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ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
and discussed with regard to their relevance for conservation. As sociologist Anke
Fisher and ecologist Julliette Young have argued, communication and open debate
about the values implicit in biodiversity policies help gain public acceptance and
reduce conflicts.2 "Nature" and "biodiversity" are concepts not simply defined by
biological and physical realities, but they are also formed, shared and applied in
ways that become strongly social and political in the course of negotiations about
land use, tenure, management, and conservation.3 Therefore, consideration for
different perceptions is critical to understanding and developing the processes of
conservation for both biological and cultural diversity.
British conservation biologists Paul Jepson and Susan Canney have asserted that
the scientific practice of conservation has been dominated by an "overemphasis on
expert-led science and economic rationalism" since its beginnings in the 1980s.4
Regarding Latin American conservation, Ricardo Rozzi has pointed out that it is
necessary to consider broader arrays of perspectives, images, and types of relation-
ships with nature, such as those held by distinct Amerindian communities in the
high Andes, Amazon basin or the subantarctic forests of southern South America,
in order to advance both biological and cultural conservation.5 The United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, signed on 13 September 2007,
affirmed "that respect for indigenous knowledge, cultures and traditional practices
contributes to sustainable and equitable development, and proper management of
the environment."6 During the last decade, several other international declarations
and agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) and the
Seville Strategy for Biosphere Reserves (1996), have emphatically called for more
adequate consideration of local knowledge and perspectives on the environment.
The importance of cultural values for conservation has been also recognized in
academia.8 In answer to these calls, approaches to elucidate and integrate differ-
2 A. Fischer and J. C. Young, "Understanding Mental Constructs of Biodiversity: Implications for
Biodiversity Management and Conservation," Biological Conservation 136 (2007): 271-82.
3 See A. Escobar, ."Whose Knowledge? Whose Nature? Biodiversity, Conservation and the Politi-
cal Ecology of Social Movements," Journal of Political Ecology 5 (1998): 53-82. W. Adams and J.
Hutton. "People, Parks and Poverty: Political Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation," Conservation
and Society 5, no. 2 (2007): 147-83.
4 P. Jepson and S. Canney, "Values-Led Conservation," GlobalEcology andBiogeography 12 (2003):
271.
5 Ricardo Rozzi, "Eticas Ambientales Latinoamericanas: Raices y Ramas," in Fundamentos de
Conservacidn Bioldgica: Perspectivas Latinoamericanas, ed. R. Primack, R. Rozzi, P. Feinsinger, R.
Dirzo, and F. Massardo (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Econ6mica), pp. 311-62. Mexico. See also
Ricardo Rozzi, Future Environmental Philosophies and their Biocultural Conservation Interfaces,"
Ethics and the Environment 12 (2007): 142-45.
6 "United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" (2008) at http://www.un.org/
esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPSen.pdf, p. 2.
7See "Convention on Biological Diversity" at http://www.cbd.int/convention/articles.shtml?a=cbd-00;
"Seville Strategy for Biosphere Reserves" at http://www.unesco.org/mab/doc/Strategy.pdf.
8 The field ofethnobiology has played a valuable role for integrating cultural and biological diversity.
See UN Environmental Programme, Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, ed. D. A. Posey
274
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