Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals

The unfolding crises of mass extinction and climate change call for urgent action in response. To limit biodiversity losses and avert the worst effects of climate disruption, we must greatly expand nature protection while simultaneously downsizing and transforming human systems. The conservation initiative Nature Needs Half (or Half Earth), calling for the conservation of half the Earth's land and seas, is commensurate with the enormous challenges we face. Critics have objected to this initiative as harboring hardship for people near protected areas and for failing to confront the growth economy as the main engine of global ecological destruction. In response to the first criticism, we affirm that conservation policies must be designed and implemented in collaboration with Indigenous and local communities. In response to the second criticism, we argue that protecting half the Earth needs to be complemented by downscaling and reforming economic life, humanely and gradually reducing the global population, and changing food production and consumption. By protecting nature generously, and simultaneously contracting and transforming the human enterprise, we can create the conditions for achieving justice and well-being for both people and other species. If we fail to do so, we instead accept a chaotic and impoverished world that will be dangerous for us all

TRAPPED: THE NEED FOR A NEW MODEL FOR FURBEARER CONSERVATION

This dissertation critically analyzes the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation\u27s use of ethics and science with a particular focus on its sanctioned recreational and commercial furbearer trapping programs. My hypothesis is that the Model\u27s use of ethics and science grounded in utilitarianism with a strong anthropocentric stance and instrumental attitude toward other animals is ethically unjustified and not supported by the contemporary body of scientific knowledge. Three societal changes that have occurred highlight the need for a new model in furbearer conservation, 1) public valuation toward wild animals is changing from utilitarianism to mutualism; 2) consensus exists in nature ethics that other animals are subjects with interests, needs and morality; and 3) scientific advancements have been made that show that similarities among the species outweigh the differences. Thus, exploitation of other animals, specifically trapping wild animals for their fur, is no longer tenable. I propose a new model of compassionate conservation that is guided by the trans-species perspective and grounded in equality between the nonhuman and human species