SUBJECT: Local public values of biodiversity
AUTHOR: Felix Rauschmayer
DATE: 8th April

KEYWORDS: local arguments, local responsibility, role of science

SUMMARY: There is a tension between abstract philosophical arguments and local values determining conservation and management of biodiversity


The long-going philosophical debate on intrinsic values of nature vs. instrumental values or, termed differently: bio-/ecocentrism vs. anthropocentrism is an important debate, and I am convinced that it would make debates clearer if everyone dealing with conservation would have some insight in this debate. But in how far does this theoretical debate help us in practice? Such a question often is introduced by advocates of the instrumental point of view, claiming thereafter that what matters most to humans, i.e. to decision makers on biodiversity, are instrumental values.
I do not take this last point for granted, but the importance of instrumental values is not deniable. Any decision process, if it wants to consider the values human have, must be open to different kinds of values, intrinsic as well as instrumental (to take the two prominent categories in this debate), and the primary focus to identify them is on local grounds. Conservation can only work on the level of local communities that have the possibility to take up their responsibility for conservation.

In order to facilitate such responsible decision making, scientists have several tasks: (1) understand the local arguments (which is more than just knowledge, but is combining knowledge and values), (2) enrich the debate with their scientific knowledge (biological as well as economic, social, philosophical, etc.), (3) propose structures that help finding a decision (these can be participatory approaches, decision support with an open value basis, such as non-utilitarian multi-criteria decision aid), and finally (4) help implementing these decisions.

Research should give the kick-off, so that finally these steps could also be done by some kind of moderator, manager etc., or, ideally, by the local community itself. Research also needs to be done in order to create social institutions (or not abolish them for example via further privatization) which make responsibility of local communities for conservation feasible.

Best wishes

Felix Rauschmayer

Contribution by:
Felix Rauschmayer, UFZ - Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig-Halle, Department of Economics, Sociology, and Law