Human Values and Biodiversity Conservation


Book Description

This pioneering book explores the influence of human values on the willingness of individuals to pay for the conservation of individual wildlife species (and classes of these), to be for or against their survival, and to favour or oppose their harvesting.




The Value of Life


Book Description

The Value of Life is an exploration of the actual and perceived importance of biological diversity for human beings and society. Stephen R. Kellert identifies ten basic values, which he describes as biologically based, inherent human tendencies that are greatly influenced and moderated by culture, learning, and experience. Drawing on 20 years of original research, he considers: the universal basis for how humans value nature differences in those values by gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, and geographic location how environment-related activities affect values variation in values relating to different species how vlaues vary across cultures policy and management implications Throughout the book, Kellert argues that the preservation of biodiversity is fundamentally linked to human well-being in the largest sense as he illustrates the importance of biological diversity to the human sociocultural and psychological condition.




Biodiversity


Book Description

Biodiversity has become a buzzword in the environmental movement and in science, and is increasingly being taught in university degree courses. This new text is designed as a primer, giving non-specialists an introduction to the historical context, current debates, and ongoing research in this subject.




Perspectives on Biodiversity


Book Description

Resource-management decisions, especially in the area of protecting and maintaining biodiversity, are usually incremental, limited in time by the ability to forecast conditions and human needs, and the result of tradeoffs between conservation and other management goals. The individual decisions may not have a major effect but can have a cumulative major effect. Perspectives on Biodiversity reviews current understanding of the value of biodiversity and the methods that are useful in assessing that value in particular circumstances. It recommends and details a list of components-including diversity of species, genetic variability within and among species, distribution of species across the ecosystem, the aesthetic satisfaction derived from diversity, and the duty to preserve and protect biodiversity. The book also recommends that more information about the role of biodiversity in sustaining natural resources be gathered and summarized in ways useful to managers. Acknowledging that decisions about biodiversity are necessarily qualitative and change over time because of the nonmarket nature of so many of the values, the committee recommends periodic reviews of management decisions.




Who Cares About Wildlife?


Book Description

Who Cares About Wildlife? integrates social science theory in order to provide a conceptual structure for understanding and studying human interaction with wildlife. A thorough review of the current literature in conceptual areas, including norms, values, attitudes, emotions, wildlife value orientations, cultural change, and evolutionary forces/inherited tendencies is provided, and the importance of these areas in studying human-wildlife relationships is highlighted. No other book both considers the human relationship with wildlife and provides a theoretical framework for understanding this relationship on the individual, as well as cultural level. Who Cares About Wildlife? will be valuable both to students and to practitioners in wildlife management and conservation, as well those interested in the human relationship with wildlife, natural resources, and the environment.




Conservation Social Science


Book Description

Groundbreaking book that examines the essential contribution of the social sciences to understanding and conserving biodiversity across the globe Authored by leading scholars at the nexus of social science and biodiversity conservation, Conservation Social Science addresses the growing realization that biodiversity conservation is, at heart, a social phenomenon. Threats to biological diversity are influenced by a wide range of political, economic and cultural factors. The conservation of biodiversity is conceived and carried out by people. Biodiversity conservation is a manifestation of human beliefs and values. Choices about which species and habitats to conserve, how to prioritize efforts, and how to conserve them are inherently social − with consequences not just for wildlife but also human lives and livelihoods. Key topics covered in this thought-provoking text include: An introduction to key social science disciplines and how each field specifically relates to biodiversity conservation How to make social sciences an integral part of conservation strategies and initiatives How social science theories and analytic approaches can explain and help predict patterns of human behavior How biodiversity conservation as a ubiquitous societal phenomenon can provide insights into human society in general Conservation Social Science is an essential, one-of-a-kind survey of novel approaches to explaining and fostering more effective, just, and enduring conservation of biodiversity. It is academically rigorous and comprehensive in scope, yet sufficiently nontechnical and concise to be accessible to a global audience of students, faculty, and environmental professionals and policymakers.




Ethics in Biodiversity Conservation


Book Description

This book examines the role of ethics and philosophy in biodiversity conservation. The objective of this book is two-fold: on the one hand it offers a detailed and systematic account of central normative concepts often used, but rarely explicated nor justified, within conservation biology. Such concepts include ‘values’ (both intrinsic, instrumental, and, more recently, relational), ‘rights’, and ‘duties’. The second objective is to emphasize to environmental philosophers and applied ethicists the many interesting decision-making challenges of biodiversity conservation. The book argues that a nuanced account of instrumental values provides a powerful tool for reasoning about the values of biodiversity. It also scrutinizes relational values, the concept of rights of nature, and risk, and show how moral philosophy proves indispensable for these concepts. Consequently, it engages with recent suggestions on normative aspects of biodiversity conservation, and show the need for moral philosophy in biodiversity conservation. The overriding aim of this book is to provide conservation biologists and policy-makers with a systematic overview of concepts and assessments of the reasons for reaching prescriptive conclusions about biodiversity conservation. This will prove instrumental in clarifying the role of applied ethics and a refined understanding of the tools it can provide. This title will be of interest to students and scholars of conservation biology, conservation policy, environmental ethics and environmental philosophy.




Conservation Biogeography


Book Description

CONSERVATION BIOGEOGRAPHY The Earth’s ecosystems are in the midst of an unprecedented period of change as a result of human action. Many habitats have been completely destroyed or divided into tiny fragments, others have been transformed through the introduction of new species, or the extinction of native plants and animals, while anthropogenic climate change now threatens to completely redraw the geographic map of life on this planet. The urgent need to understand and prescribe solutions to this complicated and interlinked set of pressing conservation issues has lead to the transformation of the venerable academic discipline of biogeography – the study of the geographic distribution of animals and plants. The newly emerged sub-discipline of conservation biogeography uses the conceptual tools and methods of biogeography to address real world conservation problems and to provide predictions about the fate of key species and ecosystems over the next century. This book provides the first comprehensive review of the field in a series of closely interlinked chapters addressing the central issues within this exciting and important subject.




Biodiversity and Landscapes


Book Description

Experts from different disciplines discuss the nature, origin and possible solutions to the problem of landscape degradation and diminishing global biodiversity.




Sacred Species and Sites


Book Description

It is being increasingly recognised that cultural and biological diversity are deeply linked and that conservation programmes should take into account the ethical, cultural and spiritual values of nature. With contributions from a range of scholars, practitioners and spiritual leaders from around the world, this book provides new insights into biocultural diversity conservation. It explores sacred landscapes, sites, plants and animals from around the world to demonstrate the links between nature conservation and spiritual beliefs and traditions. Key conceptual topics are connected to case studies, as well as modern and ancient spiritual insights, guiding the reader through the various issues from fundamental theory and beliefs to practical applications. It looks forward to the biocultural agenda, providing guidelines for future research and practice and offering suggestions for improved integration of these values into policy, planning and management.