SUBJECT: Conserving biodiversity with, or from, humans?
AUTHOR: Erling Berge
DATE: 7th April 2003

KEYWORDS: Intrinsic value, protected area, human dynamics.

SUMMARY: The question of how humans count themselves as part of biodiversity will have profound implications on conservation. Two approaches are discussed: setting area aside for protection and reforming attitudes towards nature.

Being a social scientist I have a fairly simple view of biodiversity. The current, somewhat philosophical, discussion of the value of biodiversity is interesting and prompts me to raise a question I have wondered about from time to time: To what degree are humans counted as part of biodiversity? To me it seems that the answer will have profound implications for how one goes abut conserving biodiversity. These implications will be independent of the answer to the question of intrinsic value or value only for the mind.

The question is of course rethorical, but not only: the history of nature protection is largely a story of how to keep people away from the protected areas, and if not, how to minimise their impact on the area. I do not think that is an approach that can be taken much further in my part of the world.

There is of course another approach: reforming the motivations of people using nature. But educating people to understand the value of biodiversity will not be sufficient. Understanding the complex dynamics of self-governing communities and societies is a task just as difficult as understanding the complex dynamics of biodiversity. And the two tasks have to be solved together.

A contribution by:

Erling Berge
Department of Sociology and Political Science
Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Centre for Advanced Study
Drammensveien 78, 0271 Oslo, Norway