Why preserve species and habitats at Higher Level: The same five kinds of argument as SL, told through the Amazon, Palau's sharks and New Zealand's river with rights. At HL, link each argument to a value system and to money: who pays, and who gains.
Practise this as you read
- Sort every argument into one of the five kinds.
- Weigh economic against ethical arguments for the same species.
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Five reasons to keep it: People argue for preserving species and habitats in five ways: for their beauty, for how ecosystems work, for money, for what is right, and for people's lives.
The points to remember
- There are five kinds of argument for preserving species and habitats.
- Aesthetic: nature is beautiful and inspiring.
- Ecological: nature gives ecosystem services that keep ecosystems and people alive.
- Economic: nature earns money: ecotourism, genetic resources, products from natural capital.
- Ethical: species have a right to exist (intrinsic value), or are useful to us (instrumental value).
- Social: nature's goods and services support human well-being, culture and health.
Remember it as: Beauty, balance, business, beliefs, belonging.
Aesthetic
- Near Manaus, dark and pale rivers flow side by side: the Meeting of the Waters.
Ecological
- The trees store vast amounts of carbon and make much of their own rain.
Economic
- Brazil nuts are collected only from wild forest trees.
Ethical
- About one in ten of the world's known species live here.
Social
- Home to hundreds of indigenous peoples, whose food and culture depend on it.
Name the kind of argument: When a question asks for different values or arguments, give each a different kind AND an example: 'economic: coral reef tourism', not just 'it is valuable'.
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The ecological argument: nature does jobs for us. These ecosystem services keep ecosystems stable and keep people alive, and they are lost when habitats are lost.
The points to remember
- Ecosystem services: pollination, clean water, flood control, fertile soil, a stable climate.
- Intact habitats store carbon and regulate climate; wetlands and mangroves absorb floods.
- More species means more links in the food web, so the ecosystem is more stable and resilient.
- Each species fills a niche; losing one (e.g. a keystone) can make others decline.
- Protecting a habitat protects every species in it and the services they give.
Remember it as: Nature works for free until it is gone.
Real example: about three-quarters of the world's main food crops benefit from animal pollinators. In Maoxian County, Sichuan, China, heavy pesticide use and lost habitat killed off wild bees, and farmers have pollinated apple and pear flowers by hand, one by one.
Link the service to the habitat: Say which service the habitat gives and what is lost without it: 'mangroves absorb storm waves, so coasts flood less', not just 'mangroves are important'.
The economic argument puts a money value on nature. Its natural capital earns through ecotourism, through its genetic resource and through products that can be harvested without using it up.
The points to remember
- Ecotourism: live wildlife earns money again and again from visitors.
- Genetic resources: wild genes breed disease-resistant crops and give new medicines.
- Commercial natural capital: timber, fish, fruit and fibre can be harvested sustainably.
- Putting a money value (valuation) on nature helps it compete with farming or logging.
- Limit: species with no price may be ignored, and prices can change.
Worth more alive
- In Palau, one reef shark was valued at about US$179,000 a year to dive tourism (2011).
- Over its life that is close to US$2 million.
Worth less dead
- The same shark caught and sold was worth about US$108, once.
- A fished-out reef attracts no divers.
Real example: the cancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol) was first taken from the bark of the Pacific yew, a slow-growing tree of North American forests. Many medicines come from wild species; a species lost is a medicine never found.
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A common exam task: a graph shows tourism rising, and you say how it may affect conservation. It can help or harm, and one clear effect, with its cause, is what counts.
How more tourists can help
- Income from visitors can be invested back into conservation (rangers, research).
- Wildlife is seen as an asset worth looking after, so it is protected.
- Local jobs as guides mean less need for damaging farming, logging or fishing.
- Visitors gain awareness and support conservation.
How more tourists can harm
- Hotels, roads and paths clear or fragment habitat.
- Noise and crowds disturb animals, e.g. during breeding.
- Tourists use scarce water that wildlife needs.
- Easier access can raise poaching or the pet trade.
