Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Today rinderpest has been exterminated from the planet. But in much of Africa, the world it created
persists. There are two ecosystems, created and separated by people. In one, farmers and cattle herders
reign and the bush and the tsetse fly are tamed. In the other, the West's vision of “primeval” Africa holds
sway, the bush runs wild, and the tsetse flourishes. But what is apparently most wild and primeval is
actually most recent.
All this tells us three things. First, of course, it tells us about the danger of alien diseases in com-
munities with no immunity—though I doubt that anything on a remotely similar scale still awaits unsus-
pecting ecosystems today. Second, it tells us that nature is good at growing back. Third, it shows that our
attitudes about pristine nature are often founded on false perceptions. Most of what we regard today as
virgin wilderness is far from untouched by humans. That should give us pause. If nothing is wilderness,
then what does it mean to be a conservationist? What and how do we conserve?
Forest ecologist Douglas Sheil says the recognition of this fact should have a profound effect. Con-
servation scientists are mostly blind to nature outside of what they think of as pristine habitats and
routinely ignore its value. To take one emotive example, three-quarters of the world's surviving oran-
gutans live in timber plantations rather than old-growth forests and yet “there are no conservation pro-
grams in active concessions,” Sheil says. “Conservationists simply cannot bring themselves to accept
[that] many species are more disturbance tolerant than is widely assumed.” This blindness, he says, is
caused by our yearning for unblemished nature—a vision that is at odds with reality. “We should not
dismiss the value of modified ecosystems simply because we do not like them.”
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