Strengthening responsibilities to face global crises: A call to ecologists, environmental scientists and their societies

Abstract

Despite research and outreach efforts by ecologists and environmental scientists (EES), environmental crises continue to escalate. As a diverse group of concerned EES, we perceived a lack of clear guidance to articulate individual actions to improve sustainability. To address that gap, we propose ‘The Conguillío Statement on the values and responsibilities of ecologists’, a document summarizing values and responsibilities for EES in their different roles. Scientific and professional societies are fundamental institutions for the development and sharing of such guidelines across the many roles that EES take on. With the ongoing convergence of several crises, EES societies must take the lead to develop and disseminate contextualized and appropriate guidelines to their members. The ‘Conguillío Statement’ can stimulate that debate. We call on EES and their professional societies to take the lead on the effort to debate, adapt and adopt guidelines to inform EES practice towards a more sustainable future. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.