Genealogies of scientifically induced biomobilities: restoration ecology under climate emergency Restoration ecology under climate emergency

Abstract

Climate change has transformed the principles of conservation biology, especially around species translocation. Faced with the expectation that many plants and animals will not be able to move fast enough to adapt to new environmental scenarios, restoration ecology is searching for alternatives to retrospective approaches focused on recovering past ecological states. In their place, prospective strategies such as assisted migration emerges, which, based on climate projections, moves species out of their native niches to favor their future survival. This article analyzes this intellectual and practical turn in conservation, attending to the genealogical tensions and contradictions associated with both assisted migration and rewilding. Through a discursive analysis of restoration ecology, we show how environmental conservation has historically focused on landscape design and in categories such as native/exotic or endemic/invasive. The growing centrality of scientifically induced biomobilities and the creation of new ecological assemblages question some of these principles and suggest the emergence of a new paradigm: anticipatory ecology.