Toward eco-justice for all - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 138

is to facilitate the extraction and processing of particular resources
(for example, laws relating to the conditions whereby companies are
guaranteed long-term access to particular geographical sites for the
purposes of commercial activity such as mining, forestry or farming).
Legislation is directed at conserving particular natural resources
through prohibiting over-use or over-extraction of specific resources
(for example, imposition of quotas on logging or fishing), or dealing
with conflicts between certain industries (for example, farming and
mining), or between certain industries and specific population groups
(for example, mining companies and indigenous people).
From a biocentric perspective old-growth forests (and the organisms
which dwell within them) are seen as having intrinsic worth, whereby
such forests have significance independent of any value placed on
them by human beings. Biocentrists consider old-growth forests to
be significant because they are suitably diverse in structure and age
as to provide the only habitat for certain forest dependent species. In
terms of conservation, biocentrism demands that there be no human
impact on old-growth forests since such ecosystems are considered too
fragile to tamper with. Legislation is ideally framed in terms of first
and foremost preserving the natural environment, particularly those
sites identified as being 'wilderness' in order to protect bio-diversity
and species integrity.
An ecocentric perspective views old-growth forests as crucial to the
long-term survival of humans and nonhumans. Ecocentrism attempts
to strike a balance between the need to utilise resources for human
survival, and the need to develop rules which facilitate the benign use
of the ecosphere. From this perspective, ensuring the preservation of
biocentric values (such as providing for the widest possible spectrum
of species within a forested area), becomes integral to maintaining
long-term human needs (such as the continued existence of clean air,
unpolluted rivers and fertile soils). Ecocentrism advocates methods
of production (such as selective logging techniques) which privilege
the long-term wellbeing of ecosystem well-being over short-term
economic demands. Legislation is ideally framed by the limits of ecology
(of which humans are an integral part), instead of instrumental goals
relating to economic growth and wealth accumulation.
An eco-justice perspective draws upon some of the ideas ingrained
in philosophical analysis of the nature-human relationship. It asks the
question - 'justice for whom?' and then attempts to distill the moral
principles that can guide us in dealing with conflicting interests and
contradictory situations. Environmental justice, as one dimension
or strand of eco-justice, demands that specific population groups