Expanding the historical baseline: using pre-modern archives to inform conservation from ecological and human perspective

Conservation practitioners are increasingly aware of historical biodiversity change and the importance of environmental archives, which comprise both specimen-based and document-based materials spanning a range of resolutions and contexts. Incorporation of written records into conservation planning typically involves documents with a biological focus from the modern and early modern periods (sixteenth century onward, and mainly the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). Extensive older pre-modern document-based archives are not traditionally used as conservation evidence. However, this data-type can provide unique insights into past human-environmental interactions, including biotic states and change, cultural interactions with nature, and human dimensions of social-ecological systems that involved rural communities closely dependent upon biodiversity. Multi-century archives can also track the long-term consequences of human activities. Incorporation of pre-modern baselines into conservation is hindered by conceptual and logistical barriers, and increased interdisciplinary collaboration between environmental sciences and the humanities is needed to promote awareness and use of conservation-relevant insights.