Conservation values

This chapter describes and analyzes several conservation values—values that provide ethical reasons for nature conservation. It begins with a brief account of what is meant by ethics, placing the discussion within a broader framework. Concepts such as ethical reasons, ethical theories, and ethical conflicts are analyzed and defined. Conservation values are then classified into four main categories, according to a taxonomy based on the instrumental/noninstrumental and anthropocentric/non-anthropocentric distinctions: instrumental values, extended instrumental values, intrinsic values, and relational values. For each category, specific forms of value are described and analyzed. Throughout the chapter, the importance of adopting a pluralist approach is emphasized. This applies both to ethics in general—since there are multiple intuitions grounding ethical judgments and multiple ways of viewing and analyzing actions—and to conservation values in particular, since no single value or category of values can support the entire structure of conservation. To protect nature in all its richness—not only its things, processes, and systems but also its meanings and relationships—the value dimension of conservation must be both plural and inclusive.