africa: CONSERVATION - DYNAMIC DIVERSITY

This concept note discusses the meaning of conservation. The author argues that conservation tends to carry with it a meaning of stasis or preservation of the norm. But, she argues, what is the norm, which point of the constantly changing history of the earth do we choose to conserve? The author argues that defining and limiting sustainable use, for our and future generations, is impossible since we cannot tell what is sustainable resource use now or what the requirements of the future will be. The natural world is a dynamic, ever-changing place, even in the absence of human intervention. The challenge is to preserve the dynamism of a natural world in which humans are relative newcomers.