A recent article in the
Chronicle of Higher Education by Paul Voosen titled
“Who is Conservation For?”
details the exceptional accomplishments of Gretchen Daily, a respected
scientist who has worked to promote the value of conservation. The
benefits of conservation certainly seem self-evident to us in the world
of parks and recreation — we see the impacts of protected open space to
communities on a daily basis in clean water, wildlife habitats,
vegetative buffers, pollution control and more. But as Voosen points
out, the benefits of conservation may not always be as evident to the
public at large. In fact, some of the focus of contemporary conservation
efforts to protect biodiversity and eliminate human impacts on
sensitive ecosystems may actually be counterproductive, and may have
even had the effect of dampening public regard for conservation rather
than stimulating greater support.