The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental, and social movement that seeks to manage and protect
natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
s, including animal, fungus, and plant species as well as their habitat for the future. Conservationists are concerned with leaving the environment in a better state than the condition they found it in.
Evidence-based conservation seeks to use high quality scientific evidence to make conservation efforts more effective.
The early conservation movement evolved out of necessity to maintain natural resources such as
fisheries,
wildlife management
Wildlife management is the management process influencing interactions among and between wildlife, its habitats and people to achieve predefined impacts. It attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best availabl ...
,
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
,
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
, as well as
conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
and
sustainable forestry. The contemporary conservation movement has broadened from the early movement's emphasis on use of sustainable yield of natural resources and preservation of
wilderness
Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...
areas to include preservation of
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
. Some say the conservation movement is part of the broader and more far-reaching
environmental movement
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...
, while others argue that they differ both in ideology and practice. Conservation is seen as differing from
environmentalism
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
and it is generally a conservative school of thought which aims to preserve natural resources expressly for their continued
sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
use by humans.
History
Early history
![Sylva paper 1662](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Sylva_paper_1662.jpg)
The conservation movement can be traced back to
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society.
John Evelyn's diary, or ...
's work ''
Sylva'', presented as a paper to the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 1662. Published as a book two years later, it was one of the most highly influential texts on
forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...
ever published. Timbre resources in England were becoming dangerously depleted at the time, and Evelyn advocated the importance of conserving the forests by managing the rate of depletion and ensuring that the cut down trees get replenished.
The field developed during the 18th century, especially in
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
and France where scientific forestry methods were developed. These methods were first applied rigorously in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
from the early 19th century. The government was interested in the use of
forest produce
Forest produce is defined under section 2(4) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Its legal definition includes timber, charcoal, caoutchouc, catechu, wood-oil, resin, natural varnish, bark, lac, myrobalans, mahua flowers (whether found inside or bro ...
and began managing the forests with measures to reduce the risk of wildfire in order to protect the "household" of nature, as it was then termed. This early ecological idea was in order to preserve the growth of delicate
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
trees, which was an important resource for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
.
Concerns over teak depletion were raised as early as 1799 and 1805 when the Navy was undergoing a massive expansion during the
Napoleonic War
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
s; this pressure led to the first formal conservation Act, which prohibited the felling of small teak trees. The first forestry officer was appointed in 1806 to regulate and preserve the trees necessary for shipbuilding.
This promising start received a setback in the 1820s and 30s, when
laissez-faire
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
economics and complaints from private landowners brought these early conservation attempts to an end.
In 1837, American poet
George Pope Morris
George Pope Morris (October 10, 1802 – July 6, 1864) was an American editor, poet, and songwriter.
Life and work
With Nathaniel Parker Willis, he co-founded the daily ''New York Evening Mirror''Sova, Dawn B. ''Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z''. New Y ...
published "Woodman, Spare that Tree!", a
Romantic poem urging a lumberjack to avoid an
oak tree
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
that has sentimental value. The poem was set to music later that year by
Henry Russell. Lines from the song have been quoted by environmentalists.
Origins of the modern conservation movement
Conservation was revived in the mid-19th century, with the first practical application of scientific conservation principles to the forests of India. The conservation ethic that began to evolve included three core principles: that human activity damaged the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
, that there was a
civic duty to maintain the environment for future generations, and that scientific, empirically based methods should be applied to ensure this duty was carried out. Sir
James Ranald Martin
Sir James Ranald Martin (12 May 1796 – 27 November 1874) was a British military surgeon in Colonial India who worked in the service of the Honourable East India Company and was instrumental in publicising the effects of deforestation, and find ...
was prominent in promoting this ideology, publishing many medico-topographical reports that demonstrated the scale of damage wrought through large-scale deforestation and desiccation, and lobbying extensively for the institutionalization of forest conservation activities in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
through the establishment of
Forest Departments.
Edward Percy Stebbing
Edward Percy Stebbing FRSE FRGS FZS (4 January 1872 – 21 March 1960) was a pioneering English forester and forest entomologist in India. He was among the first to warn of desertification and desiccation and wrote on "The encroaching Sahara ...
warned of desertification of India. The
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
Board of Revenue started local conservation efforts in 1842, headed by
Alexander Gibson, a professional
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
who systematically adopted a forest conservation program based on scientific principles. This was the first case of state management of forests in the world.
