Sammanfattning

Over the past 5 decades, scientists have been documenting negative anthropogenic environmental change, expressing increasing alarm, and urging dramatic socioecological transformation in response. A host of international meetings have been held, but the erosion of biological diversity continues to accelerate. Why, then, has no effective political action been taken? We contend that part of the answer may lie in the anthropocentric ethical premises and moral rhetoric typically deployed in the cause of conservation. We further argue that it is essential to advance moral arguments for biodiversity conservation that are not just based on perceived human interests but on ecocentric values, namely, convictions that species and ecosystems have value and interests that should be respected regardless of whether they serve human needs and aspirations. A broader array of moral rationales for biodiversity conservation, we conclude, would be more likely to lead to effective plans, adopted and enforced by governments, designed to conserve biological diversity. A good place to start in this regard would be to explicitly incorporate ecocentric values into the recommendations that will be made at the conclusion of the 15th meeting of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, scheduled to be held in October 2020.

Nyckelord

anthropocentrism; biophilia; Convention on Biological Diversity; ethics; IPBES; justice; nature; needs half; rights of nature; worldviews

Publicerad i

Conservation Biology
2020, Volym: 34, nummer: 5, sidor: 1089-1096
Utgivare: WILEY

SLU författare

• Chapron, Guillaume

  • Institutionen för ekologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

• Orlikowska, Ewa

  • Skogsmästarskolan, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Ekologi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13541

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/107857