A Minimally Nonanthropocentric Economics: What Is It, Is It Necessary, and Can It Avert the Biodiversity Crisis?

Vucetich, John A.; Damania, Richard; Cushman, Sam; Macdonald, Ewan A.; Burnham, Dawn; Offer-Westort, Thomas; Bruskotter, Jeremy T.; Feltz, Adam; Eeden, Lily M. van; Macdonald, David W.

doi:10.1093/biosci/biab045

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Although studies on the intrinsic value of nature that is independent of human will (e.g., Jørgensen 2010; Sandler 2012; Nielsen and Jørgensen 2015) have been conducted, this perspective of ecological security that includes the interests of non-human organisms has not been extensively studied (Vucetich et al 2021). Thus, for ecological security, the discussion on environmental ethics has been generally limited to the definition, and practical evaluation cases have generally considered human interests.…”

Section: Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, whether ecological security should cover nonhuman interests should be considered. For example, Vucetich et al (2021) introduced efficiency frontiers to maximize utility for human and non-human members of biological communities. Such perspectives seem critical to broaden the currently highly anthropocentric focus of recent ecological security research.…”

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Navigating ecological security research over the last 30 years: a scoping review

2023

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Intensification of human activities is pushing our use of ecosystems beyond thresholds of resiliency. Given the accelerating global crisis of ecological sustainability, there has been enormous growth in research related to ecological security. However, differences in opinions on ecological security have hindered understanding and effective applications of this concept. To understand the development of research on ecological security, we reviewed its achievements and limitations over the past 30 years from three dimensions: definition, evaluation method, and approach to identify measures to improve the ecological security level. We used the Web of Science search engine to retrieve peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1990 to 2021 containing the keywords “ecological security” or “ecological safety”. There are three main ethical perspectives among the definitions of ecological security: nature-centric, human-centric, and eclectic; the human-centric view, which focuses on human well-being, is predominant in the field. Most studies employed the following three evaluation methods: quantitative comparison, composite indicators, and spatial analysis. However, the results of ecological security analyses were difficult to compare. Three main approaches (causality, correlation, and landscape) were used to identify the drivers of ecological security and propose measures for ensuring or improving ecological security. Owing to the complexity and heterogeneity of ecosystems, universally effective measures to ensure ecological security rarely exist. For the definition and evaluation of ecological security, a broader, non-anthropocentric perspective that incorporates the intrinsic value of non-humans in the context of cost–benefit, security–efficiency evaluations is essential. When proposing evaluation methods, the comparability of evaluation results should be given priority. To improve ecological security level, identifying the key drivers and/or potential optimal patterns of ecological security may be a promising solution.

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Section: Environmental Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating ecological security research over the last 30 years: a scoping review

2023

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Comparing expedient and proactive approaches to the planning of protected area networks on Borneo

Macdonald,

Cushman,

Malhi

et al. 2024

npj biodivers

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Protected areas are an important tool for wildlife conservation; however, research is increasingly revealing both biases and inadequacies in the global protected area network. One common criticism is that protected areas are frequently located in remote, high-elevation regions, which may face fewer threats compared to more accessible locations. To explore the conservation implications of this issue, we consider a thought experiment with seven different counterfactual scenarios for the Sunda clouded leopard’s conservation on Borneo. This allows us to examine two contrasting paradigms for conservation: “proactive conservation” which prioritises areas with high biodiversity and high risk of development, and “expedient conservation” which focusses on areas with the lowest development risk. We select clouded leopards as our focal species not only because of their emerging conservation importance, but also because, as top predators, they represent both keystone species and ambassadors for wider forest biodiversity. Furthermore, a published analysis of the likely impacts of forest loss in their habitat provides a benchmark for evaluating the modelled outcomes of alternative hypothetical conservation scenarios. We find that, across all metrics, expedient reserve design offered few benefits over the business-as-usual scenario, in contrast to the much greater conservation effectiveness of proactive protected area design. This paper sheds light on the challenging trade-offs between conservation goals and the competing land uses essential for the economic development and well-being of local communities.

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A Minimally Nonanthropocentric Economics: What Is It, Is It Necessary, and Can It Avert the Biodiversity Crisis?

Cited by 2 publications

References 76 publications

Navigating ecological security research over the last 30 years: a scoping review

Navigating ecological security research over the last 30 years: a scoping review

Comparing expedient and proactive approaches to the planning of protected area networks on Borneo

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