These local attempts gradually received more attention by the British government as the unregulated felling of trees continued unabated. In 1850, the
British Association
The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...
in Edinburgh formed a committee to study forest destruction at the behest of
Dr. Hugh Cleghorn a pioneer in the nascent conservation movement.
He had become interested in
forest conservation
Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between three main pillars: ecological, economic and socio-cultural. ...
in
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
in 1847 and gave several lectures at the Association on the failure of agriculture in India. These lectures influenced the government under
Governor-General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Lord Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), also known as Lord Dalhousie, styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and co ...
to introduce the first permanent and large-scale forest conservation program in the world in 1855, a model that soon spread to
other colonies, as well the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. In the same year, Cleghorn organised the
Madras Forest Department and in 1860 the department banned the use
shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cu ...
. Cleghorn's 1861 manual, ''The forests and gardens of South India'', became the definitive work on the subject and was widely used by forest assistants in the subcontinent.
In 1861, the Forest Department extended its remit into the
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
.
![Sir William Schlich07](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Sir_William_Schlich07.jpg)
Sir
Dietrich Brandis, a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
forester, joined the British service in 1856 as superintendent of the teak forests of Pegu division in eastern
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. During that time Burma's
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...
forests were controlled by militant
Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
tribals. He introduced the "taungya" system, in which Karen villagers provided labor for clearing, planting and weeding teak plantations. After seven years in Burma, Brandis was appointed Inspector General of Forests in India, a position he served in for 20 years. He formulated new forest legislation and helped establish research and training institutions. The
Imperial Forest School at
Dehradun
Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
was founded by him.
Germans were prominent in the forestry administration of British India. As well as Brandis,
Berthold Ribbentrop
Berthold Ribbentrop was a pioneering forester from Germany who worked in India with Sir Dietrich Brandis and others. He is said to have inspired Rudyard Kipling's character of Muller in ''In the Rukh'' (1893), one of the earliest of his ''Jungle ...
and
Sir William P.D. Schlich brought new methods to Indian conservation, the latter becoming the Inspector-General in 1883 after Brandis stepped down. Schlich helped to establish the journal ''
Indian Forester
''The Indian Forester'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in forestry. It is one of the oldest forestry journals still in existence in the world.
It was established in 1875 and is published by the Indian Council of Forestry ...
'' in 1874, and became the founding director of the first
forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...
school in England at
Cooper's Hill in 1885. He authored the five-volume ''Manual of Forestry'' (1889–96) on
silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, and quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production.
The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests and wo ...
,
forest management Forest management is a branch of forestry concerned with overall administrative, legal, economic, and social aspects, as well as scientific and technical aspects, such as silviculture, protection, and forest regulation. This includes management fo ...
,
forest protection
Forest protection is a branch of forestry which is concerned with the preservation or improvement of a forest and prevention and control of damage to forest by natural or man made causes like forest fires, plant pests, and adverse climatic cond ...
, and forest utilization, which became the standard and enduring textbook for forestry students.
Conservation in the United States
![Yellowstone 1871b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Yellowstone_1871b.jpg)
The American movement received its inspiration from 19th century works that exalted the inherent value of nature, quite apart from human usage. Author
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) made key philosophical contributions that exalted nature. Thoreau was interested in peoples' relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book ''
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
,'' which argued that people should become intimately close with nature. The ideas of
Sir Brandis,
Sir William P.D. Schlich and
Carl A. Schenck
Carl Alwin Schenck (March 25, 1868 – May 17, 1955) was a German forester and pioneering forestry educator. He founded the Biltmore Forest School, the first forestry school in North America on George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate. His teachin ...
were also very influential—
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsy ...
, the first chief of the
USDA Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
, relied heavily upon Brandis' advice for introducing professional forest management in the U.S. and on how to structure the Forest Service.
Both conservationists and preservationists appeared in political debates during the
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
(the 1890s–early 1920s). There were three main positions.
* Laissez-faire: The laissez-faire position held that owners of private property—including lumber and mining companies, should be allowed to do anything they wished on their properties.
* Conservationists: The conservationists, led by future President
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
and his close ally
George Bird Grinnell
George Bird Grinnell (September 20, 1849 – April 11, 1938) was an American anthropologist, historian, naturalist, and writer. Grinnell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1870 and a Ph.D. in 1880 ...
