Conservation and Ethics

I. Ethics

II. The VALUE of BIODIVERSITY A. Instrumental

1) Goods

2) Services

3) Information

4) Psycho-spiritual

5) Tools of Economic Valuation

B. Intrinsic

http://arctic.fws.gov/ecoregions.htm

“Conservation is about choosing: how much land and water will we relinquish for other species?” -Adams

Choices must be made, based on values

CHARACTERISTICS OF CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

6) Adaptive & legally empowered

5) Science with an Evolutionary Time Scale

4) Multidisciplinary

3) Advocacy/Crisis Oriented

2) Value Laden, Mission Driven

1) Focus = diversity

http://www.nrdc.org/land/wilderness/arctic.asp

I. Ethics -Study of Moral Phenomena . . .

• Moral phenomena –

• Moral considerability - what deserves moral consideration

• Moral Values -

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.”

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

A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE

Help from a friend? Antimicrobial peptides secreted by a variety of frogs prevent HIV infection.http://exploration.vanderbilt.edu/news/news_froghiv.htm

i.e. Frog secretions block HIV infections

A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE continued

A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE cont.

2. Services - indirect economic benefits derived "free" from functioning ecosystems1. Goods - - direct economic benefits derived from uses of individual species

‘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.

3. Information - content of the genetic code represents a resource of knowledge

A. INSTRUMENTAL VALUE cont.

2. Services - indirect economic benefits derived "free" from functioning ecosystems1. Goods - - direct economic benefits derived from uses of individual species

Total Economical Value of an Ecosystem

• USE Values– Direct Use (commodity values)– Indirect Use

• OPTION Value

• EXISTANCE Value

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

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

Example of CBA for three development options in Bacuit Bay, Philippines

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?

• “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.”

B. INTRINSIC VALUE

vs.

Callicott, Elliot: - something has instrumental value if for its utility (to humans)

- something has intrinsic value if it is valued for its own sake

Rolston - individuals have evolutionary ‘goals’

- therefore native ecosystems also have intrinsic value as ‘arenas’ for evolution

B. INTRINSIC VALUE – By Whose Philosophy?

Norton: - distinction unnecessary

- instrumental value arguments lead to exactly the same conservation policy

Other philosophies on intrinsic value of biodiversity:

Johnson: - species best thought of as "individuals" protracted through space and time

- ecosystems are "superorganisms"

Instrinsic Value vs. Instrumental Value

BURDEN OF PROOFDevelopers Conservationists

VALUE OF BIODIVERSITYintrinsic instrumental

CBASMS

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

A. Anthropocentrism

1) from Western religious & philosophical tradition:

• God pronounced everything to be "good“, assigning intrinsic value to all forms of life

• Genesis (2:15) 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

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 nature’s economy

Conserve nature to preserve

human society

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

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

Comparison of Western Environmental Ethics

Value AnthropocentrismJudeo

-ChristianBiocentrism Ecocentrism

Intrinsic Human beingsSpecies/

creation as a whole

Individual organisms

Species, ecosystems,

biosphere

nature InstrumentalHolistic-intrinsic

Individualistic-intrinsic

Holistic - intrinsic

man’s place in nature

Lord and master CaretakerOne among

equals

Plain member

and citizen

4 Postulates of Conservation Biology

1) 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;

M. Soulé