Objective: a return to a wholesome human habitat

The continued operation of the biosphere as a wholesome human habitat would be expected to emerge as one of several persistent collective purposes in human affairs. Daly (1993) has pointed to the challenge as accommodating the transition from an empty Earth, where resources exceed demand, to a full Earth, where demand routinely exceeds the resource. Forests are so large in every aspect of the biophysics of the human habitat that their functional integrity is intrinsic to that purpose. How can the functional integrity of forests on a full Earth best be assured on a global basis over the next decades as all pressures on the human habitat continue to soar? Such is the challenge before the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, now completing its final hearings and preparing its report. The Commission was established in 1995 as a non-governmental group of distinguished citizens from the forested countries to do what governments had been unable to do in 1992 at the Rio Conference, namely to address the critical global and international issues of forests in the context of the emergent public interests, as opposed to continued destructive commercial exploitation. The Commission's staff and offices are in Geneva. Its report will be released in 1998.

In the beautifully-illustrated book of rare and threatened plants of Greece (Phitos et al. 1995), the selection of species is based strictly on the four World Conservation Union (IUCN) categories of ‘extinct’, ‘endangered’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘rare’ (Lucas & Synge 1978). The Swedish ‘red data’ book of plants (Aronsson et al. 1995) adds ‘care-demanding species’ to the list. Five percent of the total number of vascular plant species in Greece are included in the Greek book, while 23% of the vascular plant species in Sweden are in the Swedish book. This latter percentage may appear to be sufficiently large, but is it?

Moral relations with nature, I contend, are connected with our duty before a social environment. Elsewhere I have defined duty as '‘what is recommended by moral or religious law, and what one has to do in order to be in agreement with one's conscience’ (Schreider 1994, p. 27). Our highest duty, I have argued, is social duty, or duty towards humankind as a whole; but this kind of duty, in fact all so-called ‘moral duty’, is not natural, or predetermined by our natural essence (Schreider 1994, p. 99; Schreider 1996). Now, our social duties, not any ‘natural duties’, have implications for our relations with the environment. This is so, significantly, because no natural reasons exist for there to be harmony between humanity and the environment. Indeed, if such natural processes did exist, why should we invoke the need of duty towards nature, because whatever we did, would not we be doing things naturally? To engage duty, in fact, already presupposes the absence of such natural relations, and turns the spotlight on acts of free will, or human decisions and responsibilities. Our experience of history and social relations is such that we humans are more than often found independent of, sometimes even going against, the perceived ‘natural stream of events’, by either creating or solving environmental problems. The claims of duty, then, have to be clarified on any environmental philosophy, because there is a common trap of letting nature dictate morality, a problem apparent in neo-Spencerian ethics (cf. Trompf 1990, pp. 17-20). As I have not long ago maintained (Schreider 1994, p. 107), duty is a basis for our rational actions, designs and relations, and duty, we would thus rightly expect, has moral foundations, even (more controversially) religious ones. Human responsibility for nature loses any sense unless we presuppose it to depend on free will. Otherwise we are left with a predetermined course of events, not duty, and I hold we would even deny self-existence, ascribing our actions not to ourselves but to some ‘objective reasons’ (Schreider 1996).

Deforestation is still rapid in some parts of the Caribbean, though it has attracted much less attention than deforestation in mainland Latin America. This paper examines the history and causes of the recent rapid deforestation of a lowland karst region of the Dominican Republic in the light of models derived from studies in Central America and the Amazon. Investigation was limited to the vicinity of a single village (Los Limones). Information was drawn from interviews, questionnaires and ground reconnaissance, in addition to archival information and aerial photographs. Deforestation at Los Limones involved many of the same elements seen in mainland deforestation, including construction of access roads, spontaneous agricultural colonization, and pasture conversion, but it followed no single mainland model. Logging, not normally emphasized as a cause of Latin American deforestation, played an important role in opening up the forest to agricultural settlement. Pasture conversion was not a matter of aggregation of large ranches by wealthy absentee landowners, as in the Amazon, but apparently a local response to the economic and ecological advantages of cattle raising. Government actions strongly influenced deforestation, but not via colonization schemes or economic subsidies for cattle ranching; the rhythm of deforestation at Los Limones was tied to the monopolistic practices of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and the social disorganization following his assassination. The national government in fact bears the primary responsibility for deforestation of Los Haitises, a conclusion that contradicts the government's own suggestion that the destruction was largely carried out by poor farmers. Prospects for rehabilitation of the deforested area are gloomy because of the extent of ecological damage and the continued adversarial relationship between the government and the rural population.