, were motivated by the wanton waste that was taking place at the hand of market forces, including logging and hunting. This practice resulted in placing a large number of North American game species on the edge of extinction. Roosevelt recognized that the laissez-faire approach of the U.S. Government was too wasteful and inefficient. In any case, they noted, most of the natural resources in the western states were already owned by the federal government. The best course of action, they argued, was a long-term plan devised by national experts to maximize the long-term economic benefits of natural resources. To accomplish the mission, Roosevelt and Grinnell formed the
Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club is an American nonprofit organization that advocates fair chase hunting in support of habitat conservation. The club is North America's oldest wildlife and habitat conservation organization, founded in the United Sta ...
, whose members were some of the best minds and influential men of the day. Its contingency of conservationists, scientists, politicians, and intellectuals became Roosevelt's closest advisers during his march to preserve wildlife and habitat across North America.
* Preservationists: Preservationists, led by
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...
(1838–1914), argued that the conservation policies were not strong enough to protect the interest of the natural world because they continued to focus on the natural world as a source of economic production.
The debate between conservation and preservation reached its peak in the public debates over the construction of California's
Hetch Hetchy dam
O'Shaughnessy Dam is a high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, United States. It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy, Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yos ...
in
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ...
which supplies the water supply of San Francisco. Muir, leading the
Sierra Club, declared that the valley must be preserved for the sake of its beauty: "No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."
President
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
* Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Rooseve ...
put conservationist issues high on the national agenda. He worked with all the major figures of the movement, especially his chief advisor on the matter,
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsy ...
and was deeply committed to conserving natural resources. He encouraged the
Newlands Reclamation Act
The Reclamation Act (also known as the Lowlands Reclamation Act or National Reclamation Act) of 1902 () is a United States federal law that funded irrigation projects for the arid lands of 20 states in the American West.
The act at first covere ...
of 1902 to promote federal construction of dams to irrigate small farms and placed 230 million acres (360,000 mi
2 or 930,000 km
2) under federal protection. Roosevelt set aside more federal land for
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
s and
nature preserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological o ...
s than all of his predecessors combined.
![TR-Enviro](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/TR-Enviro.JPG)
Roosevelt established the
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...
, signed into law the creation of five national parks, and signed the year 1906
Antiquities Act
The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential procla ...
, under which he proclaimed 18 new
national monuments. He also established the first 51
bird reserves, four
game preserve
Game preservation is maintaining a stock of game to be hunted legally. It includes:
*Preventing poaching
*Preventing losses due to attack by predators.
*Encouraging breeding, and sometimes captive breeding for release.
Britain
Until hand-held gu ...
s, and 150
national forests, including
Shoshone National Forest
Shoshone National Forest ( ) is the first federally protected National Forest in the United States and covers nearly in the state of Wyoming. Originally a part of the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, the forest is managed by the United States ...
, the nation's first. The area of the United States that he placed under public protection totals approximately .
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Pennsy ...
had been appointed by McKinley as chief of Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. In 1905, his department gained control of the national forest reserves. Pinchot promoted private use (for a fee) under federal supervision. In 1907, Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km
2) of new national forests just minutes before a deadline.
In May 1908, Roosevelt sponsored the
Conference of Governors
The Conference of Governors was held in the White House May 13–15, 1908 under the sponsorship of President Theodore Roosevelt. Gifford Pinchot, at that time Chief Forester of the U.S., was the primary mover of the conference, and a progressive c ...
held in the White House, with a focus on natural resources and their most efficient use. Roosevelt delivered the opening address: "Conservation as a National Duty".
In 1903 Roosevelt toured the Yosemite Valley with
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...
, who had a very different view of conservation, and tried to minimize commercial use of water resources and forests. Working through the Sierra Club he founded, Muir succeeded in 1905 in having Congress transfer the
Mariposa Grove
Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of giant sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature examples of the tree. Two of ...
and Yosemite Valley to the federal government. While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees."
Theodore Roosevelt's view on conservationism remained dominant for decades;
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
authorised the building of many large-scale dams and water projects, as well as the expansion of the National Forest System to buy out sub-marginal farms. In 1937, the
Pittman–Robertson Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, most often referred to as the Pittman–Robertson Act for its sponsors, Nevada Senator Key Pittman and Virginia Congressman Absalom Willis Robertson, is an act that imposes an 11% tax on firearm ...
was signed into law, providing funding for state agencies to carry out their conservation efforts.
