The scale of biodiversity loss over recent decades is a stark warning that, worldwide, we must deal with the Right to Destroy, a ‘right’ which is implicit in private property law. In pretty much all legal systems today it is implicitly assumed that you have the right to ‘destroy’ (in both the sense of consume or demolish) anything that you own. In most jurisdictions you are free to demolish your house if you wish (but not to build a new one), even though that destroys capital and a public good (housing). The underlying assumption is that you won’t do this because it’s ‘irrational’ to do so. Our legal systems extend this right to nature with very [...]

Much has been made about the trade in endangered species supporting the livelihoods of poor communities living adjacent to key wildlife populations. Poverty alleviation is used by many players, who are committed to maintaining the legal trade, as the primary reason to justify their stance. But is this just another example of perception management? Who really benefits from the trade that is driving the extinction crisis? Research, published in 2021, to clarify just who the biggest exporters and importers of wild species are, demonstrated that some of the richest countries in the world are the key benefactors of this trade, not developing nations. The research split the trade into a number of categories: [...]

In April 2016, I wrote an article titled, Want To Know Why Conservation Is Failing? Read On…. In the article, I spoke about the negative implications of the specialist-expert mindset. Over decades, people working in conservation (and beyond) have been supported to hone their specialist expertise through research but the professional development needed to evolve a more strategic way of thinking is lacking in the sector. Yet specialists rarely make good problem solvers when dealing with complexity. Too many become perfectionists in their field but are unable to make links, unable to consider the consequences of their proposed solutions outside their immediate field of expertise. In short, they do depth but don’t exhibit a breadth of perspective. To [...]

What is the purpose of zoos? And, are they fulfilling their primary objective? I have been mulling over these questions for several years now. The first ‘modern’ zoo opened in Paris in 1793. The idea quickly spread to cities throughout Europe and beyond. The question which I have found myself reflecting on more-and-more, after reading the IPBES report into the extinction crisis is, “Given zoos have had over 200 years to enlighten us to the importance of non-human animals, how come so few people care about wildlife and the natural world?” In this task, zoos have obviously failed, as it is our purchasing behaviour that is driving the extinction crisis. The May 2019 IPBES report into global biodiversity [...]

Apex predators and iconic species decimated by a handful of men who can’t control their urge to kill. It is far too easy to find examples of bloodlust. Spanish trophy hunter, Marcial Gómez Sequeira, who said in a news article, “Three years ago I tried to calculate the time I have spent hunting. I worked out that I had been shooting for 24 hours a day over the course of 11 years and three months of my life. Firing bullets non-stop.” Wisconsin hunters killing 216 wolves in less than 60 hours, exceeding the state quota of 119 and prompting Wisconsin to end a one-week hunt four days early. Wildlife killing competitions, where the level of slaughter is too [...]