Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
or otherwise, for conservation, superb science, and improved governance for everything from
a climate change treaty to enforcement of antipoaching laws are also necessary parts of the
solution. The fate of rarities is not only in the hands of impoverished villagers but also in
the hands of those in political palaces and the boardrooms of multinational corporations who
could take seriously the conservation of rarity and act on its behalf with far-reaching effect.
The combined actions of Big Agriculture, for example, have far greater consequences for
the persistence—or extinction—of rarities than do the effects of indigenous groups scattered
throughout the tropics.
The challenge ahead for us in preserving rarities is to link the science-based approach that
focuses on populations rather than individuals and the animal-welfare philosophy that gives
ethical value to individuals and their well-being. There is ample evidence of reason to hope
for such a grand merger of science-based thinking and compassionate connection to wildlife.
We see the response of compassion in laws preventing animal cruelty and in the growth of
rescue shelters for dogs, cats, and wild animals. The combined scientific and compassionate
response is also taking root. A global tiger summit, the International Forum on Tiger Con-
servation, staged in November 2010 and attended by heads of state of the tiger range coun-
tries—the first ever such forum for a wild species—may give this rare top carnivore a second
chance through its commitment to double the wild tiger population by 2022. In 2012, new
legislation was passed in several countries to stop the finning of sharks, another top predator
that has been made rare by senseless slaughter, and whose decline has altered the regulation
of marine systems.
Some critics hold that wildlife conservation will be an unattainable luxury for the poorest
countries until their citizenry can climb out of poverty. Besides Bhutan, the examples of
two other economically poor countries counter such an assertion. Nepal, as we've seen, is
now doing a better job of protecting its rare endangered vertebrates than are most countries.
Perhaps most successful of all is Namibia, another country characterized by extreme rural
poverty yet soon to have almost half its land area covered by communal conservancies and
national parks protecting many rarities of that nation's arid lands, from succulent plants in
the Namib-Karoo region to free-ranging black rhinos. If three of the poorest nations on Earth
have some of the best track records for conserving rarities, other factors must be at work.
A marriage of science, political will, and compassion in rich countries as well as poor
could embrace not only empathy for animals but also our ability to conduct and understand
science and to appreciate fully the wonderful beauty of rare animals and oldgrowth forests,
the complexity of life, the immensity of the universe. As we enter the Anthropocene epoch,
we must hope that humans in the early twenty-first century will finally be able to reach ac-
commodation with uncommon nature and—dare we hope—a celebration of rarities.
