ABSTRACT
The Shifting Baseline Syndrome is a concept formulated by Daniel Pauly in 1995.1 It results in a drift away from true natural conditions, and as a consequence a change in perception of ecological change varying from generation to generation. It eventually causes a continuous lowering of standards of nature and the acceptance of degraded natural ecosystems to be the normal state of nature. The Shifting Baseline Syndrome arises if scientists:
Lack a clear unequivocal reference point of how the natural situation • used to be; Examine an environment that is hard-to-notice and continuously • changing because of man; Redefi ne what nature and natural is according to their personal • experience.
