Introduction: Autochthonous human adaptation to biodiversitychange in the Anthropocene

摘要

Rapid biodiversity change that is alreadyoccurring across the globe is accelerating, with major andoften negative consequences for human well-being.Biodiversity change is partly driven by climate change,but it has many other interacting drivers that are alsodriving human adaptation, including invasive species, landusechange, pollution and overexploitation. Humans areadapting to changes in well-being that are related withthese biodiversity drivers and other forces and pressures.Adaptation, in turn, has feedbacks both for biodiversitychange and human well-being; however, to date, theseprocesses have received little science or policy attention.This Special Issue introduces human adaptation tobiodiversity change as a science-policy issue. Researchon human adaptation to biodiversity change requires newmethods and tools as well as conceptual evolution, associal–ecological systems and environmental changeadaptation approaches must be reconsidered when theyare applied to different processes and contexts—wherebiodiversity change drivers are highly significant, wherepeople are responding principally to changes in species,species communities and related ecosystem processes, andwhere adaptation entails changes in the management ofbiodiversity and related resource use regimes. The researchwas carried out in different marine and terrestrialenvironments across the globe. All of the studies consideradaptation among highly biodiversity-reliant populations,including Indigenous Peoples in the Americas and Europe,farmers in Asia and marine resource users in Europe andthe Pacific. The concept of autochthonous adaptation isintroduced to specifically address adaptation toenvironmental change in local systems, which alsoconsiders that local adaptation is conditioned by multiscalarinfluences and occurs in synergy or conflict withadaptations of other non-local agents and actors whoenable or constrain autochthonous adaptation options.