Toward eco-justice for all - Environmental Harm: An Eco-justice Perspective - page 143

or opposing viewpoints, and listen to what is actually being said.
This endeavour is frustrated by drawing hard lines in advance, thus
prejudicing potential outcomes. Ideological rigidity (or moral
steadfastness, depending on one's outlook) can create barriers within
and across movements. Moreover, the emotive nature of the protection
of human rights, eco-systems and animals can serve to further entrench
positions - love of one's neighbour, a tree, a dog can be a powerful
motivator. It can also sway opinion on the basis of affective factors
rather than science or rationality.
Impasses remain and important questions arise. Consider for example
the following contemporary dilemmas:
What about plants?
Issues of biodiversity and protection from destruction by humans
and animals also extend to species other than animals. While great
attention is granted to the 5,000 species of animals covered in the
CITES appendixes, and to particular animals on these lists, much less
attention is paid to the 28,000 species of plants identified as being at
threat. Periodic conflicts occur in Australia, for example, when action
is taken to cull mobs of kangaroos in order that local eco-systems
(and the plant life within them) are not destroyed by them. Criticisms
range from 'not interfering with nature' through to removing rather
than killing the animals. Such intervention, however, always occurs in
the context of entrenched human impacts on both plants and animals.
What about traditions and post-colonial relationships?
Issues of indigenous use of plants and animals, and land use practices, do
not simply revolve around matters of corporate and state exploitation,
repression and marginalisation. Debates have taken place over the 'rights'
of indigenous people to hunt game or catch fish in relation to notions
of ecological limits and the need for the regulation of such activities.
Sometimes this reflects very different conceptions of 'sustainability':
The concept of sustainability may be viewed slightly
differently by non-Aboriginal people than by Aboriginal
peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. To many non-Aboriginal
people, the concept broadly implies the maintenance of
maximum economic productivity of lands and seas. For
Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders, it often means
the continuance of use of wildlife resources for subsistence.