Preserving Wildlife: An International Perspective (Flashpoints (Amherst, N.Y.).)
Editorial Reviews
Quarterly Review of Biology, December 2003
"...well-written and provocative...likely to broaden the perspectives of all readers."
Book Description
On the surface, the claim that we should preserve wildlife is unobjectionable. Few people would argue that destroying wildlife habitats and driving endangered species into extinction will have any positive result. There is also a consensus that humanity's interactions with wildlife have been based on ignorance and self-interest--even maliciousness--and that the decimation of wildlife throughout the world must be reversed not only for the sake of the animals, but for our own sake and that of future generations.
It is when the discussion turns to hard policy questions--Which species should be preserved and at what cost? Who is to bear these costs? What other values and priorities should be sacrificed to achieve these goals? What methods are most effective in preserving wildlife?--that consensus dissolves into discord. Should preservation focus on simply preserving species, or is preserving habitats the best way to ensure that species will flourish? If we "save" endangered species by keeping them in zoos, have we really preserved what is valuable about them? Are we justified in killing individuals of a healthy species if they have a detrimental effect on threatened or endangered species? Should we attempt the active management and manipulation of wildlife populations, or should we let the processes of evolution and natural selection run their course?
Any answer to these and related questions will be based on a theory about which species have value and why. But solutions must also incorporate empirical findings concerning animals and their behavior, the ecosystems that contribute to their flourishing or foundering, human behavior and the political feasibility of wildlife preservation, the economics of preserving wildlife, and the likely outcomes of various preservation strategies. These issues force wildlife preservation into the field of international economic, political, and social debate.
PRESERVING WILDLIFE examines critical issues in four key areas: wildlife preservation and individual animals; strategies for conservation and management; wildlife conservation in non-Western societies; and utilization of wildlife and related economic concerns.
Contributors include Cathy Sue and Roger Anunsen, Victoria Butler, Andrew Neal Cohen, Richard B. Harris, Gilson B. Kaweche, Roger J.H. King, Dale Lewis, Robert W. Loftin, Michael V. Martin, Jim Mason, Ackim Mwenya, Roderick P. Neumann, R.J. Putman, Alan Rabinowitz, Victor B. Scheffer, James R. Udall, and other experts in the fields of biology, zoology, agriculture and natural resources, and philosophy.
Preserving Wildlife: An International Perspective (Flashpoints (Amherst, N.Y.).)
Preserving Wildlife: An International Perspective (Flashpoints (Amherst, N.Y.).),Mark A. Michael,Humanity Books,1573927279,Environmental Conservation & Protection - General,Environmental Science,Environmental Studies,General,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Wildlife,Wildlife Conservation
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