Biodiversity and Global Development

Introduction

There is general agreement that the world’s biodiversity is being degraded at a phenomenal rate, perhaps far more rapidly than the popular press has reported. Proponents of conservation suggest that optimism is warranted in that there seems to be universal concern over this surging problem. From the point of view of values and ethics, who can be against the conservation of biodiversity? This cause celebré enjoys universal approbation from all sectors of all societies. Yet balancing the costs and benefits of conservation is a complicated issue, and approbation becomes less universal in specific case studies.

For example, local farmers in the Global South may see large mammalian carnivores as threatening to their children. Developers in the Global North may see attempts at preserving a threatened species of snail or fish as threatening to their aspirations. And the fundamental problem of thinking of biodiversity as nothing more than big charismatic creatures living in...