Recovering a Nature Conservation Ethic

Ethics in Conservation

Vanquished Wildlife

'Ecological Thinking in the 21st Century' but based on knowledge from previous centuries. I used to visit rivers in East Anglia where water voles plopped to safety and insects buzzed in hovering clouds on warm evenings. Sharp bright perch and plump cautious chub swam amongst the reeds lining long lengths of the river bank. Within the past twenty years the fish are all dead, water voles extinct and the river barren. It is now too dangerous to 'cycle to the river, and even the insects which used to splat on the car windscreens are absent.

The twentieth century saw significant losses of British native wildlife. But there was awareness; school kids could name birds, and collect their eggs. Pressing Flowers was a popular hobby which connected people with nature. The Nature Conservancy and other Wildlife Trusts were established. A Deep Ecology philosophy even appeared which recognized nature's intrinsic value. But farming became agribusiness where any sense of stewardship cost profits and forestry favoured quick growing Sitka Spruce or other alien trees which vanquished natural wildlife. In 1992 the Earth Summit held in Rio attempted to address this trend, to those interested in progressing sustainability as a more mature and intelligent way to live. The Rio Summit also introduced EO Wilson's phrase 'Biodiversity' to a wider political audience.

More Consumerism in Brighton

This high point of seeking a Global Convention on Biodiversity has since collapsed and now humanity slides back down to its selfish greedy “me! me! me!” default paradigm. Even nature is seen as a resource to exploit. Terms such as 'ecosystem services' are used, but this is ultimately only a way to develop connections with nature for human benefit, without any sense of nature's intrinsic value. Brighton and Hove council noticed a new opportunity to promote their status as a City with something to sell – its nature! Their lust for an international high profile marketing pitch is driving a new desire to obtain a 'Biosphere Reserve' label from UNESCO.

Looking into the details of the 'Brighton & Hove and Lewes Downs Biosphere Project' reveals the only aim is to obtain the 'Biosphere' status in 2014. There was no mention of Biodiversity in the project manager's £32,000 Job Description. Even the publications, mission statements and plans rarely mention Biodiversity or the objectives, agreed with the Biodiversity Partnership, published over the past decade.

Beyond the 'Compulsory Consumption' mentality

There is a better way to live. A more enlightened and more fulfilling way than trudging around the shops every Saturday. Conquer the anxiety over your status with your work colleagues, defeat your fear about never earning enough and the debt from always needing a new car/house/mobile/...

Learning more about the natural world is not new. But culturally we have forgotten the immense excitement, variety and life affirming qualities that exist in nature. We can learn about nature in an 'EcoCentric' way. This is based on natural patterns. The plants and animals that naturally live in the local habitat. We may not yet know why native bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) are more ecologically critical than the hybrid (H. x massartiana) bluebells. But nature knows, and we could learn, when we start to care about the natural world.

Learning and caring about nature is not new. Over fifty years ago similar ideas were most eloquently expressed by Aldo Leopold in his 'Sand County Almanac' (OUP); they still ring loud and true today;

“Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we can see land as a community to which we belong, then we may begin to value it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, not for us to reap from it the aesthetic and spiritual harvest it can contribute to our culture, using science to help us.

Land as a community is a basic concept in ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics. That land yields a cultural harvest is a fact long known, but latterly often forgotten.

Such a view of land and people is, of course, subject to the blurs and distortions of personal experience and personal bias. But wherever the truth may lie, this much is crystal clear: our 'bigger-and-better' society is now like a hypochondriac, so obsessed with its own economic health as to have lost the capacity to remain healthy. The whole world is so greedy consuming material products that is has lost the ability to stop and think. Nothing could be more salutary at this stage than a little healthy contempt for the continual plethora of material blessings”.

Aldo Leopold, March 1948

Rolls Royce in British natural history

Britain’s natural habitats evolved over thousands of years to reach an equilibrium between the native plants and animals dependent upon them.

You cannot create a Rolls Royce based on ‘affordable family car’ parts.

Why let politicians and managers delude us into believing you can create a high quality habitat based on just a small budget, over a ridiculously short timescale?

We have amongst the best understood habitats in the world, following centuries of high quality ecological research. But this is all ignored as cheap instant ‘Green Technologies’ are imposed on inappropriate locations using engineering techniques to create artificial wildlife areas which have very little real biodiversity value.

http://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/economists-growth-insanity/ Economists’ Growth Insanity

http://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/population-boom-govt-bust/ Rapid Population Booms are a Bust for Government Efficacy