New Book -- Biologists Unite: The Rise and Fall of Ecosystem Services (MIT Press)
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Daniel Suarez
Dec 2, 2025, 1:52:46 PM (9 days ago) Dec 2
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Dear colleagues,
The book explores political realignments in global biodiversity conservation through the story of ecosystem services: an emergent field of science dedicated to analyzing, and where possible measuring, the many valuable “services” nature provides to humanity. What is at stake in ongoing attempts to recast nature as “natural capital”? Why did this way of thinking gain such widespread currency among conservationists? And what can the contemporary embrace of nature-based solutions like ecosystem services tell us about the changing politics of environmentalism more broadly?
The book offers an intimate, insider perspective on these hotly debated questions: an ethnographic portrait of ecosystem services shown through the predicaments of its core champions — chief among them, life scientists, endeavoring to “mainstream” the idea across a range of governance contexts — as they were forced to learn on the job (and very much the hard way) how to reckon with the political character and radical implications of our dire planetary conjuncture.
Drawing on years of participant observation conducted around two influential initiatives, the Natural Capital Project and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the book narrates the meteoric rise of ecosystem services — an approach once heralded as the way forward for conservation — but also how fragile this strategy turned out to be when put to the test.
I'm excited to share my first book, Biologists Unite: The Rise and Fall of Ecosystem Services, which will be coming out next month with MIT Press and is now available for pre-order:
The book explores political realignments in global biodiversity conservation through the story of ecosystem services: an emergent field of science dedicated to analyzing, and where possible measuring, the many valuable “services” nature provides to humanity. What is at stake in ongoing attempts to recast nature as “natural capital”? Why did this way of thinking gain such widespread currency among conservationists? And what can the contemporary embrace of nature-based solutions like ecosystem services tell us about the changing politics of environmentalism more broadly?
The book offers an intimate, insider perspective on these hotly debated questions: an ethnographic portrait of ecosystem services shown through the predicaments of its core champions — chief among them, life scientists, endeavoring to “mainstream” the idea across a range of governance contexts — as they were forced to learn on the job (and very much the hard way) how to reckon with the political character and radical implications of our dire planetary conjuncture.
Drawing on years of participant observation conducted around two influential initiatives, the Natural Capital Project and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the book narrates the meteoric rise of ecosystem services — an approach once heralded as the way forward for conservation — but also how fragile this strategy turned out to be when put to the test.
With gratitude (and apologies for any cross-posting),
Dan
--
Daniel Chiu Suarez
Assistant Professor & CV Starr Fellow
Environmental Studies
Middlebury College
office hours: by appointment
Hillcrest 218 / (802) 443-5365
dsu...@middlebury.edu
he / him / his
website: https://danielsuarez.ca/
Daniel Chiu Suarez
Assistant Professor & CV Starr Fellow
Environmental Studies
Middlebury College
office hours: by appointment
Hillcrest 218 / (802) 443-5365
dsu...@middlebury.edu
he / him / his
website: https://danielsuarez.ca/
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