The Anthropocene era has been marked by such significant human pressure that it has led to the sixth mass extinction. The Baseline Concept in Biodiversity Conservation interprets human domination of the Earth as the process of gradual landscape change, the execution of which is neither linear nor homogeneous.This book is structured around three key questions: Where and when did everything go wrong? How do we define baseline states for biodiversity conservation strategies? How are reference states mobilized in a concrete way through case studies?Today, biodiversity conservation faces a dilemma that this book sheds light on: return to states less modified by humans than today but in a world that has changed significantly; or, let the nature of tomorrow express itself where it still can but without a road map.

Part 1. Defining Baselines1. Temporal Baselines: Finding a Tipping Point in the Past by Laurent Godet, Simon Dufour, Anne-Julia Rollet and Armelle Decaulne2. Spatial Baselines: Is Going Elsewhere Easier Than Going Back in Time by Anne-Julia Rollet, Simon Dufour and Armelle Decaulne3. Mapping What is Left of Nature by Laurent Godet and Adrien Geutté4. The Baseline: A Social Construction by Clémence Moreau, Cécile Barnaud and Raphaël MathevetPart 2. Using Baselines to Conserve Nature5. Rewilding by the Return of Ghosts of the Past by Laurent Godet6. Spontaneous Rewilding through Land Abandonment by Adrien Guetté and Jonathan Carruthers-Jones7. Geoprospective: Looking for Potential Scenarios by Thomas Houet8. The Place of Ecological Knowledge in Policies for Ecological Neutrality: No Net Loss and Biodiversity Offsetting by Coralie CalvetPart 3. Examples of the Use of Baselines9. The Variability of Baselines Mobilized in Littoral Protected Areas: The Anthropocene as a Dividing Line? By Vincent Andreu-Boussut and Céline Chadenas10. Baselines and French Forests by Damien Marage11. How Can We Maintain Traditional Agro-Pastoral Landscapes? By David Montembault