Preservation vs. Conservation

Oh the wilderness ethic - preserving wilderness for the sake of there being wilderness.
We've been talking about selfishness a bit in this class recently.  That combined with some events in my personal life have shown me that we are all ultimately selfish.  That's the bottom line.
So - if we want people to be "environmental", it needs to come from a selfish place.  Even those who want to preserve wilderness for its own sake usually have spent a fair amount of time in the wilderness and don't want to lose that option.  Or they know that we need wilderness as part of the larger system we exist in.  Whether it is leisure-based or self-preservation, it is still ultimately a selfish reason. But maybe that's okay.  At the end of the day we need to figure out as many ways as possible to get people loving nature and wanting to protect it.  Even if it is all for selfish reasons.

The question of a wilderness ethic and pure preservation is an interesting one, and not an approach that I tend to use in the environmental education I deliver.  I had the pleasure of helping to lead a weekend retreat for grade 10 students at the estuary where the lodge I am staying at is located. We split into two groups and went off for full day hikes.  In the evening we shared with each other.  My group brought back 2 shells, less than a handful of titanium sand from the beach, and a crayfish shell to use as examples to show the other group during their presentation.

Well, a kid from the other group had obviously been taught the philosophy of "leave no trace" and she started questioning my group very aggressively and accusing them of taking stuff from the beach, so how would her grandchildren be able to see those things one day??? My group was saying that they just took a tiny bit to use for educational purposes.  The impromptu "debate" was getting quite heated and I thought it was all a bit ridiculous so I was happy when I saw one of the local leaders of the program put up her hand and demand to speak.  I thought she'd set them straight and tell the girl in her group to chill out.

But no... she dramatically stated that the question the girl had asked was "very dear to her heart" and then she launched in to yelling at them as well and saying how could they take stuff?  If people wanted to see it they had to go there... and so on. She went so far as to say they needed a permit, because taking that sand was considered mining.

I finally jumped in.  I started jabbering away about systems theory and how humans are actually a part of nature, and how her cell phone is made of titanium and how much petrol it would take to bring people here to see things first hand and how sometimes sacrifices are needed for overall protection, like how ecotourism has an "impact" on the environment but is still the way better option than mining and how everything is connected and so on and so on.  I was shocked by the narrow, reductionist approach that she was using for environmental education.  She was scaring the kids out of having any love or curiosity for nature.

Finally the other local leader, who is a very well-spoken young guy, jumped in and delivered a beautiful, much more coherent speech than mine, all about preservation vs. conservation and that what they were talking about was preservation but that what is needed in this area is conservation.

The other group remained stubborn, but my environmental education philosophy and views about a wilderness ethic were strengthened.