Conservation and Ethics

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Conservation and Ethics

• Ethics
• The VALUE of BIODIVERSITY
• Instrumental
• Goods
• Services
• Information
• Psycho-spiritual
• Tools of Economic Valuation
• Intrinsic

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Conservation is about choosing how much land
and water will we relinquish for other species?
-Adams Choices must be made, based on values
http//arctic.fws.gov/ecoregions.htm
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CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGY
4) Multidisciplinary
1) Focus diversity
5) Science with an Evolutionary Time Scale
2) Value Laden, Mission Driven
6) Adaptive legally empowered
3) Advocacy/Crisis Oriented
http//www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arctic.asp
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I. Ethics -Study of Moral Phenomena . . .

• Moral phenomena
• Moral considerability - what deserves moral
  consideration
• Moral Values -

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Value basis for an estimation of worthEthics
systematic organizations of values
Community
communities that have strong bonds among their
members and clear ethics about their relationship
to the land draw on deep wells of social capitol
in the form of trust, civic and religious
organizations, and traditions.
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II. The VALUE of BIODIVERSITY
- utilitarian - anthropocentric focus -
biodiversity is valued only as serving human
self-interests
- inherent - boicentric - value as an end
in itself - the intrinsic value of nature is
controversial
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A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE

i.e. Frog secretions block HIV infections
Help from a friend? Antimicrobial peptides
secreted by a variety of frogs prevent HIV
infection. http//exploration.vanderbilt.edu/news/
news_froghiv.htm
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A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE continued
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A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE cont.

1. Goods - - direct economic benefits derived
from uses of individual species
2. Services - indirect economic benefits derived
"free" from functioning ecosystems
Biodiversity contains the accumulated wisdom of
nature and the key to its future Meadows (1990)
1) In an ecosystem context, the value of genetic
variability within a species is defined by its
role in supporting complex interactions with
other species.
Australia, for example, has 15 of the world's
16 species of wild soybean. These may prove to be
extremely valuable genetic stock in the future
because, unlike current commercial varieties,
many of these wild plants have genes that help
them resist leaf rust diseases.
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A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE cont.
1. Goods - - direct economic benefits derived
from uses of individual species
2. Services - indirect economic benefits derived
"free" from functioning ecosystems
3. Information - content of the genetic code
represents a resource of knowledge
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Total Economical Value of an Ecosystem

• USE Values
• Direct Use (commodity values)
• Indirect Use
• OPTION Value
• EXISTANCE Value

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Tools of economic valuation

• assesses the benefits of a particular action
  and compare them to the environmental costs of
  that action
• Attempt to translate values associated w/ a
  decision into a market value for direct
  comparison
• attempts to determine, and maintain some
  minimum level of renewable resource to regulate
  activities
• Management based on an existence value (e.g.
  minimum pop. Size of a species) rather than an
  economic value

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Example of CBA for three development options in
Bacuit Bay, Philippines
Development Tourism Fisheries Logging Total
1) Intensive Logging 6 9 10 25
2) Logging Banned 25 17 0 42
3) Sustainable logging 24 16 4 44
Revenues are in millions of dollars over a 10
year period
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WTP (willingness to pay) how much would you pay
for the preservation of a given entity? WTA
(willingness to accept) what would you accept as
compensation for losses suffered as a result of
an activity?
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• In developing ideas about the overall value of
  biodiversity it has been natural to draw on
  existing arguments about values of individual
  species (for review, see World Conservation Union
  1980 Norton 1988).
• Commodity value and other direct use values have
  intuitive appeal because they reflect known
  values.
• But a key problem is that species need to be
  preserved for reasons other than any known value
  as resources for human use (Sober 1986).
• Callicott (1986) discusses philosophical
  arguments regarding non-utilitarian value and
  concludes that there is no easy argument to be
  made except a moral one.
• Species have some "intrinsic value" - reflecting
  the idea that a species has a value "in and for
  itself" (Callicott 1986, p.140) - and there is an
  ethical obligation to protect biodiversity.

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B. INTRINSIC VALUE
vs.
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B. INTRINSIC VALUE By Whose Philosophy?
Other philosophies on intrinsic value of
biodiversity
Johnson - species best thought of as
"individuals" protracted through space and time
- ecosystems are "superorganisms"
Rolston - individuals have evolutionary goals
- therefore native ecosystems also have
intrinsic value as arenas for evolution
Callicott, Elliot - something has instrumental
value if for its utility (to humans) -
something has intrinsic value if it is valued for
its own sake
Norton - distinction unnecessary -
instrumental value arguments lead to exactly the
same conservation policy
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Instrinsic Value vs. Instrumental Value
SMS
CBA
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III. Conservation Ethics

• Discipline within philosophy that articulates the
  ethical value of the natural world
• Arguments for priorities
• Each species has a right to exist
• All species are interdependent
• People have a responsibility to act as stewards
  of the Earth
• People have a responsibility to future
  generations
• Respect for human life and concern for human
  interests are compatible with a respect for
  biodiversity
• Nature has spiritual and aesthetic value that
  transcends its economic value
• Biological diversity is needed to determine the
  origin of life

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A. Anthropocentrism

1. from Western religious philosophical
   tradition

• God pronounced everything to be "good,
  assigning intrinsic value to all forms of life
• Genesis (215) suggest the role of man as a
  RESPONSIBLE CARETAKER AND
• STEWARD, rather than a tyrant
• objective intrinsic value of nature by divine
  decree.
• species ("kinds") are the focus of intrinsic
  value, not individual organisms

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2). Non-Western Environmental Ethics
Characteristic Islam Buddhism Taoism Confuciansim
Source of value in nature External (Allah) Internal Budda-nature Emergent The Tao Emergent relational
Human attitude toward nature Respect for creation is respect for creator Loving-kindness solidarity Harmony cooperation Interrelated interdependent
Conservation practice Conserve resources for future generations Still desires reduce consumption contemplate nature Adapt human economy to natures economy Conserve nature to preserve human society
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B. Biocentrism
SENTIENCE as the capacity to experience pleasure
and pain (Bentham) how many species are
included? SENTIENCE as a means to an
animals survival (Goodpaster, 1978) -
first biocentric ethic
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C. Ecocentrism

• no single organism is more important than
  another. Ecocentrism does not even distinguish
  between animate life and inanimate matter or
  process. The entire "sphere" of life is important

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Comparison of Western Environmental Ethics
Value Anthropocentrism Judeo -Christian Biocentrism Ecocentrism
Intrinsic Human beings Species/ creation as a whole Individual organisms Species, ecosystems, biosphere
nature Instrumental Holistic-intrinsic Individualistic-intrinsic Holistic - intrinsic
mans place in nature Lord and master Caretaker One among equals Plain member and citizen
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4 Postulates of Conservation Biology
M. Soulé

• diversity of organisms is good biophilia
• corollary

2) ecological complexity is good corollary
3) evolution is good corollary interferences
with processes of adaptation/speciation is bad
4) biotic diversity has intrinsic value,
regardless of its utilitarian value