- Litter that animals eat or get caught in harms them.
Say how it harms: 'Tourism causes pollution' or 'tourists trespass' is not enough. Name the harm to wildlife: 'litter is eaten by animals', 'new hotels clear the forest the birds nest in'.
Real example: since 2018 every visitor to Palau pays a US$100 fee that helps fund its protected areas. But visitors to Antarctica passed 100,000 in the 2022-23 season, and every landing risks disturbing penguins and carrying in the seeds of alien plants.
Ethical arguments are about what is right, and people disagree. Some say a species has intrinsic value; others value it for its instrumental value. The two can apply to the same species.
The points to remember
- Intrinsic value: a species is worth protecting for its own sake, useful or not.
- Bio-rights: every species has a right to exist; people have no right to wipe it out.
- Instrumental value: a species is worth protecting because it is useful to people.
- Stewardship: people should care for nature for future generations.
- Religious or spiritual beliefs can make places or species sacred.
- One species can have both intrinsic and instrumental value.
| Intrinsic value | Instrumental value | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Worth in itself | Worth because it is useful to us |
| Snow leopard | A wild, native cat with a right to exist | Trekkers pay local guides to see it |
Real example: in 2008 Ecuador became the first country to give nature rights in its constitution. In 2017 New Zealand gave the Whanganui River the legal rights of a person, recognising the Maori view that the river is an ancestor.
Both at once: A question may ask how intrinsic and instrumental value are not exclusive. Give one of each for the SAME species: tourism money is instrumental; being native, wild or a cultural symbol is intrinsic.
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Aesthetic and social arguments are about people: the beauty of nature and what it gives our lives. Education is how these arguments reach people and change what they do.
The points to remember
- Aesthetic: beautiful landscapes and wildlife inspire art, writing and photography.
- Social: nature supports well-being: recreation, mental and physical health.
- Nature holds culture and identity: traditions, languages and sacred sites.
- Nature gives livelihoods and food, and places to learn and do research.
- Education turns arguments into action: it builds stewardship and motivates people to act.
- Education also brings money for conservation and protects nature for future generations.
Real example: Mount Fuji was listed as World Heritage in 2013 as a source of inspiration for artists such as Hokusai. Uluru in Australia is sacred to its Anangu owners; climbing it was banned in 2019 out of respect for their culture.
Why education matters: In 1977-78 a campaign on St Lucia made its parrot the national bird; laws followed, and the parrot grew from about 100 birds to over 1,000. Say what education leads to: stewardship, action, money, future generations. 'It spreads awareness' alone is not enough.
Which argument persuades depends on a person's value system: economic and social arguments win over people who see nature as a resource; ethical ones win over ecocentrics. A [9] essay weighs them, as in: is conservation more urgent in the tropics?
More urgent in the tropics
- Tropical rainforests and coral reefs hold most species and many endemics; many are hotspots.
- They are highly productive and store huge amounts of carbon.
- They supply medicines and other genetic resources, and are home to indigenous peoples.
- They are being lost fast, often in poorer countries with little money for conservation.
Urgent everywhere
- Ecocentric view: every species has equal worth, wherever it lives.
- Other biomes are threatened too: temperate grasslands, tundra, boreal forest.
- Tundra and boreal peat store vast amounts of carbon.
- Local ecosystem services matter to people everywhere.
Real example: Borneo's rainforest, shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, has lost much of its forest to oil palm and logging since the 1970s, while the Arctic tundra's frozen soils hold more carbon than the air does today: both matter.
End with a judgement: Conclude with 'to a large extent, because...' and a reason from your analysis, e.g. 'every species matters, but the tropics hold the most species and the least money to protect them'.
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How this comes up: Paper 2, Section B (a): four different values or arguments, each with an example [4]. Paper 1 asks short parts on the same ideas, and Section B (c) weighs them in a [9].
The Okavango Delta in Botswana is a huge inland wetland, flooded each year by a river that never reaches the sea.
Outline four different arguments for preserving the Okavango Delta.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.