A half century has elapsed since the appointment of an official body, the Nature Conservancy, in 1949, and the beginnings of what might be described as the modern nature conservation movement in the UK. Whilst ecologists perceived the 'heritage of wild nature' to be largely the outcome of past land use, and that the nature reserves would have to be managed consciously if their wildlife interest were to be sustained, there was only the most rudimentary understanding of how this might be achieved. Drawing for the most part on projects affecting wetlands, the paper illustrates the early steps taken to bring greater scientific rigour to reserve management. Whilst the potential for habitat restoration was recognized, there was little opportunity for its practice in the intensively-farmed countryside until grant aid was made available for such purpose from the agricultural budget in the 1980s. Where nature conservation had begun to subsume nature preservation, some fifty years ago, notions of 'creative conservation' have similarly encouraged reassessment of the purpose and practice of wildlife-resource management. This time however the challenge is being met in both the wider countryside and the built environment.

Despite direction by the Conservation Act (1987) to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's Department of Conservation has few formal collaborative management arrangements with Maori. Obstacles to establishing agreements that involve Maori in equitable conservation decision-making roles include divergent philosophies (preservation versus conservation for future use), institutional inertia, a lack of concrete models of co-management to evaluate success or otherwise to promote conservation, a lack of resources and opportunities for capacity building and scientific research amongst Maori, opposition and a lack of trust from conservation non-governmental organizations that are predominantly euro-centric in approach and membership, and a fundamental reluctance of some to share power with Maori. Recent examples of work towards co-management emphasize the need for innovative methods to build trust and explore common ground and differences. Meetings on marae (traditional Maori gathering places) have established guiding principles, lengthy dialogue, and a collective symbol as a metaphor for co-management. These were valuable steps towards building trust and understanding required for the restoration of coastal lakes and a river, and the potential joint management of two national parks on the west coast of the North Island. Establishment of a research project to assess the sustainability of a traditional harvest of a sea-bird (Puffinus griseus) by Rakiura Maori was facilitated by drawing up a 'cultural safety' contract. This contract underscored the role of Maori as directors of the research, protected their intellectual property rights to their traditional environmental knowledge, guaranteed continuity of the collaborative research project and regulated how results were to be communicated. The scientific ethics of a university ecological research team were safeguarded by the contract, which ensured that they could publish their inferences without erasure or interference. The New Zealand experience shows that even when legislation signals from the top down that the doorway is open for co-management with indigenous people, this by itself is unlikely to make it happen. Active facilitation by innovative middle-level agreements and the creation of new administrative structures are needed to govern co-management of a broad spectrum of resource issues. Bottom-up initiatives involving single, or very localized, resource uses may also trigger co-management. Models for successful co-management involving indigenous peoples must focus more strongly on issues of equity or power sharing, and therefore may be very different from models directed at a single conservation outcome.

There is increasing international concern about the environmental impacts of refugees on host areas, with governments calling for compensation for environmental damage, particularly concerning the loss of woodland resources as a result of demand for wood for fuel. In addition to an obvious increase in the population of host areas, concern about refugees' woodfuel-use centres on the notion that they are 'exceptional resource degraders'. Since they view their stay as temporary, it is argued, they therefore do not have any incentive to use resources in a way that is sustainable in the long term. This study examined refugee migration to the middle valley of the Senegal River, and compared woodfuel use by refugee and local populations. Drawing on a household survey and direct measurement of woodfuel use, little or no evidence is found to support the expectation that refugees use more wood for fuel than local people, or that they are more destructive in their collection or use of wood. This is important since it suggests that policy measures developed to reduce what is perceived as excess demand by refugees, notably through the introduction of fuel-efficient stoves, are unlikely to be successful. Reforestation schemes have been relatively unsuccessful in addressing supply or demand for wood.

