The Ethics of Environmental Conservation

Environmental conservation is essential to keeping our planet healthy and ensuring a harmonious relationship between human development and environmental sustainability. The question that should be discussed in environmental conservation efforts is that to what extent do humans have the responsibility to help maintain environmental health even when it does not benefit human needs?

Nature doesn’t only fulfill the economic needs of humans by providing raw materials such as timber, food, and medicine. Nature can also be of other values to humans, such as intrinsic value, cultural value, aesthetic value, and many more. This means that even when there is no direct benefit to preserving nature, there is value and a need in doing so.

Moreover, the value nature provides us differs between different communities. To people living in cities and distanced from the wilderness, they may only benefit from nature due to the resources that nature provides them. However, for the people that live within nature – such as indigenous tribes that sees the nature as their home – the nature is not only an economical or utilitarian source of value to them but has its symbolic and intrinsic importance.

Thus, it is important to consider what nature means to different groups of people and the fact that nature can have other values than pure, economic value when discussing the necessity of conservation efforts.