Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation?
In the early stages of the environment movement, one of the principal objects of conservation was wilderness. In the 1980s, the category of wilderness gave way to that of biodiversity: conservation was reconceived as biodiversity conservation. With this change of categories, the focus of conservatio...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The White Horse Press
2019-12-01
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| Series: | The Journal of Population and Sustainability |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/642 |
| _version_ | 1797837739126685696 |
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| author | Freya Mathews |
| author_facet | Freya Mathews |
| author_sort | Freya Mathews |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the early stages of the environment movement, one of the principal objects of conservation was wilderness. In the 1980s, the category of wilderness gave way to that of biodiversity: conservation was reconceived as biodiversity conservation. With this change of categories, the focus of conservation shifted from the saving of vast and abundant terrains of life to the saving of types of living thing, particularly species. A little-noted consequence of this reframing was a reduction in scale: minimum viable populations of species, which set targets under the new biodiversity-based conception of conservation, were often orders of magnitude lower than the populations that might have occurred in wilderness areas. Exclusive focus on the value of diversity thus tended to lead conservationists to lose sight of the value of abundance. To correct this disastrous miscarriage of environmental intentions, a new complementary category is here proposed: bioproportionality. It is not enough to conserve minimum viable populations of all species. The aim should be to optimize such populations. Optimized targets will be estimated by reference to the principle of bioproportionality: the population of each species should be as abundant as is consistent with an ecologically proportionate abundance of adjoining populations of other species. Applied to the human population, this principle will require a dramatic reduction. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:29:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e6623a42705043bf89131a91bbe8089a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2398-5488 2398-5496 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T15:29:33Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | The White Horse Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Journal of Population and Sustainability |
| spelling | doaj.art-e6623a42705043bf89131a91bbe8089a2023-04-28T09:04:46ZengThe White Horse PressThe Journal of Population and Sustainability2398-54882398-54962019-12-014143–5343–5310.3197/jps.2019.4.1.43567Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation?Freya Mathews0Latrobe UniversityIn the early stages of the environment movement, one of the principal objects of conservation was wilderness. In the 1980s, the category of wilderness gave way to that of biodiversity: conservation was reconceived as biodiversity conservation. With this change of categories, the focus of conservation shifted from the saving of vast and abundant terrains of life to the saving of types of living thing, particularly species. A little-noted consequence of this reframing was a reduction in scale: minimum viable populations of species, which set targets under the new biodiversity-based conception of conservation, were often orders of magnitude lower than the populations that might have occurred in wilderness areas. Exclusive focus on the value of diversity thus tended to lead conservationists to lose sight of the value of abundance. To correct this disastrous miscarriage of environmental intentions, a new complementary category is here proposed: bioproportionality. It is not enough to conserve minimum viable populations of all species. The aim should be to optimize such populations. Optimized targets will be estimated by reference to the principle of bioproportionality: the population of each species should be as abundant as is consistent with an ecologically proportionate abundance of adjoining populations of other species. Applied to the human population, this principle will require a dramatic reduction.https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/642anthropocentrismbiodiversitybioproportionalityenvironmental ethicsoptimal populationwilderness |
| spellingShingle | Freya Mathews Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? The Journal of Population and Sustainability anthropocentrism biodiversity bioproportionality environmental ethics optimal population wilderness |
| title | Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? |
| title_full | Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? |
| title_fullStr | Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? |
| title_short | Bioproportionality: a necessary norm for conservation? |
| title_sort | bioproportionality a necessary norm for conservation |
| topic | anthropocentrism biodiversity bioproportionality environmental ethics optimal population wilderness |
| url | https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/642 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT freyamathews bioproportionalityanecessarynormforconservation |