Conservation Preservation And Conservation

Preservation in its purest form is an interesting concept because if followed exactly it would allow nature to grow freely, which would include the animals that cohabitate the land with the plants. Preservation in practice however is slightly different. We get national parks that glorify certain aspects of land that we now view as appealing simply because they are grand and rare. This type of thinking has lead to humans altering the environment so that it fits the way they want it to be. For instance, in Yellowstone they had an issue with wolves and elk populations that were slightly too high. “Trapping was used to supply elk for establishment of new populations elsewhere. A moratorium on elk removals in the Park was instituted in 1969, and

The issue again is deciding what exactly is important enough to conserve. We cut down entire forests, and continue to do so today, but we all wish to plant a tree in our yard. It is interesting that we would wish to alter nature so drastically just to try to hold on to it in the most basic ways we know possible. Again it goes to the idea of nostalgia, we focus on aspects of nature we no longer have simply because we miss it. In places like Brazil the amount of forests are still abundant because their need is not just based in appeal. Yet, as Brazil urbanizes, it is going to be difficult for the trees to bounce back. One researcher focused on this problem and states, “Recent studies suggest that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon could increase sharply in the future as a result of over US$ 40 billion in planned investments in highway paving and major new infrastructure projects in the region”. (Lawrence, 2001) A project that big could pave roads all over the country, which would mean lot of forests would be cut down to make way. It seems that humans are not so much the issue as the society in which they live in. Like America before the English, third world countries tend to be abundant in resources, or at the very least one main export. The problem with this is it creates a capitalist system that does not work in unison the environment. This is also a time to say it is important to know about society at the time of these movements, because they tend to coincide with the societal climate of the time. Despite all of this, one major thing we always seem to forget is that nature, despite our constant effort, has survived. It has been heavily altered and changed but it is still there and still important, so important that we surround ourselves with it