![Theodore Roosevelt with dead lion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Theodore_Roosevelt_with_dead_lion.jpg)
While Theodore Roosevelt was one of the leading activists for the conservation movement in the United States, he also believed that the threats to the natural world were equally threats to white Americans. They held the belief that the cities, industries and factories that were overtaking the wilderness and threatening the native plants and animals were also consuming and threatening the racial vigor that they believed white Americans held which made them superior.
Roosevelt was a big believer that white male virility depended on wildlife for its vigor, and that depleting wildlife would result in a much weaker nation.
This lead Roosevelt to support the passing of many immigration restrictions, eugenics legislations and wildlife preservation laws. He drew much inspiration for his beliefs from Madison Grant, a well known American eugenicist and conservationist.
Grant worked alongside Roosevelt in the American conservation movement and was even secretary and president of the Boone and Crockett Club.
In 1916, Grant published the book "The Passing of the Great Race", which explained the hierarchy of races, with white, "Nordic" men at the top, and all other races below.
The German translation of this book was used by Nazi Germany as the source for many of their beliefs.
The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905 with the priority of protecting/conserving various waterbird species.
However, the first state-level Audubon group was created in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall to convince women to refrain from buying hats made with bird feathers- a common practice at the time.
The organization is named after John Audubon, a naturalist and legendary bird painter.
The lesser known truth is that he was a slaveholder who also included many racist tales in his many books.
Despite his views of racial inequality, Audubon did find black and indigenous people to be scientifically useful, often using their local knowledge in his books and relying on them to collect specimens for him.
Since 1970
Environmental reemerged on the national agenda in 1970, with Republican
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
playing a major role, especially with his creation of the
Environmental Protection Agency. The debates over the public lands and environmental politics played a supporting role in the decline of liberalism and the rise of modern environmentalism. Although Americans consistently rank environmental issues as "important", polling data indicates that in the voting booth voters rank the environmental issues low relative to other political concerns.
The growth of the Republican party's political power in the inland West (apart from the Pacific coast) was facilitated by the rise of popular opposition to public lands reform. Successful Democrats in the inland West and Alaska typically take more conservative positions on environmental issues than Democrats from the Coastal states. Conservatives drew on new organizational networks of think tanks, industry groups, and citizen-oriented organizations, and they began to deploy new strategies that affirmed the rights of individuals to their property, protection of extraction rights, to hunt and recreate, and to pursue happiness unencumbered by the federal government at the expense of resource conservation.
In 2019, convivial conservation was an idea proposed by Bram Büscher and Robert Fletcher. Convivial conservation draws on social movements and concepts like environmental justice and structural change to create a post-capitalist approach to conservation.
Conservation in Costa Rica
World Wide Fund for Nature
The
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
(WWF) is an
international
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
founded in 1961, working in the field of the wilderness preservation, and the reduction of
human impact on the environment
Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the need ...
.
It was formerly named the "World Wildlife Fund", which remains its official name in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
WWF is the world's largest
conservation organization with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300 conservation and environmental projects. They have invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995.
WWF is a
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
with 55% of funding from individuals and bequests, 19% from government sources (such as the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
,
DFID
, type = Department
, logo = DfID.svg
, logo_width = 180px
, logo_caption =
, picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg
, picture_width = 180px
, picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...
,
USAID
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...
) and 8% from corporations in 2014.
WWF aims to "stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature." The
Living Planet Report
The ''Living Planet Report'' is published every two years by the World Wide Fund for Nature since 1998. It is based on the Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculations.
The ''Living Planet Report'' is the world's leading, science- ...
is published every two years by WWF since 1998; it is based on a
Living Planet Index and
ecological footprint calculation.
In addition, WWF has launched several notable worldwide campaigns including
Earth Hour and
Debt-for-Nature Swap Debt-for-nature swaps are financial transactions in which a portion of a developing nation's foreign debt is forgiven in exchange for local investments in environmental conservation measures.
History
The debt-for-nature swaps concept was first giv ...
, and its current work is organized around these six areas: food, climate, freshwater, wildlife, forests, and oceans.
