Values, advocacy and conservation biology (original) (raw)

Conservation as Virtue: a Scientific and Social Process for Conservation Ethics

Conservation Biology, 2006

Most scientists take ethical arguments for conservation as given and focus on scientific or economic questions. Although nature conservation is often considered a just cause, it is given little further consideration. A lack of attention to ethical theory raises serious concerns for how conservation scientists conceive and practice ethics. I contrast two common ways scientists approach ethics, as demonstrated in the writings of Stephen Jay Gould and E. O. Wilson. Gould casts severe doubt as to whether any ethics are possible from science, whereas Wilson proposes science as the only path to ethics. I argue these two methods ultimately limit popular support for conservation and offer Alasdair MacIntyre's "virtue ethics" as an alternative. Unlike Gould and Wilson, MacIntyre provides an ethical theory that reconciles scientific inquiry and social traditions. Recent studies of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States affirm MacIntyre's claims and provide important insights for conservation today. These accounts argue that social solidarity and political success against segregation were possible only as rooted in the particular language, logic, and practices of a robust cultural tradition. If correct, conservation science should attend to several questions. On what basis can conservation achieve widespread cultural legitimacy? What are the particular social currencies for a conservation ethic? What role does science play in such a scheme? MacIntyre's careful positioning of scientific and social traditions provides a hopeful ethical direction for conservation.

Conservation Values, Conservation Science: A Healthy Tension

Conservation Biology, 1996

Resumen: La practica de la biologia de la conservacion se autoderrota si no considera activa y continuamente las questiones de valores que la moldean. La biologia de la conservacion es inevitablemente normativa. Si la politica editorial de o las publicactones en Conservation Biology conducen a la disciplina hacla una aproximacion "`objetiva y libre de valores', entonces no educa ni transforma a la sociedad y reduce el enfoque sobre el "objeto de estudio" (ya sea especies, pozas genicas, paisajes o ecosistemas). Es equivocado pretender que extinciones masivas se evitaran con la adquisicion del "conocimtento positivo"por si solo. Los biologos de la conservacion deben reflexionar acerca de los valores constitutivos (especlalmente los contextuales, asi como los metodologicos o sesgos) que subyacen en sus programas de investtgacion y recomendaciones. Tal reflexion es por st sola un elemento inherente a la objetividad cienttfica que considera la naturaleza social del conocimiento cienttfico. Al no reconocer tal perspectiva abiertamente, la biologia de la conservacion se volveria una mera subdisciplina de la biologia, intelectual y funcionalmente esteril e incapaz de evitar una extincion antropogenica masiva.

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.

Credibility and advocacy in conservation biology

Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2015

Conservation policy sits at the nexus of natural science and politics. On the one hand, conservation biologists strive to maintain scientific credibility by emphasizing that their research findings are the result of disinterested observations of reality. On the other hand, conservation biologists are committed to conservation even if they do not advocate a particular policy. The professional conservation literature has offered guidance on negotiating the relationship between scientific objectivity and political advocacy without damaging conservation biology's credibility. The value of this guidance, however, may be restricted by limited recognition of credibility's multidimensionality and emergent nature: it emerges through perceptions of expertise, goodwill, and trustworthiness. We used content analysis of conservation biology literature to determine how it framed credibility as related to apparent contradictions between science and advocacy. The literature typically framed...

Integrating Ecological Sciences and Environmental Ethics into Biocultural Conservation

Environmental Ethics, 2008

This special issue of Environmental Ethics is based on the workshop "Integrating Ecological Sciences and Environmental Ethics: New Approaches to Understanding and Conserving Frontier Ecosystems," held in the temperate sub-Antarctic region of southern Chile, in March 2007. 1 The workshop was jointly organized by the Department of Philosophy and Religion Studies of the University of North Texas (UNT) and the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (IEB-Chile), in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Philosophy, and followed a three-week field graduate course, "Conservation and Society: Biocultural Diversity and Environmental Ethics," involving graduate students from the U.S. and Latin America. These events built on a decade of collaboration between UNT environmental philosophers and Chilean ecologists, and were followed by two symposia held subsequently at two annual meetings of the Ecological Society of America (2007 and 2008). 2

Framing conservation: ‘biodiversity’ and the values embedded in scientific language

Environmental Conservation

Summary The global loss of biodiversity is one of the most important challenges facing humanity, and a multi-faceted strategy is needed to address the size and complexity of this problem. This paper draws on scholarship from the philosophy of science and environmental ethics to help address one aspect of this challenge: namely, the question of how to frame biodiversity loss in a compelling manner. The paper shows that the concept of biodiversity, like many scientific concepts, is value-laden in the sense that it tends to support some ethical or social values over others. Specifically, in comparison with other potential concepts, the biodiversity concept is tied more closely to the notion that nature has intrinsic value than to the idea that nature is valuable instrumentally or relationally. Thus, alternative concepts could prove helpful for communicating about biodiversity loss with those who emphasize different value systems. The paper briefly discusses five concepts that illustrat...

Why conservation scientists should re-embrace their ecocentric roots

Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 2017

In this Diversity article we take a closer look at the explicit ecocentric roots of conservation biology, and we note that a growing number of conservationists have recently voiced support for ecocentric natural value. We argue that although ecosystem services arguments may play an important role in stemming our biodiversity crisis, a true transformation of our relationship with nature ought to be based in part on ecocentric valuation; conservation biologists ought to continue to play a role in leading such a transformation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.