Conservation and wild animals

This chapter discusses several issues concerning the relationship between nature conservation and wild animals—understood as individuals rather than as populations or species. It begins by outlining various approaches in animal ethics and their relevance to conservation and by examining compassionate conservation—an approach that explicitly incorporates principles concerning the treatment of individual animals. The chapter then considers three fundamental ethical questions at this intersection. The first concerns whether it is permissible to kill wild animals for conservation purposes; several arguments against this possibility are analyzed and discussed. The second addresses the legitimacy of using captivity as a conservation tool. The third takes up a more radical, yet central, question for defending the legitimacy of conservation: whether nature ought to be rectified to resemble a moral community governed by ethical standards or whether intervention should be avoided, maintaining a clear boundary between the norms that apply to humans and the animals under their care, and those that apply within the natural community. Throughout the chapter, it is emphasized that only certain approaches in animal ethics are compatible with conservation. Addressing the final issue not only reinforces this conclusion but also reveals the underlying anthropocentrism of some animal ethical frameworks.