"Conservation Far" approach
A conservation-exploitation dichotomy has plagued a place many may not expect: Conservation institutions. Institutions such as the WWF have historically been the cause of the displacement and divide between native populations and the lands they inhabit. The overbearing reason behind this rather contradictory truth is because of the organization's historically colonial, paternalistic, and neoliberal approaches to conservation. Claus, in his article "Drawing the Sea Near: Satoumi and Coral Reef Conservation in Okinawa", expands on these approaches and their effectiveness, not as much in conservation, but in creating the value of and commercializing endangered flora and fauna. One way in which this has taken place is through a separation between people, even locals, and the nature spaces they aimed to protect. This is what Claus calls the "Conservation-Far" method, in which access to lands is completely relinquished upon the locals and tourists, by an external, foreign entity. This entity is largely unaware of the customs and values held by those within the territory surrounding nature and their role within it.
Claus relays the history of an Island in Japan, Shiraho, in which the people's traditional ways of tending to nature were lost due to modernization and the rise of a fast-paced lifestyle. It is the view of a "Conservation-Near" approach that would suggest a regeneration of these customs within the local area. This engages those near in proximity to the lands in the conservation efforts and holds them accountable for their direct effects on its preservation. Unlike the hands-on, full sensory experience permitted by conservation-near methodologies, conservation-far drills visuals and sight as being the main interaction medium between people and the environment. An emphasis on observation only stems from a deeper association with intellect and observation. The alternative to this is more of a bodily or "primitive" consciousness, which is associated with lower-intelligence and people of color. A new, integrated approach to conservation is being investigated in recent years by institutions such as WWF.
Evidence-based conservation
Areas of concern
Deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
and
overpopulation
Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...
are issues affecting all regions of the world. The consequent destruction of wildlife habitat has prompted the creation of conservation groups in other countries, some founded by local hunters who have witnessed declining wildlife populations first hand. Also, it was highly important for the conservation movement to solve problems of living conditions in the cities and the overpopulation of such places.
Boreal forest and the Arctic
The idea of incentive conservation is a modern one but its practice has clearly defended some of the sub Arctic wildernesses and the wildlife in those regions for thousands of years, especially by indigenous peoples such as the Evenk, Yakut, Sami, Inuit and Cree. The fur trade and hunting by these peoples have preserved these regions for thousands of years. Ironically, the pressure now upon them comes from non-renewable resources such as oil, sometimes to make synthetic clothing which is advocated as a humane substitute for fur. (See
Raccoon dog
The common raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes procyonoides''), also called the Chinese or Asian raccoon dog, is a small, heavy-set, fox-like canid native to East Asia. Named for its raccoon-like face markings, it is most closely related to foxes. Common ...
for case study of the conservation of an animal through fur trade.) Similarly, in the case of the beaver, hunting and fur trade were thought to bring about the animal's demise, when in fact they were an integral part of its conservation. For many years children's books stated and still do, that the decline in the beaver population was due to the fur trade. In reality however, the decline in beaver numbers was because of habitat destruction and deforestation, as well as its continued persecution as a pest (it causes flooding). In Cree lands, however, where the population valued the animal for meat and fur, it continued to thrive. The Inuit defend their relationship with the seal in response to outside critics.
Latin America (Bolivia)
The
Izoceño-
Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to
Ethnography
* Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia)
* Guaraní language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay
* ...
of
Santa Cruz Department
Santa Cruz () is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of , it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the e ...
,
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, is a tribe of hunters who were influential in establishing the Capitania del Alto y Bajo Isoso (CABI). CABI promotes economic growth and survival of the Izoceno people while discouraging the rapid destruction of habitat within Bolivia's
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gro ...
. They are responsible for the creation of the 34,000 square kilometre Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park and Integrated Management Area (KINP). The KINP protects the most biodiverse portion of the Gran Chaco, an ecoregion shared with Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. In 1996, the
Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a non-governmental organization headquartered at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, that aims to conserve the world's largest wild places in 14 priority regions. Founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological ...
joined forces with CABI to institute wildlife and hunting monitoring programs in 23 Izoceño communities. The partnership combines traditional beliefs and local knowledge with the political and administrative tools needed to effectively manage habitats. The programs rely solely on voluntary participation by local hunters who perform self-monitoring techniques and keep records of their hunts. The information obtained by the hunters participating in the program has provided CABI with important data required to make educated decisions about the use of the land. Hunters have been willing participants in this program because of pride in their traditional activities, encouragement by their communities and expectations of benefits to the area.
