Parks, People, and Posterity: Reconsidering the Ethical Dimensions of International Conservation
Session Organizers: Ben Minteer and Thad Miller

Description: Conservation biology is somewhat unique among the natural sciences in that it was established in response to a crisis, the rapid loss of biodiversity, with a clear mission - to stem the tide of this loss (Terborgh 2000).  Moreover, this mandate has often carried an explicit ethical commitment; namely, an embrace of the intrinsic value of wild species and ecosystems (e.g., Soulé 1985).  Conservation is obviously a human endeavor, however - with both anthropocentric motivations and consequences -- and so considerations of culture, tradition, welfare, and development in biodiversity planning and management often raise normative concerns that may diverge (or rival) the moral commitment to biodiversity.  These foundational value and ethical dimensions of the argument over international conservation goals, though, have not received as much attention as its scientific, technical, and economic aspects.  They are often left unexamined and inarticulate, even though they are clearly at play in the current debates over the value and efficacy of protected areas (Redford, Brandon & Sanderson 1998), integrated conservation and development projects (McShane & Wells 2004), and related vehicles of biodiversity protection and sustainable development in international conservation (Roe & Elliot 2004).

This symposium will bring these commitments out into the open, addressing in various ways a critical and unavoidable question: What are the appropriate ends of international conservation in the 21st Century?  We have assembled an interdisciplinary panel of prominent biodiversity scientists, conservationists, and applied ethicists to examine the values motivating conservation biology's mission, focusing in particular on its work in the developing world.  Specifically, participants will analyze how environmental, social, and disciplinary values have produced a new - but familiar -- rift in the international conservation community, one in which conservation biologists promoting protected areas ("nature protectionists") have become pitted against more development-oriented conservationists ("social conservationists") intent on reforming the dominant protected areas model to embrace sustainable use, ecotourism, and poverty alleviation efforts.  While this debate has in the past become quite polarized, we believe that a critical airing of the ethical dimensions of the debate has the potential to clarify the value frameworks motivating the conflict, as well as reveal significant points of ethical convergence on common conservation actions and policy goals. 

Our intent is not to simply rehearse the old "parks vs. people" debate in value language, but to encourage a more analytical, collaborative and ultimately transformative discussion about the means and ends of biological conservation.  Such an open dialogue among leading conservationists and applied philosophers promises to contribute to an improved understanding of the normative arguments driving international conservation efforts, and will thus be an important resource in the search for ethical - and practical - reconciliation.  This symposium will, in other words, model and encourage a reflective and more open acknowledgment of conservation values among biodiversity scientists, conservationists, and environmental ethicists.