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How many whales are enough? mongabay.com November 29, 2006
Dr. Eric Sanderson, an ecologist with New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), proposes a simpler, four-tiered system to measure conservation success to replace the 18 different approaches currently used by wildlife managers to set population target levels intended to create self-sustaining populations. "People want much more from wild animals than to see them just persist: we want animals to interact with their environment, evolve over time, be beautiful and useful to us, and to satisfy ethical teachings regarding respect for nature," said Dr. Sanderson.
Sanderson says the highest tier will be reached when a species is restored to its "historical baseline", or how it existed before the impact of mankind. "Having animals acting like animals in the fullest sense, seems the standard conservationists should seek, whether it's bison on the Great Plains or Asia's forests with tigers and their prey," said Sanderson. "Human society needs to recognize, now and into the foreseeable future, that we are making the decisions about how many animals live with us, and thus to make those decisions from a carefully considered, ethically consistent, and clearly articulated view of what we want from nature," he concludes. This article is based on a news release from WCS. Recommend this article? Comments? >Digg this article | >Hugg this article | Contact News options
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