Why Conserve Nature? : Perspectives on Meanings and Motivations

This book examines the ways in which we find meanings in nature which can act to constrain us, and looks at science and culture, including environmental psychology, literature, poetry and art, seeking to open up the range of reasons why we should conserve nature while improving human welfare.

How we view nature transforms the world around us. People rehearse stories about nature which make sense to them. If we ask the question ''why conserve nature?'', and the answers are based on myths, then are these good myths to have? Scientific knowledge about the environment is fundamental to ideas about how nature works. It is essential to the conservation endeavour. However, any conservation motivation is nested within a society''s meanings of nature and the way society values it. Given the therapeutic and psychological significance of nature for us and our culture, this book considers the meanings derived from the poetic and emotional attachment to a sense of place, which is arguably just as important as scientific evidence. The functional significance of species is important, but so too is the therapeutic value of nature, together with the historic and spiritual meanings entwined in a human feeling for landscape and wildlife.