Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation

Wallach, Arian D.; Batavia, Chelsea; Bekoff, Marc; Alexander, Shelley M.; Baker, Liv; Ben‐Ami, Dror; Boronyak, Louise; Cardilin, Adam P. A.; Carmel, Yohay; Celermajer, Danielle; Coghlan, Simon; Dahdal, Yara; Gomez, Jonatan José; Kaplan, Gisela; Keynan, Oded; Khalilieh, Anton; Kopnina, Helen; Lynn, William S.; Narayanan, Yamini; Riley, Sophie; Santiago‐Ávila, Francisco J.; Yanco, Esty; Zemanova, Miriam A.; Ramp, Daniel

doi:10.1111/cobi.13494

Cited by 72 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(152 reference statements)

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“…Although V ( E s ) should be measured in an objective fashion, many factors may influence the relationship between the inherent value and the emotional capacity of a species. For example, high empathy (Table 1) from the observer will tend to make the distribution uniform (therefore in line with the perspective defended by Wallach et al 2020), whereas anthropomorphism and parochialism (Table 1) may lead to higher rating of the emotional capacities of species phylogenetically close to humans or with which humans are more often in contact, such as pets. Finally, N s is the abundance of species s in the area affected by the management action.…”

Section: The Case Of Animal Welfaresupporting

confidence: 58%

“…It has become widely accepted that animals experience emotions (de Waal, 2011), but compassionate conservation is vague on the possibility of individuals from different species experiencing different levels of suffering. A recent article on compassionate conservation suggests that the presence of sentience in an animal should be sufficient to give it the status of person, but does not seem to consider sentience as a graded concept (Wallach et al, 2020). Quantifying the suffering (or negative emotions) experienced by an individual along a one-dimensional axis requires strong simplification of this complex concept (see Shriver 2006 and Bermond et al 2008 for different conclusions about the capacity of animals to experience suffering).…”

Section: The Case Of Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

“…"not doing anything" is an active choice that has consequences (Table 2). However, since compassionate conservation is not based on consequentialism, it uses different criteria to assess the appropriateness of conservations actions (but see Wallach et al, 2020 for responses to some criticisms). Our purpose here is not to discuss the relevance or irrelevance of virtue ethics for conservation (see Griffin et al, 2020 for such criticism).…”

Section: The Case Of Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

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What is valued in conservation? A framework to compare ethical perspectives

Latombe

Lenzner

Schertler

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Perspectives in conservation can be based on a variety of value systems and normative postulates. Perspectives also vary between cultures. Such differences in what and how people value nature, underlie many disagreements and conflicts during the formulation and implementation of environmental management policies. Specifically, whether an action intended to promote conservation (e.g. killing cats to save birds threatened with extinction) is viewed as moral can vary among people who hold different value systems. Here, we present a conceptual framework that mathematically formalises the interplay of value systems. We argue that this framework provides a heuristic tool to clarify normative postulates in conservation approaches, and highlights how different value systems might rank various management options differently. We illustrate this by applying the framework to specific cases involving invasive alien species, rewilding, and trophy hunting; and comparing how management decisions would likely be viewed under different idealised value systems (ecocentric conservation, new conservation, and compassionate conservation). By making value systems and their consequences in practice explicit, the framework can facilitate debates on contested conservation issues, and, we hope, will ultimately provide insights into how conflicts in conservation can be reduced.

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Section: The Case Of Animal Welfaresupporting

confidence: 58%

Section: The Case Of Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Case Of Animal Welfarementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

What is valued in conservation? A framework to compare ethical perspectives

Latombe

Lenzner

Schertler

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Compassionate conservation declares that invasive species must be treated under animal welfare legislation, not merely labelled as ‘pests’, which justifies transgressions of humane treatment (Wallach et al ., 2018). The proposed innovative approaches to conservation biology, for example, include the use of ‘inclusive conservation data’ that incorporate non‐native and feral populations into the global IUCN Red List and local species richness assessments (Wallach et al ., 2020). The principles supported by compassionate conservation have recently sparked a heated debate in the scientific community around the issue of ethical values (Wallach et al ., 2018, 2019; Driscoll & Watson, 2019; Hayward et al ., 2019; Callen et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Alternatives To the Invasion Biology Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the critics of invasion biology

Cassini

2020

Biological Reviews

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Herein, I review existing criticisms of the field of invasion biology. Firstly, I identifiy problems of conceptual weaknesses, including disagreements regarding: (i) definitions of invasive, impact, and pristine conditions, and (ii) ecological assumptions such as species equilibrium, niche saturation, and climax communities. Secondly, I discuss methodological problems include the misuse of correlations, biases in impact reviews and risk assessment, and difficulties in predicting the effects of species introductions or eradications. Finally, I analyse the social conflict regarding invasive species management and differences in moral and philosophical foundations. I discuss the recent emergence of alternatives to traditional invasion biology approaches, including the concept of novel ecosystems, conciliation biology, and compassionate conservation. Understanding different value systems will be the first step to reconciling the different perspectives related to this controversial topic.

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“…Within local systems, these serve as critical anchors for social cohesion and ecological sustainability and form important ingredients of coexistence. However, their significance is highly specific to context as opposed to recent cosmopolitan theorisations that argue for a universal conservation ethic such as that espoused by the proponents of compassionate conservation and associated ideologies (e.g Wallach et al, 2018;Wallach, 2020). The difference is important as these are not shared equally/ uniformly (either by communities or even by individuals within them), are of varying ethical obligations, and are activated depending on context (Snodgrass and Tiedje, 2008).…”

Section: Concerns Caveats and Ways Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beasts in the Garden: Human-Wildlife Coexistence in India's Past and Present

Oommen¹

2021

Front. Conserv. Sci.

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Human-wildlife encounters are characterized by a diverse array of engagements located on the continuum between the negative and the positive. In India, protracted conflict with wildlife is reflected in violence across a range of rural and urban ecologies, but is only one aspect of the multiple facets of ongoing human-non-human encounter. Within these shared spaces, there are often equally significant elements of acceptance, tolerance and reverence. Together, these are dependent on context, and can be explored via lived experiences and worldviews, and a moral economy of human-wildlife and human-human relationships. Historically, though hardly static, such relationships have been mediated by the ontological positioning of traditional societies and their embedded rules and practises. In recent years, these tenuous equilibria have been disrupted by top-down catalysts, including universalist conservation agendas percolating from the state and the global arena. This study aims to explore the changing nature of coexistence by using several historical and contemporary vignettes in relation to key species that routinely “transgress” from their primary natural habitats into the “garden” spaces of human cultivation and habitation. The study will argue that insights at the intersection of environmental history, political ecology and anthropology can improve our understanding of human-wildlife coexistence in India as well as across the world.

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Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation

Abstract: Compassionate conservation is based on the ethical position that actions taken to protect biodiversity

Cited by 72 publications

References 59 publications

What is valued in conservation? A framework to compare ethical perspectives

What is valued in conservation? A framework to compare ethical perspectives

A review of the critics of invasion biology

Beasts in the Garden: Human-Wildlife Coexistence in India's Past and Present

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