Endangered (species / wildlife) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Debating biodiversity: Threatened species conservation and scientific values
The Australian journal of anthropology, 2005
This paper explores some aspects of the cultural logic of conservation biology and threatened species conservation recovery projects from the perspectives of environmental anthropology and science studies. Responses of the scientific community to recent 're-discoveries' of species believed to have become extinct are considered within current decision making models that emphasise landscape scale restoration over single species recovery projects. In particular, this paper considers responses to the proposition that dedicating resources towards recovery projects for critically endangered species is inconsistent with a rational approach to biodiversity conservation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I demonstrate that debates over the value of threatened species recovery projects cause many scientists to reflect on the ethical responsibilities and emotional attachments that led them to act as advocates for threatened species.
2011
The Convention on Biological Diversity emerged out of a universal consensus that biodiversity is of immense value to humankind. Although the report adopted the definition of the Convention on Biological Diversity, it reviews the concept of biodiversity as applied to genes, microbes, ecosystems and the planet as a whole. There are a number of accepted scientific measurements to allow recording of biodiversity, although all show that it is being reduced at rates that are unprecedented, due to anthropogenic activity. A variety of ethical approaches to human relationships to biodiversity are described in the report, but despite the range of ideas that they include, most would argue that human beings should modify their behaviour to slow the rate of biodiversity loss. Even an anthropocentric argument would also show the high value of biodiversity for current and future human generations, as exceeding the short-term gains that are the cause of most biodiversity loss. There is an extensive description of many value systems and biodiversity. Traditional practices such as the use of sacred groves were based on holistic approaches to all of life. What lessons do such systems offer us today? There is a major case study of the Tonlé Sap ecosystem in Cambodia, to explore how regulations are developed, and evolve in practice with the local and external users of a biodiversity sanctuary. Some ethical lessons are drawn from this study which may be useful for policy options for not only that habitat, but also for others. A review of international law and biodiversity is presented with attention on some of the ethical aspects. There is discussion of ecotourism policy, and labeling laws, that may be used to protect biodiversity. There are a number of policy issues for future preservation of biodiversity that suggest governments (local and national) may like to reconsider what is sustainability, what economic policy and time frames they adopt, and the role of environmental movements in implementation of policy. Although there are some good laws on paper at the international level, and at national level in some nations, these are not always implemented effectively as both the local communities and consumers globally need to act to protect biodiversity. Examination of the common goals to protect and value biodiversity over history and in the future may make the difference that is needed
As human populations have increased dramatically over the last few hundred years, mirrored by similarly expanding pressures on the natural world, a strong movement concerned with the well-being of nature has grown in response. At its core, this environmental movement seeks to promote the sustainable harvest of natural resources, to preserve natural landscapes, and to protect biological diversity. Integral to these central principles is the preservation of species, for species provide humanity with renewable natural resources, shape and animate natural landscapes, and bind together complex natural systems. This entry critically reviews the early twenty-first-century status of the endangered species concept, with particular emphasis on the role and realized contribution of the U.S. Endangered Species Act to the management of endangered species. It further provides a brief review of international legislation dealing with endangered species and summarizes the current global status of species.
Nearly Extinct in the Wild: The Vulnerable Transparency of the Endangered Species List
The Journal of Civic Information, 2021
This article reconstructs the Endangered Species Act as a government information statute. That Act makes use of an official list of vulnerable creatures that is used for agency action to save them from extinction. This article argues that the official list of species is not sufficiently accurate or transparent to citizens, so the compilation of that list does not satisfy the public interest goals of American environmental law or government transparency policy.
Values, advocacy and conservation biology
Environmental Values, 2003
In this essay, I examine the controversy concerning the advocacy of ethical values in conservation biology. First, I argue, as others have, that conservation biology is a science laden with values both ethical and non-ethical. Second, after clarifying the notion of advocacy at work, I contend that conservation biologists should advocate the preservation of biological diversity. Third, I explore what ethical grounds should be used for advocating the preservation of ecological systems by conservation biologists. I argue that conservation biologists should defend their preservationist positions on instrumentalist grounds alone if the context of discussion and debate is a scientific one.
Special Issue: The Ethics of Mass Species Extinction
Philosophia
Earth is currently undergoing rapid, massive, and in many ways unprecedented environmental changes. Over the course of the twentieth century, the human population increased 300% while the size of the global economy ballooned 2400% (McNeill & Engelke, 2014). Industrial expansion in agriculture, manufacturing, fishing, mining, and energy production and use have radically transformed the land, seas, and atmosphere. The impacts of human activities are so pervasive-chemically, geophysically, biologically, ecologically-that the International Commission on Stratigraphy is considering formally recognizing the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch, with its formal base around 1950. This Great Acceleration in human numbers and economic activity, which continues unabated, has been accompanied by pervasive ecological degradation and huge declines in Earth's biodiversity (IPBES, 2019). Across all taxa, vertebrate populations are estimated to have declined ~ 60% since 1970. There are more than 125,000 species on the IUCN Red List of threatened and endangered species, including 40% of assessed amphibians, 34% of conifers, 33% of reef building corals, 26% of mammals and 14% of birds. Current extinction rates are estimated to be 1000 times above the baseline rate and the synergistic impacts of habitat loss, pollution, overharvesting, and climate change are trending toward even faster biological depletion (Pimm et al., 2014). The consensus among conservation biologists is that we are entering a period of mass species extinction, the sixth in the 600-million-year history of multicellular life on Earth and the first to be knowingly caused by a single species: us. In recent decades, excellent work has been done in environmental ethics, environmentally informed political philosophy, and philosophy of biology related to spe