Gustavo Fonseca shaped conservation science, practice, and policy in profound ways and in countless places across the globe. For four decades he played a critical role in demonstrating the importance of science in informing policy and actions for biodiversity conservation and environmental sustainability. This book illustrates how his passion for transforming science to action evolved during his professional career, in terms of geographical scale, level of organization, institutional engagement, and policy and governance discourse.
The contributed papers portray Gustavo’s career as a conservation scientist and environmental leader in two dimensions: the scale of engagement, from site-level research to analyzing biodiversity data for global-level conservation decision support; and the level of organization, from species-level to landscapes and biome-wide research. Across these dimensions, Gustavo’s collaborative approach encompassed diverse disciplines from biogeography to political science, economics, and finance, all geared toward addressing the growing urgency for integrating conservation and development goals.
The chapters in this book take diverse approaches to address Gustavo’s specific contributions to the published literature and highlight how his commitment to bridging the science and policy nexus has shaped discourse and actions. The contributions cover the following themes of Gustavo’s career: species conservation and protected areas; corridors and landscape approaches; conservation planning and decision support; and crosscutting themes such as using science to inform policy and strengthen governance; scaling-up financing through innovative mechanisms; and institutional capacity building.
Gustavo was a larger-than-life personality in the global environmental and conservation movement. His career trajectory, marked by a commitment to collaborative, science-based approaches, has left a lasting impact on the field of conservation and environmental sustainability. His professional contributions to the science and practice of biodiversity conservation were extensive and multidisciplinary. For him, it was about the journey and not the destination, which is why his brilliance and eloquence inspired and touched so many of us. The contributions in this publication offer only a glimpse into the many topical areas he was associated with and reflect perspectives of a few of us who knew or worked with Gustavo at some point in our own careers. Beyond ensuring that his legacy is captured in the most succinct manner for a broad enough audience, we believe that this profile of his work and career will be a major source of inspiration for any aspiring conservation and environmental scientist.