Africa (Botswana)
In order to discourage illegal South African hunting parties and ensure future local use and sustainability, indigenous hunters in
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
began lobbying for and implementing conservation practices in the 1960s. The Fauna Preservation Society of Ngamiland (FPS) was formed in 1962 by the husband and wife team: Robert Kay and June Kay, environmentalists working in conjunction with the Batawana tribes to preserve wildlife habitat.
The FPS promotes habitat conservation and provides local education for preservation of wildlife. Conservation initiatives were met with strong opposition from the Botswana government because of the monies tied to big-game hunting. In 1963, BaTawanga Chiefs and tribal hunter/adventurers in conjunction with the FPS founded
Moremi National Park and Wildlife Refuge, the first area to be set aside by tribal people rather than governmental forces. Moremi National Park is home to a variety of wildlife, including lions, giraffes, elephants, buffalo, zebra, cheetahs and antelope, and covers an area of 3,000 square kilometers. Most of the groups involved with establishing this protected land were involved with hunting and were motivated by their personal observations of declining wildlife and habitat.
See also
Notes
Further reading
World
* Barton, Gregory A. ''Empire, Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism,'' (2002), covers British Empire
* Clover, Charles. ''The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat''. (2004) Ebury Press, London.
* Haq, Gary, and Alistair Paul. ''Environmentalism since 1945'' (Routledge, 2013).
* Jones, Eric L. "The History of Natural Resource Exploitation in the Western World," ''Research in Economic History,'' 1991 Supplement 6, pp 235–252
* McNeill, John R. ''Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century'' (2000).
Regional studies
Africa
* Adams, Jonathan S.; McShane, Thomas O. ''Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation without Illusion'' (1992) 266p; covers 1900 to 1980s
* Anderson, David; Grove, Richard. ''Conservation in Africa: People, Policies & Practice'' (1988), 355pp
* Bolaane, Maitseo. "Chiefs, Hunters & Adventurers: The Foundation of the Okavango/Moremi National Park, Botswana". ''Journal of Historical Geography.'' 31.2 (Apr. 2005): 241–259.
* Carruthers, Jane. "Africa: Histories, Ecologies, and Societies," Environment and History, 10 (2004), pp. 379–406;
* Showers, Kate B. ''Imperial Gullies: Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho'' (2005) 346pp
Asia-Pacific
* Bolton, Geoffrey. ''Spoils and Spoilers: Australians Make Their Environment, 1788-1980'' (1981) 197pp
* Economy, Elizabeth. ''The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China's Future'' (2010)
* Elvin, Mark. ''The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China'' (2006)
* Grove, Richard H.; Damodaran, Vinita Jain; Sangwan, Satpal. ''Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia'' (1998) 1036pp
* Johnson, Erik W., Saito, Yoshitaka, and Nishikido, Makoto. "Organizational Demography of Japanese Environmentalism," ''Sociological Inquiry,'' Nov 2009, Vol. 79 Issue 4, pp 481–504
*
Thapar, Valmik. ''Land of the Tiger: A Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent'' (1998) 288pp
Latin America
* Boyer, Christopher. ''Political Landscapes: Forests, Conservation, and Community in Mexico''. Duke University Press (2015)
*
Dean, Warren. ''With Broadax and Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest'' (1997)
* Evans, S. ''The Green Republic: A Conservation History of Costa Rica''. University of Texas Press. (1999)
* Funes Monzote, Reinaldo. ''From Rainforest to Cane Field in Cuba: An Environmental History since 1492'' (2008)
* Melville, Elinor G. K. ''A Plague of Sheep: Environmental Consequences of the Conquest of Mexico'' (1994)
* Miller, Shawn William. ''An Environmental History of Latin America'' (2007)
* Noss, Andrew and Imke Oetting. "Hunter Self-Monitoring by the Izoceño -Guarani in the Bolivian Chaco". ''Biodiversity & Conservation''. 14.11 (2005): 2679–2693.
* Simonian, Lane. ''Defending the Land of the Jaguar: A History of Conservation in Mexico'' (1995) 326pp
* Wakild, Emily. ''An Unexpected Environment: National Park Creation, Resource Custodianship, and the Mexican Revolution''. University of Arizona Press (2011).
