Editing Nature conservation (section)

== Introduction ==
Conservation goals include [[habitat conservation|conserving habitat]], preventing [[deforestation]], maintaining [[soil organic matter]], halting species [[extinction]], reducing [[overfishing]], and mitigating [[climate change]]. Different philosophical outlooks guide conservationists towards these different goals.

The principal value underlying many expressions of the conservation ethic is that the natural world has intrinsic and intangible worth along with utilitarian value &ndash; a view carried forward by parts of the scientific [[conservation movement]] and some of the older [[Romanticism|Romantic]] schools of the [[ecology movement]]. Philosophers have attached intrinsic value to different aspects of nature, whether this is individual organisms ([[Biocentrism (ethics)|biocentrism]]) or ecological wholes such as species or ecosystems (ecoholism).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gardiner and Thompson |title=The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics |date=2017 |publisher=OUP }}</ref>

More [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian]] schools of conservation have an anthropocentric outlook and seek a proper valuation of [[Human impact on the environment|local and global impacts of human activity]] upon nature in their effect upon human [[measuring well-being|wellbeing]], now and to posterity. How such values are assessed and exchanged among people determines the social, political and personal restraints and imperatives by which conservation is practiced. This is a view common in the modern [[environmental movement]]. There is increasing interest in extending the responsibility for human wellbeing to include the welfare of [[Sentience|sentient]] animals. In 2022 the United Kingdom introduced the [[Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022|Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act]] which lists all vertebrates, decapod crustaceans and cephalopods as sentient beings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Animals to be formally recognised as sentient beings in domestic law |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/animals-to-be-formally-recognised-as-sentient-beings-in-domestic-law |access-date=1 December 2022 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref> Branches of conservation ethics focusing on sentient individuals include [[ecofeminism]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hawkins|first=Ronnie Zoe|date=1998|title=Ecofeminism and Nonhumans: Continuity, Difference, Dualism, and Domination|journal=Hypatia|volume=13|issue=1|pages=158–197|doi=10.1111/j.1527-2001.1998.tb01356.x|jstor=3810611|s2cid=145174389 |issn=0887-5367}}</ref> and [[compassionate conservation]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wallach|first1=Arian D.|last2=Batavia|first2=Chelsea|last3=Bekoff|first3=Marc|last4=Alexander|first4=Shelley|last5=Baker|first5=Liv|last6=Ben-Ami|first6=Dror|last7=Boronyak|first7=Louise|last8=Cardilini|first8=Adam P. A.|last9=Carmel|first9=Yohay|last10=Celermajer|first10=Danielle|last11=Coghlan|first11=Simon|title=Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation|journal=Conservation Biology|year=2020|volume=34|issue=5|language=en|pages=1097–1106|doi=10.1111/cobi.13494|pmid=32144823|pmc=7540678|issn=1523-1739|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020ConBi..34.1097W }}</ref>

In the United States of America, the year 1864 saw the publication of two books which laid the foundation for Romantic and Utilitarian conservation traditions in America. The posthumous publication of [[Henry David Thoreau]]'s ''[[Walden]]'' established the grandeur of unspoiled nature as a citadel to nourish the spirit of man. A very different book from [[George Perkins Marsh]], ''[[Man and Nature]]'', later subtitled "The Earth as Modified by Human Action", catalogued his observations of man exhausting and altering the land from which his sustenance derives.

The consumer conservation ethic has been defined as the attitudes and behaviors held and engaged in by individuals and families that ultimately serve to reduce overall societal consumption of energy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=HALDEMAN |first1=VIRGINIA A. |last2=PETERS |first2=JEANNE M. |last3=TRIPPLE |first3=PATRICIA A. |date=1987 |title=Measuring a Consumer Energy Conservation Ethic: An Analysis of Components |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23859354 |journal=The Journal of Consumer Affairs |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=70–85 |doi=10.1111/j.1745-6606.1987.tb00188.x |jstor=23859354 |issn=0022-0078}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Leonard-Barton |first=Dorothy |date=1981 |title=Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyles and Energy Conservation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2488881 |journal=Journal of Consumer Research |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=243–252 |doi=10.1086/208861 |jstor=2488881 |issn=0093-5301}}</ref> The conservation movement has emerged from the advancements of moral reasoning.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=VERNEY |first=RALPH |title=Towards a Conservation Ethic |date=1984 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41373777 |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts |volume=132 |issue=5336 |pages=501–512 |jstor=41373777 |issn=0035-9114}}</ref> Increasing numbers of philosophers and scientists have made its maturation possible by considering the relationships between human beings and organisms with the same rigor.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2017 |title=BIOPHILIA 2017 |journal=Biophilia |volume=2017 |issue=3 |pages=v |doi=10.14813/ibra.2017.v |issn=2186-8433|doi-access=free }}</ref> This social ethic primarily relates to [[local purchasing]], [[moral purchasing]], the [[sustainability|sustained]], and efficient use of [[renewable resource]]s, the moderation of destructive use of finite resources, and the prevention of harm to common resources such as [[air pollution|air]] and [[water pollution|water]] quality, the natural functions of a living earth, and cultural values in a [[built environment]]. These practices are used to slow down the accelerating rate in which [[extinction]] is occurring at. The origins of this ethic can be traced back to many different philosophical and religious beliefs; that is, these practices has been advocated for centuries. In the past, conservationism has been categorized under a spectrum of views, including [[Anthropocentrism|anthropocentric]], [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian]] conservationism, and radical [[Ecocentrism|eco-centric]] green eco-political views.

More recently, the three major movements has been grouped to become what we now know as conservation ethic. The person credited with formulating the conservation ethic in the United States is former president, [[Theodore Roosevelt]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alphasteward.com/forests/who-is-credited-for-articulating-the-conservation-ethic-and-for-founding-the-us-forest-service/ |title = The Conservation Ethic & The Founding the US Forest Service |publisher = Alpha Steward |date = 10 April 2020 |access-date = 21 June 2020 }}</ref>