Many sea-birds are dependent for breeding on islands free from both mammalian predators and high levels of human disturbance. Yet human use of small islands appears to be increasing in many parts of the world, including the >150 islands in the Gulf of California, México. For this reason, the frequency and activities of human visitors to San Pedro Mártir Island, one of the most important sea-bird nesting sites in México, were studied over the course of 14 months of field work between 1990 and 1992. On average >350 people per month visited the near-shore waters. The most important visitors were: (1) commercial fishers in small open boats called pangas; (2) commercial fishers in larger ships; (3) private sport-fishers; and (4) commercial environmental-tourism groups. Private sport-fishing boats were most frequently observed, but private sport-fishers rarely landed on shore and caused little apparent disturbance to nesting or roosting sea-birds or California sea-lions (Zalophus californicus). Commercial companies concerned with environmental tourism also caused little apparent disturbance to sea-birds or sea-lions, but only because the company that brought the majority of 'ecotourists' developed and followed guidelines to minimize disturbance. Disturbance caused by all tourists can be reduced at minimal cost to both tourists and protected-area managers. Commercial fishers were responsible for most of the apparent disturbances to sea-birds and sea-lions; decreasing this apparent impact will be more difficult. Most apparent human impact was found to be short term and localized. However, commercial fishers and scientific researchers have the potential to cause long-term changes to the terrestrial ecology of the island by introducing exotic species.

Sustainable development requires that population and consumption remain within the limits of carrying capacity, while preventing a decline in the carrying capacity of an area requires that productive systems implanted through development be sustainable. Zoning can be a valuable tool in influencing land-use decisions, but we cannot expect government decrees to be capable of causing the landscape to evolve toward the sustainable patterns which have been recommended through zoning. A prerequisite for influencing land-use change is understanding the social processes involved in land-use decisions, beginning with deforestation dynamics. Work to estimate carrying capacity needs to embrace the wide variety of production systems used and contemplated for Amazonia and to be able to interpret this information at scales ranging from local communities to the region as a whole. This will require not only studies of different land-use systems in rural areas, but also integration with studies of energy use and support limits of urban populations. Risks of environmental impacts must be quantified under different development scenarios, and limits of acceptable risk identified and integrated into analyses of carrying capacity.

Tapping the value of environmental services of standing forest represents a promising means of sustaining Amazonia's population over the long term, but numerous obstacles exist. These include halting deforestation before opportunities are lost and supporting the population in non-damaging ways while the institutional groundwork is laid for using the environmental services involved. Research is needed to quantify the magnitude of services and the appropriate monetary value per unit of service. Diplomatic agreement must be reached on these values, which can be expected to be quite different from estimates of the 'true' values based on research. A series of social arrangements must be proposed and implemented if the value derived from environmental services is to fulfil its dual role of maintaining both the forest and the human population in Amazonia.

Estimates of population size have been essential for ecological theory and wildlife management, but they depend on spatial scales of observation. Reported aspects of study and interpretive design were tested to see if they could explain variation in puma (Puma concolor) density. Comparison of puma studies revealed information shortfalls and possible confounding effects in research trends. Vegetation descriptions and other biological and physical aspects of the study site explained none of the 30-fold range of variation in puma density, nor did sampling and estimation methods and other aspects of study and interpretive design. Most (78%) of the variation in puma density estimates can be explained by the spatial extent of study area. Given the effect of scale, puma density estimates have been inappropriately extrapolated to larger geographic areas for management purposes. Due to spatial shifting of local population clusters, conventional density estimates cannot contribute to assessments of puma population trend without study at multiple sites over longer periods of time. Field studies would contribute more to knowledge of puma by spanning larger areas, a greater variety of land uses and habitats, and more of puma's range of distribution.