What is biological conservation?
It is the conservation of biodiversity which is the full spectrum of living organisms and the variability of nature. The aim of biological conservation is to maintain the diversity of living organisms and their environments and also the interactions between the two.
Why is it important?
I was casually asking a few of my friends whether they think biological conservation was important and I was actually quite rather surprised with their replies. I cannot remember exactly what they told me but roughly along the lines of morality, education and religion.
Hanes was telling me that it was morally right to protect biodiversity. That nature has its intrinsic value whether or not they bring us benefits.
Zhixin was going along the lines that such conservation is essential for education and also to ensure future generations get to enjoy nature.
Huanyan asked me whether God would want us to conserve the biodiversity and it made me think for a while. For this is not an issue that organized religion focus a lot on. We might talk about cloning, or abortion, but biological conservation of species? It's not something discussed as a ethical or moral issue in my religion. So I talked about stewardship. I told Huanyan that that I believed God would want us to take care of the things we have on earth, not to be irresponsible and destructive to the things we own.
Other than education, moral and religious motivations towards biological conservation, people desire to conserve also for nature's aesthetic values, ecological and utilitarian reasons.
I for one would purely conserve because nature is beautiful. It's not everyday that I remember to smell the flowers or follow the outline of a fern, but when I do, it's one of the most amazing experience. Talking to birds and plucking wildflowers/weeds and just taking in deep breaths of fresh air, whether humid rain forest air, or salty mudflats or rotten mangrove wafts, they have therapeutic rewards for those who would only slow down and just for a moment appreciate the wonders of life.
Recently I took a video of mudskippers fighting and in courtship. It was fascinating trying to interprete what they were trying to do. And amazing that I could have a bird's eye view to capture that scene from the broadwalk of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.
Other people conserve because biodiversity is a utility, a resource for food, medication, research inspiration and other needs Mankind might have.
Still others who are more farsighted conserve because biodiversity plays an important role in maintaining the environment, whether ecosystems or climate. When we remove the living organisms that interact with their habitat, we are unknowingly supporting threats like global warming, landslides, harmful weather conditiions and CO2/O2 imbalances. Because both the biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors are required to interact in meaningful ways to maintain our ecological systems.
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4 comments:
Hi, seeing that you've admitted to being an aesthetic conservationist, here's a nice quote (one of my favourites in fact) for you.
"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living." -- Jules Henri Poincaré
I'm a conservationist too, morally, educationally, aesthetically, and ecologically. I think the most important thing is that we depend on nature, nature doesnt depend on us. =)
i agree with SD. we depend on nature and not the other way round.
When i did my thesis on nature conservation, I spent a long time trying to understand WHAT is conservation and WHY people conserve. How conservation ends up being manifested in practice as well is problematic. The motivations behind conservation can also result in much contestation.
I'm a social scientist so I read a lot more into the discourse of things. But on the ground, as a volunteer and many other things, I would also call myself a conservationist.
You need to seriously think very carefully what is conservation.
BTW, what is your methodology? Survey? Interview? How do you plan to analyze your data? Would you be looking at the content analysis of these newspaper articles you have going on here? That is very interesting as well. How nature is portrayed in the media.
Be careful not to confuse media with the people. And what kinda people? what is their demographics? education background? Affilitations? how random is your survey? etc. you need to think carefully. :)
Hope this little input from a social scientist helps!
Hey sd, :)
Very interesting quote you have there! And I realized it doesn't only apply to nature. Say, something like architecture. :)
And dear monkey!
Thank you for your very insightful comment. I read through what you said and thought through it. :)
I am doing a survey. Which is not as random as I wish it to be. But I would be visiting a Statistics Professor who has very kindly agreed to meet up tomorrow.
What was your thesis about and how did you conduct it? :)
Actually I feel quite handicapped without some sociology background. I realized my project is a lot more about people than nature. :) But I guess it's important since people affect nature so much.
social science is not to be confused with sociology. im not a sociologist... im a geographer. ok lah im only a grad student so can't really call myself a geographer lol no Dr in front of my name O_O"
Anyway have you done lit review of singaporean's attitudes towards nature? there are at least 3.
Lily Kong (2000) "Nature’s dangers, nature’s pleasures: Urban children and the natural world" in Children’s geographies: Playing, living, learning
Lily Kong, B Yuen, NS Sodhi, C Briffett (1999) "The construction and experience of nature: perspectives of urban youths" in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
TGC Ivy, CKE Lee, GK Chuan (1998) "A Survey of Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour of Students in Singapore" International Research in Geographical and Environmental
The last one might be more towards what you are aiming for. but do notice... perceptions of STUDENTS and PUBLIC is very different. Is your target group just NUS students? Biology students? Or Students doing biology modules? All of them have different characteristics that will affect their responses.
my thesis was pure in depth interview. its about chek jawa lah so not quite the same.
email me if you need more help. leafmonkey at gmail
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