Should Biodiversity be Useful? Scope and Limits of Ecosystem Services as an Argument for Biodiversity Conservation

Environmental Values 24 (2):165-182 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This article examines the argument that biodiversity is crucial for well-functioning ecosystems and that such ecosystems provide important goods and services to our human societies, in short the ecosystem services argument (ESA). While the ESA can be a powerful argument for nature preservation, we argue that its dominant functionalist interpretation is confronted with three significant problems. First, the ESA seems unable to preserve the nature it claims to preserve. Second, the ESA cannot explain why those caring about nature want to preserve it. Third, the ESA might undermine its own goal because it potentially decreases environmental motivations.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

What is Biodiversity?James Maclaurin & Kim Sterelny - 2008 - University of Chicago Press.
Save the planet: eliminate biodiversity.Carlos Santana - 2014 - Biology and Philosophy 29 (6):761-780.
Biodiversity as a General, Scientific Concept.Christopher H. Eliot - 2015 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 18 (1):41-43.
Conservation through Commodification?Jozef Keulartz - 2013 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 16 (3):297-307.
The Value of Ecosystem Health.J. Baird Callicott - 1995 - Environmental Values 4 (4):345 - 361.
Species Extinction and Collective Responsibility.Markku Oksanen - 2007 - The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 3:179-183.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-09-01

Downloads
36 (#385,000)

6 months
6 (#202,901)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Stijn Neuteleers
Université Catholique de Louvain

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references