Brown Timothy M, Dunn Alison M, Quinnell Rupert J, Clarke Ellen, Cunningham Andrew A, Goodman Simon J
School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK.
Conserv Biol. 2025 Feb;39(1):e14431. doi: 10.1111/cobi.14431. Epub 2025 Jan 19.
Parasites represent a significant proportion of Earth's biodiversity and play important roles in the ecology and biology of ecosystems and hosts, making them an important target for conservation. Despite increasing calls to prioritize protection for parasites in the academic literature, they remain undervalued and underrepresented in global biodiversity conservation efforts, not least due to the perception that the interests of parasite and host conservation are opposing and the common misconception that parasites are a threat, rather than a benefit, to conservation. We considered whether taking an interdisciplinary approach to parasite conservation research will generate novel insights and solutions concerning why and how parasite conservation should be practiced for the benefit of parasites, their hosts, ecosystems, and people. We argue that 2 of the main barriers to more widespread parasite conservation are the knowledge gap concerning the role of sociocultural factors affecting the willingness to enact parasite conservation and the lack of a consistent and cohesive philosophical basis for parasite conservation. Possible sociocultural barriers to parasite conservation include misconceptions of the risks posed by parasites, taxonomic bias, differences in conservation values, economic constraints, and technical challenges. The use of social science can generate insights into levels of awareness and support for parasite conservation and improve understanding of how human values and attitudes mediate conservation practices concerning parasites. Such knowledge will have a critical role in addressing sociocultural barriers and improving support for parasite conservation. Issues with the current philosophical basis for parasite conservation include contradictory accounts of which parasites merit conservation, insufficient explanation of how different conservation values apply to parasite biodiversity, and the existence of a false antagonism between host and parasite conservation. Greater engagement with philosophical work on environmental ethics and biological unitization will strengthen existing arguments for parasite conservation and will support conservation decision-making processes.
寄生虫在地球生物多样性中占很大比例，在生态系统和宿主的生态与生物学中发挥着重要作用，使其成为保护的重要目标。尽管学术文献中越来越多地呼吁优先保护寄生虫，但在全球生物多样性保护工作中，它们仍然被低估且代表性不足，这主要是因为人们认为寄生虫保护与宿主保护的利益相悖，以及普遍存在一种误解，即寄生虫对保护构成威胁而非益处。我们思考了采用跨学科方法进行寄生虫保护研究是否会产生关于为何以及如何进行寄生虫保护以造福寄生虫、其宿主、生态系统和人类的新颖见解和解决方案。我们认为，更广泛地开展寄生虫保护的两个主要障碍是，在影响实施寄生虫保护意愿的社会文化因素作用方面存在知识差距，以及缺乏一致且连贯的寄生虫保护哲学基础。寄生虫保护可能存在的社会文化障碍包括对寄生虫所构成风险的误解、分类学偏见、保护价值差异、经济限制和技术挑战。运用社会科学可以深入了解对寄生虫保护的认知程度和支持情况，并增进对人类价值观和态度如何影响寄生虫保护实践的理解。这些知识对于消除社会文化障碍和提高对寄生虫保护的支持将起到关键作用。当前寄生虫保护哲学基础存在的问题包括，对于哪些寄生虫值得保护存在相互矛盾的观点，对不同保护价值如何适用于寄生虫生物多样性的解释不足，以及在宿主保护和寄生虫保护之间存在错误的对立关系。更多地参与环境伦理学和生物统一化方面的哲学工作，将强化现有的寄生虫保护论据，并支持保护决策过程。
