯本大學科學哲學中心專攻生物哲學。在里斯本大學，她是由葡萄牙國家科學、研究和技術資助機構FCT資助的科學研究和技術發展項目“BIODECON - 用於生物多樣性保護的生物多樣性定義是什麼？”的首席調查員。在生物多樣性哲學方面，她與Julien Delord合編了《La biodiversité en question. Enjeux philosophiques et scientifiques》（巴黎，Les Éditions Materiologiques，2014），並與Andrea Borghini合著了《Filosofia da biodiversidade》（里斯本，Colibri，2018）。

Jorge Marques da Silva是里斯本大學科學學院的助理教授，也是生物系統與整合科學研究所的首席調查員。作為植物生理學家，Jorge對應激反應機制特別感興趣，尤其是乾旱應激對光合代謝的影響。他主要的科學興趣在於了解非生物應激與光合代謝的相互作用如何損害初級生產力。目前，Jorge正在進行高通量植物表型分析的研究，旨在揭示環境與基因在表型發展中的相互作用，最終目標是改善作物對氣候變化的反應。Jorge還對全球生物倫理學的教學和研究產生了興趣，尤其是環境倫理學。

Davide Vecchi目前是里斯本大學科學學院歷史和科學哲學系的FCT研究員。他在博洛尼亞大學（義大利）和倫敦政治經濟學院（英國）接受了哲學教育，並在奧地利KLI和智利聖地亞哥大學接受了生物學教育。Davide對進化生物學的理論問題非常感興趣，特別關注基因組變化的性質和生物複雜性的中性解釋的可靠性。他還對發育生物學的理論問題以及當代生物學如何影響哲學辯論（例如因果關係、生物個體性和人類本性）感興趣。目前，他的研究重點是理解DNA、基因和基因組在發育和進化中的因果作用。