Chapter 1 : Environmental protection: ethical and scientificsources of tension

Abstract

Environmental ethic is complex, dynamic, and related to cultural contexts thatare neither given once and for all, nor valid for all people. Yet, the currentbiodiversity crisis tends to be followed by the spread of universal values relatedto nature and its protection. Far from standardizing the pluralism of these values,this universal trend leads to two major tensions in the field of natureconservation. the first concerns the scientific or epistemic values: nature or“biodiversity” is altogether being reduced in sub-categories or by contrastconsidered as a complex object by modern ecological science. biodiversity isindeed both increasingly considered in terms of its complexity andunpredictability, or on the contrary, as a collection of natural objects that canand must be managed with easily quantifiable indicators. the second tensionconcerns ethical values. these values tend to be reduced and simplified inequating nature with “services” that can benefit human societies. but thisutilitarian reduction also hides a diversification of ethical values. this artic aims to analyze what characterizes this contemporary ethical and scientificfloating with respect to the values involved in the protection of nature.