Europe and Russia
*
Arnone Sipari, Lorenzo, ''Scritti scelti di Erminio Sipari sul Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo (1922-1933)'' (2011), 360pp.
* Barca, Stefania, and Ana Delicado. "Anti-nuclear mobilisation and environmentalism in Europe: A view from Portugal (1976-1986)." ''Environment and History'' 22.4 (2016): 497–520
online* Bonhomme, Brian. ''Forests, Peasants and Revolutionaries: Forest Conservation & Organization in Soviet Russia, 1917-1929'' (2005) 252pp.
* Cioc, Mark. ''The Rhine: An Eco-Biography, 1815-2000'' (2002).
* Dryzek, John S., et al. ''Green states and social movements: environmentalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway'' (Oxford UP, 2003).
* Jehlicka, Petr. "Environmentalism in Europe: an east-west comparison." in ''Social change and political transformation'' (Routledge, 2018) pp. 112–131.
* Simmons, I.G. ''An Environmental History of Great Britain: From 10,000 Years Ago to the Present'' (2001).
* Uekotter, Frank. ''The greenest nation?: A new history of German environmentalism'' (MIT Press, 2014).
* Weiner, Douglas R. ''Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia'' (2000) 324pp; covers 1917 to 1939.
United States
* Bates, J. Leonard. "Fulfilling American Democracy: The Conservation Movement, 1907 to 1921", ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' (1957), 44#1 pp. 29–57
in JSTOR* Brinkley, Douglas G. ''The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America,'' (2009
excerpt and text search* Cawley, R. McGreggor. ''Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics'' (1993), on conservatives
* Flippen, J. Brooks. ''Nixon and the Environment'' (2000).
* Hays, Samuel P. ''Beauty, Health, and Permanence: Environmental Politics in the United States, 1955–1985'' (1987), the standard scholarly history
** Hays, Samuel P. ''A History of Environmental Politics since 1945'' (2000), shorter standard history
* Hays, Samuel P. ''Conservation and the Gospel of Efficiency'' (1959), on Progressive Era.
* King, Judson. ''The Conservation Fight, From Theodore Roosevelt to the Tennessee Valley Authority'' (2009)
* Nash, Roderick. ''Wilderness and the American Mind,'' (3rd ed. 1982), the standard intellectual history
*
* Rothmun, Hal K. ''The Greening of a Nation? Environmentalism in the United States since 1945'' (1998)
* Scheffer, Victor B. ''The Shaping of Environmentalism in America'' (1991).
* Sellers, Christopher. ''Crabgrass Crucible: Suburban Nature and the Rise of Environmentalism in Twentieth-Century America'' (2012)
* Strong, Douglas H. ''Dreamers & Defenders: American Conservationists.'' (1988
online edition good biographical studies of the major leaders
* Taylor, Dorceta E. ''The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection'' (Duke U.P. 2016) x, 486 pp.
* Turner, James Morton, "The Specter of Environmentalism": Wilderness, Environmental Politics, and the Evolution of the New Right. ''The Journal of American History'' 96.1 (2009): 123-4
* Vogel, David. ''California Greenin': How the Golden State Became an Environmental Leader'' (2018) 280 pp
online review
Historiography
* Cioc, Mark,
Björn-Ola Linnér, and Matt Osborn, "Environmental History Writing in Northern Europe," ''Environmental History,'' 5 (2000), pp. 396–406
* Bess, Michael, Mark Cioc, and James Sievert, "Environmental History Writing in Southern Europe," ''Environmental History,'' 5 (2000), pp. 545–56;
* Coates, Peter. "Emerging from the Wilderness (or, from Redwoods to Bananas): Recent Environmental History in the United States and the Rest of the Americas," Environment and History, 10 (2004), pp. 407–38
* Hay, Peter. ''Main Currents in Western Environmental Thought'' (2002), standard scholarly histor
excerpt and text search* McNeill, John R. "Observations on the Nature and Culture of Environmental History," ''History and Theory,'' 42 (2003), pp. 5–43.
* Robin, Libby, and Tom Griffiths, "Environmental History in Australasia," ''Environment and History,'' 10 (2004), pp. 439–74
* Worster, Donald, ed. ''The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History'' (1988)
External links
A history of conservation in New Zealand''For Future Generations'', a Canadian documentary on conservation and national parks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conservation Movement
Environmental conservation
Environmental ethics
Environmental movements
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