University of Washington Press Biodiversity and Democracy: Rethinking Nature and Society

The world’s species, genes, and ecosystems are going extinct atan alarming and unprecedented rate, largely as a result of humanactivities. If this trend continues, human civilization itself is atrisk. Yet we remain either unaware or unconcerned. In Biodiversity and Democracy, Paul Wood looks at thisdilemma from another perspective. He argues that the problem can betraced back to how we think about both biodiversity and democraticsocieties. He examines the concept of biodiversity, recasting it as anessential environmental condition that is being irreversibly depleted,not a biological resource that can simply be replaced. He thendemonstrates how democratic policies cater to short-term publicpreferences, with little or no concern for the long term. Wood considers a number of contemporary theories of justice andconcludes that biodiversity conservation is a legitimate constraint oncurrent collective preferences and that biodiversity should beconserved, even if it is not in the public’s current best interestto do so. This is a strong message that carries serious implicationsfor constitutional and statutory legal reform in liberaldemocracies. This book will be of interest to academics and professionals in therelated fields of conservation biology, environmental law, publicpolicy, environmental ethics and political philosophy. Public interestgroups, environmental advocacy groups and government agencies will alsofind Wood’s approach thought-provoking.