The Limits of territorially-focused conservation : A critical assessment based on cartographic and geographic approaches

This paper provides a critical assessment of territorially-focused conservation practice from geographic perspectives, focusing particularly on the influence of cartography. Specifically, we highlight ways that contemporary mapping technologies and practices can privilege territorial conservation approaches, perhaps at the expense of other possibilities, as well as other ways that mapping conditions the flexibility and types of conservation feasible. For instance, how might mapping practices lead to an emphasis on certain species, ecosystems, or conservation concepts over others? How appropriate is the static idea of a mapped conservation space for fluctuating environmental conditions and changing threats? Understanding that many of the challenges outlined here are acknowledged by conservation practitioners, we provide a brief sketch of ways in which these concerns are currently addressed in the conservation biology literature. In the final section, we return to our focus on geography and cartography to consider how advances in these fields might proffer further solutions that could be engaged to assist in confronting these conservation challenges. Our goal in highlighting these critiques and potential solutions is to identify gaps and opportunities that would benefit from increased interdisciplinary engagement across conservation, geographic, and cartographic fields.Non UBCReviewedFacult